THE SUPPER CLUB SAINTS

A Wisconsin restaurant is the backdrop for a wide-ranging conversation on navigating motherhood’s triumphs and tragedies.

The Baumhaus Supper Club is a staple in rural Port Holcomb, family run for three generations, but it’s now up for sale as the last proprietor, Remy Simon, is reeling at the recent death of her husband. Her son, Thomas, a lawyer, has no interest in it, especially now that his wife, Erin, after many miscarriages, is reaching her due date. Eldest daughter Hilary, who’s divorced, has her hands full with three kids and an art career that feels like a neglected fourth child. And then there’s Cass, who’s recently escaped from a cultlike mommy commune and might be facing child-endangerment charges—hardly an ideal candidate to take up the family business. Although the novel trades in some well-worn tropes of the frazzled mother, Swinarski has interesting things to say about the current flavors of social media–driven parenting. In flashback we see Cass, an anxious mother writing content for a mom influencer, become dependent on the safety of rules. Shocking everyone, she leaves her doting husband and cuts ties with her family to live with a group of like-minded women and their children, churning out parenting reels while behind the scenes, the business resembles an oppressive cult. Now back home, Cass is stricken with guilt as the leader is arrested for child abuse. The women in the novel—Remy, a lax parent whose own troubled childhood had a chain effect, as well as Erin, Hilary, and Cass—all try hard to be "good" mothers, while defining that role in radically different ways. Though there are uneven components—clunky exposition, a monolithic assumption about the struggles of parenting—the novel is also filled with charm and touching romance.

Chummy, engaging, and thought-provoking in its depiction of the modern mother.