Bridgman reviewed Last resort by Scott Sommer (Contemporary American fiction)
Review of 'Last resort' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
[a:Scott Sommer|521802|Scott Sommer|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], the author of the 1982 Last Resort, died of a heart attack in 1993 at 42, and this, the last novel published while he was alive, has enough going on in it that makes me wonder what he would have written as he matured. As it is, this is not the work of a mature author. It's about a 25-year-old would-be rock star, his dysfunctional family, and his passion for a woman he's had an on-off relationship with since his teens.
There are annoying things about it. People refer to other characters by different names, at times more than one. This confuses the reader. There are the lyrics for several songs in it. You can't tell if they're meant to be bad or good. That's the thing about music. Bad lyrics are transformed into good ones when the music and performance are good. How successful a …
[a:Scott Sommer|521802|Scott Sommer|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], the author of the 1982 Last Resort, died of a heart attack in 1993 at 42, and this, the last novel published while he was alive, has enough going on in it that makes me wonder what he would have written as he matured. As it is, this is not the work of a mature author. It's about a 25-year-old would-be rock star, his dysfunctional family, and his passion for a woman he's had an on-off relationship with since his teens.
There are annoying things about it. People refer to other characters by different names, at times more than one. This confuses the reader. There are the lyrics for several songs in it. You can't tell if they're meant to be bad or good. That's the thing about music. Bad lyrics are transformed into good ones when the music and performance are good. How successful a poem would "Nothing Compares 2 U" be?
In the last third, there are inspired moments of real depth, which gets me back to wishing Sommer had lived longer, and the novel has some good reflections on its times, around 1980. For better 80s books, though, read [a:T. Gertler|175061|T. Gertler|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]'s [b:Elbowing the seducer: A novel|3307961|Elbowing the seducer A novel|T. Gertler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1497991053l/3307961.SX50.jpg|3345158], or [a:Jay McInerney|14079|Jay McInerney|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1178138066p2/14079.jpg]'s [b:Bright Lights, Big City|25069|Bright Lights, Big City|Jay McInerney|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1167576917l/25069.SX50.jpg|144128].
The book's title comes from the name of the resort the narrator's family operates in a coastal New Jersey town. Incidentally, "last resort" is a very frequently used title, with or without "the."
The old woman shook her head. "Grandpa and me didn't sleep together for three years. He was bashful and I was too. It ain't nice to do it too soon, Sonny."
I looked into the afternoon sky, where the moon floated in three-quarter luminescence. I had a point to make. "Listen, Grandma, my generation was raised on mild tainted with radioactive strontium 90 from aboveground nuclear testing. Also toxic wasted polluted our processed baby food. We all fear bone cancer, an abbreviated life. Chemotherapy is always on the horizon. Sex, on the other hand, is intelligible. It can be performed in the safety of one's own bed. See what I mean?"