Last Night at the Lobster

by Stewart O'Nan

book data

1,421 ratings, 3.43 average rating, 495 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		12%
4		35%
3		36%
2		12%
1		2%

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published

November 1st 2007 by Viking Adult

binding

Hardcover, 160 pages

characters

Manny DeLeon, working class waitresses, dishwashers, chef etc

setting

The United States

isbn

0670018279 (isbn13: 9780670018277)

description

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 w...more

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01/23/08

Maya rated it:

bookshelves: fiction-2008

Read in March, 2008

Absolutely pitch-perfect.

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.

In any service environment, a peculiar culture builds up among the employees, but in food service that culture knits itself in a very specific way. It's all about the money: how the servers relate to the kitchen st...more Absolutely pitch-perfect.

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.

In any service environment, a peculiar culture builds up among the employees, but in food service that culture knits itself in a very specific way. It's all about the money: how the servers relate to the kitchen staff, bar staff, and managers affects how much money they end up with at the conclusion of a shift. You need to be scheduled well, have your section sat so that you're full but not overly busy, and have the kitchen turning out your orders correctly. If all that isn't in order, you're not going to make the tips.

Last Night at the Lobster is told from the point of view of the store manager, trying to keep doing a great job up until the last moment. Because Red Lobster is run by a corporation, a decision has come from the top to close this location, but it's not a fact that's advertised to the general public. Some of the staff is being relocated to an Olive Garden in the next town (both restaurants are run by the same corporation); most are being let go. And despite Manny's hope that the last night will be busy (it's close to a mall, and the action takes place just before Christmas) and somehow send a message to the top brass, a blizzard robs him not only of most of his customers, but also of all but the most loyal staff.

O'Nan manages to create a staff that's totally believable, with all the archetypes in place: the lifers, the various employees that come and go, either because their skills and education will eventually take them further, or because they're so unskilled they can't make it (and anyone who has never worked a service job probably doesn't understand that it does in fact take skills). The romances, the rivalries ring completely true.

It's oversimplifying to say that this novel is so good because the environment and the characters are so realistic; it's elegaic, it's moving. I'm glad I got to read it on a snowy day at home: it's the kind of book that's reaches the best emotional pitch if you can read it in one sitting.
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01/09/08

Kirk rated it:

bookshelves: sentimental-faves

Read in January, 2007

Reading this book I was reminded of Joe Queenan's Red Lobster, White Trash, and the Blue Lagoon (1999), an unfunny book of tossed-off "humor" pieces about the irrevocable cheesiness of American culture. In an essay called "Slouching toward Red Lobster" (see what I mean by "unfunny"?), Queenan describes the chain as a place for people who think they're too good for Roy Roger's. That about sums up his point: I'm better than other people, and I get to write a book abou...more

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02/15/08

Karl Krekeler rated it:

Read in February, 2008

recommended to Karl by: NPR

Wow.

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.

This was an interesting project. He basically wrote a story backwards. This is a story about an ending, with the hope of a new beginning.

I learned about this book on NPR, and learned abo...more

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01/26/08

Nette rated it:

Read in January, 2008

I read this while waiting for mosaic grout to dry, that's how short it was (143 pages). Once I started, I was hooked. It's about the final night of service at a Red Lobster in some cold, crappy part of the country (upstate New York? Boston?). It reminded me of when I worked on a project at TRW that was abruptly cancelled -- shutting down, boxing up, saying goodbye, the feeling of disappointment and frustration with The Powers That Be who make stupid decisions. At least we didn't have to deal...more

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12/11/08

Cynthia rated it:

What a short but outstanding book. If you have ever worked in the corporate restaurant business (I did my time at Chi-Chi's Mexican Restaurant), the atmosphere and people will ring especially true. The story concerns the last day/night of a Red Lobster restaurant. The Darden Corporate office has decided to close this branch and has demoted the loyal, hardworking manager to a position at the Olive Garden. The no-show workers, lifers in the restaurant business, pothead kitchen staff, waitresses sl...more

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12/23/08

Ric rated it:

Read in December, 2008

During a cold winter’s night, where the snow was coming down an inch a minute outside my cottage in Michigan, I opened Stewart O'Nan's novella (146 pages) "Last Night at the Lobster". It was three days before Christmas and I spent the night with a cast of characters that are quite simply drawn from everyday life. "Last Night at the Lobster" is a deeply moving novel about how we work and how we find love. Anyone who has worked in retail or a restaurant will identify. It ...more

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02/13/08

Matt rated it:

bookshelves: contemporary-literature

Read in January, 2008

Note: Appeared in the Feb. 28 CVN "On the Bookshelf"

“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 the Lobster,” shows a solitary man trudging through a grayish, snow-swept parking lot for the final time. One can, and does, accurately judge this book by its cover.

Manny DeLeon, the manag...more Note: Appeared in the Feb. 28 CVN "On the Bookshelf"

“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 the Lobster,” shows a solitary man trudging through a grayish, snow-swept parking lot for the final time. One can, and does, accurately judge this book by its cover.

Manny DeLeon, the manager of a Red Lobster in New England, is an employee who has “come to consider this (Red Lobster) his.” But his restaurant is being stripped from him by a sterile corporation because, despite Manny’s devout love for the restaurant and unflinching work ethic, the numbers were not quite good enough.

Thus, “Last Night at the Lobster” chronicles the final expulsion of a dedicated and underappreciated manager from a restaurant he has learned to call home. In addition to struggling to amend a psyche splintered by years of contribution met with indifference, Manny also vies with inner conflict between his feelings for a girlfriend who is pregnant with his child and a tempting waitress with whom he once had a fling.

Manny plows through the night with resolve, dealing with an unmotivated staff and the psychological burden of being chewed up and consumed like the very fare he is serving. The night is stormy and dark, with few customers, making the utility of sticking around less and less apparent. Should Manny spurn that which spurned him? Should he reject, even if only symbolically, that which rejected him?

Manny’s heart resides within this chain restaurant; the very walls of his store are inhabited by his spirit and toil. He is this Red Lobster. Like the lobsters floating limply within their aquarium, Manny is caged by a restaurant that has used and abused him; like the shellacked, dusty, stuffed marlin hung stiffly on the wall, Manny is a hollowed-out and lifeless piece of decoration; like a shattered Christmas tree ornament, Manny is finally crushed after having survived with such fragility for so many years.

Deeply nostalgic yet written in the present tense, “Last Night at the Lobster” is about the discord plaguing a dedicated and devout worker who is reflectively longing for the fruits and excitement of his labor—longing for some version of the American dream—while coming to terms with the apparent futility of his present actions.

Manny is a noble character, and is treated with genuine empathy by the author because he rises to the occasion, not in a moment of fame or fortune, but in a moment of deep despair and hopelessness. Manny aims to be “a different kind of hero,” and he truly is. He is a man who puts his soul into his work even as the prospect of rejection looms ever nearer.

“Last Night at the Lobster,” is a book about the disposable worker, the American dream, the spurned lover, and the meaning of working hard in a meaningless environment. It is short, yet weighty; present, yet nostalgic; hopeful, yet despairing. It is, according to O’Nan’s dedication, for “everyone who works the shifts nobody wants.”(less)

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01/16/08

Rick rated it:

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. Third, the story takes place during a snow storm, for a sense of surreality and semi-isolation. O'Nan does little else to generate the mood on which the novel depends; in particular he provides few of...more

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02/28/09

Randall Yelverton rated it:

Read in February, 2009

So much to admire in this book, but not really enjoyable. O'Nan nails the rhythms and speech of restaurant staff. The Lobster of the book is very real and its staff wholly believable. And yet, the book is a bit of a slog. Maybe if O'Nan had stripped out the run of the mill love affair and focused merely on the work details the book would have been more compelling. The love story is weak as compared to the drama of seating, serving, and satisfying customers which can provide fascinating, anxious ...more

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08/22/08

Matt rated it:

The first book I read by Stewart O'Nan was "The Circus Fire," about the tragic fire at a Ringling Brother big top in Hartford, CT, during the 1940s. I've read a lot of books about fire, an obsession I've been cultivating since I first watched a fire engine roar down the street when I was two years old, and this was a good one. It was propulsive fiction. I read the entire thing flying home from Paris, ignoring the inflight meal (this was back in the days when they had inflight meals; no...more The first book I read by Stewart O'Nan was "The Circus Fire," about the tragic fire at a Ringling Brother big top in Hartford, CT, during the 1940s. I've read a lot of books about fire, an obsession I've been cultivating since I first watched a fire engine roar down the street when I was two years old, and this was a good one. It was propulsive fiction. I read the entire thing flying home from Paris, ignoring the inflight meal (this was back in the days when they had inflight meals; now you just get sneered at). I had no idea O'Nan was a novelist, but when I saw that a book had been written about Red Lobster, I couldn't pass it up. I love Red Lobster. Everyone makes fun of it because it's the place that poor people think is a fancy restaurant. I don't care what the naysayers say - you CANNOT beat the Admiral's Feast. It'll feed you for three days (plust the biscuits are good).

Anyway. O'Nan has been termed the Bard of the working class. If that means he is able to write a book without a character who is either a doctor or a lawyer or a cop or a crook, then I would agree. "Last Night at the Lobster" is about - as the title strongly hints - the last day of a Red Lobster that is being closed. It's main character is Manny, a potsmoking manager who is really serious about doing a good job. He reminds me of that Martin Luther King, Jr. quote about how if you are called to be a streetsweeper, you should sweep as Michaelangelo painted or Beethoven wrote music. Manny treats his job as though it were the most important thing in the world, something that is both sad and noble.

The Lobster's last day is snowy and treacherous. Manny has to deal with the fact that many of his employees - at least the ones who aren't leaving with him to go to the Olive Garden - haven't come in. He is also trying to sort out his relationship with Jacquie, a waitress with whom he had a relationship, but who is now dating someone else. Manny still loves Jacquie, but he has a pregnant girlfriend, Deena, back home.

This is a slim book, and can best be described as an empic in miniature. It is a minutely detailed reconstruction of a day. The tasks, mundane as they are, are inflated to heroic proportions. There is Manny's courageous attempts to clear the sidewalks with a stubborn snow blower; there is Manny's shuttle diplomacy as he keeps peace with a tempestuous cook, bickering waitresses, and annoying customers; there is Manny's Odysseyan-like trek across a treacherous parking lot to reach a shopping mall, where he then tries to find a gift for Deena; finally, there is the underlying melancholy of love rent asunder.

Despite the title, and the emotional baggage Red Lobster carries with America, this is not an ironic book. O'Nan never makes fun of the plight of these lower-middle class service providers. Manny's plight - keeping the Red Lobster open until closing time - may seem trite, but it is the type of plight common to all. We don't all get to save the world, or even lives; most of us do the mundane to get a paycheck, but we try to do it well, because there is some nobility there, in a job well done, whatever that job may be.

The book reads fast. O'Nan is a propulsive storyteller. He writes in simple, clear prose. I am quite impressed with the details he can limn with so few pages. That said, there's nothing poetic or elegant in the words. I can't remember a single line from the book, or a single profound thought. What he does is tell a relatable story about relatable people (maybe too relatable - O'Nan doesn't creat a world to escape to; he recreates the world most of us inhabit).

The only lingering question I have is this: what caused this Red Lobster to close? Those places are always packed. Because they are AWESOME. Olive Garden is a crap factory in comparison. (less)

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08/21/08

Marcus rated it:

Read in December, 2008

Picked this one up for two reasons:

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 of putting you in the setting.

This book, however, was greatly disappointing. It had been lauded by folks like the NPR critics, but I'm not sure why. Yes, he painted a stark and realistic p...more

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07/18/08

Matthew rated it:

i read this book because of two things: one, lee's ecstatic review and two, the first page, which i immediately liked when i scoped it on amazon. love the premise. loved the details, descriptions, setting. and yet i couldn't help feeling like it was a bit too realistic... i know that's weird to say and really it's not quite what i mean, just that despite the great red lobster details and pitch perfect characterizations (the lifer waitress is named roz, for pete's sake) at times it seemed a bit T...more

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06/07/08

Justin McFarr rated it:

Read in May, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

O’Nan’s short novel, a finalist for the 2008 L.A. Times’ Book Prize, is a brisk read that manages to run out of dramatic steam a little more than halfway into its story. The set-up is simple: Darden Restaurants, Inc., the corporate owner of Red Lobster and Olive Garden, has decided to close its still-fairly successful Red Lobster in New Britain, Connecticut, five days before Christmas. Manny DeLeon, the general manager, is in charge of motivating his outgoing staff and staying open through...more O’Nan’s short novel, a finalist for the 2008 L.A. Times’ Book Prize, is a brisk read that manages to run out of dramatic steam a little more than halfway into its story. The set-up is simple: Darden Restaurants, Inc., the corporate owner of Red Lobster and Olive Garden, has decided to close its still-fairly successful Red Lobster in New Britain, Connecticut, five days before Christmas. Manny DeLeon, the general manager, is in charge of motivating his outgoing staff and staying open through a lunch and dinner service before shuttering the doors forever. Waitresses, a bartender, a hostess, and a kitchen staff full of shady loners all come together on this last day of operation, seen through Manny’s p.o.v. A sub-plot revolving around Manny’s infatuation with ex-lover and current employee Jacquie fills the gaps of action on the serving floor, and serves as the predictable denouement, as well.

There is a lot to like in this book, especially O’Nan’s rapid-fire delivery of character quirks and the realistic snap of his dialogue. Told in present-tense, there is an immediacy to every moment, unfolding in its undetermined way, hinting that anything can happen during this snow-covered day at the New England Red Lobster located across from the big shopping mall.

The problem, however, with this kind of a “concept” novel is that once the characters have been established and the ever-changing ticking-clock scenario is set in motion, there is really nothing left to compel the reader to finish the book. Yes, the Manny character has complexities, but they’re just not interesting enough to sustain even 146 pages. By a third of the way into the novel, the reader gets that Manny is devoted to the restaurant while simultaneously feeling betrayed by the company that employs him; that EVERY old person who comes into the place reminds Manny of his dead abuelita; that he has a baby on the way, but not with the woman he obsessively desires; that some of the employees will stay until the end of their shift, while others will leave before the night is over; and that the night will end and The Olive Garden will be Manny’s new professional home. So, knowing all of this early on, it becomes difficult to become very invested in the rest of the novel, particularly when all it really does is repeat these same dramatic and emotional beats over and over until the last page.

O'Nan's details of how a restaurant runs, from the back of the walk-in freezer to the front of the house, are amazingly accurate and real. If you’ve ever spent any time in food service, there are moments that will definitely resonate. Whether it’s the waitresses dealing with overbearing, oblivious customers, or the bartender lifting top shelf booze bottles and stashing them by the dumpsters when the manager isn’t looking, those of us who have worked in restaurants will recognize these people, these attitudes and these stories instantly. Perhaps the recognition will even be accompanied by the same bit of nostalgia that Manny displays for a job that kind of sucks, a support staff that is less than supportive, and a corporate boss who is only looking at its bottom line. Those warm fuzzy feelings are of course patently false, psychotic and illogical, yet are unmistakable and unavoidable, if you’ve ever set up your own station or had to yell, “Order up!” Whatever its faults (and there are more than a few), this book captures that twisted reality, in all its grease, grime and gratuities. (less)

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01/09/08

Liz rated it:

Read in January, 2008

recommended to Liz by: Jeanette West
recommends it for: no church book clubs--too many F-bombs...

I have to put out a disclaimer that the plot is not the best crafted, or that there's even much of any kind of story line. The whole book is centered around one long day reminiscent of Groundhog Day; it feels like that same kind of stuck-in-a-rut hopelessness--you mostly just want it to end (although I think that may be intended). The blue collar-esque manager (Manny) of the Red Lobster is trying to survive the last working day, crappy day, before the struggling branch closes. However, the writi...more

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12/22/07

Andrei rated it:

Read in December, 2007

As others have stated, this book is completely on point about the restaurant/store experience. Setting it in a blizzard was a nice touch, it imbues the whole book with a sort of ephemeral beauty that stems from the transformation of these mall parking lots into surreal environments, not that they necessarily needed the help, I guess. herf herf.

Anyway, all of the personal stuff in relation to the restaurant rings true, too. I guess I felt like the whole relationship subplot weakened t...more

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12/12/08

Jennifer Tatroe rated it:

bookshelves: 2009, literary

Read in January, 2009

An absolute gem of a novella. 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 and he follows his daily routines for the last time.

It's a quiet story, almost as if the book itself is muffled by the snow softly falling outside the Lobster's windows, but in his tale of ...more

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01/04/08

James rated it:

In 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 life is completely entangled with the Red Lobster he has managed for over ten years. During this period Manny has come to believe this particular Red Lobster is his own, even though Red Lobsters are not...more

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12/11/08

Kate Gaidos rated it:

bookshelves: quick-reads

Read in December, 2008

Why did I like this book so much? It's not that mind-blowing, really. It's the story of the manager and employees of an east coast Red Lobster, who all show up for work on the last day before the parent company shuts that particular branch down. Mostly it's a story about the manager, and his regrets (he's in love with one of the waitresses), and his worries for the future.

It's one of those fine detail, minute-by-minute, day in the life type stories, which I thought I had grown to ha...more

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03/27/08

Tattered Cover Book Store added it

bookshelves: book-club-recommends, pete-recommends, staff-recommends

Last Night at the Lobster tells the story of the impending closure of a
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, the
patron saint of lost causes or Charlie Brown, ever hopeful on the
pitcher's mound despite being down by 10 runs. On this last night there is no incentive for Manny or his employees to do a...more

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02/06/09

Sal rated it:

This gem of a read has stuck with me since reading it in December of 2008. A seemingly simple story about a thirty-something manager of a Red Lobster in the Northeastern USA, and his last day on the job, as the restaurant is being permanantly closed a few days before Christmas. The character, Manny, and the dillemas he copes with regarding his employees, a waitress he is in love with, and his pregnant girlfriend waiting for him at home, resonate long after reading the last page. An honest, mo...more

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