Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club

Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club (2023) is the third novel by American author J. Ryan Stradal, following Kitchens of the Great Midwest (2016) and The Lager Queen of Minnesota (2019). Stradal has also published numerous short stories. His works, which focus on food and family in the Midwest, have been praised for their realistic, imperfect characters and their clear love for Minnesota, Strada’s home state.

This guide references the 2023 Viking e-book edition.

Content Warning: This novel references infertility, pregnancy loss, child death, abuse, racism, sexism, and anti-gay bias.

Plot Summary

Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club unfolds across four narrators with interconnected lives but distinct timelines. Three of these narrators and timelines intertwine: Mariel Prager’s story spans 1996-2000; Florence Miller, Mariel’s mother, spans 1934-1976; Mariel’s husband, Ned Prager, spans 1981-1986; and Mariel and Ned’s daughter, Julia, spans 2000 to the present. The first three narrators’ storylines are internally linear but presented non-chronologically, in alternating chapters. Julia’s narration makes up the novel’s last two chapters.

In 1996, Mariel Prager has recently inherited Floyd and Betty’s Lakeside Supper Club after the death of her grandfather, Floyd.