[2][3] Brodeur's mother Malabar Brewster was a food writer for The Boston Globe, [4] and the book's title comes from the name of an unproduced cookbook Brewster planned to write with her husband, Charles, her lover, Ben Southern, a hunter, and Ben's wife, Lily.

In her The New York Times review, Rapp Black wrote, "The book is so gorgeously written and deeply insightful, and with a line of narrative tension that never slacks, from the first page to the last, that it’s one you’ll likely read in a single, delicious sitting."

"[2] In a review published in The Guardian, Elizabeth Lowry called the book, "Polished but very dark [...] A memoir of sex, animal innards and a daughter who is too polite to her narcissist mother.

"[12] Publishers Weekly, which deemed it a featured book, wrote that it is "page-turning" and "This layered narrative of deceit, denial, and disillusionment is a surefire bestseller.

"[13] Ilana Masad of National Public Radio stated that the novel, "for all its luscious prose and tantalizing elements, is ultimately about the slow and painful process of losing a mother.