The Briar Club

Content Warning: This section of the guide features depictions of domestic violence and murder.

Because the Briar Club dinners revolve around food, the recipes that the novel includes symbolize communal gatherings that relate to the theme of Finding Support and Overcoming Differences in a Circle of Friends. Most of the chapters feature one or more recipes that relate to the central character whose story that segment tells. Frequently, this character is paired with a lover or an adversary, and the text also includes a recipe representing that person. The final instruction in each recipe describes the group of people who ought to share the dish and the music that should accompany it. These details are often a humorous commentary on the state of mind of the character who prepared the recipe. When Pete meets Grace for the first time, he talks about his absent father and the meatball recipe his father used to make. Grace, in turn, offers to share her sun tea with Pete. Therefore, that chapter includes a recipe for sun tea and a meatball recipe.

However, not all the pairings are so harmonious. Arlene’s unintentionally pornographic Candle Salad appears in the same chapter as Reka’s Haluski.