Dishes

by Rich Wallace

Ogunquit, Maine. That’s not where you’d expect to find a guy like Danny. He’s not a tourist. He’s not a local. And he’s definitely not gay. As far as he can tell, only he and the bartender at Dishes, where he works as a dishwasher, are straight. But that’s not what bothers Danny. What bothers him is that he’s got straight-guy problems in a very gay town. While he’s hitting on a cute waitress, the cute waiters are hitting on him. And could the cute waitress have a thing for his thirty-six-year-old dad? It’s one crazy summer in a crazy Maine town.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Realistic Fiction, LGBT, Romance, Teen, Gay

160 pages, Hardcover

First published October 2, 2008

Reviews

[Nicole | msheldabook · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was VERY short. Almost TOO short. It felt like the storyline was rushed and the emotions just weren't there...

[Ms. B]

Ogunquit, Maine, did we stop in this town?

[Ozimandias · Rating 1 out of 5]

This story is about a young man who goes to a vacation town to spend the summer wih his father. He's looking for answers, acceptance and love. The problem is that he works in a gay bar, and his father remains distant. Every character, including the main character, is more a sketch than a real person, and what you do know about them is negative. Danny, the young kid, is rather homophobic in his thoughts, if not his actions, and so is the girl that he ends up with. The gay characters are decidedly of the FAIRY-tale variety, including a whorish jock, and an effeminate older man with his dog. Everything works out well for all involved, but by the end, you don't really care. I'm glad it's short, but more glad that you don't have to read it if you don't want to.

[AM · Rating 3 out of 5]

The part of me that races though books to find out what happens because I like the characters and wants to know their story really liked this book. The part of me that tries to write meaningful reviews thinks, this was a novella, at best; it touched on and glossed over a lot of issues (though I'd have probably hated this book if it had been just an issue novel.); and third, not much really happen except everyone ended up with someone. It was sweet and funny and all the characters were cute, and that was pretty much it.

[Taylor Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dishes is about a young guy named Danny who has struggled to have a normal family his entire life with his dad who's mostly out of the picture and is struggles to find his place in the world after dropping out of college. In search of some acceptance and love, Danny travels to Maine for the summer to live with his father. While there, Danny gets a job as a dishwasher at the same place where his father bartends- a gay bar. Danny struggles to enjoy his time spent at his job and with his father because he's extremely homophobic and the only time his father is really spending time with him is at work.

Danny finally meets a hot girl who admires him back named Mercy who is gorgeous, but not very kind. He also meets Hector, a kind male who works at the gay bar and is physically attracted to Danny, but Danny is not physically attracted back. Eventually, Danny starts wondering why his father works at a gay bar... is he gay? Is Danny gay too? Do Danny's father and Mercy have a thing for each other? Danny contemplates his sexuality and the sexuality/relationship values of his father. At the end of the story, the guys at the bar accept Danny for who he is, Danny learns that some gays are "tolerable", and he builds his relationship up with his father.

I would definitely recommend this book, especially for readers age 12 and up! This is a great book that covers the topics of LGBTQ and romance, and the themes of love and acceptance. I think that at the middle level grades, this is an awesome book for young readers who are questioning their gender identity to empathize with and learn from. I also think it is very insightful for those who are not struggling with their gender identity to learn from by learning the importance of being accepting and non-homophobic. It also teaches all readers a great lesson about finding love and re-kindling relationships with those who have strayed away from you.

The only thing that I did not like about this book was the ending. I think the ending was very rushed and should have been drug out a bit longer, so that readers were left with a heartwarming resolution, rather than an abrupt ending, causing me to ask, "oh, that's it?"

I would definitely use this in my future seventh or eighth grade classroom and implement lessons about acceptance, love, relationship building, gender preference discovery, and LGBTQs. Discussing gender identity and gender preference discovery may be seen as a challenge by some teachers, but I think that this is a great book to introduce these two topics and further have an educated, civilized class discussion about LGBTQs.

[Ryan Ceresnak · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this book ages ago and it’s been getting passed over in my to read shelf for years. I bought it because the premise was interesting and the book takes place somewhere I went growing up a few times. I’m gonna be honest - I was disappointed in this book. As others have said, the story was rushed, glosses over a lot, and lacks some character development. Also, the language and beliefs that characters have about gay folk, sexuality, and gay relationships was off, even by the gay characters. It seemed dated (though there’s no indication that the book doesn’t take place around 2008 when it was published), playing on stereotypes, and made scenes awkward. As a gay man, this was extremely off putting - almost to the point of presuming the author is straight and wondering if he has ever had a friendship with a gay person before. Mercy’s past relationship and her reaction to Danny’s friendship with Hector is presented in such a way that I immediately disliked her (oddly, she says some things at the end that I kinda liked her again, but there was zero development there). Danny’s own reactions to Hector’s flirting, seeing Hector and Chase together, and possibly questioning his own sexuality was awkward. Wallace touches on some deep philosophical points about what makes a person who they are, the nature of relationships and attraction, sexuality, friendship, and family dynamics but they’re all just a brief notion and it doesn’t go any further. It’s a quick read, but one that leaves you unfulfilled and either wanting to know about all the unanswered questions, or just questioning why you bothered in the first place.

[Ronald McCutchan · Rating 2 out of 5]

H'mm - I saw this on a booklist and was intrigued by the setting (I'd been to Ogunquit for a week's vacation one summer, so was curious how my memories of the town meshed . . . nothing gibed specifically, but it was enough to bring back memories of the trip--as well as trips to Provincetown and Rhode Island). I was going to tag this as LGBT, but it's ultimately a bit of a tease--Danny and his coworker Hector have are-they-aren't-they interested vibe going Danny ends up with the girl and there's a similar is-he-isn't-he going on with Jack, Danny's dad. that one's subtle--Dad's out almost every night and everyone says "it must be some girl," but the point is also made that "almost everyone" working at Dishes is gay. Wallace reveals said girl very late in the game, and even then, with there being a green-card marriage involved, one wonders The ending comes on very quickly--the various plot complications are easily resolved. I agree with other reviewers saying it feels rushed.

[Hayleigh Highlands · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although I believe that the intention of this book was good, it simply was not long enough to accomplish what it was aiming for. The characters did not have enough time to develop, and the ending was cut short. It seemed like there was little resolution, and the main character remained relatively static the whole time. Danny seems to harbor many homophobic thoughts, but because some of his closest companions share them, they are never really discussed or referenced. Therefore, it leaves the reader wondering, what was the book's point anyway?

[Brandon Will]

I think this book had it's intentions and heart in the right place, and "for the time it was written" (2008) it has its place, but at the end of the day it amounts to


a teen guy who is pretty average in every way, with average boredoms and yearnings and loneliness, learns that a gay co-worker at his summer job is actually a pretty cool guy he can tolerate.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I know the area where it takes place well, so that attracted me to the story. Fun, light read.

[Izabella May · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick read, first I've read like it. It was definitely something different

[Elisa Rolle]

Already from the blurb I knew that this wasn’t a gay romance, but you never know. Danny is a 20 years old in search of security; not a good time for the search, at that age nothing is sure. Starting from his family: it’s not that Danny had a bad family experience, it’s only that he hadn’t a normal family; his mother got pregnant at 17 years old, his grandparents took her and the love-child in, and the father was somewhere in the picture, but always on the edge of it, and finally, when Danny was still a teenager, he went to work on the North, at Ogunquit, Maine. Now, years later, Danny dropped out from college, basically since he wasn’t even sure why he was there, and decided to spend the summer with his father, washing dishes in the same place where his father bartend, Dishes, a gay club for the slightly older gay summer crowd.

Ogunquit is strange, it’s not like Provincetown where 99% of the population is gay, but it’s quite near; the difference is that Ogunquit is in the middle of a place where being gay is not so simple, and so it’s like a natural reserve, a place where you can be liberal while everyone else around you judge but don’t touch. Danny has no problem with his sexuality, he is quite sure to like girls, but he has not yet found the right one; even if he doesn’t like so much his father’s behaviour, I think that Danny is not so much different from him, he has not a strong core. Danny is drawn by authoritative figure since he has never had one in his life, and so even now, he prefers a partner that can be the leader in the relationship. And he hasn’t found one in women, so maybe, even if it’s a small maybe, he is wondering if a man, maybe…

And then there is his father, working for year in a gay club. Is he or is he not? And if he is, why not Danny? Right when all these questions are brainstorming inside him, Danny is faced with two different chance at love: Mercy, a very hot girl, to whom Danny is really attracted, but who is not exactly nice; she is quite the judgemental type, and Danny is not sure to like this attitude. On the other side there is Hector, the gay waiter of Dishes; he is handsome and kind, he even helps Danny on his first date with Mercy… now Danny likes a lot Hector’s attitude, but he is not physically attracted by him.

I think that Danny is in the middle and any decision he will take will be the right for him; he can choose to be with Mercy, following the physical lead, and being happy since, in the end, both he and Mercy will balance their characters. Or he can choose to be with Hector, following his brain, arriving to like, and maybe love him, a love that can be as satisfying as a physical inducted one. This is possible since Danny is open to the world, to life and to all type of love.

Dishes is not a long story, and in the end, I don’t even think it’s the final story for Danny; it’s only a moment in his life, a delicate and life-changing moment, but the only one he will face in the future.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0670011398/?...

[Jennifer Wardrip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed by Jaglvr for TeensReadToo.com

Danny is in a sort of void.

He knows he's not going back to his college in the fall. He lives for running, and due to equality in sports issues, his college decided to drop track rather than add more female sport alternatives. When his father invites him to spend the summer in Ogunquit, after much consideration, he takes him up on the offer.

Danny's father was never around much. His parents had him when they were both still in high school. His maternal grandparents didn't want to see the two kids tied to a marriage of convenience, so with the understanding that Jack needs to be around for the big moments, they agree to help Danny's mother raise him. Needless to say, Jack and Danny have little connection. So the summer in Ogunquit is a chance to bring the two together.

But the summer doesn't start out the way Danny expects. Living with Jack is like having an older brother or roommate rather than a father. Jack gets Danny a job at the bar he works at, Dishes. They are the only straight men in the place. It doesn't bother Danny, but he's not even allowed to let the other staff know Jack is his father.

As Danny tries to find his place in life and form a relationship with his father, he meets Mercy, a waitress at another local establishment. The two tentatively dance around each other, trying to learn to trust. Mercy is unsure of Danny's sexual orientation due to where he works, and then wonders even more about him when she finds out that Jack is his father. Jack had tried to hit on Mercy a while back.

As the summer wears on, Danny and Jack start to from proper bonds. Mercy and Jack work out the kinks of their crazy work schedules to spend time together. And the guys at the bar accept Danny for who he is.

A quick read, DISHES is a glimpse into the uncertainty of a boy turning into a man. Due to its short length, there is little time for serious character exploration. But Danny is a likable lead character who finds himself in some quirky situations.

There is a heavy emphasis on the homosexual atmosphere of Ogunquit, so those offended by the topic best avoid DISHES. But the story is not vulgar or explicit in content and should have much appeal to teen boys looking for something to read.

[Travis. D · Rating 1 out of 5]

If nothing else Dishes, by Rich Wallace, makes me very grateful that I don’t have the life of an average teenager.

This Young adult fiction book takes place in a gay town known as Ogunquit, Maine. This would be the last place i would want to be. But that is just the situation Danny, the main character of the novel, is in while he works the summer away as a dishwasher in a very gay bar called Dishes.

Danny is your average teenager at 19. someone I could never stand to be around. he is so laid back that he hardly cares about anything. all he does is sleep, work, hit on his soon to-be-girlfriend, and have a few beers with his dad.

his dad, Jack, also works at Dishes. He does almost the exact same thing except he stays out almost all night and almost never see his son except for work. i am glad I have a good relationship with my dad and i feel sorry that Danny’s dad isn’t around that much.

I didn’t enjoy this book All. I thought of it as a pill of mind numbing garbage and I hope to read nothing like it ever again. I thought the plot was boring and there was almost no conflict. It was nothing more than a guy telling about how he met his girl friend and how his relationship with his dad slowly gets better.

The only exciting part was around the end of the book when to employees at Dishes started fist fighting Over Danny (Remember this is a gay town) and that took up all of 2 ½ pages. The rest of the book is Danny talking to his girl friend or his dad about his life and how his happened. This shows that even in real life people are more exciting and have more interesting times then the the guy in this book.

I don’t have anything to compare this book with because I don’t, and will hopefully never again, read books like this. I hardly read fiction anyway, and certainly never a book like this.

The only big picture I could find is that you should be nice to people you like. And the only reason I got that is because of him trying to make-up lost time with his dad.

All and all this book deserves a one star rating. If I had Three words to describe this book they would be as follows: BORING, POINTLESS, and a WASTE OF PAPER.

[Bryce A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Month- February
Title- Dishes
Author- Rich Wallace
Date started/date completed- See Info
Total Pages-145
Rating of book (1-10): Type here- 8
Briefly summarize the book- Dishes is about a 19 year old college kid named Danny who comes and lives with his dad in Ogunquit, Maine for the summer. He is a sophomore in college and is coming to build a non-existing relationship with his Dad.Danny works in a gay bar as a dishwasher with his dad: a bartender (neither of them are gay). Danny's co-worker Hector is gay, and coming on to him but eventually Danny lets him down easily on the beach. Then Danny meets a girl named Mercy on one of his daily runs who works at a local restaurant. They like each other and go on a date. She thinks he's confused about his sexuality because he works at a gay bar and they hit a wall temporarily. In the mean time Danny is upset because hes not building a connection with his father, but eventually they have a deeply engaging conversation about his father's absence and everything is much better. Then Danny and Mercy make up after the gay bar team wins the staff baseball game. They go on a romantic date and get caught in the rain! [lol:] After that Danny decides to not go straight back to college in stay in Maine with Mercy for the fall. The End.
Author’s purpose- To create a funny mushy teenage book about sports and the importance of relationships.
Intended audience(s)- Mostly teens, but anyone with a sense of humor!

[Robbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dishes is a fairly short novel wherein nothing really happens but it not-happens in a very interesting and dramatic way.

The basic not-plot is that the main character, Danny, is spending the summer in Ogunquit, Maine, with his father. His dad, Jack, was only eighteen when Danny was born and has been fairly absent. That doesn't really change. Danny takes a job at a local bar, Dishes, which is frequented by the many gay tourists that populate Ogunquit in the summer. Will (straight) Danny find love and true companionship?

As I said, nothing really happens. Maybe that's not a good way to put it. The novel has little to no climax, although there is a sort-of conflict. The entire thing is a character-driven slice-of-life story about nothing in particular.

Danny is a pretty good main character. He's not that interesting, but the circumstances he is surrounded by are, so he turns out as a sort of everyman. The supporting cast are all much more colorful and are fleshed out well, having more than one dimension. All of the characters have feelings and things they want, making for some nice interaction with each other.

There is a section on softball that felt out of place and strained, but it will certainly help the book appeal to boys. Overall, not great, not bad, mostly mediocre.
3/5 Popularity, 3/5 Quality

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rich Wallace does an excellent job of writing short novels about athletes who are more than their sport. Like One Good Punch, "Dishes" centers on a runner who has some job issues, girl issues, and family issues. I liked "One Good Punch" for the realism, the honesty about drug use and its consequences, the realism of the relationships between major and minor characters. There's more of the same here: this time the hero's a year past high school and washing dishes for the summer at a gay bar. Hi-jinx ensue, as Danny sorts out his feelings for his Dad who was never around growing up and his VERY friendly co-workers.

Set in Ogunquit, a beach town near Kenebunkport but worlds away, Wallace captures the confusion and energy of the first steps of adulthood. Not enough books for teens take on this important transition from school-aged to whatever-comes-next. The uneasy father-son detente reads well, if a bit simplistically. I especially enjoy that all of the characters have jobs and must work, another rare breed among YA titles.

"Dishes" handles the static and friction that occurs when different types of people must learn to co-exist, in this case gay and straight waiters and dishwashers. Well worth reading for the right audience.

[Emilie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't a comment on the plot or characters, but more on the others descriptive skills...which I would actually give many more stars than this book overall...and here's why...While on vacation walking a seaside path in Maine over 2 years after reading this book, I recalled the authors description of this path describing what I was walking so vividly, that, not even having thought of this book in at least a year, I could recall this book being set here and all of a sudden, everything that I had pictured while reading the book was very very real in front of me...if that's not good writing, I'm not sure what is!

[Tif · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has left my mind feeling blank. It held my interest early on, but nothing in the story led to anything. It was essentially a book about nothing in which the protagonist dated a girl, worked, ran, and half-heartedly fended off homosexual interests and advances. There was no real conflict (a brief bar fight involving secondary characters does not count)and with plenty of issues that could have been addressed it felt strange that there was nothing they even attempted to resolve. The book didn't even amount to a disappointment because it was so empty of content that there was no time or place to become attached.

[Highsider57 · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the story Dishes by Rich wallace a boy named Danny goes with his father Jack because his dad has never been apart of his life. Danny learns that his dad is alot like a child himself, and he realizes ho much his parents gave yp for him since they had him at such a yound age. While Danny bonds with his father, they become very close and Danny realizes how much his dad loves him and how his dad left him because he had no where else to go when he was so young. This is kept me very interested, and i never wanted to put the book down because each chapter kept getting better and better.This book takes you on a father/on adventure that shows you how strong there bond is after reuniting.

[Cathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the reading, the characters, and the setting. The themes: a young man finding his identity, reconnecting with his estranged father, finding new friends in a totally new environment. Very controversial for the exploration of gay identities the main character was not gay, nor was his father. For all that, it was handled very tastefully, even though I doubt most conversative parents would agree with me that it was well done. I will be able to recommend it to any of my students requesting books exploring this "identity" topic.

[Jenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Danny is trying to get to know his father a little better by staying with him in Ogunquit, Maine for the summer. His dad Jack works as the bartender at the gay bar Dishes, and Danny is working as a dishwasher there, and they are the only two straight men there. Danny is trying to meet someone for the summer, and there is a cute waitress he's interested in, but the cute waiters at Dishes are interested in him. What's a boy to do?

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a better than average story of a college-age kid who goes to live with his estranged father for the summer in a small, New England town. His father gets him a job washing dishes at Dishes, the small bar/restaurant where he works. Dishes also happens to be a gay bar in a mostly gay-friendly community. Over the summer the young man learns to deal with questions surrounding his own sexuality in a manner more nuanced and most teen lit.

[Kath Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

At 19, Danny goes to live with his dad in a "gay" community in Maine during summer break. His parents were young when he was born and never married. As a straight dishwasher at Dishes, a gay bar his dad bartends for,Danny tries to reconnect with his emotionally distant dad,learn about himself and come to a better understanding about friends.
This author also wrote, "One Good Punch".

[Kfinney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short on plot; very slow moving. Straight Danny works in gay summer resort town bar. Lives with father he hasn't spent much time with. Gay friend assures him it's okay to be straight with this memorable (?) line: "go out there and play football and change a carburetor and shoot a deer. We'll still love you."

[Roslyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am not quite sure what this book was supposed to be about. You have a 20 year old boy who goes to live with his estranged father and they both work in a gay restaurant. He sort of questions his sexual orientation but not really. He holds a grudge against his father but not really. Not a very satisfying story.

[Diana Arias]

I did not like reading this book. When i first started reading it I didnt know it would be about a guy going to work for a gay bar. It did have some interesting parts. the main character falls for a girl who lives in the same town and works at a different restaraunt. The town is mostly made up of gay people, guys and girls both. I'm not gay so I did not enjoy reading this book at all.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very short book. I read it sporadically in one day. It brought us into the mind of a 19 year old for a couple of days. The author allowed us to see his struggle and left a lot of ambiguity for the reader to figure out if he was straight, gay, or even bisexual.

I wouldn’t say the book was great but it kept me entertained for that short amount of time.

[Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book because it was from a guy's perspective and how he would handle working and being friends with a bunch of gay men. I thought the author portrayed the prejudice the main character would encounter really well. Very interesting book.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think this book would have been more interesting if Danny actually had explored Hector's advances. Since he didn't it was a very slight, run of the mill romance. I really disliked his homophobic girlfriend.