The Last One at the Wedding Quotes

“Every parent’s an unreliable narrator. We think we know our kids better than anyone. But none of us can see them objectively.”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding

“I forced myself to stay quiet. It's a tactic I learned from my wife, she used to say that if you wanted a kid to share things, you couldn't interrupt them with lots of questions. You had to shut up and let them talk.”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding

“Everyone has a story. Some of us are better at telling it than others.”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding

“The last one at the wedding was a little girl with a crown of summer daisies hanging crookedly around her head.”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding

“I didn't know how to respond. What do you say to a beautiful woman in the prime of her youth who shackles herself to a shrunken elderly lawyer with skin liked grilled cheese?”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding

“I’ll tell you the hardest part of having kids, Frank. Eventually they reach an age where you can’t control them anymore. They’re going to take drugs or rob banks or paint weird face portraits and we can’t do a goddamn thing about it. We either accept who they are or there’s not going to be a relationship.”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding

“Your daughter was a narcissistic sociopath. It's a kind of person who doesn't feel any empathy or guilt. No close friends, just lots of superficial acquaintances. People she can manipulate to get what she wants.”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding

“Every parent's an unreliable narrator. We think we know our kids better than anyone.”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding

“As parents, we always say we'd do anything for our children, but would we really?”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding

“And a tiny bit better the day after that. Right now we just need to push through it.”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding

“Listening to their banter was like wandering into a movie thirty minutes late; they were referencing people I didn’t know and things I’d never heard of: Slack, Chloé, Charli, Banksy, BeReal, Bad Bunny, NPCs, A24. I swear I’d never felt so old.”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding

“Well, I can’t do a full year. I’m sorry. I’d rather go to prison.”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding

“maybe that was the point. “I don’t know how you can live with yourself,” I told Errol. “Your son was a good man. And incredibly talented. And now he’s dead. Because of you.”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding

“were never together in Boston or Cambridge. Only out of state and ideally out of the country. And I know these stories always sound cheap and tawdry, but I promise you, this is not a Harvey Weinstein situation. It’s a real relationship built on respect. We go to museums, we read the same books, we like the same TED Talks—”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding

“My father got him out of the country on a Capaciti jet. He was facing all kinds of criminal charges: human trafficking, exploitation of children, workplace ‘accidents,’ I’m talking real crimes against humanity. He’s been hiding here for two years and I still don’t even know his real name. I just know he is very dangerous and very loyal to my father. And now he’s watching you closely. My advice is: forget what you heard, go back to the party, and just act normal.”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding

“Errol believes that men are incapable of monogamy. He believes that men—especially wealthy and powerful men—have an evolutionary imperative to mate with as many women as possible. He insists they all do it, all the titans of industry. Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, all your movie stars, all your NFL quarterbacks, and of course all your politicians.”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding

“I’d seen photographs of Catherine Gardner online. She was an elegant, smartly dressed woman who sat on the board of Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts—and this person scarcely resembled her. She was alarmingly thin, almost skeletal, and her makeup looked like it had been applied by a child.”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding

“Just don’t go overboard,” he said. “It’s their wedding, not a shareholders meeting.”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding

“Thanks for sharing that with me. But now let me ask you: What secret do you think I’m hiding? Is Aidan a serial killer? Is he murdering women at Osprey Cove? Oh my God: Did he murder Gwendolyn, too? Is that what you think? Have I fallen in love with Jeffrey Dahmer?”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding

“It never felt like a healthy relationship to me. They never did anything socially. With other people. None of her friends ever met him. And they never went out to restaurants or movies because Aidan didn’t like ‘the locals’ all staring at him.”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding

“My daughter could be very stubborn. Once she committed to a certain point of view, it was difficult to rattle her belief system. I’d always found it one of her most admirable qualities, but right now it was driving me bananas.”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding

“I tried watching daytime television but, holy mother of God, what happened to daytime television? When I was a kid, it used to be silly sitcoms and The Price Is Right. Now it’s just endless marathons of Dr. Pimple Popper and FBoy Island. The cable news was even worse, with all the patriots hating California and all the progressives hating Florida and everyone hating Congress. All these shows made my blood boil, and I clicked off the TV, convinced that the whole stupid world was going down the toilet.”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding

“don’t think she ever forgave me for the episode, and I certainly never forgave myself. But for every awful story like Mr. Panda Pal, I could tell you a dozen stories where I did something right.”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding

“The last one at the wedding was a little girl with a crown of summer daisies hanging crookedly around her head. In her lap was a tiny basket of flower petals.”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding

“In my book, if a bug has eight legs and ooks like a spider, it's a spider.”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding

“I didn’t know how to respond. What do you say to a beautiful woman in the prime of her youth who shackles herself to a shrunken elderly lawyer with skin like grilled cheese? As a couple, they looked unnatural, a freakish mutation of human biology.”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding

“I didn’t know what had happened to that kid. I didn’t know where I went wrong or how I screwed up, but I knew I would always love her, despite everything that came after.”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding

“Could I really stand by my daughter’s side as she prepared to make the biggest mistake of her life? Or would I choose to walk away, with the knowledge that I would never see her again?”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding

“Here’s what I can promise you, Frank: your daughter is completely safe, and she’s getting exactly what she wants. But she is never going to tell you the truth about this wedding, because she doesn’t think you can handle it.”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding

“I was so touched by this simple gesture, touched that she’d remembered my order and taken the time to think of me.”
― Jason Rekulak, The Last One at the Wedding