Last Call (Ballantine Reader's Circle) [Paperback]

Laura Pedersen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 30, 2003 | Series: Ballantine Reader's Circle

Having descended from a long line of indomitable, good-humored Scots, Hayden MacBride sees no reason to take his own death lying down. In fact, he now spends his days crashing funerals for the free food and insight into the Great Beyond. Then he meets Rosamond, a nun playing hooky from the Holy Orders. Hayden is smitten the instant her heavy silver cross smacks him in the face when she leaps up to do the wave at a ball game. Luckily, Rosamond has picked the right person to teach her how to live . . . and to love—because nobody does both better than Hayden MacBride.

However, Rosamond’s years in the convent have not prepared her for the oddball characters of Hayden’s world. There’s his ever-fretful, vigilant daughter, Diana, the “Dutchess o’ the Sidelong Glance”; his sweet grandson Joey, struggling to break free of his mother’s overprotective embrace; Hayden’s bagpipe-blowing cronies; the Greyfriars Gang; neighbor Bobbie Anne, a “working girl” full of good advice and tender mercies; and Hank, the sexy architect contemplating the priesthood—a big mistake in Hayden’s book. For Hayden thinks that Hank should be married to his daughter and raising Joey. And he has an elaborate plan to make Hank see things his way. . . .

In an uproariously funny novel of love, laughter, and one man’s final call at the riotous watering hole called life, Laura Pedersen proves that miracles are all around us—when we open our eyes and our hearts to embrace them.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Pedersen's third novel (Beginner's Luck; Going Away Party) takes a darkly comic look at a serious subject. After being diagnosed with terminal liver cancer, 55-year-old Hayden MacBride decides to take control of his situation by plotting his final days. An irrepressible Scotsman now living with his daughter, Diana, and her 11-year old son, Joey, in Brooklyn, Hayden crashes funerals and stockpiles suicide pills ("they can fell a rhino in five minutes," his dying friend, who made them, whispers) in preparation. Hayden's approach changes, though, when he meets a kindred spirit who is railing noisily against the injustice of her inoperable lung cancer. Her name is Rosamond Rogers, and she's the exact opposite of Hayden's beloved late wife. But Hayden takes a shine to her, and convinces her to ditch the hospital and join him and Joey at a baseball game, where he discovers that she's a nun. And so begins an unlikely romance. Challenged by her sudden loss of faith ("I've prayed all my life and now this," she wails), Rosamond decides that she can't return to the convent. Hayden invites her to live with him and, implausibly, she accepts. The unlikely piles upon the unconvincing, when Bobbie Ann, the prostitute next door, acts as a relationship counselor to a priest, who, with a little prodding from Hayden, decides to change careers and court Diana. If readers can suspend their disbelief-which might be hard-they'll find Pederson's latest offers many funny, tender and bittersweet moments.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

As she did in Beginner's Luck (2003), Pedersen teases comic and romantic possibilities from the unlikely collision of strong personalities. The hero of her moving and funny second novel is boisterous, bighearted Hayden MacBride, a middle-aged Scotsman living in Brooklyn with his divorced daughter Diana and her 11-year-old son. Hayden is dying of inoperable cancer, and despite Diana's pleas that he scale back his drinking and carousing in favor of vegetable juice and cheeseburgers made of ground sage, he's determined to squeeze as much joy as possible from his last few months. While visiting a friend in the oncology unit, Hayden meets Rosamond, a nun whose terminal diagnosis has caused her to experience a crisis of faith. When she confides to Hayden that she can't bear to return to her convent, he brings her home to Diana and Joey. Pedersen is especially gifted at portraying the way people unwittingly urge each other to grow and change, particularly in the delicate friendship that springs up between wry, irreverent Hayden and the unworldly Rosamond. A reading-group guide is included. Meredith Parets
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1 edition (December 30, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345461916
• ISBN-13: 978-0345461919
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,360,179 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Laura Pedersen writes for The New York Times and is the author of Play Money, Going Away Party, Beginner's Luck (chosen as a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection), Last Call, Heart's Desire, The Sweetest Hours, and The Big Shuffle. In 1994, President Clinton honored her as one of Ten Outstanding Young Americans. She has appeared on Oprah, Good Morning America, Primetime Live, and The Late Show with David Letterman, and she writes for several wellknown comedians. Pedersen lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Destined To Become Classics, March 21, 2005

By 

Betty Cupertino (Ashland, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Last Call (Ballantine Reader's Circle) (Paperback)

Hadn't heard of Laura Pedersen until the Virginia Book Festival. She did a wonderful and hilarious presentation and so I read BEGINNER'S LUCK and LAST CALL. They were very different novels, though both humorous, uplifting, and with enjoyable characters. The storylines were creative and engaging. The LAST CALL ending is a blockbuster -- won't give it away. Pedersen is young and writing a book a year -- the sequels to BEGINNER'S LUCK are coming out soon. I rarely write in reviews but I think this author is bound to become a classic in women's fiction, of the feel-good variety (rather than doom and gloom), and will continue to be enjoyed by young and old readers for years to come. I guess she will always be classified as an author of women's fiction and pitched to reading groups, but there are some great guys in the books -- Bernard in BEGINNER'S LUCK and Hayden in LAST CALL, so I think men would enjoy the stories as well but doubt they'll ever pick them up based on the wonderful but somewhat feminine covers. I especially like it that she gives older female characters brainy, sexy parts, and doesn't relegate them to the backseat of the family car. Hollywood will no doubt be calling soon if they haven't already. Looking forward to more.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Original, March 14, 2005

By 

Alice Secrest (Toledo, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Last Call (Ballantine Reader's Circle) (Paperback)

I enjoyed BEGINNER'S LUCK and was surprised that LAST CALL was such a different book. However, I thought it was a terrific meditation on life and death and very funny at times. The author continued to surprise, rather than repeat the previous novel just because it was a success. I thought the part about Hayden musing on people just wanting to live their lives without having to worry about madmen with guns said a lot about the current political situation. Same with Rosamond being Catholic and Hayden being Agnostic. Pedersen was obviously trying to show how we must make greater efforts at dealing with and understanding different faiths in order to survive. To me, Hayden's grandson represented the future, and all of our children and grandchildren, living in a better world, created by people like the characters in the book -- willing to question and think, but also slaves to human emotion and the desire to have meaningful relationships. The book also explored patients' rights, and what sort of control individuals should have over their care. I'm in the healthcare profession and agree with Hayden in that the patient can become sidelined in the rush to try new treatments, create new drugs, and overbill.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny & Original, June 8, 2004

By 

Lyle Kendrick (Birmingham, Alabama) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Last Call (Ballantine Reader's Circle) (Paperback)

Terrific characters, great dialogue, original story. I read this book in two days and didn't want it to end, though the last few chapters were excellent. It's rare that you come across a new plotline in fiction, but this definitely succeeds in originality. Could it happen in real life? Maybe, but probably not. However that's why I read fiction and go to movies. My guess is that this book will remain on the favorites shelf at the bookstore for a long time. If you're a staunch Catholic then some of it may seem offensive, but by the time you reach the end you realize it's not at all, just questioning our faith the way most people do in real life.