Idaho Commission for Libraries

The Tummy Trilogy collects 17 essays by Calvin Trillin from three books written between 1974 and 1983--American Fried, Alice, Let’s Eat, and Third Helpings–when Trillin traveled the U.S. writing a “U.S. Journal” column for The New Yorker.  Frankly opinionated, extremely funny, these essays take a wry look at regional American cooking (and, occasionally, at cooking beyond America).  Trillin admits his preference for quirky local cuisine over bland “Continental” restaurant cooking, and his affection for people who unabashedly live for food.  Barbeque, crawfish, pie, chili, and beer are celebrated here, along with the dives that sell them and the festivals that feature them.  The book maintains a running narrative of family adventures in food, for Trillin’s young daughters and his sensible, funny wife often accompanied his travels.  These people become delightful characters in the novel, grounding the sometimes outrageous characters whose food obsessions are chronicled in individual essays.  An all-out, no-apologies celebration of the pleasures of good unpretentious food, this book invites its readers to laugh along with Trillin at the quirky, wonderful things people do in the name of finding a good meal.

Jacket design by Michael Ian Kaye from the TUMMY TRILOGY by Calvin Trillin.  Jacket photography by Michal McGlaughlin.  Jacket design copyright c1989 by Michael Ian Kaye.  Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. 

Cover used with permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.  CAUTION: Users are warned that this work is protected under copyright laws and downloading is strictly prohibited. The right to reproduce or transfer the work via any medium must be secured with Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.

Author Information

Calvin Trillin is best known for his writing on food and eating, but he is also a celebrated serious journalist, and he has also written comic verse, nonfiction (including the autobiographical Messages from My Father), a collection of short stories, and three novels.  In addition to writing for The New Yorker, he has also published extensively in The Nation, writing political commentary, humorous essays, and his “Deadline Poet” column.  Trillin was born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1935 (the home of Arthur Bryant’s Barbeque, which he celebrates in The Tummy Trilogy), and graduated from Yale University, where he chaired the Yale Daily News.  After serving in the Army, he worked as a reporter for Time magazine, then joined The New Yorker in 1963.  His first reporting for that magazine was about racial integration at the University of Georgia, and it led to his first book, An Education in Georgia. In recent years, he has weathered the death of his wife, writing several poignant (but also characteristically funny) pieces about her. He lives in Greenwich Village.

Author Interview by Powell's.com

Photo used with permission © Sigrid Estrada

Discussion Questions

1. When Trillin began to write about food in the late 1960s for The New Yorker, pretentious “Continental” cuisine, the same everywhere, was the most admired fare in American restaurants, the kind of food one sought out for a special dinner.  Today, though, the kind of regional American foods that Trillin celebrates tend to be more widely admired, both by eaters and by critics.  Why do you think that that change has taken place?  Does it say anything about Americans’ changing sense of their own country?

2. Many of the characters in these essays get intensely emotionally involved with particular foods.  Why?  Do these foods symbolize particular things for them?  Do you know anyone who is devoted to a particular food because it symbolizes something for him/her?

3. Many of the essays in this book chronicle Trillin’s attempts to introduce his daughters to new foods.  Do the girls’ reactions ring true to you?  How do children respond to attempts to broaden their palates, in your experience, and why do you think that that is true?

4. What function does Alice have as a character in this book?  How does she complement the narrator?  Does she influence the book’s themes at all?

5. Trillin takes a great deal of delight in quirky local foodways.  Do you ever get the sense that he, as a New York journalist, is patronizing them?  Who is he laughing at in this book, and what is the tone and function of that laughter?

6. Why, do you think, has America kept all of these local foodways, festivals, variations in taste?  Does the variation take away from national unity?  What does it imply about the country?