The Dining Car

At the center of this unusual, thoroughly enjoyable novel is a thirties private Pullman car in which Horace Button, part of dwindling publishing empire, travels about and writes his columns about high end dining for the wealthy gourmand and taste-makers.

Our narrator is, Jack, ex-football player. We find out why "ex" along the way, with--thank goodness--very little about football. Now he's a bar-tender, and not too far into the beginning, he has to make another job change to majordomo for Horace Button on board the Pullman. Here, he is crewing with the prickly Wanda, a superb chef with very little trust and less communication.

Horace reminds me of my encounters through many early Twentieth Century letters, memoirs, reviews, and the like of Alexander Woollcott. He's irascible, sarcastic, unrepentantly snobbish, and begins drinking at an early hour. Peterson doesn't make drunkenness attractive, but neither does he permit the narrative voice to shake a scolding finger.

One of the many aspects I enjoyed about the novel is the author's handling of deeply damaged people, with money or without, with anger issues and without. As Jack gets into his job, we encounter high profile people from publishing and from Washington. Temptation to jump the train occurs roughly the same time as a tragedy, and how everything plays out kept me riveted until the (deeply satisfying) end.

I am always a sucker for certain tropes--such as the made family. Being very fond of train travel, I loved Peterson's vivid behind-the-scenes glimpses of trains I know well. And I've always wanted to travel on one of those private cars, occasionally glimpsed.

Altogether a vivid, enjoyable read, with a cast of unusual characters and some lavish descriptions of delicious meals. This novel deserves a lot more attention than it's gotten.

This could possibly make one funny movie! I loved the characters, well-written and interesting. The Pullman car setting was cool. The story itself is pretty humorous! Fun read for summer! I imagine it's one of those keeper books to read over again on a vacation.

This is not the type of book I normally read, but it managed to hold my attention to the end, mainly because of the interesting characters and setting - the dining car itself. While I got a bit lost in the gastronomical discussions - the names of fancy foods, wines and spirits, for the most part, went right over my head - I enjoyed the story itself. I especially liked that the characters, particularly the narrator, Jack, grew and changed over the course of the novel. At first he seemed mostly self-absorbed and self-pitying, but he matured into a responsible and very likeable guy as the story progressed. Overall, a good read, and probably even more enjoyable for those with greater knowledge of fine dining and drinking than I have.