Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club – J. Ryan Stradal

Expectation: My enthusiasm was off the charts for this book; my most anticipated read of the year.

Reality: While not as strong as Stradal's previous novels, it was still highly entertaining and he took a few risks that mostly paid off. 

My Take:

In his third novel, J. Ryan Stradal went for bigger and more ambitious storytelling — balancing multiple character POVs over nearly 100 years — without sacrificing what makes his books resonate with the reader: nostalgia and intimacy. 

Not everything worked as well in “Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club” as it did in its stellar predecessors, “The Lager Queen of Minnesota” and “Kitchens of the Great Midwest,” but that doesn’t mean I enjoyed this ride any less. 

Mixing elements of family drama, historical fiction and even a little business, “Supper Club” is a love letter to the quickly fading era of rural culture once dominated by tradition that has slowly been decimated by corporations and depopulation.   

While this isn’t a plot driven story, the best way to experience a Stradal novel is to go along for the ride and be surprised — or saddened — by how life turns out for our characters. 

With that said, I was deeply affected by a few moments in Mariel’s and Ned’s storyline, specifically the sections in the early 1980s, and also Florence’s teenage years. These were the most cohesive and engaging, exploring themes of love, expectations and regret. Thankfully this accounts for most of the novel.

Everything else — especially the sections taking place in the 1990s — didn’t work for me as much, and I found the novel dragged a bit in the second half before the final act. There were simply too many plot devices and ideas (Brenda and Kyle, Felix’s family, the church showdown) that felt ancillary and somewhat insignificant in hindsight. 

I get the sense that these characters and situations likely played a larger role in an earlier draft but were minimized during rewrites to put the focus more on Mariel, Florence and their (possible) reconciliation. 

Even with a few missteps, I can’t deny that Stradal still delivered a highly entertaining story. I laughed. I cried. I pondered life. It made me think a lot about my grandmother who was fond of supper clubs, Manhattans and cigarettes. 

This ability to conjure memories of people and places long gone is why Stradal has quickly become one of my favorite authors. Each of his novels oozes with Midwestern sensibilities that make them feel familiar — in other words, this is my literary comfort food. I truly wonder what someone not from the region feels while reading them, because to me they feel like home. 

When he wrote about the smoking section of Jorby’s, I immediately pictured the McDonald’s in my hometown. Archie’s cabin became a dead ringer for my in-laws' old house. I knew the smells and the sounds of the Lakeside Supper Club without being told. 

And that’s in large part because he never overwrites, rather he gives ideas — like the flavor of a drink, the ingredients of a recipe or elements of décor — and lets you fill in details, in essence allowing the reader to become part of the story. 

Fans of his previous novels will find a lot to enjoy here, especially the subtle Easter Eggs to his previous novels, cementing the fact that Stradal has created a fictionalized version of the Midwest that I’ll gladly visit again and again. 

Finally, the audiobook, narrated by Aspen Vincent, was good but there were a few issues. On the plus side, she did accents (although her Minnesota one was sometimes off) and provided age-appropriate portrayal of the various characters. The downside was that she horribly mispronounced certain cities (Edina is Edena now), which temporarily pulled me out of the story. These details would only resonate with those familiar with the area, but it seemed like an easy error to correct during production. 

Rating (story): 4/5 stars

Rating (narration): 4/5 stars

Formats: Audiobook (personal library)

Dates read: April 18 – April 22, 2023

Multi-tasking: Good to go, but you’ll likely miss the character nuances if you don’t pay close attention.