Customer Reviews

Last Call at Elaine's: A Journey from One Side of the Bar to the Other

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Mr. McDonald vividly describes the unique world of Elaine's, an iconic bar and restaurant in the Big Apple. But that's not all he describes in this hard to categorize Memoir. The book is a redemption story. And it's a celebration of a place that will probably never be equaled for its longevity and its sheer glamor. In addition, Mr. McDonald has written a most sensitive and compelling portrait of Elaine Kaufman. Ms Kaufman has always been enigmatic even to the people closest to her and the people that have previously written about her. McDonald enables us to see the strength, fragility and vulnerability of this complex and enormously successful "Queen of New York." She is just human after all. However, the most significant aspect of 'Last Call at Elaine's' is the author's portrayal of his own alcoholism and the concomitant and destructive denial that all alcoholics must have in abundance to keep doing what they do. There is nothing trite, maudlin or sensational about the way McDonald describes this insidious disease. I feel richly rewarded for the sleep I lost staying up to read this book. I am glad McDonald took Elaine's advice to 'Just tell the Story.'

Remember the film The Lost Weekend, the tragic story of an alcoholic? Regrettably, this memoir reminded me of that movie as it is also, in part, a very sad story, the tale of an almost lost life, certainly a number of lost years. It is also a story of friendship as well as a love letter to Elaine Kaufman, often called "The Queen of New York City." She's the proprietress of Elaine's Restaurant, an eatery has enjoyed great fame as the place where celebs gather, thus so many names are dropped in this book that the clinks can be heard all over town.

The path MacDonald would take was determined when he was young and first felt the zing of liquor in a mixture of cheap alcohol and Tang. His descent into addiction was quick and often painful.

He begins his story when he was 32-years-old, had been sober for five years, and tending bar for 14 years. His definition of bartending is "a closed-end affair, a stop-gap or last resort, a profession filled with those who have run away from life or marriage, who want to stay under the IRS's radar, or who have just never fulfilled a potential."

Much of that describes the author during that period. He had made unsuccessful attempts to be an actor, and a stand-up comic. His temporary sobriety was owed largely to Frank, a recovered alcoholic, who took MacDonald under his wing, and accompanied him to an AA meeting in the basement of St. Ignatius Loyola on Park Avenue. Frank called AA "the program," saying, "We're a secret society, Brian. All we're missing is the handshake." McDonald became friends with many of the program members, and he remained sober for 14 years.

Woven throughout a history of his life to date the author paints a picture of Elaine, a large woman with a salty tongue and a hidden heart of gold given to wearing tent-like dresses and greeting A-List customers with either a warm hug and a wide smile or a baleful stare because of some infraction, such as eating at another restaurant. One would think they'd eat elsewhere often as the food at Elaine's is described as pretty bad. Nonetheless, McDonald treats us to a parade of anecdotes re Woody Allen, Mick Jaggar, Patty Lupone, and umpteen others.

This memoir ends rather abruptly, leaving us to wonder what McDonald plans for the future. At one point when he tells Elaine of his ambition to become a writer, he worries that he cannot spell. She tells him not to worry because there are editors who do that. Regrettably, further editing is needed for this title - obvious mistakes such as "You had wait until" and "As the years when by" certainly distract. Shouldn't a phrase reading "the horrible hangovers that had come back in full horror" been red inked?

Having said that the author does have a sharp eye for description, and writes with unflinching honesty. The story he tells comes from his heart.

- Gail Cooke

A must read for any New Yorker - surely you know one, or have been one yourself.

I really liked this, but Mr. McDonald has written half a book! In the last 25 pages of a 275-page book, he rushes to tell us how he quit Elaine's, has his book published, gets deeply into drugs and alcohol, goes broke, spends years of his life on a prolonged relapse, then gets clean and sober again. Hello!?!? I wish there had been more editing early on, so we could have had less about standing behind the bar and more about the struggle to get his life back. Maybe that's being saved for the next book? If so -- not fair. Nonetheless, Mr. McDdonald's a good writer and it was an enjoyable read.

Reading McDonald is akin to eating a piece of Junior's cheesecake or a hotdog at Yankee stadium; its pure New York that you end up carrying with you as an experience.

I am a big fan of My Father's Gun, and this book shows not only McDonald's writing strength, but how he has grown as a writer. Like Gun, you come away with a precious sense for how it is/was in New York as a true New Yorker. Simply priceless.

DON'T bother ordering this book. It hardly has anything to do with Elaine's. It's 99% about the author and frankly, quite boring.