Customer Reviews

Last Night at the Lobster

5 star:		(57)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Manny, the manager of a terminated Red Lobster begins his last shift with optimism and melancholy. In all things Manny dreams for gold, but an impending blizzard is promising him lead at best. His girlfriend at home is pregnant, he is being demoted to assistant manager at an Olive Garden 15 miles away, his girlfriend at work has broken it off, and most of his crew decided to jump ship. Not an auspicious start to the day that Manny dreams of showing the [...] bastards they have made an egregious mistake in closing his restaurant.

O'Nan's descriptions are wonderfully adept; his characters warted humanity; his dialogues astutely sharp and witty. The man has captured life in the service industry and gives all his readers a taste. If you worked in any of these capacities yourselves you will find your pride and your grievances deliciously dished up. Hungry for every word, the reader will gobble down all the friction, the pain, the laughter and the circumstances, and like, Manny, wish it would never have to end.

Treat yourself to this banquet of a book. You will not go away wanting.

Once again, Stewart O'Nan proves that his eyes, ears and heart are always open. This deceptively slender volume holds more integrity than books 5 times its size. This story of a man who continues to maintain an honorable sense of correctness for his own innate decency, despite the understandable sense of "short termer's malaise," can't help but increase a reader's appreciation of what it takes to operate a familiar restaurant, especially if the reader's never had the opportunity to work in one. I know that I will never regard the person (usually wearing a tie) who is quietly watching all that goes on in my local restaurant, quite the same ever again.

No, this is not a sequel to The Old Man and the Sea, though the idea is charming. We are entirely landlocked and the hero is, from my perspective, more of a young man. And there is no shark around, the corporate office is scared away by the blizzard.
What it is, is a case study in leadership in adversity: the owners ('corporate'!) (I wouldn't dare say anything bad about them, just on the off risk that someone there is actually literate!) have decided to close down the Red Lobster in New Britain, presumably the numbers were not good enough (though just as likely some schoolboy bean counter needed to prove his sharpness).
The manager, Manny, has to run it till closing time on the last day, in the middle of a blizzard, and with only 4 of the staff, in addition to Manny, being given a job elsewhere next week. So why should they bother to show up at all? Exactly Manny's problem. And once they have come, how to make them stay? And how to handle his failed love story with the waitress that he wanted to keep, but who doesn't want to be kept?
A brillant, lean and efficient short novel or long story taken out of the heart of work life. This is it, folks, that's the way life is run.
Even a thriller in a way, though we have to settle for petty theft and petty vandalism.
The man has been translated into German, and has had good reviews there, but since I don't like to read translations, I had to wait for an AF to tell me to read this. Thanks to her!

I usually refrain from adding more comments if my predecessors have already done a good job of describing the plot, addressing the writing style, and recommending the book to future readers. But LAST NIGHT AT THE LOBSTER deserves at least another five-star review, if not ten more. It's a quick and entertaining read, with a hook that can snag anyone who's ever worked in or eaten at a chain restaurant -- in other words, most of the reading American public.

Manny DeLeon has a lot on his plate. His Red Lobster restaurant is closing, and its last day coincides with a snow storm; Christmas is not far away, and he still has to get a gift for his pregnant girlfriend; at the same time, he continues to agonize over his failed relationship with one of his female employees; and in the midst of it all, he has to wear his manager hat for the next 13 hours and deal with recalcitrant or missing workers as well as rude or uncooperative patrons. Welcome to the wonderful world of customer service! What will happen when the clock strikes eleven?

I picked up this volume after reading a newspaper interview with the author, and I am definitely glad I did. It's my first Stewart O'Nan book, so I cannot speak to the rest of his catalog. This one will stay with me for quite a while. I will be thinking about Manny and some of his staff members for some time to come. It wouldn't surprise me at all if restaurant franchises of all sizes make this book mandatory reading for managerial personnel. As noted by another reviewer, Manny is a flawed but conscientious supervisor. What he has to deal with is as close to real life as literature can get -- with some tragic moments and others that are laugh-out-loud insane. Oh, and I'd be happy to take those left-over biscuits off your hands, Manny! A slice of life worthy of wide readership.

Stewart O'Nan's new book entitled "Last Night at the Lobster" is a great snapshot of America. If this book were a photograph it would be one that's a bit out of focus, creased, and torn at one corner, one that you bend to pick up from the sidewalk outside your favorite diner. In the tradition of William Carlos Williams, O'Nan speaks in the vernacular and he's comfortable doing it. It's amazing how much information O'Nan packs into this thin offering. He's known as the working man's writer, a guy you'd love to hang out with. A guy who doesn't end his sentences with prepositions, but won't ever correct you for doing so. You can imagine having dinner with O'Nan. He's the 21st century flaneur, eavesdropping on the smallest detail at the next table.

O'Nan's "Last Night at the Lobster," leaves one feeling a bit stunned. The main character smokes dope and has a conscience. O'Nan shines a light on characters who are usually outside of history. I love this book. Something about the way O'Nan describes snow (here and in his other works) makes you hunch up your shoulders and shiver. It won't change your life; but it may give you a new understanding of the people who are serving up your fast food. Now you can feel better about leaving a slightly bigger tip at the diner. My only criticism of the book is that someone at Viking could have taken the time to photoshop the redeye from the author's photograph.

Manny DeLeon is thirty-five-ish, drives a white "s--tbox of a Buick," wears a leather coat that came from the Men's Warehouse, has a pregnant girlfriend, is still in love with somebody else, and is the general manager of a Red Lobster Restaurant in Connecticut that is scheduled to close just four shopping days before Christmas. Stewart O'Nan's brilliant LAST NIGHT AT THE LOBSTER, a little novel you will devour in one sitting, gives us a closeup and personal view of Mann's last day, along with the handful of his employees-- two months ago he had forty-four people working for him-- who show up for work or a deary, snowy day.

There are plenty of things to make you smile about this practically perfect piece of fiction, for example, the obligatory unruly child whom those of us old enough to remember when bad children did not control the universe steer away from in restaurants, asking to be seated as far away from them and their oblivious parents as possible. Don't forget the customers who steal sugar, Splenda, Equal and Sweet'n Low after they have insisted on separate checks and the fighting among the waitresses to get assigned to the tables where they are assured of getting the best tips. But this novel ultimately is as serious as stretch marks for O'Nan writes about the mindless ennui that people like these characters-- and what characters they are-- face on a daily basis. Five of them including Manny will go to work next week at the local Olive Garden Restaurant-- more of the same-- while the others will be unemployed. For anyone who has worked in a restaurant or grocery store or a factory-- for however a short a time-- Mann's story rings true on every page.

Mr. O'Nan is so good with words: the snow falling is a "Charlie Brown snow," a regular customer, a widower of twenty years who always orders broiled tilapia, the writer describes as having a "greased-down comb-over." Finally there's the waitress Roz, "all elbows and scrawny arms, her Clairol-blond ponytail bobbing as she swabs the tabletops...old enough to be his [Manny's] mother. She's a pro, with black nurses' shoes and calves like a mountain biker--and a lifer, the only one fully vested in Darden's retirement plan." Many of us have known a Roz although I knew her as Peggy or Jet. She reminded me of "Miss Martha," a waitress at a Georgia Waffle House for thirty-three years, who, in 2001 died of emphysema (probably from second hand cigarette smoke) and, at her request, was buried in her uniform.

Manny, and most of these other characters as well, are good, decent people, nickeled and dimed to death, who, even though mired up in dead-end jobs, put their feet on on the floor every morning, don garish uniforms and show up for work. They endure.

Give yourself enough time to finish this little treasure in one sitting for you will not be able to put it down.It is no wonder that LAST NIGHT AT THE LOBSTER made practically all the best lists of novels for 2007.

I hate to admit this but I bought this book primarily because of the title. I'm really glad I did. This is not your every day story and it is not told in a way that's designed to have a cliff hanger at the end of every chapter. It reads like real life. It describes characters just enough that you get to know them and then you find yourself thinking about them weeks after you've put done this very short book.

Some readers complain that the ending doesn't tie up all the storylines. They're missing the point. It's a snap short, a short look, at some people who are living their lives and losing their jobs. We don't know the whole story and that's the point. Our imaginations are required to fill in the blanks.

For the casual reader that is looking for a murder mystery while sitting on the beach I'm not sure this is for you. There are many other choices and that's okay. If, however, you want to read a book that you haven't read before, a break from the usual stuff on the best seller list, then to you I definitely recommend that you read this story of one more night at the Red Lobster.

I'd also like to add, in what we are witnessing - and what may be happening to you - in the world today with lay offs and businesses closing, this book hits closer to home than I'm sure Stewart O'Nan could have ever imagined.

I listened to the audiobook adaptation of this book, on my commute to and from grad school classes twice a week. As it turned out, I listened to it at a time in my life the story couldn't fail to make a huge impact on my life. Finding myself at one of life's turning points, everything about this book resonated with me. But mostly it just broke my heart.

When I read Stephen King I'm amazed at his skill to make the most everyday things seem scary as hell. When I read O'Nan's book I was equally impressed by his skill to take one of the most mundane settings and turn it into a backdrop for some of life's greatest dramas. Truly, a beautiful piece of writing, and one that made me feel deeply and intensely. It shows how every person's life has moments of great tragedy, and how most of us make it through by not by any big acts but by the skin of our teeth. We make it through whether we want to or not, sometimes, and we go on to do what we have to do not because we want to, but because we must.

A wondrous read.

A thin novel, at only 146 pages, Last Night at the Lobster, by Stewart O'Nan, packs a lot of emotion.

The novel covers the last night at the Red Lobster in New Britain, Connecticut.. Situated outside a declining mall, the owners of the Red Lobster have decided that this location will close on December 20. Manny, the manager, has accepted another position at an Olive Garden, but as the assistant manager. Even though this is his last night, he can't fight the routine - he still thinks about what he needs to do tomorrow, he continues to take pride in his work, and even when a blizzard hits the area, he strives to motivate his remaining employees. The blizzard. It only makes the last day worse, as very few people venture out to dine. And yet, Manny acts as if this is the biggest and busiest day of their year, focusing on the tasks at hand.

There is a scene, late in the novel, where all of the remaining employees reminisce about past workers. It is during these stories that Manny realizes that he doesn't remember a time when he wasn't working at the Lobster. This is a man that prides himself on operating a good restaurant and takes pride in his work. He seems to be on the edge - he knows that the restaurant hasn't been a good performer, but he has been an excellent manager. He is having difficulty reconciling that this is the last night, he is so attached to the routine, to his job.

For such a small novel, I am amazed at the volume of detail and humanity that O'Nan has packed into it. This is a rich character study of a flawed but conscientious manager, trying to make it through the last day of his restaurant while battling the weather, his personal life, missing/angry employees, and customers. O'Nan allows the people to tell the story, as the pacing is deliberate and methodical. But it is a very interesting, touching and thought provoking novel. This is a novel that will remain with me for a while, as I continue to evaluate what it is that I have read.

Excellent book and highly recommended.

Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan may be a small book, but it's one of the best stories that I've read. It just appeals to me on so many levels.

Manny DeLeon is the long-time manager of The Red Lobster in the depressed New England town of New Britain. Darden Restaurants, Inc., the owner of the chain, has ordered that this location be closed because of poor numbers. The book opens on December 20th, the last day of business (although their customers don't know that this day will be the end). Manny takes pride in his restaurant and has determined that they will not cut corners just because this is their last day in business. Unfortunately for Manny, he faces a large number of obstacles including no-show employees, a winter blizzard, an unruly child, "cottonheads" (demanding senior citizens), a bus load of sick tourists, and employees going AWOL. He is also trying to come to terms with his old girlfriend (waitress Jacquie whom he still loves), and his girlfriend Deema (who is pregnant and toward whom he has ambivalent feelings).

I enjoyed this book for a number of reasons. First, the writing reminds me of Richard Russo--one of my favorite authors. Second, Manny is a sympathetic character and antihero. He looks forward to the order and routine of The Red Lobster as an anecdote to a complicated world he doesn't always understand. Finally, I am one of many who spent part of their youth in food service. Last Night at the Lobster brought back memories of rude customers, slacker colleagues, low tips and high drama. When Manny has to confront four older women who are trying to use expired coupons, "the expiration date is last Saturday, close enough, except as he's standing there he notices the ceramic holder that should be full of sugar and Equal and Splenda and Sweet'n Low packets has been picked clean--always a danger with these cottonheads, their memories of the Depression pushing them beyond thrift into greed."

I enjoyed Last Night at the Lobster so much that I plan to read some of Stewart Onan's other works. I'm hoping that they're just as good.