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A review by mxhermit
The Dining Car by Eric W. Peterson
2.0
Rating: 2.5 Stars
Food Network is one of my favorite channels on television. Food competitions and food history shows are very entertaining for me. So, in the last couple of months, I've been reading more food related books, whether they are recipe books, restaurant recommendation guides, or fictional books about bartenders aboard trains, pouring drinks for an esteemed food writer, as it the case in The Dining Car.
The great thing about this book was the way the author talked about the liquor and the food. He was very descriptive, but not in a way that made it feel like I was reading a catalog. It was easy to see the bar in the opening scenes at Biscuit Shooters/Mount Hollow and the spreads that Jack, the main character and bartender, witnessed aboard Horace's train, the Pioneer Mother. Wanda, the chef on the train and creator of all the delicious food Horace consumed, was an amazing source of knowledge that Jack did not possess upon taking up this job. She knew everything from the proper place setting to all of Horace's personal idiosyncrasies and handled them with more grace than I can imagine in such small quarters.
These scenes were the best part, but the connecting passages were somewhat duller and made the book drag rather more than I would have liked. It made reading it an unenjoyable challenge. Some of the characters alleviated this somewhat, particularly Wanda. My first impression of her was a no-nonsense woman who is used to an unorthodox work environment and the insanity that goes along with it. Horace, while an eccentric grandfather type, came across as annoying in his magazine articles. Peppered throughout the book, they were filled with excessively long and complicated words, as though he (or the author of this book) used a thesaurus while writing them. Jack, the main character, was alright, but I never really felt anything for him beyond seeing him as a vehicle to meet all these other people and witness all these other events.
On the plus side, I think that readers will see an elegant side of dining and, at times, humorous moments, such as when Horace punches a Senator or some of his other comments and drunken escapades. On the negative, you'll have to wade through some rather dry passages, which I'd like to chewing on a tough steak that Wanda would never have let get to her table in the first place, all while Jack let's your wine glass sit empty.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Food Network is one of my favorite channels on television. Food competitions and food history shows are very entertaining for me. So, in the last couple of months, I've been reading more food related books, whether they are recipe books, restaurant recommendation guides, or fictional books about bartenders aboard trains, pouring drinks for an esteemed food writer, as it the case in The Dining Car.
The great thing about this book was the way the author talked about the liquor and the food. He was very descriptive, but not in a way that made it feel like I was reading a catalog. It was easy to see the bar in the opening scenes at Biscuit Shooters/Mount Hollow and the spreads that Jack, the main character and bartender, witnessed aboard Horace's train, the Pioneer Mother. Wanda, the chef on the train and creator of all the delicious food Horace consumed, was an amazing source of knowledge that Jack did not possess upon taking up this job. She knew everything from the proper place setting to all of Horace's personal idiosyncrasies and handled them with more grace than I can imagine in such small quarters.
These scenes were the best part, but the connecting passages were somewhat duller and made the book drag rather more than I would have liked. It made reading it an unenjoyable challenge. Some of the characters alleviated this somewhat, particularly Wanda. My first impression of her was a no-nonsense woman who is used to an unorthodox work environment and the insanity that goes along with it. Horace, while an eccentric grandfather type, came across as annoying in his magazine articles. Peppered throughout the book, they were filled with excessively long and complicated words, as though he (or the author of this book) used a thesaurus while writing them. Jack, the main character, was alright, but I never really felt anything for him beyond seeing him as a vehicle to meet all these other people and witness all these other events.
On the plus side, I think that readers will see an elegant side of dining and, at times, humorous moments, such as when Horace punches a Senator or some of his other comments and drunken escapades. On the negative, you'll have to wade through some rather dry passages, which I'd like to chewing on a tough steak that Wanda would never have let get to her table in the first place, all while Jack let's your wine glass sit empty.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.