THE GOURMET CLUB

Kahn’s heartfelt saga follows a group of young lawyers through 25 years of their lives together.

It’s 1981 and Gabe Pollack, Susan Baker, Eric Cameron, and Norman Greenberg meet at orientation for the Chicago white-shoe law firm where they’ve all recently been hired. They are, of course, the best of the best. Norman’s wife, Esther, insists that the foursome have a potluck (“That way we can meet each other’s spouses, get to know one another, maybe even become—you know, maybe—friends,” Norman says), and this regular event, over the years, becomes the loose framework of the novel. Readers glide through the story of their career changes, their kids, and the inevitable challenges that life brings. If there is one lodestar, it’s the unbreakable friendship that the four attorneys and their spouses share. Significantly, at book’s end, none of the main players work for that white-shoe law firm anymore. Readers learn in an afterword that Kahn’s real-life experience as a young lawyer formed the template for this fictional story. The author, who’s still a practicing attorney, has written multiple mystery novels—so when, halfway through the book, none of the characters have met with foul play, the reader begins to stop expecting mayhem and slides into the comforting narrative, as into a hot bath. The book is immensely readable, and sometimes Kahn even gives the game away by intruding as the storyteller—a nice touch that reaffirms the book’s charm. Does the author push too hard to provide a happy ending? To think that is to wish, churlishly, for just a few more deaths, diseases, or divorces. Sometimes, one needs a book like this one—a pleasant love letter to a profession, and to professional friends.

A thoroughly enjoyable and inviting story with well-drawn characters.