I think I'd like Lunch With the Do-Nothings at the Tammy Dinette (by Killian B Brewer)

 

I promise that there is going to be some other kind of content on this blog other than reviews, it just so happens that reviews and rambles are the way I’m going until something more substantial builds up for those other posts. Still, I read Lunch With the Do-Nothings at the Tammy Dinette by Killian B Brewer and I have thoughts about the book.

            Where I’m going to start is that, and I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before but, not every book needs to be grand. Like, not every book needs to be this massive thing with a massive concept. A book can just be, for lack of better phrasing, a nice little thing. It could have a simple plot that’s concentrated in its own little world. And that’s exactly the kind of vibe I got from this book. It wasn’t huge, concept-wise, but it didn’t need to be. Honestly, if it was grander, then I don’t know whether it would have worked.

            Still, Lunch With the Do-Nothings follows Marcus Sumter – a man with dreams of being a chef – as he goes to the small town of Marathon, Georgia, after his grandmother leaves him her house in her will, to sort out her affairs. And while he is on his way to Marathon, he gets run off the road and is forced to stay in town for a little while, both whilst he deals with the house and waits for his car to be fixed.

            One thing that I put in my notes for this review was that within the first thirty pages or so, Marcus kept saying that he was only staying in town until his car was fixed and planned to leave as soon as he could. That told me the predictable trope of those Hallmark movies that he was obviously going to find something in town to make him stay was present in the book. And, in the story, since Marcus has to wait for his car to be fixed, he has to find something to do, so he winds up working as a cook at the Tammy Dinette – the only eatery in Marathon – and ends up warming to the townsfolk.

            Now, I realise that could read as either a positive or a negative, and honestly? I’m not fully sure where it sits myself. On the one hand, it’s a very clichéd trope, but I don’t think tropes are always a bad thing. Again, this whole book gave me the Hallmark movie vibe, and the thing about Hallmark movies is that they always have the same warm and fuzzy ending. And I figured (spoiler alert, I guess) if this book didn’t have the warm and fuzzy ending that it did, I don’t think I would have liked it as much as I did.

            In terms of characters, the Do-Nothings themselves, a group of older women that meet up and do just that (nothing), were probably my favourites, as in, they had the most character (sorry lol) out of all the characters. Inez Coffee was honestly That Bitch. To paraphrase something that she said on page 30, “I just want to know everyone’s business. I don’t want to go messing in it.” I felt like this said so much about her character in just one sentence.

            There’s another quote of Inez’s that I wrote that I want to share. The context of this is that Inez is talking to Priss – another one of the Do-Nothings who is more conservative. Inez says to Priss: “This isn’t about your comfort. This is his life.” (66) And this is in reference to Marcus’ homosexuality. Like, bitch! This was why, even with the several queer characters in this book (which is very unrepresentative of real-life small towns, let’s not lie), Inez Coffee was my favourite.

            You may have noticed that I haven’t particularly talked about Marcus, even though he is the main character. You also may not have. You may not have cared. But I haven’t talked about him before now because I feel like, again, for lack of better phrasing, there were parts of him, as a character, missing. Now, I don’t want to outright make this a criticism as, as a character, it’s revealed to the reader that Marcus moved around a lot as a child, so he never really settled down anywhere. Now, this could have been the reason that it felt like there were parts of Marcus missing. He never settled anywhere as a child, so he didn’t have a “normal” childhood and didn’t have the chance to develop like a normal child. Maybe that’s the case, or maybe it was just that more could have been done for him as a character.

What I got out of Marcus as a character was that he was gay, liked country music, liked cooking and wanted to leave Marathon to go back to Atlanta. However, he does get called out and asked why he wants to go to Atlanta. And he doesn’t really have an answer. So, while I could be reading far too deep into Marcus, maybe the reason it felt like there were parts of him missing was also because he hadn’t found those parts for himself. Or, again, maybe it wasn’t.

So, I’ve gone from my positives, to my could go either ways, now it’s what I outright had problems with.

The first of these in on page 134 where, without spoilers, the character of Hank is at Marcus’ house and this exchange between the two of them happens:

“Oh, jeez. Yeah that’s me. Though, I honestly don’t remember when it was taken.” Hank placed the last dish on the drainer, picked up a dry towel, and wiped his hands. He walked around the island and over to the piano to stand behind Hank.”

This was how the book was printed. How could Hank place a dish on the drainer and then go walk behind Hank? He couldn’t.

This is one of those print errors that I noticed. So, it’s a major one. I will say, it was the first one I noticed, and errors like that do happen, even in major books and publications. But surely something like that something should have been caught. The other little print error I noticed was that there was just a speech mark straight up missing – right at the end of a chapter. On page 179 for those interested.

I also felt like the only real action happened in the last quarter of the book – over two chapters. I will say, that in itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing, a lot of books do that, and it all depends on the kind of book, or story being told.

Saying that however. Here is a gif of how this book made me feel. For context, I am Shea Couleé, and the book is Charlie Hides:

It was like a volcano, it needed to build pressure up before this grand explosion. But I felt like most of this build up and this pressure happened off-page. To the book's credit, it did do something. Like, okay, Marcus received the occasional message and call from his ex, Robert, throughout the story. And it’s suggested that Robert physically abused Marcus, and that’s why he (Marcus) is avoiding him (Robert). The story of what happened between them ends up all being vomited out at once in a single conversation between Marcus and another character.

I think that I wanted some other indication of Marcus’ feelings. And, I’ll give an example, I wished that there had been something along the lines of Marcus becoming paranoid that Robert was around, like maybe he thought he saw Robert when he was out, and it was just his eyes playing tricks on him – something like that. Robert is built up as this horrible presence, yet is hardly present. So, even though he's meant to be this big, horrible monster, he just doesn't have the impact.

Just as a final side-point, it also felt like no one in town had things going on, outside of Marcus. Like, even the things that the other characters were doing, it all just managed to conveniently involve Marcus in some way.

To round this out, my main thing with this book is that I feel like it could have just done with a little longer in the oven. Just long enough so that a little more meat could have been added to flesh out the bits I had problems with, and just long enough so that it could have had one more look over by and editor.

It isn’t a bad book. Sure, I pointed out these issues, but I still had a good time with it overall. For the most part, the characters were likable, and the story was cute, if a little predictable. It’s definitely a book I could see myself revisiting someday, just not any time soon.

Okay, bye!