PRODUCT INFORMATION PAGE Last Orders (Vintage International) View and buy for $10.66 on Amazon.com

Here are some customer reviews of Last Orders (Vintage International) : While I expected a much more gripping and emotional tale of old friendships and family ties, this story was generally good. The author jumps forward and backward in time; from character to character; in choppy chapters that left me searching through what I had already read to clarify the story. In spite of this, I found myself swept up in the story and anxious to find out how it progressed and ended. It was very well written and I found the language usage a delight Graham Swift has created an amazing tribute to life. A group of four friends receive their last orders to take a friend's ashes to scatter at the beach. Their journey to do this provides the time for the rest of the men to remember their past, their experiences, and to think about where they are in their lives now. This is beautifully written, humorous and poignant. When it is over you will still be thinking about it and about your own life too. It is a British book and it may take a while to fall into the rhythms and patterns of expression, but it is well worth it. Heart-warming and soul touching, a brilliant novel. Learning to know the characters was part of the fascination of the book. The farther I read, the more I understood who and why they were. And I finally understood that this was about people making choices and getting stuck in them. I was left with intriguing questions which read the book again. I rarely do that! Swift's word pictures are memorable--the four men walking single file, carrying the box Last orders (either in a pub before its closing-time or in one's lifetime before its termination) is a moment of final decision, a moment of ultimate truth. Everyone who has faced in their life a death of any intimate person - a friend or relative - comes to a conclusion that funeral rites are intended not for the deceased (who is already in some other place, far from this mortal coil) but for those who are still alive. Death of every person portends personal departure and compels to appraise their own life, to encounter the truth, at least tacitly. The novel of Graham Swift is the most perfect description (I've ever read) of that painful process. Before his death Jack Dodd ordered to scatter his ashes into the ocean from Margate Pier. His three intimate friends and adopted son perform the order. Their (and some other person's) short conversations, intertwined memories and interdependent thoughts during this trip from London to Margate polyphonically form the story - warmth of human love and compassion, bitterness of mutual misunderstanding and disappointment, unrealized dreams, ambiguity of love&hate relations between father and son, - all that molds individual lives. It is significant that their way lies through Canterbury and its Cathedral, for self-comprehension is impossible without personal repentance and vindication of another's sins and misdeeds. The last chapter of the book is surprisingly calm: the human harmony undisturbed by berserk weather gives hope that accomplished mission was not in vain. Author's mastery in representing distinct voices of his heroes surpasses every praise. Those, for whom English is only second language (as for me),at first can be perplexed by abundance of slang terms and indigenous allusions. Please make efforts and you will be rewarded galore. Do not hasten to discern all personal interrelations from the first pages, believe the author, he will skillfully relate everything. Similar to a frozen window-glass gradually clearing one's vision with every movement of one's warm hand, each narrator of the story will tell their perception of events. If in the end something stays a bit fuzzy or blurred, it is not author's fault - such is our real life where absolute knowledge is unattainable. An excellent and justly awarded novel. I had very high expectations when I purchased Last Orders. It seemed to hold the promise of revealing rare human insight, as told by a master storyteller, not withstanding the fact it won the Booker Prize. I found keeping track of all the charcters, their nicknames and the short chapters somewhat confusing at times. It didn't sustain my attention. However, it does have its good points. All told, it is a good, not a great story. The characters are deeply drawn, you do care about them, and the dialogue is authentic blue collar London, which I enjoyed. Although I was sorely disappointed by Last Orders, I believe it deserves a second read.

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