Gabriel Rose is a playwright working as a waiter, and his first-person narrative by first-novelist Wood is a wonderful, warm story of a modern man's secret hopes and fears. Gabe's play, The Kitchen Man , has won some plaudits but no production, while his service at classy Les Neiges d'Antan nets him Best Waiter in Boston. But deep down he's still little Gabey, always overweight and unworthy of love. Until playwright-director Cynthia Kaganolder, divorced, zaftig, stunning to Gabecomes into his restaurant, takes him into her extended family, and teaches him at last to love himself. Often funny enough for laughing aloud and occasionally touching enough to elicit a tear, this is a fine, full-bodied book with remarkably human characters. A book to read and relish. Michele Leber, Fairfax Cty. P.L., Va.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Gabriel Rose, the "kitchen man" of Ira Wood's engaging first novel, is that all too rare creature in American fiction - neither a ladies' man nor a man's man, Gabe is a mensch who not only loves women, but can also like them as friends and equals. Finding himself attracted to a director both 13 years older and considerably more successful than he, Gabe, a frustrated Boston playwright making ends meet as a waiter, finds his way to this somewhat formidable woman's heart through her stomach. Cynthia Kagan has had her doubts about this klutzy, unpromising-looking 30-year-old (Gabe admits he has a "soft belly that hangs over my shorts like the cap of a mushroom"). But harassed and exhausted while lecturing and giving interviews in Copenhagen, she finally gives in to Gabe when he conjures up a smorrebrod (a Danish hors d'oeuvre) of lobster meat criss-crossed with curls of red onion, and ... halibut with peaks of tartar sauce and diced black radish." As the title indicates, food plays an important part in this novel, but with a unique twist, for here it is the man who does the nurturing, often at the expense of his own ambition. Not that Gabe doesn't suffer qualms about his thwarted career and what his male friends must think of him. Indeed, some of the finest comic scenes involve Gabe's attempts to get his own play, "The Kitchen Man," produced. After several rejections, the forlorn play winds up in the hands of a low-budget director, Anton Petrushevsky, who informs the baffled playwright, "We do not perform. We are not cows, Gabriel, we do not squirt plays like milk, we are not turtles, we do not drop our plays like eggs in the sand. We are artists working toward perfection and truth." Any experienced writer would have run for his life after a spiel like this, but Gabe hangs on to the bitter, hilarious end. While his prospects as a playwright grow dim, Gabe, somewhat to his dismay, finds himself acclaimed by a newspaper as "The Best Waiter in Boston." Here, behind the scenes at Les Neiges d'Antan, the pretentious restaurant where Gabe works, Mr. Wood lets us in on a few tricks of the trade while introducing us to the other artistically inclined waiters. This comic ensemble adds a sharp counterpoint to the more serious scenes between Gabe and Cynthia, who are struggling with such weighty issues as children (with two children from a failed marriage, Cynthia is not so eager to have another child with Gabe) and the imminent death of one of Cynthia's best friends, Florence, a crusty Boston blue blood stricken with Hodgkin's disease. ..The unique relationship among Florence, Gabe and Cynthia provides a fresh, vital source of energy that propels the disparate elements of the plot to a satisfying conclusion. Taken together, this makeshift family of friends is a totally convincing creation that demonstrates Mr. Wood's gift for heartwarming comedy. --
The New York Times Book Review, November 3, 1985If you've ever been 1) a waiter/ess 2) in love 3) out of love 4) a man 5) a woman, you'll love this warm and witty saga of passion between equals who happen to be male and female. --
The Utne Reader, April/May 1986In this delightful, laugh-out-loud first novel, Gabe Rose, the brash Jewish waiter with a play in his pocket, is looking for his big chance. Where else to find it but at the gilded, overpriced tables of Boston's fanciest restaurant, where crooked politicians, tight Old Money, preppies, parvenus and, of course, the stars come to dine on yesterday's fish under tonight's hollandaise? Under-30 Gabe contrives to meet over-40 Cynthia Kagan, a tough, sexy playwright-director, big in feminist circles. His high drive is detoured as he finds himself loved and loving, drawn into the variegated, offbeat circle of her extended family, every member with a life and a mouth of his/her own. Plot and character are pas de deux under Wood's fast-stepping, always engaging choreography, but how to explain all the sharp and colorful, emotionally honest, sometimes heart-grabbing ensemble work? There's Cynthia's friend Florence, a maverick socialite dying of cancer, gallant and astringent as she makes her last days count. There's Gabe's friend Geller, the sellout who marries into a rich, possessive family. There's Gabe's ex-girlfriend the doctor, and Cynthia's spoiled son the law student, Gabe's boss the pederast and Cynthia's seductive young rival. So what if all the married people are brats, saps, or meanies? Everything happens for the jest, but we're there, laughing all the way to the brassy all-out climax. The two leads feel real - Cynthia is worldly, honest, generous, touching;Gabe is good-natured, sexy, savvy, schleppy. They're both a little overweight, but that only makes them more human. Besides the fun, The Kitchen Man is about love and loyalty outside conventional categories of age, gender and body proportions...a gamey kind of You Can't take It With You...with extremely recognizable people. --
Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 1985Mr. Wood has written a funny, almost zany, sad and touching story of a young man finding himself. The Kitchen Man is an inside look at a modern, enlightened couple sharing an abundance of honesty and compassion. --
The Kansas City Star, February 16, 1986The novel is a treat, bursting with farcical turns of events on the road to Gabriel's self-realization, teeming with characters by turns funny, touching and real. Wood has an amazing talent for creating rounded people who might very go off and become central figures in their own books...If Gabriel Rose, lover of women and food, failed playwright and successful mensch, is on the feminist menu, where do I place my order, please? --
Toronto Globe & Mail, March 22, 1986Wood has written a delightful first novel about a young playwright in search of love and success. --
Publishers Weekly, August 9, 1985
