Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #148773 in Books
• Published on: 1999-11-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
From the author of Waterland and Ever After, Last Orders is a quiet but dazzling novel about a group of men, friends since the second world war, whose lives revolve around work, family, the racetrack and their favourite pub. When one of them dies, the survivors drive his ashes from London to a seaside town where they will be scattered, compelling them to take stock of who they are today, who they were before and the shifting relationships in between. Both funny and moving, this won the Booker Prize in 1996.

Synopsis
This novel follows four men once close to Jack Dodds, a London butcher, who meet to carry out his last wish: to have his ashes scattered into the sea.

From the Publisher
Poignant and compassionate exploration of ordinary lives
Four men once close to Jack Dodds, a London butcher, meet to carry out his peculiar last wish, to have his ashes scattered into the sea. For reasons best known to herself, Jack's widow, Amy, declines to join them. On the surface the tale of a simple if increasingly bizarre day's outing, Last Orders is Graham Swift's most poignant exploration of the complexity and courage of ordinary lives. "Triumphant...a surpassing testament to Swift's vibrant and powerful gifts" The Times; "His finest book to date; emotionally charged and technically superb...Last Orders is about how we live and how we die and our struggle to make abiding connections between the two" Times Literary Supplement; "This is Graham Swift's finest work to date: beautifully written, gentle, funny, truthful, touching and profound" Salman Rushdie; "Tragic, comic and wonderfully compassionate" Daily Mail

Customer Reviews

Symbolism in `Last Orders'
There must be some central significance to that image of the coach that never leaves, since it is repeated so insistently right up front. Kind of like "last call" - "hurry up, please, it's time" as T. S. Eliot would say. Like a death knell for all these old buggers? When the coach finally leaves, it's for the final destination, say?
I also wondered about the significance of the Coach too. But your idea of the Coach suggesting movement fits! It seems that the Merc would also fit this description as the Coach for the ride to the funeral?

I've been thinking about this too. Also about all the vehicles in the
book - was particularly struck by the scene of Vince riding in the back of Jack's meat wagon, smelling the dead meat and throwing up. Like being in a coffin! And there are so many other vehicles - the camper, the Mercedes, and so on. Lots of traveling - the "Coach" symbology again. Still thinking... Ray on his father's horse and cart. Even the camels in Egypt.

"....You got to keep a constant eye on the wastage, constant. What you've got to understand is the nature of the goods. Which is perishable".

I get a distinct link between dead meat (human) and dead meat (animal): butcher=doctor; posh merc-hearse/meat van - it is the journey that matters and what happens during journeys and at the halting places - hops picked/babies conceived/ashes cast.

Jack's throwing of the teddy bear into the water off Margate in 1939 was his way of burying June - he remarks to Vic he has always fancied a burial at sea. So when he asks his ashes to be scattered there - the request is made in a very formal way too - I felt it was his way of 're-uniting' with June. Yet Amy seems to be cross with him for this request - and then 'buries' June herself on the very day that Jack is 'joining' June in the sea.

Religion in the novel
Given that we've had a death, is it a little odd that there is actually no religion at all? Sure, the funeral is mentioned and they go to Canterbury Cathedral, but it seems to have significance that there is absolutely no sign of life there - its almost functioning as a memorial like the Chatham War Memorial.

One of the finest novels ever written
Last Orders is magnificently gripping in its low key description of ordinary men's lives and minds. Swift's approach to his story is no less than genius, initially slightly confusing but after only a few pages completely inebriating.
This is one of those books you wish wouldn't end, and when it inevitably does, you read the last few pages a couple of times over. Truly remarkable.

A story of great beauty
One of the finest modern novels in English. A delight to be savoured slowly and considerately.