I picked up Last Orders by Graham Swift at some point in a charity shop because I know that he is a well thought of modern novelist and the premise for the novel sounded interesting. If I had studied the cover more thoroughly I would have discovered that this book won the Booker Prize in 1996 and it is possible that I would have left it in the shop – I have found a lot of prize winning novels to be impenetrable to me or too often to be plotless. I have no idea how long I have owned this book but I am glad that this challenge meant that I have finally read it.
The book is set in the East End of London where the main characters are in or around seventy years old. Jack, the local butcher, has just died and his three close drinking friends and his adopted son are taking his ashes to Margate to scatter them at sea according to his wishes. The book follows the four men on their trip, changing from one viewpoint to another, and includes flashbacks to events earlier in their lives. I found it easy enough to follow the changes in narration and the shifts in time and I enjoyed the story being told in this way.
What builds up, as the book progresses, is a sense of the complexity and interdependence of the lives of ordinary people. There are secrets, betrayals and promises revealed to the reader by the men in the car, although most of the characters are unaware of what happens in the minds and lives of the others. We learn how they all met and their relationships with women. We hear about what they would have liked to do with their lives and why they ended up where they did. We follow their lives from the war and see how each of them has sought, but not always succeeded, in making a good life for themselves, although we are challenged about what that might look like for these people. We see the issues that divide and separate these friends and the grudges they hold. By the end of the book we understand the men, and Jack, very well and, despite their difficulties, we come to admire their endurance and ability to thrive.
The idea for the book is very simple but the way that the author reveals secrets and hidden desires is very clever and the story builds to a very moving climax, even though very little seems to have happened. I found it compulsive reading.
I shall not be keeping this book but it cannot really be resold. Unknown to me when I purchased it the book is heavily annotated for the first chapter because someone has used it as an extract for some kind of language or literature class. In fact, I even know who this is because she has written her name on the inside cover ! I shall pop it on the book table at Sainsbury’s because it can still be read in full and someone else, like me, may not care about the additions of a previous owner.
Anne Is Reading 