If you are looking for a book that speaks of history,family problems,hope, dark secrets, as well as mouth watering recipes to try at the end of the chapters, then this book is for you. Camille Broussard works as a cook for the priests of her parish, but from time to time makes up meat pies and cooks up sauce recipes to sell from time to time. When her son in law(who is also a distant cousin)dies, and leaves her a fortune, which the wife(and Camille's daughter felt should have went to her instead),Camille eventually takes the money and opens a restaurant in the Watts area that initially takes off and sputters. Her family is at war with it, but in the end, love conquers all. interesting story.

Camille Broussard and her husband T-Papa migrated to Los Angeles from
Louisiana, post WWII, in hopes of achieving the American dream and to escape the segregated and racist South. Camille's family consists of seven adult children, whom she raised through the tumultuous Watts Riots and T-Papa's death. Camille's family has drifted from their roots and it is Camille's desire to bring them back. Each child has their own issues to bear, however they want Camille out of Watts but she refuses. We witness each child's history in Watts and hope, along with Camille, for their redemptive souls. As Camille works and cooks for her parish, she concocts a recipe to bring her children together again so that she can retire in peace. Camille's recipe is Camille's Creole Kitchen and together with Pep, her next-door neighbor, they hatch a recipe for achieving her tasty dream. Camille's culinary skills are first rate and Pep is her biggest taste tester, along with her children, despite their reservations concerning the restaurant.

CRAWFISH DREAMS is an edible novel and by weaving back and forth between the past and present, we are able to partake of Camille's Creole recipes-recipes you may wish to try-I sure did! Food is used as a metaphor for a family in crisis, for dreams deferred and the hope of all being tolerable again, if it ever was. Nancy Rawles has crafted an enjoyable recipe of humor, secrets, suspicions and family ties all in the name of a mother's love for her family and herself. One last note-the Haitian Proverbs are excellent antidotes....

This book is a great read, plus you get to have Camille in your life. The matriarch of a rambling family, Camille will burrow inside your heart and brain -- and stay there. I find myself "channeling" her with my own kids! Seriously, this book has everything: great characters that you live with long after you've finished the book, great humor, great recipes, some of the best storytelling ever, plus a view of life from within the gravity-challenged end of various systems of oppression. In the end, the stories testify to the Grand Mysteries of Hope and Love.

LOVE LIKE GUMBO was good enough for three stars, and that is only because Grace's need to be independent and her wacky family helped to place it at that rating. Aside from that, this had to be the only book that had more words than WAR AND PEACE! The structure of the book was definitely erratic, and there is such a thing as too much description. 2-4 pages to describe one thing is not a book to recommend to Evelyn Wood. It took me two weeks to read the book completely. Not a personal best. If you have nothing to do for one week, two weeks max, and you need a book to catch you off guard (like, far off in left field), then here it is. Otherwise, move on to faster pastures.

Even though this is fiction, I understood this account is right on hit with many Creole families who have migrated from Louisiana. They tend to form enclaves and continue as they have in Louisiana. Grace, a young woman of twenty who is questioning everything including her sexuality wants no more of it, or so she thinks. Can she escape the smothering, close-knit family that insists in keeping its culture amongst the post-riots and uncertainty of 70s Los Angeles? This book had some comical moments and a little on the wild side with T-Papa appearing from the dead. There were some slow moments but all in all this is a must read for those who enjoy reading about those black folks that insist on being called Creole.

I read this book cover to cover, putting it down only to laugh or cry. A wonderful book for anyone who has ever been or every will be a parent or a child.