Customer Reviews

The Last Good Chance: A Novel

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The Last Good Chance is a great read. It's the kind of book you'll be thinking about long after you've turned the last page.
Its look at small-town American life is reminiscent of The Corrections or Empire Falls. Yet I think in some ways it's superior. It has more of a plot than Empire Falls and its characters are more human, less caricatures, than in The Corrections. It touches on deep themes and at its heart, it's a good story, well told.
I found Barbash's portrait of the upstate New York community of Lakeland and what transpires as it attempts to remake itself totally absorbing. We all have a hometown and our relationship to that place can be complex and often ambivalent. Barbash touches on that in his character of urban planning whiz kid Jack Lambeau, who returns to Lakeland from New York City determined to turn around his down-on-its-luck hometown.
What happens as Lambeau attempts to remake Lakeland, turn its drab waterfront into a thriving commercial and cultural centerpiece, a la Boston's Quincy Market or Baltimore's Inner Harbor, forms the core of this story.
In many ways, it strikes at the heart of something very unique about being American - the desire and the ability to constantly remake ourselves - or at least try - and the choices and compromises we make along the way.
This is an impressive debut from Tom Barbash and I'm looking forward to reading his next book.

I was at once delighted and saddened at the way Barbash has figured out those small communities that have been left behind by successive waves of American prosperity. The folks in those communities have no insight on the fact it's a hopeless task to rebuild their modest economies. They just don't seem to grasp the big picture. But, they are so noble in their struggle and you can't help rooting for them. Hey, I'm one of 'em. I happen to have lived in many small, upstate New York communities like the mythical one created by the author, and the folks he writes about seem as real and complex as the ones I run into downtown at the post office and the hairdresser's. Barbash's novel focuses, unblinking, on the death throes of the middle class American dream. I'm glad someone has given us the big picture.

Something about this book really got to me. I completely fell for the characters, their lives and the mistakes they make. Most of all--Harris, the "black sheep" brother, just slayed me! He goes from stealing a clean pair of socks in the gym, to finding these moments of unexpected grace.

If you liked the movie "You Can Count On Me" or "In the Bedroom" you'll love this book. It's all about relationships and moments when characters find themselves doing the unthinkable and perhaps never quite admitting it to themselves. Subtle and remarkable, the prose is deceptively minimal, unlike so many of these other "big" novels nowadays. This is a real find.

A very true-to-life work of fiction -- Barbash's characters really came alive for me. I was thoroughly engrossed in this somewhat bleak tale of a dying upstate NY town (Lakeland) and the lives of the people who inhabit it. This was a romance and a tale of small town America with a little bit of mystery thrown in.

At the heart of the story is a love triangle between old friends Steven Turner, Jack Lambeau, and Jack's wife, Anne. Jack becomes singularly focused on becoming Lakeland's redeemer through revitalizing the town's lakefront district, so focused that he neglects Anne. She seeks solace in the arms of Turner. A good love triangle can take up an entire novel, but Barbash throws in some other drama as well -- illegal toxic waste dumping. Taking part in the dumping is Jack's brother, Harris, who has some drama of his own going on -- his wife Marla just had their baby, and since he hasn't been much of a husband, Marla doesn't want him around.

Barbash has created some really complex, likeable characters. You'll find yourself rooting for all of them (except Anne, maybe -- I thought she was really stringing these two guys along). The really satisfying thing about this book is, unlike so much modern fiction, that the ending doesn't leave you in complete despair. Not to say that things work out perfectly, but you're left with some hope at the end, and that's always a good feeling to have when you turn the last page.

This is an engrossing book that examines the macro and micro issues we all face. It is thought provoking, yet entertaining. The characters are complex and feel genuine, like people we know. The story draws you in, and as in all great literature, you become an inhabitant of the same mental and physical landscapes as these characters. I found myself thinking about them, like I think about those I care about in real life.

This is a well crafted book that will leave an impression on you long after you finish it. It was a very enjoyable and satisfying read.

Tom Barbash's novel "The Last Good Chance" is a wonderful book that draws you in from the very first page. It is a story about urban developer Jack Lambeau who has big dreams for his small provincial home town, his friend Steven Turner who uncovers a scandal that threatens Jack's hopes and plans, and Jack's aspiring artist wife, Anne, who is caught between the two. It is in part an illustration of the ease with which good people can find themselves in bad situations, the fascinating need people have to justify the choices they make, and the creative lengths they will go to in self-deception.

I found the character development in this book to be extraordinary. It is written from several perspectives, and casts both main and supporting characters in different lights that come together seamlessly in vibrant portraits. Without description, Barbash achieves characters that live and breathe. We are privy to their eloquent contemplation and reflection, and we feel our own greed, pride, betrayal, love and longing. What more can you ask of a book?

I highly recommend this book, and I will be dropping The Last Good Chance into many stockings this Christmas!

Tom has created an impressive cast of characters and I found myself being easily drawn into their lives. I ached for inspiration with Anne, I longed for the "big break" with Turner and I rooted for Harris as he worked to support his family.
This novel is a work of art and I anxiously await more work from Tom Barbash.

I read this book a month or so after Freedom, by Franzen. I felt like I was reading the same book. Similar theme, plot and minor characters. Is this a new genre?

I just finished reading "The Last Good Chance" and found it to be a refreshing, keenly observed look at life in small-town America. The plot moves with great energy and force. I found myself absorbed in the world of the book, in the lives of these four characters. By the end I'd felt as though I'd lived through something. And I can't remember when I felt that way about a book.

The novel takes on a wide range of themes: small-town vs big city life; ambition and its perils; the difficulties of making a young marriage work under stressful times. None of the answers are easy, and the book seems reluctant to spell these matters out.

There were times I wondered if the writer bit off more than he could handle, but for the most part the various strains of the book informed one another, and the ending was simply magic.

This is certainly one of my favorite books from the last three or four years. I look forward to more from this author.

What I loved most about this book were the characters themselves, so real - so flawed. So knowable. This is a big book, with large themses, and yet it was so funny as well. I tried to slow down when I was reading so I could savor it. I'm looking forward to reading more from this author.