The Library Journal

The months during which "foodie" Reiner was not allowed to eat anything by mouth, in a last-ditch effort to preserve his guts from the gruesome ravages of Crohn's disease, seem to last for years in this memoir of illness and food obsession.

Memories of childhood meals, family holidays, and dreams of French cafes haunt him as his condition haunts the rest of his family. Reiner recounts his halting steps back to a peaceful coexistence with his disease in very human terms, not all entirely flattering to him. 

Reiner's condition starved everyone in his family: some actually, some figuratively. This is a blood-and-guts memoir, plain and simple, for those who find solace in the "misery memoir."