Enjoy a holiday memoir

By Metro Creative Services

I grew up in the Bronx many years ago. I used to go to a bakery like this. I used to know people like this. And do you know something? It was great being back with them again.

So says television personality Regis Philbin about “In My Father’s Bakery A Bronx Memoir” (Red Rock Press) by Marvin Korman. Korman is a retired vice president for advertising and promotion of Columbia Pictures and NBC.

Food has always been associated with the notion of comfort. All the book’s vignettes come from the bakery owned by Korman’s father.

You’ll feel like you are eating in the bakery and that you can smell the aroma as you learn about the grocer, the baker and the bookmaker. There is also the Presbyterian minister who steps in daily for a Danish and sports chats, the old Irishman, the Russian gardener, a Hispanic porter, a lonely wife, gypsies and a magician thrown in the “batter” too. This cast of characters will leave you craving for another bite.

The novel offers inviting portrayals of characters, as well as a New York neighborhood. Whether it’s a prizefight in the Bronx Coliseum, baseball in the original Yankee Stadium or dancing to the beat of the radio, the lives of the characters revolve around the bakery.

You’ll leave the book with the aroma of challah, pastries, cookies, cakes, pies and a crusty Kaiser roll. And you’ll perhaps yearn for the days of your own trips to the bakery.