Reservations Recommended

The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy #3

by Eric Kraft

Reservations Recommended is many a satire of the critical mind; a dark commentary on contemporary culture; a story of midlife crisis; a morality play; and a book that matches bleakness against humor with a grace rare among contemporary writers. Matthew Barber is a pseudonymous Boston restaurant reviewer who between (and sometimes during) meals at local eateries conducts affairs with ladies of his acquaintance -- affairs mental as much as carnal. We watch as Barber descends from his self-protective superiority into a species of madness, careening toward an ending of stark moral ambiguity. Woven throughout with Barber's own hilariously acid reviews, Reservations Recommended is Eric Kraft's most fearless venture into the dark night of the soul.

Genres: Fiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published April 21, 1990

About the author

Eric Kraft grew up in Babylon, New York, on the South Shore of Long Island, where he was for a time co-owner and co-captain of a clam boat, which sank. He met or invented the character Peter Leroy while dozing over a German lesson during his first year at Harvard. The following year, he married his muse, Madeline Canning; they have two sons. After earning a Master’s Degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Kraft taught school in the Boston area for a while, moonlighting as a rock music critic for the Boston Phoenix. Since then, he has undertaken a variety of hackwork to support the Kraft ménage and the writing of the voluminous work of fiction that he calls The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy. He has been the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts; was, briefly, chairman of PEN New England; and has been awarded the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature.

Reviews

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Readers looking for something like the sweet good humor of Herb 'n' Lorna will be surprised by the much darker tone of this book.

From Eric Kraft's website:

"Peter Leroy constructs a plausible adult life for his grade school chum Matthew Barber, now living in Boston, where he is vice-president of a toy company by day, but becomes Bertram W. Beath, restaurant reviewer, when the sun goes down.

Reservations Recommended is a satire of the critical mind; a dark commentary on contemporary culture; a story of midlife crisis; a morality play; and a book that matches bleakness against humor, seasoned throughout with B. W. Beath’s hilariously acid reviews. We watch as Matthew Barber descends from a self-protective superiority into a species of madness, and into the dark night of the soul."

The endless interior monologues (and dialogues) of Matthew and BW are a brilliant study in relentless self absorption with a healthy subterranean dose of self-loathing. There are wonderfully comic moments (Matthew's endless fantasies about every young woman he sees, his musings about how the people he is watching are thinking about him thinking about them) and a frightening psychotic break at the end.

The restaurant reviews are impressionistic essays designed to demonstrate to their reader how astute, observant, perceptive and clever BW is, not really to let anyone know much about the restaurant or its service and food.

The spot on social observations still hold up 25 years after the book was written.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summary (from the dust jacket): "Matthew Barber, forty-three, is by day vice president for new product development at Manning & Rafter Toy Co.. By night he is B. W. Beath, pseudonymous restaurant reviewer for Boston Biweekly magazine. To follow Matthew from one dining experience to another is to progress through Matthew's life and loves and the culture of contemporary America. And what a socio-erotic-gastronomic pilgrimage it is!... _Reservations Recommended_ is a wickedly nasty parody of reviewing and the motives of reviewers, and a modern morality play." My review: This novel works on so many levels, and is a joy to read. Packed with humor and psychological insight, the book chronicles several months in the life of the protagonist as he grapples with various female relationships and an impending midlife crisis. Each chapter is titled after a restaurant which he's been assigned to review. The author explores subjectivity/objectivity through the clever device of printing the text of the review at the close of each chapter. A great read, of its time (late 80s) and universal all at once.

[Charlotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Matthew/B.W. is a pig. He's really quite horrible in many ways and yet he's incredibly unsure of himself and, even, "a good guy" at times. Strange little story. I enjoyed the restaurant reviews that came out of his various escapades. Kinda fun.

[Alex Savvides · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brisk, grim book about a middle aged executive losing himself in the mediocrity of the culinary world, a place he's equipped to survey the culture as much as he's completely unable to contribute.

[Little BigGirl · Rating 2 out of 5]

disappointing ending

[Milt · Rating 3 out of 5]

tread read, save last chapter.