SEARCH
Dana Potowski is a restaurant critic and food writer and a longtime member of a progressive Unitarian Universalist congregation in Southern California. Under pressure to find her next book idea, she’s asked to join the church search committee for a new minister and agrees, resolving to secretly pen a memoir, with recipes, about the experience. That memoir, Search, follows the travails of the committee and their candidates—and becomes its own media sensation.
Dana had good material to work with: the committee is a wide-ranging mix of Unitarian Universalist congregants, and their candidates range from a baker and microbrew master/pastor to a reverend who identifies as both a witch and an environmental warrior. Although she may have been ambivalent about joining the committee, Dana finds that she cares deeply about the fate of this institution and she will fight the entire committee, if necessary, to win the day for her side. This wry and wise tale will speak to anyone who has ever gone searching.
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Praise for Search
“A wicked pleasure... Huneven is a wise storyteller...this novel has plot, character, structure and a delicious, deeply human pettiness that I think most honest readers will relate to... [Huneven’s] descriptions of food are the best I’ve ever read.”
“Readers will find Dana’s takes on committee microdramas, factions, and vagaries of church and friendship relatable. Food lovers will enjoy Dana’s restaurant visits and detailed food descriptions. The book’s finale is a collection of AUUC members’ signature recipes, a pleasing finish to this fresh work by award-winning novelist and food journalist Huneven.”
“Whoever said that university politics are vicious because the stakes are so low probably never served on a ministerial search committee…Delightful…wry and thoughtful…Huneven has total command of her material…Huneven is such a smart and funny writer.””
“Enthralling… The strengths of Huneven’s novel lie in her deep understanding of human nature...It’s fascinating to watch how skillfully Huneven moves committee members from one side to the other, and to watch, appalled, as the inevitable slowly happens. Those scenes are a master class in group dynamics...Search is a fun read. While the book is laced with plenty of humor (which Dana herself does not always see), it is laced, too, with plenty of wisdom. We can search, Huneven is saying, but you just never know what you might find.”
“Sassy and savvy. . . a surprisingly amusing account of ecclesiastical politics in the age of ‘wokeness’ … [With recipes] as mouthwatering an experience as reading Martin Walker’s Bruno… Though thick with satirical moments, [but] not quite a satire, since Huneven has too much respect for all her seekers.”
“I’ve loved every book Michelle Huneven has written and Search is the best—the most delectable—yet.”
“I was utterly charmed by Huneven’s characters, who reminded me of the best work of Tom Drury and, perhaps unsurprisingly, Laurie Colwin. But Huneven’s wit and wisdom are all her own. Search is a sumptuous novel, well worth savoring.”