<![CDATA[Last Night at the Lobster]]>

false <![CDATA[Last Night at the Lobster]]> 673915 7 Stewart O'Nan has been called the bard of the working class and has now crafted a frank and funny yet emotionally resonant tale set within a vivid workaday world seldom seen in contemporary fiction. Perched in the far corner of a run-down New England mall, The Red Lobster hasn't been making its numbers and headquarters has pulled the plug. But manager Manny DeLeon still needs to navigate a tricky last shift. With only four shopping days left until Christmas, Manny must convince his near-mutinous staff to hunker down and serve the final onslaught of hungry retirees, lunatics, and holiday office parties. All the while, he's wondering how to handle the waitress he's still in love with, his pregnant girlfriend at home, and the perfect present he still needs to buy. Last Night at the Lobster is a poignant yet redemptive look at what a man does when he discovers that his best might not be good enough. 2248501 1 11 2007 Last Night at the Lobster total:1637|5:219|4:578|3:589|2:204|1:47| 1637 5629 2324 548 5 4 false false Sun Mar 02 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 23 15:15:25 -0800 2008 Wed May 07 11:28:31 -0700 2008
I don't know if everyone can appreciate exactly why this book is so perfect, but what O'Nan has done in capturing the mood of a crew of food service workers just as their workplace is about to shuts its doors forever is remarkable.

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Stewart O'Nan made the most mundane thing (a story about the last day at a Red Lobster) and made it into a beautiful, moving story. In just a short time (less than 150 pages), he painted characters that I hope I can meet again someday to see how their new lives work out.

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“I love this cover,” said Christie Boyd at the Feb. 20 meeting of the Coastal View Book Club. “It’s so bleak!” The wonderfully illustrative, utterly bleak image on the cover of Stewart O’Nan’s “Last Night at th...more...]]> 2 2 false false Wed Jan 16 15:53:15 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 26 16:26:27 -0800 2008 Last Night at the Lobster owes what little effectiveness it has more to its three conceits than to skill or insight. First, it's narrated in the present tense, for a sense of immediacy. Second, it's set entirely in environments (a chain restaurant and a shopping mall) that are comforting by design. ...more...]]> 3 1 false false Sat Feb 28 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 28 10:23:47 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 28 11:00:53 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 2 false false Fri Aug 22 07:41:55 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 22 08:10:18 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 1 false false Mon Dec 08 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Aug 21 13:17:14 -0700 2008 Mon Dec 08 11:30:42 -0800 2008
a.) the cover and size grabbed my attention
b.) it's set around the holidays and I needed a good Christmas book to read.

O'Nan is a really good writer, no doubt about it. He's got a good voice. He's very descriptive and does a great job ...more...]]> 3 1 false false Fri Jul 18 12:17:10 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 18 12:38:09 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false true Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Jun 07 12:27:15 -0700 2008 Sat Jun 07 12:31:33 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Thu Jan 31 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 09 18:01:13 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 31 19:56:10 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sat Dec 22 11:50:54 -0800 2007 Sat Dec 22 11:59:22 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Jan 03 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Dec 12 11:49:51 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 03 12:41:45 -0800 2009 Last Night at the Lobster is a bittersweet meditation of a book about the nature of endings. While snow blankets the world outside, Manny holds on instinctively to the insular world he's created as general manager of the Red Lobster, even as that world comes to an end a...more...]]> 5 1 false false Fri Jan 04 07:40:07 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 04 08:04:17 -0800 2008 Last Night at the Lobster, O'nan explores the attachments we create to our surroundings, the places we come to call our own, the people we love and think we love. The fullness of these emotions are rendered in the utter realness of the protagonist, Manny, a working class thirty-something whose li...more...]]> 4 2 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 11 17:17:07 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 11 17:26:54 -0800 2008 more...]]> 0 1 false false Thu Mar 27 13:01:46 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 16 14:00:12 -0700 2008 Red Lobster on a harsh, snowy night in Massachusetts. Manny DeLeon, the
beleaguered manager, will hereafter be demoted to assistant manager at a
distant Olive Garden. This character may be compared to St. Jude, th...more...]]> 5 1 false false Fri Feb 06 18:42:01 -0800 2009 Thu Mar 12 12:25:07 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=5497435