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Last Orders
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
From the author of Waterland and Ever After, Last Orders is a quiet but dazzling novel about a group of men, friends since the second world war, whose lives revolve around work, family, the racetrack and their favourite pub. When one of them dies, the survivors drive his ashes from London to a seaside town where they will be scattered, compelling them to take stock of who they are today, who they were before and the shifting relationships in between. Both funny and moving, this won the Booker Prize in 1996.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
'Inspired... His finest novel yet' Guardian 'Tragic, comic and wonderfully compassionate' Daily Mail 'A triumph... A novel that unflinchingly contemplates human perishability, and that also pays unsentimental tribute to human resilience' Sunday Times
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is more than just a simple tale of a group of friends taking their friend's ashes to the sea-side. I found it so poignant and moving that I could hardly bear to read the last scene. It's about the big issues in life and how chance can change your whole destiny. It's also about regret and lost opportunities, love and, obviously, death. Each character is beautifully drawn. Ray, the 'lucky' gambler is a 'litte ray of sunshine', Vic, the undertaker, the only one not afraid of death, is the 'Victor' - even the characters' names mean something. It's probably the sort of book you need to read more than once to fully appreciate, but it well deserved the Booker prize and I would recommend it to anyone (as long as you're not expecting to laugh!)
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The vernacular is fantastic! A truly wonderful working-class novel, like Love on the Dole or Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, but much much more than that. It's a rumination on death, life, love, parenthood, childhood, work; in other words, the lives that all of us live, everday. I love the switch-and-cut narrative (as good as his Waterland), and, of course, most especially the various narrative voices. The every-day man doesn't need elegies, he has the words and rhythms honed down through generations. It is a perfect, perfect example of how every-day speech can be powerful and beautiful. A wonderful novel, that leaves you at significant risk of being more than significantly moved!
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This was the first title I have read by Graham Swift, but has inspired me to seek out all his other titles. It is a tale of four friends, their intertwined lives and loves, spread over a fifty year period commencing in World War Two. As with all the best books, Last Orders has realistic and human characters in whom readers will take a genuine interest.
The story is ostensibly based around a journey undertaken by three of the men (with a friend) to scatter the the fourth original member's ashes in the sea at Margate. Although similar to Faulkner's 1930 "As I Lay Dying", Swift's novel is none the less a great book in its own right.
If you like novels with strong characterisation and a genuine, touching story, I strongly commend "Last Orders" to you.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A very British tale beautifully told.
The perfect book to take on holiday. Very much Graham Swift at his best with an essentially British story of pub culture told with sensitivity and humour. Read more
Published 8 days ago by M. Palmer
Keep Going to Night Classes, Graham
Swift's forte is his insight into people and his ability to unfold a story layer by layer until the full drama of the human condition is laid bare in all its agonising glory. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Michael May
Skilful but gloomy and slow
Last Orders has received the highest praise. The Guardian and TLS hailed it as Swift's finest book to date; it won the 1996 Booker Prize; it is included in the critic John Carey's... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Metropolitan Critic
Emotions at their best.
A book with such a simple yet heart warming story most certainly deserves its praise. From the very first chapter it is impossible not to feel a sympathetic connection towards each... Read more
Published 5 months ago by SofiaRov
A cockney Alan Bennett
The death of Jack Dodds, family butcher, causes family and life-long friends to reflect on the choices they've made, the chances they've missed and their ability to still change. Read more
Published 6 months ago by mogwins
Superb
There was a bit of controversy surrounding this work because of its similarities to another Author's book but I found it an immensely enjoyable read full of humour. Read more
Published 7 months ago by The Loser ladies & gentlemen
Unreadably bad
This book was so badly written and utterly boring that I couldn't even be bothered to finish it. I have not the slightest idea why anyone would want to persevere with it, except... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Peter Smith
underwhelming
Another Booker prize winner that doesn't really deliver. With its constant shifting between characters and up and down the decades, this book is disjointed and irritating. Read more
Published on 13 Jan 2010 by Andrewmac
Booker winner? Leave it out, knock it on the `ead...
This is Faulkner's As I Lay Dying relocated to estuary England, right down to the different viewpoints, brief chapters, attempts at dark humour and tedious dialect. Read more
Published on 4 Jan 2009 by Trevor Coote
Good but flawed
Overall, Last Orders is an enjoyable novel, but it does become tedious in its final third. It is somewhat rescued from the tedium that sets in however by a suspenseful... Read more
Published on 13 Oct 2008 by Flibertigibbit
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