Customer Reviews

Last Rites

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Last Rites is about a couple (Walt and Sue) whose business served the workers who served the city's industry and how that city failed to serve them back. Last Rites tells the story about the beginning of Camden's epic decline through three married couples, two priests, and a traveling salesman. The principal characters are dependent on the city's shipping industry for their livelihood but the shipping industry only cares for profits. Dollars and cents clash with hopes and dreams and the alcohol flows as the people struggle with bad news looming not far off. What has been steadfast in the past crumbles into flux as a younger generation comes into its own during desperate times.

Ever been to Camden? More than 30 years after this play's setting, the city is still in shambles and unemployment runs very high. The city, or those responsible for the city, have not been able to restore Camden to half of what it used to be. Many cities are stuck in this freeze; Detroit with its volatile auto-industry and the slew of such workers now jobless; Baltimore with its high crime; to name a couple. The people in Last Rites lived in Camden during the 60's but this story is just as much about those auto-workers in Detroit over the last few years as it is about Walt and Sue. Last Rites is a story that must be told because it captures the reality of individuals, a community, and a city and packages it into a fast-moving story, which reflects many of the issues we face today on a micro and macro level.

An excellent trip to another time that reminds us where we stand today. Paprzycki recreates 1960s Waterfront South with such truth and intuition, the reader easily finds himself at a barstool in Walt's Cafe. The tenuous grasp these characters have on their livelihood and the future they've always expected mirrors the conditions so many of us face today. 1960s Camden is repeating itself throughout many former and declining manufacturing hubs now. Even worse, the layoffs are hitting every other sector. We can all take a lesson from Pete and Whitey, and even (perhaps especially) Mike. This was the world of my grandparents - WWI and II soldiers and riveters who went to work in factories and at A&P, and then my Dad - a soldier and a VA man, and my Mom - who left high school after 11th grade to work for the bank. They all worked hard. They all trusted the big bosses. They all dreamed for their kids to have better. They, and we, were lucky then; our story was set on the other side of the river. Last Rites is a fitting epilogue to those times - never too sentimental, never romantic, never a condemnation... just honest. Honest enough to feel like a punch in the gut. And timely enough to be a prologue if we're not careful.

This play is a treasure trove for actors as well. No role is without its fire.

There are very few stories that you read in your life that are both emotionally compelling and relevant. Last rights is a combination of both. The story is set in Camden NJ prior to the delcine of the New York Ship building company. As the company closes it's ship yard, you go through the emotional roler coster with the characaters as they try to find other jobs while dealing with their own problems.

I found the writing of the author to be incredible. You can't read this book and not feel the emotion and personal connection created between you and the characters. I highly recommend this book.