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Two things engage me when it comes to fiction — characters I want to spend more time with, and details, the juicier the better, from a world I’m curious about, but not likely to ever experience.
Elizabeth LaBan’s novel “The Restaurant Critic’s Wife” has both. When Sam, the restaurant critic of the title, is offered his dream job in Philadelphia, his wife, Lila, a young woman who never meant to settle down, is pulled from her familiar career world into a life in a new city as a wife and mother. Both she and the reader become enmeshed in Sam’s determination to make a success of his life as a food writer, even if it means going to extremes (like laughable disguises and Dumpster-diving for cans to prove that a restaurant’s tomato sauce isn’t homemade).
The best part? Ms. LaBan really is a restaurant critic’s wife. Her husband writes for The Philadelphia Inquirer — which means that the wonderful details in the book both ring true and occasionally are.
I asked her to talk about not just the book, but the life and people behind it.
Writers always say their characters “aren’t me,” but there are so many similarities between your life and the book. What’s true, and what’s invention?
Lila is not me. I know how crazy that sounds — my husband, Craig, is a restaurant critic, and that’s defined our whole marriage. We do have two children, an older girl and a younger boy, and we do live in a neighborhood in Center City in Philadelphia. And we do have these very careful rules in place — I almost never say his name when we’re out, we never make reservations in our own name. But Craig is not as controlling as Sam. And Lila comes to marriage and kids really thinking that’s not what she wants. She wasn’t looking for Sam. Even their first baby was pretty much an accident. That’s not me. I’ve always wanted to be married and have a family. But Lila doesn’t think she wants it, and so it becomes very restrictive.
Lila’s husband, Sam, is himself very restrictive. He doesn’t want her to make friends, or work. I’m not sure I’ve ever disliked a character as much as I did Sam for most of the book. Was that on purpose?
Oh, I think there are a lot of soft sides to Sam. He has a calmness about him that is so good with the kids. And he’s so terrified of not doing a good job. He’s focused. He just can’t really see past his craziness, and it’s exaggerated because they’re new to the city and he just sees this opportunity. Then, we’re in Lila’s head, and she can’t really see that sometimes he’s trying, really being very nice, and sometimes she’s driving him crazy too.
And Craig was never like that. It’s true I can’t be friends with restaurant owners, that would really cross a line. I could never get to that point. And things like not calling restaurants from our home phone have just become second nature to me. But Craig is totally reasonable. This book is a perfect example. I’m out there now. He was really O.K. with it.
Your picture is on the book. Does that mean you can’t eat out with him any more?
No, it hasn’t really mattered. This is my third book. If someone wanted to find my picture before, they certainly could. It wasn’t quite as in-your-face as this book. But really, people don’t notice me. People aren’t really looking for you every day. And I don’t go out with him every time he goes out. Maybe once or twice a month.
The book is really a glimpse into your world for the rest of us. What were some of your favorite things to write about?
Some of the moments we’ve had were really fun. Like when Craig first started, he tried disguises. In the book, Sam wears a fake mustache, and he can’t really talk, and the waitress treats him like a child, because there’s clearly something wrong with him, and then the mustache falls off. The disguises always looked like costumes. Craig hasn’t worn a disguise in years.
And Sam is really focused on food, and when he and Lila are leaving the hospital after the baby is born, he’s like, I really want to try this hoagie shop, and it will just take a minute, and it takes forever — that really happened. I was so mad, and our son was screaming in the back seat.
But then we got home, and we had these great hoagies, and we were so happy. That’s mostly what it’s really like. It’s one big eating adventure after another. We have a lot of fun with it. The kids and I don’t get tired of it, we’re always saying, let’s go out. Let’s try something. And then sometimes Craig would just like to eat at home.
