BookLife Review: Marrying the Ketchups, by Jennifer Close

family-run restaurant, Oak Park, Chicago, musicians, cousins, loyalty, betrayal, family secrets, coming of age, career crisis.

Marrying the Ketchups by Jennifer Close is a light but enjoyable coming-of-age, finding oneself, family drama and comedy of manners book. At the heart of the story is Sullivan’s, the family’s neighborhood restaurant in Oak Park on the outskirts of Chicago. There is considerable, and at times, overwhelming family dysfunction at the front end of this novel, so buckle up.

The protagonist, Gretchen, is a musician and lead singer in a 90s cover band. The band has had small success, many failures and has survived a few iterations but now finds itself floundering. After a decade of not achieving the rock star dream, Gretchen is reconsidering her path. Her older sister is in a struggling marriage and questioning her choices. The restaurant manager, Teddy, is their cousin, and is obsessed with his cheating ex-boyfriend. The cousins’ respective states of transition and turmoil is the stuff of which family drama and comedy is made. Careers fold, affairs multiply, marriages fall, elders die, cousins lie, and an iconic business fades. The drama is not limited to the three amigos’ cousin generation; they come by it honestly through the shenanigans of their parents. 

The restaurant scene is changing at the turn of the millennium and Sullivan’s has seen better days. Hip new neighborhood foodie joints present competition. The younger generation’s suggested updates are met with intergenerational resistance, as the family’s collective livelihood circles the drain. Self-discovery, growth and the crazy kind of friendship and support that only family can provide are the dominant themes of the book. Marrying the Ketchups does not pretend to be high literature, but it delivers a good bit of humor in a fresh setting. The reader roots for the cousins, and for the restaurant’s survival. The author employs wonderful “inside baseball” restaurant operations details that ground the story and put the reader squarely on a stool at the bar or in a perfectly dim back corner booth. It is a delicious peek at the back of the house, and a fresh setting for a family dramedy. And what could be more satisfying than learning what “marrying the ketchups” means? Waiters and restaurateurs aside, who knew?