Excerpted from The Dinner Party: A Novel by Brenda Janowitz
Sylvia left the most difficult thing until the end. She had a habit of doing that — leaving things she didn’t want to do until the end. She’d done it before her wedding, deciding minutes before she walked down the aisle who would give her away in her father’s absence. She’d done it before Gideon’s Bar Mitzvah, deciding the day before who would light each of the thirteen candles on his cake. And she’d done it the year Sarah and Becca went away to college on the same day, deciding only two days before which parent would drive which girl.
She was doing it again now. The night before her guests were to arrive, Sylvia was finally tackling the seating arrangements. She knew the key to any successful dinner party was the placement of the guests.
She put each of the names on tiny little cards. There was her family: she and Alan, her daughters Sarah and Becca. As she wrote their names in her fanciest script, she couldn’t help but feel a tug of emotion. Another year without Gideon. She knew that his work with Doctors Without Borders was important, but she hated the idea of him spending the holiday all alone, in a tent with no electricity.
Next she filled out the cards for Becca’s boyfriend’s family. There was the Boyfriend, Henry, and his parents, Ursella and Edmond. The Rothschilds. She wrote their names slowly, carefully, adding a flourish to her script on the U in Ursella’s name and the E in Edmond’s.
Finally, she brought herself to make out cards for Sarah’s boyfriend and his mother. She wished that Sarah would break up with Joe. And she wished she hadn’t been guilted into inviting his mother. (She’d only done so after the poor woman had a near-breakdown in the market on Front Street.) If anyone could ruin this dinner party, it was the Russos. Sylvia hastily wrote out cards for Joe and his mother. She wrote them so carelessly, in fact, that their names were barely legible. Valentina looked more like Ballerina, which she most certainly was not.
Next came the tiny sterling silver apples that would hold each place card. Sylvia started with the easiest ones. She and Alan would each occupy a seat at the head of the table, hers closer to the kitchen so she could check on the food as the meal progressed. Next, the Rothschilds. The Rothschilds should each have a seat of honor, so that was easy, too. Edmond would be seated to her right, Ursella to Alan’s right, and Henry to her left. Once the guests of honor were placed, she stood back from the table to admire her handiwork.
Now came the hard part. Where would she put Joe’s mother? Valentina had never been to their home before, but Sylvia knew that she’d be the most likely to cause a scene. She always spoke a decibel higher than most other people, like Stanley Kowalski yelling for Stella. And who knew what sorts of things she considered proper dinner conversation? She would put Valentina on Alan’s left. Surely he’d be able to manage her throughout the course of dinner. Alan had a way of speaking very softly. As a child, he was cautioned to be seen and not heard. And now, as the head of pediatric cardiology for Connecticut Children’s Hospital, he was accustomed to people listening carefully to him. There was never an occasion to raise his voice; he always had the floor.
That left the girls and Joe. She put Becca next to her beau, and Sarah next to her. The only spot left for Joe was across the table from the girls, next to his mother. Maybe they would just talk amongst themselves.
From The Dinner Party: A Novel by Brenda Janowitz, on sale April 12, 2016, from St. Martin’s Griffin, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press, LLC. Copyright © 2016 by the author and reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Press, LLC.
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Brenda is the author of five novels, including The Dinner Party (St. Martin’s April 2016). She is also the author of Scot on the Rocks, Jack with a Twist, Recipe for a Happy Life and The Lonely Hearts Club. She is the Books Correspondent for PopSugar. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Salon, Redbook, Bustle, The Forward, the New York Post, Publisher’s Weekly, Hello Giggles, Writer’s Digest Magazine, and xojane.
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