Stewart O’Nan has been called the “bard of the working class”. He loves writing about those who normally have no voice, the ones other authors (or publishers) think aren’t interesting enough. Years ago I read his “A Prayer for the Dying” (FIC ONAN) and it has stuck with me ever since as being one of those compelling pageturners where black and white answers will never be an option. His writing style can’t be categorized–it changes with every book.
This spring I discussed “Last Night at the Lobster” (FIC ONAN) with my two Contemporary Books Discussion groups. It’s a slim book (146 pages) and takes place during a 24 hour period. The “Lobster” in the title is a Red Lobster restaurant that the owning corporation has decided to close. It’s not losing money, but it’s not making as much as the corporation wants. The manager and a handful of the 40 employees under him will be moved to an Olive Garden Restaurant in an adjoining town. This is their last night together. O’Nan explores their relationships, all the complaints and all the support. He describes restaurant work behind the scenes with the chefs, the persons who clean the restrooms, who shovel snow as well as the upfront people–the host/hostess, the waitstaff, the cashier… A great number of readers will have worked in food service. They will recognize those details, plus the beloved regular customers and the customers “from hell”. My first job was at a Tastee Freez, and my husband’s first job was at Rolinger’s Drive-In, both in Waterloo, Iowa. The language in this novel was realistic, but it was also symbolic and lyrical, and the story was multi-layered. After discussing it, we went out to the local Red Lobster where we hadn’t been for many a year because we were curious how it would be after reading this book. And it was good, very good.
I plan to use the leftover copies of “Last Night at the Lobster” in a Discussions In BoxeS (DIBS) for other discussion groups to use. If you think you’d like to, let me know, and I’ll work on it “posthaste”.
Tags: Employment, Fiction, Restaurants