Open Faced Potato Salad Sandwiches for The One; A Novel #LitHappens

Before we left on vacation, we had an impromptu neighborhood gathering.  I put ribs on the smoker and chicken on the rotisserie and asked everyone to bring a dish.  My neighbor and our Teen's aunt, Michelle, brought these wonderful little open faced sandwiches that I am going to serve all summer long.

While on the flight to our resort, I finished reading the novel, The One, by John Marrs.  This is our May selection for our Lit Happens Book Club selected by Camilla of Culinary Cam.

This novel is set in present day and shares a story of several couples who have gotten together after being matched to their "perfect soulmate" based on DNA results that they send in to a science based dating service.  

It is science fiction....or so it is listed.....walking on the moon was once science fiction too.  I was talking to the Teen about this novel.  She just finished her first college class, Ethics.  She enjoyed the class and I thought she might enjoy this book as well.  She said she may read it but that the whole idea scares her because "it could really happen". 

The novel follows 5 couples, including the scientist that discovered this genetic matching and the person to whom she is matched.  There is a man whose female fiancee convinces him they should test and it turns out that not only are they not matched but his perfect match is another guy.

There is a cop who gets matched with a serial killer and a woman who finds her match only to be informed by his family that he recently died.  And then there is a woman who travels from England to Australia to surprise her match, only to find that he has cancer and only a few weeks left to live.  

This woman, Jade, and her story reminded me of these open faced sandwiches that I am sharing with you today.  You see, Jade feels an immediate connection her match and loves him and, in fact, marries him on his deathbed but she only feels the excitement and fireworks, for which she is searching, when her brother in law enters the picture.

After her husband's death, Jade is leaving to tour Australia before returning to England and her mother in law packs sandwiches and salads for her to have along the way.

Lit Happens is not a foodie book club and this book isn't really a foodie read but, as always, I did find food inspiration and it matched this appetizer so well that I just had to share it with you.

 My suggestion is that you pick up a loaf of rye bread, either make or buy some potato salad, hard boil some eggs, slice some hard salami and make up a tray of these sandwiches to enjoy outside as you open this novel and enter into a realm that Rod Serling called the Twilight Zone.......