Book Review: Group Living and Other Recipes by Lola Milholland
This new release will expand your mind and your meal repertoire
Lola Milholland’s debut book, Group Living and Other Recipes, is a memoir unlike any other thanks to its colorful band of characters, uniquely curated recipes, and careful deliberations of topics such as housing and environmental sustainability.
Whether approaching this read from the perspective of a foodie or someone interested in exploring the topic of group living, you’ll be entertained by the scope of new and interesting things Milholland prompts you to consider.
The author paints a picture of her life within a family of radical, eco-minded creatives who each bring a fun flavor to the dynamic of their community. Having grown up in a household whose doors were always open to company (whether for dinner or temporary residence), Milholland has focused on cultivating community into her adulthood through building a home with her brother and their friends as well as through building connections in her work as a small business owner.
The book’s greatest strength lies in its blend of cultural insights. Much of the text is dedicated to the landscape of the Pacific Northwest, which Milholland’s family calls home. Furthermore, drawing upon her experience of living in Japan after having studied the language for the entirety of her childhood, she compares U.S. and Japanese culture with regard to household dynamics, language, and food, highlighting a fascinating overlap between these topics. She also reflects upon her family’s Filipino background and her friend’s Thai heritage.
Milholland crafts powerful metaphors throughout the text; for instance, she notes how a good, home-cooked meal — the engagement in cooking and the harmony of ingredients—is reminiscent of the harmoniousness that may be experienced through group living. Similarly, she notes a comparison between human bonds and fungal networks, the collaborative efforts of mycelia inspiring her vision for a collective future.
Milholland emphasizes that as we learn from each other and replicate or redefine ways of living, we’ll find there’s no one lifestyle that’s best for everyone. This becomes especially evident as the author discusses the living approaches of her extended family and their friends: Each must establish a compromise between their ideal living environment and the realities of societal and interpersonal power dynamics.
The author artfully articulates contradictions she’s observed throughout strands of her life: within intentional communities; within the hippie movement; and within herself as the owner of Umi Organic. Moreover, in such undertakings as tending to the multiple interests of her household, navigating economic privilege, and attempting to remain cognizant of the line between cultural respect and appropriation, Milholland strikes me as a relatable human being, simply doing her best to manage her energy efficiently.
For all Milholland’s considerations of food politics, I am disappointed by the lack of criticism of animal agriculture. Conflicted over promoting a book that includes animal-based recipes, I remind myself that if we don’t take the time to elevate the causes she espouses through her writing — cross-cultural and multigenerational cooperation, localized production, reciprocal interaction — then this planet that we and the other animals call home will only experience an acceleration of suffering.
Overall, the book reads like it’s meant for an audience that’s already inclined to hold the same beliefs as Milholland, bringing to my mind something the writer Rebecca Solnit said: there is value in preaching to the choir. In Group Living and Other Recipes, Milholland will remind you of what it means to operate within community, describing the individuals who have shaped her own life and simultaneously highlighting our shared experience of connection so that we are encouraged to carry on with love.
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If you liked this topic, you may wish to check out my article from May, on reconceptualizing friendship (it includes some good book recs):
For more bookish things, see my previous pieces for Hooked on Books:
