The Hungry Cowboy Summary

In the book, The Hungry Cowboy written by Karla A. Erickson, she discusses her observations in a Mex-Tex restaurant and how people interact within the workspace. What Erickson is trying to answer is why the people in the restaurant feel more like a close-knit community compared to other, through her observations and active participation prior, but there are weak point to her research concerning her overall view of the restaurant. The interactions between workers and customers intrigued Erickson into looking at the limitations of relationships in a work place. She questions if a community can exist in a capitalist marketplace, since there is an exchange of work for money and idea of having a relationship within the marketplace, strikes Erickson into researching how and why this restaurant can create a family community. The idea of family community is demonstrated in, “Customers routinely make themselves ‘at home’ at the Hungry Cowboy by taking off their shoes, kicking up their feet, ‘visiting’ other tables, or introducing
student form the University of Davis emphasizes Ericksons argument and summarizes her main points. Grove emphasis the study done on a “middle dining establishment,” (pg. 167), which is not a popular topic for studying and it gives leeway to interpretation. The next couple of paragraphs of the book review summarize the points of chapter one of describing the environment being studied and more main ideas that are already present in the book. Grove does not go in depth and agrees with all the points Erickson makes without questioning the weak points or showing the biases that could be occurring. The book review felt more so of a summary and recommendation to read, but did not give constructive criticism that is necessary to input. Although, it did give good references from the book to summarize and make it easy for the reader that is interested to know what the chapters are