'Last Night' characters carry a bit of Pittsburgh

When a Red Lobster restaurant closed near author Stewart O'Nan's home in Connecticut -- one of the few remaining in the state -- he took notice.

"The regulars went to get Sunday lunch right after church," he says, "and they found the doors were locked. They just shut it down."

The event was the inspiration for his latest novel, "Last Night at the Lobster" (Viking, $19.95). The slim novel -- 146 pages --- is about the effect a restaurant's closing has on its workers.

O'Nan, a native of the Point Breeze, a Drue Heinz Prize winner and author of novels including "The Good Wife" and "Wish You Were Here," will talk about the book Monday at The Book Center at the University of Pittsburgh Oakland.

O'Nan started to think about when he worked at a catering service run by the Beth Shalom Congregation in Squirrel Hill and was able to tap into those experiences for "Last Night at the Lobster."

In his story, Manny DeLeon, the restaurant manager, prepares for the final shift at a Red Lobster that has underperformed according to the parent company's expectations. He could very easily cut corners, and when a power outage occurs during a snowstorm, his co-workers want him to close early.

But Manny insists on staying open in case hungry travelers come in from the cold.

He makes sure that snow is swept from the walks, that everything in the restaurant is as close to perfect as possible -- even if no one is there to notice.

"I think growing up in Pittsburgh sort of makes me more aware that work is noble, that doing a good job is important," O'Nan says. "Even if you have problem with the boss, or the people in the front of the house, or the annoying kid at a table."

The book did challenge O'Nan on two levels. One was fitting the characters into such a short, compact book. The other was a bit more daunting. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, O'Nan's publisher, passed on the book.

But O'Nan admits that his novels are different from much contemporary fiction.

"It's not magical," he says."It's not fanciful, it's not sweeping or epic. it's about the everyday endurance of people."

This ethic has been prevalent in his work, whether its Chris "Crest" Tolbert, the paralyzed teenager in "Everyday People" or Jacob Hansen, the sheriff-undertaker-pastor who deals with an epidemic in "A Prayer for The Dying," set in post-Civil War Wisconsin.

O'Nan has also written non-fiction works, most notably "Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the 2004 Season" with Stephen King. But he always returns to themes that were instilled during his childhood in Pittsburgh.

"I just find myself attracted to, especially in the last five or six books, regular folks, regular people, who have to get through some tough spots in life," he says.

He offers up the "Good Wife" as an example, the story of a woman who raises a family while her husband serves a long prison sentence.

"Here's a person in a very tough spot. She's doing the best she can to get through and to make things as good as she can for her family. That's what people do. That's what I think is important, and as a novelist you have to make a choice of what exactly do you want to show the reader."