Dubbed the “King of Midwestern novels” by Entertainment Weekly, J. Ryan Stradal is the author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest, The Lager Queen, and now his third novel has just been published: Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club.
Born and raised in Minnesota, Stradal now lives and writes from California, but he hasn’t lost his Minnesota sensibility. He joined What We're Reading on Monday, April 24.
Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club is the story of a couple, raised in two very different types of restaurants and how these family businesses informed their past and future legacies.
The novel is full of rich and complex characters and histories and all kinds of Minnesotan-isms. Stradal noted even though this is his third book, he is "still writing for that teenage kid who just relished even seeing the word 'Minnesota'" in books.
He also writes to honor his mother, who had always wanted to be a novelist, but died before that could happen.
"I put her in all my books," Stradal said.
He said his mother, grandmother, aunts and other women from his childhood are "part of the quilt that wrapped around me, kept me warm, and made me who I am today."
And of course, this novel is also about supper clubs — the Midwest gathering place for special occasions and a good meal, steaks and fish fry, old-fashioneds and grasshoppers. Stradal cooks up a healthy dose of nostalgia through the different restaurants that serve as his characters' livelihood and legacies.
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What We're Reading is made possible in part by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.
