What is Tony Fido’s Recipe Book?

Tony Fido’s recipe book from "The Largess of the Sea Maiden" symbolizes the type of catastrophic universe he has come to know in life. Created by his mother, who suffered a similar fate to Tony by taking her own life just as he eventually does, the book begins as a fairly typical, handwritten recipe book. The recipes cover all the basics from breakfast to dessert. They are written in neat, blue ballpoint pen. However, very suddenly halfway through the book, Tony’s mother’s handwriting becomes erratic, and she switches from the consistency of the blue ballpoint to a collage of different colored inks. Meanwhile, all the recipes are almost exclusively for making cocktails. Thus, the book is a physical manifestation of what Tony describes as a universe ruled by catastrophe and chaos rather than gradualism, and illustrates how his mother’s own life and actions might have caused him to adopt this outlook.