Dimming the lights at the "Lobster"

I just finished reading Stewart O'Nan's Last Night at the Lobster, and I have to say that I am pleased. Pleased that I read it, pleased that I will recommend it, and pleased that I went through some of what the characters experienced, except mine was pizza.

The story follows Manny DeLeon, the manager of a Red Lobster, as he is about to close the restaurant for good. He must contend with the life he has had as manager, the new one he will begin at Olive Garden, and the staff that he has had to babysit. If closing the restaurant was not enough to struggle with for Manny and staff the area is dropped upon by a snowflake atom bomb.

O'Nan has the power to create simple vignettes and feelings with his characters. Manny has stepped over the unpainted line of work relationships to dating one of the hostesses, who has a boyfriend, while he decides what to do about his girlfriend who is pregnant with his child. Sounds like soap dirt to most but I felt empathy for these characters. As the snow piles up outside the "Lobster" Manny must decide to stay true to the ideals of management and corporate ownership by staying open until the end. I was in these situations earlier in life when I worked at a local pizzeria in Cincinnati. The joys, camaraderie, loathing, mediocrity, and ho-humness of working in a minimum wage job in food are all felt in this ode to the middle class-the best class in the class.

Pass the lemon, I'm wanting more "Lobster".