Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club

This novel by J. Ryan Stradal has been on my bookshelf for awhile. I had few expectations when I began reading. Stradal does paint a vivid picture. I could smell the lake, sense the dim light and wood paneled walls of the supper club. As a kid of parents who took vacations on the roads less traveled, staying in motor lodges and motels often in the. midwest, I related to the setting and was set to enjoy the story.

Mariel and Ned, both heirs to restaurants (though in vastly different realms) are in a period of great unrest in their marriage. When we meet them we are not exactly certain why that is, though by stepping back through time to a horrifying tragedy, we begin to understand. The story then reels back another generation and we are presented with the backstory of Florence, Mariel's mother, which leads us into Mariel's present. Once we are up-to-speed, the story lurches in yet another direction, focusing on Ned and Mariel's daughter and there the last third of the book remains.

I was vested in the story until the last third. I felt as though I was misled by the first part of the book and felt no connection to the latter chapters.  I did finish in order to see how it all turned out, but was vaguely dissatisfied.