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'Lobster' may be fiction but it's all true
The novel perfectly portrays life - and work - in a restaurant.
By Chris Sherman, Times Staff Writer
Published January 13, 2008
Much has been written about food, maybe too much. We are as gluttonous for stories of organic purity, fast food obesity and chefs brilliant and errant as we are for bacon cheeseburgers. But don't stop now. The best insight has arrived: Last Night at the Lobster. It's not a know-it-all screed against Big Food, a titillating peek at kitchen intrigues or a minimum-wage memoir. Stewart O'Nan's Lobster is grandly enjoyable fiction, yet a more accurate account of life on the other side of the menu than most exposes. It is set a few days before Christmas at a Connecticut mall, in a struggling Red Lobster that Darden chain headquarters is closing. Though food snobs might cheer and unions jeer, O'Nan focuses on manager Manny and his crew and their bonds of camaraderie, rivalry and enmity. Coming in under predictions of heavy snow and a slow night the day before they're laid off, they show inspiring loyalty to co-workers, customers and, if not to Darden, to the job. O'Nan has been hailed as a chronicler of the working class. Here the working are not a class but people, complex and distinct: manic Fredo, fickle Kendra, and confused Manny, torn between pregnant Deena and former love Jacquie. It's simple stuff, less than 12 hours of ordinary lives. Hollywood would call it a small movie. Actually, it is heroically small, a classic lost-patrol war story, a small oddball band bravely pursuing a futile mission with little help from the brass. You'll cheer when Manny finally gets the snowblower going and applaud when an annoying mom and piggish brat get their throw-uppance. Last Night at the Lobster ought to be on every desk at restaurant chains and culinary academies, as a manual of small unit tactics and a reminder of the heroes in the trenches. Ordinary diners will enjoy it, too. If you haven't worked with these folks, you've eaten the fruit of their labors. Chris Sherman can be reached at csherman@sptimes.com or 727 893-8585. Last Night at the Lobster By Stewart O'Nan Viking, 160 pages, $19.95
[Last modified January 9, 2008, 18:13:55]
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