In Focus

This month’s book club selection was Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club: A Novel by J. Ryan Stradal, the same author who wrote Lager Queen of Minnesota.

Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club was an enjoyable read, though I found it didn’t quite capture the same charm and humor as Lager Queen of Minnesota. The story follows four generations of a family who worked at and eventually owned the Lakeside Supper Club in the tourist town of Bear Jaw.

The original owner, Floyd, married Betty, a down-on-her-luck single mother. Her daughter, Florence, grew up helping at the supper club but ultimately didn’t want anything to do with it as an adult. Florence’s daughter, Muriel, loved spending time at her grandparents’ club and working there. She married Ned, who worked for a competing establishment. Muriel eventually took over the supper club, and together they had a daughter, who ultimately decides the final fate of the generations-long family business.

Throughout the book, we learn many things about the characters, their lives, and their secrets—elements that either brought them together or severed their ties completely. The story felt very soap opera-like to me. I kept reading because it was entertaining enough, but it didn’t deliver the emotional rollercoaster I had anticipated. At times, the plot moved slowly, and keeping track of all the family members and their relationships was a bit challenging—I even had to jot down notes to keep everyone straight.

I guess the book just wasn’t quite right for me. Perhaps it was because it leaned too much into realism, and I tend to gravitate toward stories that allow me to escape from reality.

Overall, Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club is a solid story with memorable characters and a rich family history, but it didn’t quite capture my heart the way Lager Queen of Minnesota did. Fans of character-driven, multi-generational stories will likely enjoy it, but for those seeking the same humor and charm as Stradal’s earlier work, it may feel a bit slower and more grounded in reality.