While Insomnia’s (1994) mulligatawny and Revival’s (2014) “Sloop” are peripheral to those novels’ narrative action, Theresa Carle-Sanders also features a couple of soup recipes in Castle Rock Kitchen that offer a glimpse into the lives and experiences of the characters who eat them, particularly with “Potato and Collard Soup,” inspired by the Bachman novella The Long Walk (1979) and “Poor Man’s Soup” from the short story “The Reach” (originally published 1981, collected in 1985’s Skeleton Crew). 

In both of these instances, the food the characters eat are a direct reflection of their lives, experiences, and socioeconomic status. In The Long Walk, as the walkers talk and get to know one another as they walk inexorably toward their deaths (for all but the victor, anyway), their conversation invariably turns to the prize and what they would ask for if they won. Money is high on many walkers’ lists and when Ray Garraty suggests that money maybe isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, Arthur Baker points out that he might feel differently “if you grew up on potato soup and collards … Sidemeat only when your daddy could afford the ammunition” (169). Garraty and his mother never lived in the lap of luxury—particularly after his father was taken away—but he has never gone hungry and this serves as a concrete example of how much his life differs from those of some of his fellow walkers. They’re not all walking for the same reason and even though the cost of losing is the same for ninety-nine of the one hundred, the stakes of winning aren’t equal across the board. 

There’s a similar sense of making due with what’s on hand in Stella Flander’s recollections in “The Reach.” As an old woman, she reminisces that she never left the island because “Everything I ever wanted or needed was here” (494, emphasis original). And when it came to food, “I had my garden year in and year out. And lobster? Why, we always used to have a pot of lobster stew on the back of the stove and we used to take it off and put it behind the door in the pantry when the minister came calling so he would’ see that we were eating ‘poor man’s soup’” (494-495, emphasis original). 

While the food experiences themselves are different, the heart of the matter is the same for both the Baker and Flanders families: they made the best of what they had to ensure their stomachs were filled and their children were cared for. The question of preference or taste plays no role in these choices, only resourcefulness and survival. 

With both recipes in Castle Rock Kitchen, Carle-Sanders offers delicious takes on these essential soups, which honors the characters’ experiences while offering an elevated variation of the dish in question for readers and home chefs. The “Potato and Collard Soup” includes potatoes and collard greens (of course), along with some other vegetables and spices, but what really sets it apart from a potentially thin and watery soup is the blending preparation of some of the cooked vegetables, which gives the soup a more substantial texture. With “Poor Man’s Soup,” there’s more of  dissonance in perception: in Stella’s mid-century experience as a lobster fisherman’s wife, lobster was cheap and omnipresent, something for her family to eat when they couldn’t afford anything else, as opposed to its contemporary elevated culinary status. Geography plays a significant role in different perceptions of lobster as well: on an island off the coast of Maine, lobster is plentiful, with premium prices climbing the farther one gets from those lobster fishing grounds. Carle-Sander’s “Poor Man’s Soup” is a straightforward and rich recipe, combining lobster, cream, and butter (among other ingredients) to make a thick, hearty soup. Carle-Sanders’ preparation approach makes this soup a two-day process, but the resulting flavor is well worth it. 

The central connection between food and lack is similar between The Long Walk and “The Reach,” but these soups are very different, with the bitterness of the collard greens a sharp contrast to the richness of the lobster and cream. Despite the significant differences between these recipes, however, both provide us with the opportunity to imagine ourselves in the position of the characters, acknowledging their hunger and honoring their resourcefulness through considering the ways in which each family made due with what they had on hand to care for and fill the stomachs of those they love. 

[Page numbers from The Long Walk are from the 1985 Plume omnibus printing of The Bachman Books; page numbers from “The Reach” are from the 1985 Putnam hardcover edition of Skeleton Crew]. 

Check out Theresa Carle-Sanders’ Castle Rock Kitchen here.