The Dining Car (The Horace Button Series) - Softcover

Peterson, Eric

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0982486006 ISBN 13: 9780982486009

Publisher: Huckleberry House, 2016

Synopsis

Winner, 2017 Benjamin Franklin Gold Award for Popular Fiction -- Independent Book Publishers Association, April 7, 2017

In his second novel, author Eric Peterson dishes up a riotous spectacle of self-absorbed chefs, backstabbing politicians, and devious publishing magnates, set against a backdrop of haute cuisine, presidential politics, and an endless supply of top-shelf liquor and wine. Fresh from a public humiliation and in search of his true calling, former college football star Jack Marshall enlists as bartender and steward aboard Horace Button's vintage private railroad car, the "Pioneer Mother," which is transporting the legendary food writer and social critic across the country in opulent style. Decked out in a white jacket, mixing perfect cocktails, Jack is immersed in a style of living --and dining-- he'd assumed was extinct. While striving to appease the eccentric, finicky Horace, and Wanda, the "Pioneer Mother's" enigmatic chef, Jack falls under the spell of Giselle Lebeau, a gorgeous celebrity chef whose designs on him test his self-control and his loyalty. But when tragedy rocks Horace's insulated white-linen world, Jack must take charge of a simmering stew of quirky yet powerful personalities -- all while staying in Wanda's good graces and keeping an eye on their newest passenger. A story of service, serendipity, and second chances, "The Dining Car" is more than a delectable read -- it's a marvelous, exuberant work of fiction.

About this title

About the Author:

A third-generation Californian, Eric Peterson attended the University of California San Diego (UCSD) and completed his Communication degree at Stanford. In college, he worked for Amtrak, getting a glimpse into the rarified world of travel via private railcar, and seeing a few impressive parties on the cars' open platforms. Peterson realized his dream of becoming a novelist in 2009, after years spent working for a venture partnership, founding a software company, and running a fine-dining restaurant. His debut novel, "Life as a Sandwich," was a finalist in the San Diego Book Awards. "The Dining Car" is his second novel.

Review:

"I was taken across the country, learned about some of the buffoons who populate Washington, fell in love with two ladies, filled my belly with mouthwatering gourmet food and high-class liquid refreshments, and enjoyed the antics of an admirable young man who learns about life and love, all in a luxurious dining car. A glimpse into a life we all dream about, it's also an entertaining, engaging read with a deft touch of humor."
 -- Rick Browne, host of PBS' "Barbecue America" and author of 17 books on cooking, travel, restaurants, and the good life

"'The Dining Car' is an unforgettable tale of Horace Button, a Falstaffian character whose appetite for food and drink is without bounds. With his wickedly sharp tongue, Button dismisses family, friends, and total strangers with equal abandon. In the tradition of Wallace Stegner's 'Angle of Repose,' Eric Peterson links California with the East Coast as Button journeys across the country with his butler and chef in their elegantly appointed railroad car. 'The Dining Car' will be devoured with relish by all who appreciate good food, and the voice of Horace Button will long linger in the ear of its readers.
--William Ferris, author of The South in Color: A Visual Journal

"Though set in contemporary time, 'The Dining Car' reads like history, due to the near-cinematic attention to detail on every page -- not just the small architectural touches that can be found on a vintage private railcar, but fabulous descriptions of fine cuisine and top-notch wines. I appreciated the interplay between a well-known food writer and a celebrity chef, and found myself nodding at the oh-so-familiar magazine staff infighting. The plot is well paced, and the many colorful characters feel as real as the cross-country train journey. 'The Dining Car' is a damn fine novel."
--Thomas Shess, San Diego Home/Garden Lifestyles

"The Dining Car's appeal lies in probing Jack's evolving life, which reaches out to embrace a puzzlingly foreign world right in his own country. Readers who appreciate novels of growth and discovery on different levels which delve into the lives of the rich and expose undercurrents of agony and angst will find 'The Dining Car' a vivid, engrossing novel that's hard to put down."
--Diane Donovan, Reviewer's Choice, Donovan's Bookshelf

"I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The references to food and drink are surprisingly accurate ... Horace is quite the character and I found myself agreeing with some of the insights he expounded upon in his articles interspersed throughout the book. The author has cleverly created this character who sort of takes us back in time which sets the mood for the entire book. Jack was a classy character and Peterson is a great writer."
--Chef Leonard Gentieu, Chasing the Heat: 50 Years and a Million Meals

"One reader of Eric Peterson's novel, The Dining Car, describes perfectly the nature of its central character Horace Button - a celebrity editorialist on all things cultural but specifically gastronomical - as Falstaffian. Physically huge and attitudinally challenged, a drinker par excellence, Horace provides the gravitational focus around which this book and its dazzling characters revolve. Even the narrator of this story, a conscripted bartender for Horace's uniquely chosen manner of transportation - a handsomely reconstituted, elegant, 1932 Pullman-built, private railroad car - cannot escape the black-hole entrapment of Horace's over-sized personal charisma. Horace is a drunk. The most cultured, opinionated, ornery, bellicose, and anachronistic drunk one might ever be disinclined to meet. The reader likewise succumbs to such astronomical force with the ambivalent love-hate feelings shared and endured by every incidental character in the book. The saving grace? From the very inception of its gloriously slapstick, eye-popping introductory scene, The Dining Car promises and delivers nothing less than a Falstaffian feast of fun.

Do not, however, be misled by such a fun-filled promise. There are moments of genuine pathos embedded in Eric Peterson's roller-coaster book, The Dining Car. Such an unredeemable character as Horace is duly bound to come with some satisfying surprises. And though this most definitely remains a character-driven book, dominated by a truly unforgettable "character-at-large," prepare also to be pleasantly surprised by the masterful prose offered up here by the author, whose pacing, descriptions, dialogue and plotting are seamlessly and effortlessly impeccable, allowing one to fully concentrate his attention upon the fine, if most eccentric, gourmet dining experience of a lifetime." --Joel R. Dennstedt for Readers' Favorite, a five-star review

"Peterson's second book is like a meal prepared by a top-tier chef: great individual ingredients coming together to form something even better... The novel inspires dreams of savoring decadently elaborate foods, drinking fine wines and specialty cocktails, and rolling with unlikely adventures while hurting, laughing, and falling in love. Peterson serves up his story in delicious form." -- Publishers Weekly

"Eric Peterson's novel 'The Dining Car' is sure to resonate with every railroad buff. His attention to detail hits home with everyone who has ever experienced the joy of riding in a private railcar, and I have. Readers are made to feel they are being transported along with Horace Button, Jack Marshall and the rest of the colorful characters Peterson brings to life in this most intriguing tale. I urge you to climb aboard for a wonderful experience." -- Hank Greenwald, legendary former voice of the San Francisco Giants

"Food, wine and frivolity... that's what life is all about and Eric Peterson's 'The Dining Car' punctuates this carpe diem experience aboard Horace Button's private railcar. The bigger-than-life characters over indulge, pontificate and live life to the fullest! And it's all set to the clickity-clack of the train's wheels traversing the land, the popping of vintage wine and the epicurean splendor befitting rail royalty. Take a memorable journey that paints a picture of another era of travel grandeur but in today's world. Book a seat on 'The Dining Car' ... all aboard." --Dave Preston, Nevada's "Guru of the Goodlife"

"Intriguing ingredients come together for a savory bouillabaisse of adventure, humor, love and self-awakening in 'The Dining Car' by Eric Peterson. The good times keep rolling aboard a classic private dining car after a former college football star is hired as its bartender-steward by its owner, a 'legendary food writer and social critic.' The well-lubricated cross-country tour is nearly derailed by tragedy and too many metaphorical cooks in the kitchen, but nobody leaves hungry." -The Sacramento Bee

"Peterson's characters stand out like beacons reflecting their light in the world. Each is a bright facet cut in deep relief; a few pages in and they seem as real as the girl next door. Best of all, if you have any pent up disgust at the joys of the modern era, you'll be pleased to read Button's thoughts on same. We should have more of them--including the dicta never, ever, water down the brand, or the alcohol. Let the rubes grow by reaching for the stars. A trip in The Dining Car seems to have curative properties as the miles roll by and pages turn. It should be a film. Read it soon." -The Espresso

About this edition

• Publisher: Huckleberry House
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0982486006
• ISBN 13: 9780982486009
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 354