Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat (Moore)

Book Reviews
Edward Kelsey Moore knows how to write a terrific, complex, believable, and always intriguing story.
Zetta  Brown - New York Journal of Books


Funny and tenderhearted...Moore expertly combines tragedy and comedy in a way that feels fluid and natural, creating a world that is internally consistent and rich.... Perhaps the most remarkable quality of The Supremes is love—the author’s love for his characters, even the most flawed, shines from every page.
Ilana Teitelbaum - Shelf Awareness
 

The indefatigable trio of Barbara Jean, Clarice, and Odette (known as "The Supremes" since high school) churns the small community of Plainview, Indiana into a Southern-fried tailspin this debut from Moore, a professional cellist. Each of the central characters brings unique challenges to the tables at Earl’s diner: Odette battles cancer while her pothead mother communicates with famous ghosts; Clarice tries to salvage a crumbling marriage with her cheating husband; and beautiful Barbara Jean, who married for money, drinks to forget a youthful affair and her dead son. In a booth at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat, a short walk from Calvary Baptist Church, these women lay bare their passions, shortfalls, and dramas.... Moore’s take on this rowdy troupe of outspoken, lovable women has its own distinctive pluck.
Publishers Weekly


In the mid-Sixties, three black teenage friends—Odette, Clarice, and Barbara Jean—start meeting at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat, the first black-owned business in Plainview, IN. Watched over by Earl, they keep meeting there for 40 years. Comparisons to The Help, Waiting To Exhale, and Fried Green Tomatoes....
Library Journal


[T]hree close friends from Plainview, Ind., who, from their adolescence to their maturity, meet to gossip and consolidate their friendship at a local eatery....and they began calling themselves—and being called by others—the Supremes. The novel opens some 40 years after their salad days.... Through both Odette's narrative and a more neutral third-person perspective, we learn of the trio's personal problems and the rise and fall of their relationships. .... Throughout the Supremes' intertwined stories is one constant—meeting and eating at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat, now run by his son Little Earl, a place where relationships are forged, scandals are aired and copious amounts of chicken are consumed. A novel of strong women, evocative memories and deep friendship.
Kirkus Reviews