J. Ryan Stradal is the author of New York Times bestseller Kitchens of the Great Midwest and national bestsellers The Lager Queen of Minnesota and Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club. His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Granta, The Rumpus, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. His debut, Kitchens of the Great Midwest, won the American Booksellers Association Indie's Choice Award for Adult Debut Book of the Year. His most recent novel, Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club, was published in 2023. Born and raised in Minnesota, he now lives in California with his family.
Praise for Kitchens of the Great Midwest:
“I read J. Ryan Stradal’s Kitchens of the Great Midwest on a
flight. I buckled my seatbelt, opened the book and when I looked up
again, the flight attendant was asking if I needed assistance
getting off the plane. I didn’t, but now you know the spell this
author can cast. He does it again with The Lager Queen of
Minnesota.” —Elisabeth Egan for The New York Times
"An impressive feat of narrative jujitsu. . . that keeps readers
turning the pages too fast to realize just how ingenious they
are."—The New York Times Book Review, Editor's Pick
"This is a book that made me want to have a more full and colorful
life, a life with cookbooks and a well-used kitchen, and to delight
at all the goodness that can be put in front of us.”—Los Angeles
Review of Books
“A sweet and savory treat.” —People
“The author's gentle skewering of foodie snobs (from county fair
doyennes to the vegan/gluten-free/soy-free police) is spot on,
and the blend of humor, warmth, and longing that he uses to portray
family relationships make the book insightful and endearing. Savor
it page by page.”—Oprah.com
“Kitchens of the Great Midwest is a terrific reminder of what can
be wrested from suffering and struggle – not only success, but also
considerable irony, a fair amount of wisdom and a decent
meal.”—Jane Smiley, The Guardian
"Warning: this will make you hungry. . . . You won’t be
able to put it down. And it will up your kitchen game."—The
Skimm
"Garrison Keillor’s got nothing on [J. Ryan Stradal]!"—'Here and
Now', NPR
“A tender coming-of-age story with a mix of finely rendered pathos
and humor.”—Washington Post
“Stradal’s debut novel tackles foodie culture with all the finesse
of a pastry chef…Reading Kitchens is all pleasure.” —LA
Magazine
"[A] captivating debut novel. . . as surprising and
satisfying as a great meal."—Tampa Bay Times
“Foodies and those who love contemporary literature will devour
this novel that is being compared to Elizabeth Strout’s Olive
Kitteridge. A standout.” —Library Journal (starred review)
“[Kitchens of the Great Midwest is] the first novel about the
emergence and current state of foodie culture… Fundamentally,
[it’s] about what happens when opposing personalities coexist:
those who bake with real butter versus those who don’t, those who
obsess over heirloom tomatoes alongside those who don’t even know
what they are. It uses these categories as a way to look at one of
the most confusing, liberating truths there is, which is that often
the people we think we’re the least like are the ones we end up
needing the most.” –Book Forum
“[A] delicious debut from Stradal.. . Food and family intertwine in
this promising debut that features triumph, heartbreak, and even
recipes.”—Kirkus
“Stradal’s first novel is a refreshing and brisk read, with a
sophisticated sense of such glories of foodie culture as
open-pollinated heirloom corn, pan-seared Walleye and Caesar
Cardini’s original Caesar Salad.”—BBC.com
“Stradal’s debut is charming, rife with hardy, self-deprecating
humor, but in Kitchens of the Great Midwest [Stradal] really proves
his mettle as a novelist to look out for.”—Bustle.com
“Kitchens of the Great Midwest is a big-hearted, funny, and
class-transcending pleasure. It’s also both a structural and
empathetic tour de force, stepping across worlds in the American
midwest, and demonstrating with an enviable tenderness and
ingenuity the tug of war between our freedom to pursue our passions
and our obligations to those we love.” —Jim Shepard, author of
Project X and National Book Award finalist Like You’d Understand,
Anyway
“Tender, funny, and moving, J. Ryan Stradal's debut novel made me
crave my mother's magic cookie bars...and every good tomato I've
ever had the privilege of eating. Kitchens of the Great Midwest
manages to be at once sincere yet sharply observed, thoughtful yet
swiftly paced, and the lives of its fallible, realistic, and
complicated characters mattered to me deeply. It's a fantastic
book.”— Edan Lepucki, bestselling author of California
“In Kitchens of the Great Midwest, a charming, fast-moving round
robin tale of food, sensuality and Midwestern culture, Mr. Stradal
has delivered one extremely tasty, well-seasoned debut in what is
sure to be a long and savory career.”—Janet Fitch, author White
Oleander
“From the quite literally burning passions of a lonely
eleven-year-old girl with an exceptional palate, to the ethical
dilemmas behind a batch of Blue Ribbon Peanut Butter Bars, J. Ryan
Stradal writes with a special kind of meticulous tenderness—missing
nothing and accepting everything. A superbly gratifying debut.”—Meg
Howrey, author of The Crane’s Dance
"An impossible-to-put-down, one-of-a-kind novel. The prose is
beautiful, the characters memorable, and the plot is surprising at
every turn. I have never read a book quite like this—and neither,
I'll bet, have you. This stunning debut announces J. Ryan Stradal
as a first-rate voice in American fiction. This is a wildly
creative, stunningly original, and very moving novel. I can't wait
to see what Stradal does next."— Rob Roberge, author of The Cost of
Living
"A Great American Novel in the fullest sense of the term.
Everything you want a book to be."—Ben Loory, author of Stories for
Nighttime and Some for the Day
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