The whole book to me was pragmatic, sensible, and practical. The plot to me was consistent and cogent. O'Nan kept the plot very smooth and I think it's one of the things I appreciated the most other than his attention to detail. He put his characters all in realistic situations and he makes his characters stand out without putting them in an unconscionable setting to show how strong their character really is. For example, O'Nan in his novel makes the character of Manny a hero and he does it by telling his readers that regardless of what Manny faces he still goes on, whether it's something big or small. Manny doesn't help someone and save his or her life nor does he do anything out of the ordinary. Yet, O'Nan still manages to make him look like Superman through the everyday situations he faces. I honestly respect that a lot. He keeps everything flowing easily and doesn't even interrupt the plot with some gibberish plot to make something out of his characters. I think that capturing the moods and emotions of the characters is also something that really stood out and made the book really good. When the restaurant is on it's final day of service, O'Nan doesn't show any signs of holding back on the tension in the kitchen and the moods and emotions of the characters. O'Nan shows the love between the characters in the restaurant and shows the readers that bonds breaks between people, some relations, like the ones the workers have shared, are bound to end. He does such a good job playing with the emotions of this characters making you feel like you're in the restaurant yourself and you've been working there for years. The last thing that struck me the most about the reading was that if the setting during the wintertime was intentional? I thought that setting the story during the winter was really clever of O'Nan because when winter comes everything is sort of doleful and despondent because of the harsh weather and everything seems so much darker during the wintertime.
