Product Description
When his father contracted a sudden illness that left him paralyzed, Steven Sorrentino stowed away his dreams of Broadway stardom and returned home to West Long Branch, New Jersey, to help his family out. Taking over Clint’s Corner, his father’s luncheonette, Steven found himself at the grill flipping porkroll, serving a counter full of eccentrics, and confiding in Dolores, the crusty head waitress with a particular flair for butchering the English language. From th… More >>
#1 by B. Weiner on June 6, 2010 - 1:05 pm
While Steven Sorrentino writes a personal memoir of the relationship between his luncheonette and his father (the metaphor repeatedly slaps the reader in the face), the reader is busy waiting for something to “happen.” The Sorrentino memoir seems more of a posthumous personal documentation of a father-son relationship than a novel for the mass market. Nothing truly happens, and the cliche and stereotypical characters become tedious to read. Can we watch the Soprano’s for this form of regionalism? Would have been more effective if the author was not trying to expand the metaphor of the luncheonette to mirror the relationship between father and son. It seems a tiresome stretch; nevertheless, if Sorrentino feels compelled and pleased with a journal-like memory of his father, good for him.
Rating: 2 / 5
#2 by Jake on June 6, 2010 - 2:02 pm
Not very interesting at all. Lots of details about food and boring folks at the counter. What there is about the author often seems just whiny without humor or insightfulness.
Rating: 2 / 5
#3 by Alan on June 6, 2010 - 2:30 pm
This is a lovely little book about a guy named Steven (semi-autobiographical, apparently). When his father becomes ill, Steven’s New York theater career is cut short when he moves back to New Jersey to run his the family diner.
Year after year of being the dutiful son (as his father has one health problem after another) eventually take their toll on Steven’s self-worth. We see the contrast of Steven’s inner sickness and his father’s outer illnesses. From his father, Steven eventually learns important lessons about survival, and even happiness, in the face of hardship and loss.
One of the better books I’ve read in a while.
Rating: 4 / 5
#4 by reader on June 6, 2010 - 3:58 pm
This is not the most “poignant” book I have ever read (although I must admit I really hate that word) but I definitely enjoyed it and will remember the characters long after I move onto the next book. What I liked most was that Steven is so honest and open about the fact that he spent quite a long time knowing full well that he needed to get himself out of a hopeless situation and yet he just could not bring himself to act. Meanwhile his father is dealt obstacle after obstacle and never once lets anything slow him down. I think all of us can relate to being in the place where Steven gets stuck and it is rare for that place to be described so truthfully. I liked that in the end Steven does get out, but there’s no big loud finale with him finally taking a chance and making it on Broadway– he just pulls himself up by the bootstraps and finds new ways to love his life wherever it takes him. Like father like son.
Rating: 4 / 5
#5 by J Martin Jellinek on June 6, 2010 - 5:19 pm
ncheonette is first and foremost a memoir – the life of young Steven and the ways in which he deals with his father’s failing health, which precipitates a major shift in Steven’s life. The story is told with great humor and vividness, bringing us into the life of an Italian family in suburban New Jersey.
But more than a story of place, this is a story of coming to terms with what life brings us. To paraphrase an old phrase, if you are dealt lemons, then make lemonade. As Luncheonette so adeptly points out, this is easy to do in theory, but a lot more difficult to do in practice. Steven was lucky in that he had a great role model in his father, but even with this guidance, the road is not an easy one.
Luncheonette is a quick read, one that you will not want to put down once you have started it. It is not a deep book, but its message is very important and relevant to each of us as we face life’s changes and challenges.
Rating: 5 / 5