This is the first book that the author has had published. It is a parody, tongue in cheek and poking fun at the nuances of working for a large company that manages via published rules and regulations and customs derived by long time practice. It is set in the town of Pennacook, Massachusetts in a period shortly before the worldwide Corona virus appeared. Number one on the agenda for life in this area is that the town is inhabited by free roaming feral boars. Yes pigs, large ones and running free throughout the town.
The principal character is Ray Markham who cares for his brother Patrick styling himself as the father that they do not have. Ray supports the small family by working in the local store of a small chain of supermarkets. He spends his days at the deli section making excellent sandwiches for Bounty Bag. the name of the Supermarket interacting with a small group of the characters that constitute his fellow workers and not giving any thought to what his future will be.
Dr Chong, the local High School principal takes a backward view of the people in the town who send their children to school. She is unmarried and with a main project of obtaining funding for a less cacogenic building for the high school she has little time to devote to husband hunting. The plot thickens when the Bounty Bag board of directors fires the general manager of the stores and precipitates rioting on the part of the chain's workers. They are frightened of the possibility of robots being put into play taking jobs away from the employees.
As if this is not enough Patrick foments a scam targeting his own brother's deli department. But things look up when he stumbles into the classroom of one of the high school's teachers that has recently passed away and discovers through reading the history notes for this teacher. This causes him to reexamine his own views on Pennacook, and his own future.
There is no fleshing out of characters in the novel. But with the tongue in cheek approach taken by Eric Giroux it is not missed. Ring on Deli is not an all nighter but is a pleasant read with enough levity to keep the reader going.