There are days you pick up certain books just because you know “hey my life is meh but at least I’m not THAT poor bastard”. And it’s even better if it’s a true story. Just call me Gwen Schadenfreude-Mrs Blacklight!

If you’re like me, you might want to smack Ben Ryder Howe at the beginning of My Korean Deli: Risking It All For A Convenience Store. Because seriously? Writer living in his in-laws basement? DOOM DOOM AND DOOM SAUCE! Then again I should be nice. I’m not the WASP marrying into an immigrant family with a radically different outlook on work/family/home. Then again he had to know could/would be conflicts in the future.

So let’s get to the meat of the book. Ben’s wife Gab is in crisis. She wants to give her mother an amazing gift. A family business, a deli in New York City. The family looks at delis but nothing seems right. Then in a whirlwind, the family finds said deli, buys said deli and becomes enslaved to said deli. Everyone gets sucked in. Ben splits his time between the crumbing Paris Review and the deli. The ownership of the deli takes everything from neighborhood good will, time, money, health and freedom. Eventually the family decides to give up the deli knowing keeping it will only be the final blow in destroying them.

Schadenfreude and wanting to shake sense into Ben and Gab aside, My Korean Deli gives a sneak peek behind the scenes of the corner store. The next time I’m zipping through town to the library or heading to work at 6:30am, those awnings and flashing signs of local delis and bodegas will give me pause. And that, besides a forbidden Hostess snack cake is the best kind of takeaway you can get from a book.