Customer Reviews

The Last Resort: A Novel

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Alison Lurie makes novel-writing look easy. And while that is not necessarily a good thing, this book makes enjoyable reading for a lazy Saturday. Lurie has a lot of insight into character, and she can paint a good picture of academics, writers, artists, and affiliated hangers on. She's also really funny in an understated sort of way.

One thing I noticed in this novel that I haven't noticed in Lurie's previous novels is her use of clothing to reveal character--hardly surprising for the author of a really good book on the culture of clothing!

Another thing to watch for in this and other Lurie book is references to her other novels. Lurie has Stephen King's habit--or he has hers--of placing sly little references to previous novels or having characters in one novel be connected somehow to characters in another novel.

People's expectations of Alison Lurie must be exceedingly high. This book is not going to change the world, provide people with the answers to life's Big Questions, or garner her another literary prize. It's a fun read, however, built upon a simple plot and a group of characters who are only partially developed. Light fare, true, but along the way, she manages to provide some trenchant insights into the human psyche; some of the episodes and passages are just plain hilarious. Overall, this is summer vacation reading fare, but a cut above the usual poolside novel.

The only aspect of the book that annoyed me was the portrayal of the Great Environmentalist Professor's much younger wife, who comes across as something of a ditz. A major theme here is that what this unfulfilled, underappreciated woman "needs" is another woman in a lesbian relationship. This is dubious at best, and detracts from the actual incisiveness of Lurie's depiction of the classic "faculty wife." Still, those who can accept something less than Nobel Prize material will likely find this a witty and interesting novel.

Alison Lurie's new novel is set in Key West, territory she first explored in "The Truth About Lorin Jones." "The Last Resort" centers on Jenny Walker, age 46, and her septuagenarian husband, Wilkie Walker, a celebrated nature writer and environmental advocate. Wilkie is convinced he's dying of cancer, a conviction he keeps from Jenny, ostensibly to spare her pain. He agrees to a vacation in Key West because he decides it's a good place to make his suicide by drowning look like an accident. Despondent over his predicament, Wilkie withdraws from Jenny and treats her with increasing callousness while he waits for his chance with the Key West tides. Jenny, interpreting his behavior as the withdrawal of his love, finds solace with Lee Weiss, a woman she encounters on the beach, and begins a love affair with her.

In the book's major subplot, another character facing death - Perry Jackson (Jacko) - deals with his family's reactions to his HIV-positive status. In the wake of a visit by his sympathetic mother, he is descended upon first by his hapless cousin, Barbie, who is in retreat from a failing marriage to a philandering right-wing Congressman, and Barbie's homophobic mother, Myra Mumpson, who is a sort of minor league Phyllis Schafly, bristling with bad faith and bad motives toward her family members. Jenny and Jacko's worlds intersect through Lee, Jenny's lover, who runs a women-only guest house in Key West and is an old friend of Jacko's.

"The Last Resort" is not Lurie's best novel. The satire isn't as pointed as in her other books, perhaps because she isn't quite sure what she wants to satirize. Wilkie is somehow too bland a character and his offenses are not quite bad enough to merit much of our scorn. Myra is too easy a target and Lurie seems to lose interest in her. Still, the book is a pleasure to read and has many of the virtues that Lurie's readers are familiar with: the ability to convey complex attitudes and emotions in a few deft words; a sharp e! ye for self-serving gestures and mixed motives; and a fine sense of social reality, of who people are in the world and how that affects the way they behave and what they can perceive and can't perceive in themselves and others. Lurie is the master of the small ironies that connect our lives. ( In addition, for old Lurie fans, there is the pleasure of spotting the connections between characters in this book and her previous books.)

This is not a great book, but better than some of the reviews here suggest. Lurie can create believable, deep characters very quickly. Contrary to what many Amazon reviewers say, she does develop some of the characters quite well. Both Jenny and Wilkie Walker are fully developed, as is Lee. Myra and Barbie are also well developed, and great fun to read about. I think some of the reviewers here might not have enjoyed having a Republican stick in the mud like Myra so successfully skewered. Which is fine, but if that is the case, then they should have stated their prejudice up front.

The book also deals with Lesbian themes in a very intimate way, and that could have upset a number of reviewers. It's surprising that so few of the other reviewers of this book mention this theme and its central roll in the book.

I had a little trouble with the main character, Wilkie Walker, being depicted as a sexist, Republican, environmentalist. That is an odd combination, and yet he is presented as being something of a stereotype to other characters in the book. I don't meet many Republican environmentalists. Aren't they somewhat rare birds? Why does no one in the book, or among the reviewers here, mention this?

I also was a bit put off by Lurie's caustic wit. Both she and most of the characters in the book are extremely judgemental. In particular, a nice but troubled young woman called Barbie is castigated by nearly everyone in the book, and the author also seems to show her little sympathy. Yet I don't think she does anyone any harm, and she is always well intentioned and often quite helpful to others. It is interesting, however, the Lurie has Barbie's story end happily, and that she let me like her even if the characters in the book didn't like her. I was also interested in the fact that we had enough background to see where Barbie's character flaws came from. She was plausible, even if she was the brunt of a number of jokes.

My copy of this book does not mention that it could be thought of as a good beach read. I don't see it as that kind of book, and I think the publishers may have done Lurie a disservice by depicting it that way in the editions read by other reviewers here on Amazon.

Though not nearly as funny as some people here seemed to think, nevertheless I found this book a very pleasant entertainment for a few short evenings. I was sad that the book ended, which is generally how I can be sure that I really enjoyed a book. It is definitely a character driven novel, but the plot was rich enough to keep me turning the pages. I think this book is a modest success, and well above most contemporary fiction in terms of quality.

"But even death would be different here, easier -- a kind of slow dissolving into the almost perpetual heat and moisture of Key West." With AIDS and old age, death is everpresent in Key West. One of the main characters here is an older man who is suicidal and another is a young gay man who has learned he is HIV positive. And yet love blooms, when Jenny Walker, married to Wilkie, the famed naturalist who becomes suicidal, meets Lee Weiss, owner of a Key West guest house and a feminist lesbian who sees the beauty in Jenny that Wilkie no longer appreciates. Their love blossoms amidst Wilkie's decline and Jenny, a long time faithful wife and helpmate, goes head over heels as she realizes what true love is. But the book is more than a love story. Key West is revealed with all its flora and fauna and the assortment of people who make it the rich place it is. And the book tells Wilkie's story as well as Jenny's, the fabled author whose fame is past and who wants to end it all while he has the strength to do it. He is stopped at one point by another suicide, a wheel chair bound AIDS victim who simply rolls himself into the ocean and never comes up.

I bought this book, having read lurie before, in order to escape all sense of trend or fashion. it is exhausting having to read in order to hold forth. lurie, i knew, would take me in to the real world, away from the sunday papers and the chatterati. and i was right, she did. a lovely book, this, for grown ups.

Putliizer Prize winning author Alison Lurie combines her acute observation of human nature with her wonderful sense of humor and wry social commentary to create a rich cast of characters. This novel is character driven and the group is thrown together in, of all places, Key West, "The Last Resort." Key West is, for many, the last resort, not because it is the Florida Key's southern-most vacation spot, but because it is literally the last resort for some of its residents. For these folks it is a place of refuge or final resource.

The story revolves around Jenny and Wilkie Walker. Wilkie is a renowned naturalist, professor and writer. Jenny, his wife has dedicated all of their twenty-five year marriage to fulfilling her husband's needs, bringing up their children, acting as his research assistant, editor and Girl Friday, to such an extent that some feel her name should be on the title page of her husband's best selling books, along with his. She is perfectly happy in this role for she believes Wilkie is truly special, a gifted human being. When they first met, Jennie a recent college graduate and 21, Wilkie a man twice divorced in his mid-40s, she thought that here was someone she could devote her life to. And she has. Their lives had been quite happy until Wilkie retired, shortly before the novel begins. He knows he is no longer the foremost in his field, no longer the ecological "flavor of the month." He is also feeling the aches and pains of being 70 and has seen the warning signs of colon cancer. Convinced he is going to die, he wants no medical intervention, no life as an as an invalid, and so he considers suicide - a thought he becomes obsessed with. Not confiding in his much younger wife, his behavior becomes, from her point of view, erratic, withdrawn, and almost hostile. Thinking a change of scene from the New England cold might help, Jenny speaks with a friend who winters in Key West and decides to propose the idea of a few months in the tropics to her husband.

The characters the Walkers meet during their stay, the warmer southern environment and unusual Key West holiday ambiance and culture, open Jennie's eyes and senses to a world of choices previously unavailable to her. This is a place where lives can turn totally around and upside down, even for the short time visitor. And the characters that the Walkers touch are changed by these two people in turn. Jennie gets a part time job and becomes involved with an assortment of locals - people she would normally have never met. And the fun begins!

This is more than a novel about a marriage grown awkward and a frustrated suicide. Ms. Lurie's diverse cast of characters have a multitude of social and emotional issues to deal with - the illness and frailty of old age, loss and death, social and sexual desire, fear of time running out too soon. Ms. Lurie gives her story an open-ended finale, which I am perfectly happy with. She is much too subtle a writer to do anything else. This is a highly intelligent light read. I enjoyed it immensely!
JANA

Alison Lurie has never met a foible she can't expose or a pretension she won't skewer, but her real talent lies in making us sympathize with her characters at the same time we're laughing at them.

In this book the cast has shed their "real" lives, along with most of their clothing, to visit Key West, a place where it would be very possible to take a long walk off a short pier, as several of these people seem in danger of doing. Without the trappings that usually define them, they're compelled to get down to basics and discover important things about themselves.

While some of Lurie's earlier books are richer, the broad strokes seem appropriate here. A world pared down to sea and sand, where everyone's at the end of the line, is drawn with an economy worthy of that other Key West writer. If only Papa had been this funny.

Alison Lurie takes us on a journey of gentle discovery of humanity and its shortfalls.Everybody falls in their own way as we view inside each characters' mind as they meander on the brink of life and death on this far away island that is a perfect vignette setting for each of their story. A perfectly charming read and immensly enjoyable.

I have been an Alison Lurie fan for 20+ years and have enjoyed all her other books. I eagerly bought this one in light of my past good experiences and have never been so disappointed. This is not a finished work; it is a rough outline of a plot with cardboard characters, no motiviation, dull description, etc. that neither the author nor her editors cared enough about to turn into a finished work. It is also surprisingly poorly written; Lurie is usually a fine stylist. But, really, what is one to make of sentences like "'Okay,' Lee answered repressively." (see p. 221). These words are not only awkward and graceless, but also totally devoid of meaning. Skip this one; read War Between the Tates, Foreign Affairs -- or anything else.