Murder Takes a Vacation

Food and eating figure intricately in the novel, a motif that functions both as a force of attraction between characters and as a determinant in their lives, supporting the theme of The Personal Impact of Societal Prejudices About Weight. The protagonist, Mrs. Blossom, has a complicated relationship with food since her mother, an “aggressively thin” woman, traumatized her with enforced and always unsuccessful diets, telling her that no man could truly love a “fat woman.” However, food has also served as a good omen in her life: As a child, a lucky guess won her a big jar of candy, and in late middle age, a visit to a convenience store to buy a Coke led to her finding a discarded lottery ticket worth $8.75 million. She even describes this windfall as a “cantaloupe on top of a sundae,” or finding the golden ticket in a “Wonka bar” (28). 

Throughout the novel, food also serves as a catalyst for friendship, danger, and epiphany: Over meals on the MS Solitaire, Mrs. Blossom bonds with the eligible Paul Paterakis, who later invites her to dine with him at his hotel in Paris. Likewise, her gasp of pleasure at tasting an amuse-bouche alerts her to the presence of