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A Novel
by Michelle Huneven
From critically acclaimed, award-winning author Michelle Huneven, a sharp and funny novel of a congregational search committee, told as a memoir with recipes.
Dana Potowski is a restaurant critic and food writer and a longtime member of a progressive Unitarian Universalist congregation in Southern California. Just as she's finishing the book tour for her latest bestseller, Dana is asked to join the church search committee for a new minister. Under pressure to find her next book idea, she agrees, and resolves to secretly pen a memoir, with recipes, about the experience. That memoir, Search, follows the travails of the committee and their candidates—and becomes its own media sensation.
Dana had good material to work with: the committee is a wide-ranging mix of Unitarian Universalist congregants, and their candidates range from a baker and microbrew master/pastor to a reverend who identifies as both a witch and an environmental warrior. Ultimately, the committee faces a stark choice between two very different paths forward for the congregation. Although she may have been ambivalent about joining the committee, Dana finds that she cares deeply about the fate of this institution and she will fight the entire committee, if necessary, to win the day for her side.
This wry and wise tale will speak to anyone who has ever gone searching, and James Beard Award–winning author Michelle Huneven's food writing and recipes add flavor to the delightful journey.
"The committee's machinations are engaging, as are the group's internecine struggles ... Huneven injects humor and tension." —Publishers Weekly
"Readers will find Dana's takes on committee microdramas, factions, and vagaries of church and friendship relatable. Food lovers will enjoy Dana's restaurant visits and detailed food descriptions. The book's finale is a collection of AUUC members' signature recipes, a pleasing finish to this fresh work by award-winning novelist and food journalist Huneven." —Booklist
"Huneven shows her range with a folksy, funny fifth novel on the unlikely subject of how bad decisions happen to good committees ... engaging and thought-provoking. The voting, the vetting, the drama, the discord, the anti-oppression training—it's all here ... tender, salty, and worthy of note." —Kirkus Reviews
"Michelle Huneven writes with the clarity of both warmth and wit. She knows, and cherishes, the absurdity of the human spirit. And there are recipes!" —Cathleen Schine, New York Times bestselling author of The Three Weissmanns of Westport
"The committee at the heart of Huneven's wonderful Search is a portrait of a community working toward that most elusive of goals—a unanimous decision. The alliances and betrayals along the way reveal that even when a group of people share a common passion, the path to consensus can be tortuous. Fortunately, in Huneven's masterful prose it is also insightful, revealing, and very funny." —Jessica Francis Kane, author of Rules for Visiting
This information about Search was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Michelle Huneven is the author of four novels: Round Rock, Jamesland, Blame, and Off Course. Her books have been New York Times Notable Books and finalists for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is the recipient of a Whiting Award for Fiction, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a James Beard Award for feature writing with recipes, and received her master's in fine arts from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She teaches writing at University of California, Los Angeles.
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