The Penultimate Chance Saloon [Paperback]

Simon Brett (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this comedy of sexual manners from prolific British author Brett (the Charles Paris mystery series, etc.), a man closing in on 60 experiences a "second adolescence" after he unwillingly agrees to divorce his wife of 40 years. Bill Stratton, a semiretired television news reader and bestselling author of humor books, is stunned when his self-righteous wife, Andrea, leaves him for a doctor named Dewi. But when Bill realizes that his minor celebrity translates into currency on the dating market, he plunges into promiscuity, beginning with a one-stand stand with the willing Maria (a setup courtesy of his agent, Sal Juster), and continuing with a parade of women he mostly meets at speaking engagements. An encounter with a 20-something who collects Disney figurines confirms his preference for women his own age—wrinkled skin and dentures become the touchstones of Bill's odyssey of discovery. Brett's sublime joke here is that Bill's very late sexual awakening is actually a coming-of-age story. Will Bill settle down with Andrea's old friend Ginnie, the cool voluptuous colleague Caroline, or continue to play the field? Brett's answer is incidental; what matters to randy, ruminant Bill and the reader is the pleasure of the journey. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Prolific Brit Brett, whose output includes TV scripts, children's books, and three detective series (Charles Paris, Mrs. Pargeter, and the Fethering mysteries), is remarkably adept at treating serious subjects (failed aspirations, lost love, alcoholism) with a light hand. There's something dignified about all his characters, even in their worst pratfalls, and something wonderfully cheering in Brett's social comedy. So it is with Brett's latest, which at first seems like a frothy sex comedy of errors but progresses, by easy stages, from a hero's picaresque journey from bed to bed into a coming-of-age novel. The twist is that the coming-of-age is that of a 60-year-old man. Hero Bill Stratton has had an easy, lucky life--he is a minor TV-news celebrity and has amassed a fortune based upon spin-off books. At novel's start, Stratton's wife of 40 years has just left him. No dark night of the soul here, just Stratton's recognition that he has a lot of sexual catching up to do. Again, this comes easily to him, and he collects conquests as easily as he does catchy news stories. The comedy comes from Stratton's entirely passive character gradually growing unsettled and then traumatized before reaching an entirely satisfying resolution. Brett at his witty and perceptive best. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 222 pages
• Publisher: Toby Press; 1St Edition edition (March 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592641628
• ISBN-13: 978-1592641628
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,595,982 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good book!, March 10, 2006

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Penultimate Chance Saloon (Paperback)

British mystery writer Simon Bret takes the mystery out of post-menopausal sex in his new novel, The Penultimate Chance Saloon.

Bill Stratton is about to reach the birthday milestone of sixty. He's happy with his semi-retired life until his wife of forty years, Andrea, tells him that their marriage has been a sham since the week after their honeymoon--and promptly files for divorce. Stunned, Bill must now re-examine his life and their marriage.

He hadn't had much experience in dating or sex before Andrea, but now that he find himself single, he starts to look at women in a different way. But more important, they are looking at him in a different way.

After achieving some modest fame as one of London's television newsreaders (the American equivalent to a news anchor), Bill's not unknown around town. To help break him out of his funk, his agent Sal begins the pressure to hit the after-dinner speaker circuit. He agrees, tentatively at first, because it beats spending evenings in The Annex listening to his best friend Trevor rant about his ex-wives and erectile dysfunction. Soon, Bill is out almost every night and having sex, well, more often than he ever did with Andrea.

Bill to pleased to discover that he doesn't need Viagra, but is shocked at how easily getting a woman into bed is. He's even more shocked that most only want one-night stands. In fact, most of the women he beds doesn't even want him to spend the night!

Sex, which Bill soon learns is not dating, at sixty is something completely mind-boggling and nothing like Bill ever thought it would be. The Penultimate Chance Saloon is more funny than not, but sad because it is all too true. The older women get, the better a man looks if he has even a shimmer of his once good looks and is in good health. Women don't fight over Bill in this novel, but the author makes the point that women over a certain age are out to please themselves and not the guy lying next to her.

Armchair Interviews says: Sounds like people over a "certain age" should be lining up for this book.