Foto: Gregory Harris voor Interview

Lief, ontroerend verhaal van Lena Dunham (GIRLS) in The New Yorker deze week: ‘Deliverance’, waarin ze terugkijkt op een jeugd vol afhaalmaaltijden. Enkele stukken uit het verhaal:

Family legend: I am four. It’s midafternoon, between mealtimes, and my mother has a friend over. They are chatting in the living room and I am playing in a corner when the buzzer rings (another guest has arrived) and I cry out, “Dinner’s here!”

Deep inside, I know that my pathological resistance to homemade cuisine comes from something more than a desire to drain my parents of their financial resources and waste endless quantities of cardboard and Styrofoam. There is something so comforting, so magical, about the meal simply arriving, already smelling like itself, laid out like a road map to satisfaction. I want dinner to be perfect every single day.

My mother’s best friend, Sarah, is also an artist, also a mother of two, busy and modern. Sarah cooks for her children constantly, and it makes my mother crazy with guilt. “Sarah prepares a homemade meal every night,” she tells us. “No matter what’s going on, she makes the time for that.” The only snack my mom ever makes is raw cauliflower with a little cup of mayonnaise for dipping.