Book Review: "Jane and Dan at the End of the World" by Colleen Oakley

“Wanting to believe something is the basis of most successful relationships, she thinks. Wanting to believe that the person you are with is good or decent or that they would never do anything too terribly immoral or heinous like double-dipping a chip at a party or murdering someone. But the truth is, wouldn’t most humans do the terrible thing, given the right circumstances?”

It’s Jane and Dan’s 19th anniversary. While they usually celebrate at Macaroni Grill, this year they’re headed to one of the most exclusive (and expensive) restaurants in California, La Fin du Monde. But Jane isn’t happy. Not with her career as an unsuccessful novelist, not with her teenage children, and not with her marriage. Plus, Dan is cheating on her.

When Jane and Dan sit down for dinner, she tells him she wants a divorce. Before Dan can process this shocking disclosure, the restaurant is stormed by gun-toting activists. Jane can’t believe this is happening, especially when she realizes that everything that unfolds she wrote about in her one failed novel. Could this hostage drama be inspired by her book?

As Jane, Dan, and their fellow hostages deal with the fumbles of their captors, they wonder if they’ll get out of the restaurant alive. What do they really want from taking over the restaurant? How much do the hostages have to worry? And why does everything that Jane and Dan do or say irritate the other?

Given the fact that Jane’s book appears to have been the model for what is unfolding, Jane and Dan try and figure a way out. At the same time, they have to come to terms with how they feel about each other and what they want out of their future. (That is, if they get out alive.)

I thought this was good but I didn’t love it as much as I had hoped I would. The pacing was very uneven—at times it was sedate and at times it was frantic. I wanted more backstory about Jane and Dan, and I wanted to like them more.