The Dishwasher

This is a novel about gambling, heavy metal music, late-night debauchery, and washing dishes in a restaurant. Guess which is the most interesting, by far? The dishwashing! If you've read other behind-the-scenes food-service accounts, perhaps you won't be surprised, but a busy night in the dishpit and on the prep line can be thrilling, especially in the hands of a writer with such a vivid sense of the work and the characters involved, and of how work like that can be a lifeline for a young man otherwise screwing his life up at every turn. Larue's debut, a bestseller already in his native Quebec, has been called a cross between Kitchen Confidential and The Gambler, but I think of it as somewhere between two other favorites of mine, Queen of Spades and Love Me Back. Forgive me for saying so, but I ate it up.