The Chopsticks-Fork Principle: A Memoir and Manual
"Zany, moving, hilarious, and deep--not infrequently all at once--Cathy Bao Bean gives us a rollicking tour of the Bean method of merging work and play while negotiating cultural and generational divides to create a daily life far richer than its original constituent parts. As Cathy the Chinese Confucian philosophy professor declares war on mice, Bennet the Caucasian artist from mid-America announces "his increasing respect for all sentient beings." As he discovers more of his Buddhist nature, she becomes "more and more like Shiva, "The Destroyer." Bennet designs a kitchen. Cathy notices that he's neglected to include a stove, leaving their son William to rebel against his hippie parents by dressing like his father only on Halloween. Cathy Bao Bean has written a tart, feisty, whimsical, and penetrating saga of the family that invented the Chopsticks-Fork Principle and then proceeded to live by it. No reader can leave this book satisfied with the relatively staid life he or she had on opening it." -Celia Morris, author of Fanny Wright: Rebel in American and Finding Celia's Place
"Zany, moving, hilarious, and deep--not infrequently all at once--Cathy Bao Bean gives us a rollicking tour of the Bean method of merging work and play while negotiating cultural and generational divides to create a daily life far richer than its original constituent parts. As Cathy the Chinese Confucian philosophy professor declares war on mice, Bennet the Caucasian artist from mid-America announces "his increasing respect for all sentient beings." As he discovers more of his Buddhist nature, she becomes "more and more like Shiva, "The Destroyer." Bennet designs a kitchen. Cathy notices that he's neglected to include a stove, leaving their son William to rebel against his hippie parents by dressing like his father only on Halloween. Cathy Bao Bean has written a tart, feisty, whimsical, and penetrating saga of the family that invented the Chopsticks-Fork Principle and then proceeded to live by it. No reader can leave this book satisfied with the relatively staid life he or she had on opening it." -Celia Morris, author of Fanny Wright: Rebel in American and Finding Celia's Place