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Marrying the Ketchups by Jennifer Close

Literary fiction

Marrying the Ketchups

by Jennifer Close

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Quick take

Like the burger at your favorite diner, this novel is warm, gooey, full of flavor, and will leave you very satisfied.

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, Social_Issues

    Social issues

  • Illustrated icon, Family_Drama

    Family drama

  • Illustrated icon, LGBTQ_themes

    LGBTQ+ themes

  • Illustrated icon, Foodie

    Foodie

Synopsis

Here are the three things the Sullivan family knows to be true: the Chicago Cubs will always be the underdogs; historical progress is inevitable; and their grandfather, Bud, founder of JP Sullivan’s, will always make the best burgers in Oak Park. But when, over the course of three strange months, the Cubs win the World Series, Trump is elected president, and Bud drops dead, suddenly everyone in the family finds themselves doubting all they hold dear.

Take Gretchen for example, lead singer for a ‘90s cover band who has been flirting with fame for a decade but is beginning to wonder if she’s too old to be chasing a childish dream. Or Jane, Gretchen’s older sister, who is starting to suspect that her fitness-obsessed husband who hides the screen of his phone isn’t always “working late.” And then there’s Teddy, their steadfast, unfailingly good cousin, nursing heartbreak and confusion because the guy who dumped him keeps showing up for lunch at JP Sullivan’s where Teddy is the manager. How can any of them be expected to make the right decisions when the world feels sideways—and the bartender at JP Sullivan’s makes such strong cocktails?

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Get an early look from the first pages of Marrying the Ketchups.

Marrying the Ketchups

PROLOGUE

October 26, 2016

The Cubs were up 5–0 in the bottom of the fifth, but Bud Sullivan knew better than to relax. They’d been creamed the night before, completely wiped out, and he knew it could happen again. It was the Cubs. Anything could happen. And it usually did.

He was watching the game at Sullivan’s, because that was one of the perks of owning a restaurant. He sat on his lucky barstool, even though, as his wife, Rose, pointed out, it hadn’t been lucky the night before. Still, he was afraid to change things up. Superstition was a tricky business. He was surrounded by regulars, these people who he’d watched hundreds of Cubs games with. “This is our year,” they said to one another. “This is our year.” The waitstaff kept pausing in the middle of their work, holding plates in the air or glasses of water, frozen as they watched a pitch or two, cheering when it went their way, groaning when it didn’t.

Bud was trying to enjoy himself, but something was off. The mood was askew. Maybe he’d stayed up too late the night before, overexcited for the first game of the World Series. Maybe he’d had one too many beers. Maybe it was just the unfamiliar experience of watching the Cubs in October. Maybe it was the fall weather, the dread of the approaching Chicago winter. Or maybe it was the election, that awful man all over the news, snarling and stirring up the worst parts of everyone. Bud felt something bad coming, felt it in his bones, like predicting a rainstorm with an aching knee.

He’d talked to his granddaughter, Gretchen, in New York earlier that day and she’d told him she didn’t think he should worry about the election. “There’s no way,” she said. “People are smarter than that.” She had the dumb sense that comes with youth that things would always move forward, that people would continue to get better. He didn’t know how to tell her this wasn’t the case, but it didn’t matter. She had to see it for herself.

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Why I love it

This book had me at the title and only got better from there. Jennifer Close’s insightful, razor-sharp writing made me laugh out loud while recognizing so many indelible truths about what it means to be a family. I loved all of these characters, and sorely wish I could be at the table for a family meal at JP Sullivan’s.

When we first meet them, several members of the Sullivan family find themselves at a crossroads in their lives, be it a failed career, a crumbling marriage, or confusing heartbreak. Throw in three impossible events—the sudden death of their grandfather, the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series, and the outcome of the 2016 presidential election—and they’re left questioning everything they thought they knew. They all retreat to the old-school Irish restaurant their grandfather opened in Chicago decades ago, where his presence still looms large. JP Sullivan’s has always been the center of their family universe, but it’s difficult for these cousins to figure out their next steps while also nursing grudges and generational conflicts in such close quarters.

Marrying the Ketchups is crisp and funny, and will have you craving the comfort of home and family and good food. I loved this novel, and it has already become a go-to recommendation for me!

Member ratings (2,485)

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Literary fiction
View all
Intermezzo
The Book of George
Real Americans
Dirty Diana
Wellness
Margo’s Got Money Troubles
The God of the Woods
Same As It Ever Was
Annie Bot
Bear
Mercury
True Biz
Family Happiness
The Lady Waiting
The Other Valley
Hard by a Great Forest
Good Material
The Bullet Swallower
Happy All the Time
Rental House
Alice Sadie Celine
Let Us Descend
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
Shark Heart
Homeseeking
Transcendent Kingdom
Hello Beautiful
Dominicana
What's Mine and Yours
The Unsettled
Ask Again, Yes
Vladimir
Infinite Country
The Prophets
Normal People
The Verifiers
Salvage the Bones
The Many Daughters of Afong Moy
I Have Some Questions for You
Black Buck
The History of Love
Age of Vice
Paper Names
The Light Pirate
The Secret History
The Kite Runner
Memorial
The Half Moon
Happiness Falls
The Gifted School
The Death of Vivek Oji
The Knockout Queen
Little Monsters
Yerba Buena
Beautiful World, Where Are You
Free Food for Millionaires
A Burning
The Mothers
The Water Dancer
Small Country
The Sympathizer
Fleishman Is in Trouble
Lot
An American Marriage
The Animators
The Mars Room
Exit West
White Fur
Woman No. 17
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
Eat Only When You're Hungry
Rainbirds
A Ladder to the Sky
Golden Child
The Goldfinch
The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P
& Sons
The Association of Small Bombs
Lolly Willowes
All Grown Up
Marlena
Signal Fires
Someday, Maybe
Woman of Light
Marrying the Ketchups
The Shards
Blue Sisters