The Last Days of Disco, With Cocktails at Petrossian Afterwards [Hardcover]

Whit Stillman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2000

During the last months of the disco era, in the very early 1980s, a popular dance club becomes the centre of nightlife for a group of young people new to Manhattan - "boyfriendless social failure" Alice; her treacherous friend from Hampshire College, charlotte; their roommate, Holly; and the five Harvard guys the women meet in the city: Jimmy, the "Dancing Ad Man", who hangs on to his job by getting clients into the club; handsome corporate lawyer and part-time environmentalist Tom; Des, the club's allegedly bisexual underboss, who seems to specialise in women; Dan, an editorial assistant nostalgic for the intellectual ferment of the 1950s; and Josh, a neophyte prosecutor and disco enthusiast who suspects that the club is not being run according to conventionally accepted accounting principles.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Stillman, independent filmmaker (Metropolitan; Barcelona; The Last Days of Disco) and chronicler of the romantic trials of the upper-middle class, here adapts his own 1998 film, with poignant and hilarious results. The premise is preciously, playfully postmodern: chronically unemployed lounge-chair philosopher Jimmy Steinway is "commissioned" by Castle Rock Entertainment to do a novelization of the film, itself based on the activities of Steinway and his circle in the early 1980s. Steinway relates the events of the film from his own perspective, clueing readers in to the way things "really" happened. We are introduced to "the Club," an ultra-fashionable discotheque, and the characters who inhabit it, including Josh Neff, a clinically depressed, disco-mad assistant district attorney; Dan Powers, a publishing industry wonk whose fervent nightclubbing clashes with his avowed allegiance to the downtrodden; Charlotte Pingree, whose manipulative one-two punch of acidic "honesty" and Clintonian contrition places her at the center of the Club's social whirlwind; and Alice Kinnon, whose quiet intelligence and barely concealed vulnerability make her the focus of romantic attention. Tensions stir within the group when Alice appears to take up with noted womanizer Des McGrath. The growing general animosity is rendered beautifully; the feinting two-step of sexual competition is vividly represented in the halting, emotion-freighted rhythms of the dialogue. Stillman's characters are often praised for their wit and verbal agility, but to take their pronouncements at face value is to deny Stillman's undeniable mastery as a satirist. The most rewarding aspect of the novel is the psychological interplay between the smarmy, self-involved young Jimmy Steinway and the older, wiser, middle-aged Jimmy Steinway who narrates. In adapting The Last Days of Disco, Stillman can lampoon his characters' foibles from a perspective one step beyond, thus articulating a moral perspective while furthering his satire. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

With his first novel, the director of Metropolitan and Barcelona proves that he is as talented a writer as he is a filmmaker. Based on his most recent movie, this is not your usual cheesy quicky film novelization but a fresh and witty comedy of manners that stands on its own literary merits. Almost 20 years after the events depicted in the film occurred, narrator Jimmy Steinway, The Dancing Adman, has been hired by Castle Rock Entertainment to write the novelization. Claiming that the real story started at a party in the Hamptons (not depicted in the movie) where he met the lovely Alice Kinnon, Jimmy recalls how the subtle charms of the boyfriendless social failure stirred a rivalry among Jimmy and four of his Harvard classmates"and the bitter jealousy of her roommate, Charlotte. Set in Manhattan in the early 1980s at the end of the disco era, Stillman!s tale is a wry, perspective portrait of urban young people and their mating rituals. Both fans of the film and sophisticated readers will enjoy.
-"Wilda Williams, Library Journal
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 339 pages
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux; 1st edition (August 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374183392
• ISBN-13: 978-0374183394
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #349,320 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Astounding and Beautiful, December 13, 2000

By 

Robert Wellen (CHICAGO, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Last Days of Disco, With Cocktails at Petrossian Afterwards (Hardcover)

When I saw this book on Amazon's site as coming soon...I ordered it blindly. I had no idea what I would be getting (this was august) and it took me several months to get to it. Any new Stillman project is like music to my ears (pardon the horrific pun). He takes 4 years between movies and this was something new(ish).

Stillman's movies have been compared to Woody Allen many times, notably by Roger Ebert. While it is unlikely you will find a bigger Woody Allen fan than yours truely, I think the comparison is off the mark. Perhaps they both deal with similar comedy of manners and city life, but Stillman is not Allen. That is a good thing. Stillman, clearly influenced by many sources, is an original voice.

The other reviewers have done an outstanding job of explaining this extraordinary novel. We all say, "the book was better than movie" but when has a book been written after the film, by the screenwriter and turned into a novel that smoothly references the film? Got me. The book WAS better than the movie, but that is besides the point.

I watched the film (for the 3rd time) shortly before the I read the book. While I found the actor's images in my mind, it also made the references to the movie much easier to recall. They work best as companion pieces. I loved getting to know Jimmy, a really good guy. The book was moving and made me nostalgic for the early '80s when I was 6 or 7 and my own growing up years. Stillman touched a nerve. Even if you don't enjoy Stillman, you might enjoy the book.

By now, Stillman's signature style is well known. Ingenious dialogue,confused, but good young people. The film triliogy (Metropolitan remains the masterpiece) is now done, but what a way to end. I loved this book so much. This is not a very clear or literary review, but something about this book struck me very deeply. Not since Nick Hornby has a writer struck me like this. I find myself thinking it over often and looking forward (as I often do with his films) to reading it again.

I particularly enjoyed hearing what had become the characters in the "cocktails at the Petrossian" and "epilogue" sections. Fascinating revelations and lessons. I wonder, what happened to Charlotte? That we never know. No matter.

Poignant, hilarious, and fascinating. Read it. You will be changed.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb, February 6, 2002

By 

wordtron (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Last Days of Disco, With Cocktails at Petrossian Afterwards (Hardcover)

An unusual novelization of a film after its theatrical release, that also happens to be written by its director/writer. By telling the story of the movie from the point of view of one of its characters -- who knows about the movie, its script, and various other background materials -- The Last Days of Disco, with Cocktails at Petrossian Afterwards actually improves upon what was an excellent, enjoyable film to begin with. But don't be concerned that this is some trite post-modern, deconstructionist gobbledygook, because Stillman is just as talented a novelist as he is a filmmaker, and he allows the wonderful, affecting story about a group of young people finding their way in the world hold center stage. Set against his marvelous descriptions of New York City at night, and its early 1980s club scene, along with the great dialogue Stillman's films are known for, Stillman's novelization of his own film succeeds greatly on its own.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ingenious Novelization Reveals Strengths, Shallowness, October 27, 2000

By 

Dave Miller - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last Days of Disco, With Cocktails at Petrossian Afterwards (Hardcover)

Ever had a hankerin' for Hemingway? Or found yourself fixin' for some Fitzgerald? Sure, you could go back and reread *The Sun Also Rises* for the fifth time. Or *The Great Gatsby* for the seventh or eighth. But why bother when you want something new, something fresh, something that captures that same decadent ennui while referencing Chic's "Good Times" and Evelyne "Champagne" King's "I Don't Know If It's Alright"? Now, I'm not saying Whit Stillman's debut novel(ization) deserves automatic entry into the canon of Western literature. However, as a refreshing tonic of socio-sexual commentary, I assure you it can't be beat.

Here's what I like most about this novel: The narrative concept. Yeah, I saw the movie and liked it. (If you saw the movie and hated it, move on.) But the movie confused me at times, because -- quite frankly -- most of the male characters looked so similar that I kept confusing them. But, but, but...in the book, Stillman ingeniously casts fictional character Jimmy Steinway as the first-person, omniscient narrator -- with full knowledge of the movie, its script and various other background materials that the film's producers supposedly and graciously granted him. (Not to mention about twenty years of hindsight.) So Steinway can not only tell his side of the story, poor sod, but also elucidate many other goings on, including events to which he himself was not privied.

Long story short, this is indeed a retelling of the film that reveals all the strengths and weaknesses of the original story. The strengths being, first, great (great, great) dialogue. I found myself *thinking* like Stillman's dialogue for hours after I put down the book. Second, the novel (and film) present a very dignified and righteous defense of disco culture. Who knew? I grew up hating disco, believing it fake, stupid and empty like any red-blooded rock 'n roller. How enlightening to learn that disco, like any genre, had its artistes and its scam artists. And, y'know, it's true -- who really dances anymore? Nowadays, you're either thrown to the floor in a mosh pit or trampled to death by hundreds of ecstasy-whacked ravers trying to get the DJ's autograph.

The weaknesses? Well, as in the movie, you really must focus at times to keep the male characters in order. (The ladies aren't so difficult, their characters are clearly drawn and, uh, rounder.) And in the novel as well as the film, the lawyerly character Josh's sudden emergence as the story's driving force took me off guard. He seemed to emerge out of nowhere as this very important sympathetic character well after I'd already settled on Des McGrath and Jimmy as the major players. And, perhaps fittingly, Josh disappears in the very end -- leaving us with Des and Jimmy. Also, the lack of resolution among the characters leaves one a tad aching but, maybe that's a strength in disguise.

To sum up, I guess I'm saying the characterizations were a little shallow. But that's a minor criticism when set against the great verbal repartee and succinct, delightful descriptions of early-80s New York nightlife. Wilt Stillman has done what few writer/directors dare -- dig deeper into one of his movies, not via a sequel, but in the pages of a novel. That's a brave, brave deed, and one well worth an interested reader's time.