Bridgman reviewed Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan
Review of 'Last Night at the Lobster' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
A friend of mine would sometimes choose books by walking down fiction shelves at her library and picking out a book at random. I loved her for that and she often found interesting books to read that way. Really, most books that make it onto library shelves have some merit. She got married and had two children and, with less time to read, reads more targeted things now but I thought of her when I picked up Last Night at the Lobster at the small used bookstore at my local library. I choose it because it's a small paperback volume and was mushed by other books on a bottom shelf, almost getting lost behind them. I felt sorry for it and I was just going to flush it out; the old bookstore worker in me still kicking. I liked what I saw on the cover and, being on crutches now …
A friend of mine would sometimes choose books by walking down fiction shelves at her library and picking out a book at random. I loved her for that and she often found interesting books to read that way. Really, most books that make it onto library shelves have some merit. She got married and had two children and, with less time to read, reads more targeted things now but I thought of her when I picked up Last Night at the Lobster at the small used bookstore at my local library. I choose it because it's a small paperback volume and was mushed by other books on a bottom shelf, almost getting lost behind them. I felt sorry for it and I was just going to flush it out; the old bookstore worker in me still kicking. I liked what I saw on the cover and, being on crutches now (and forever) liked that it was easy to carry. I took it upstairs to pay for it. The woman charged me half of what trade paperbacks usually cost there because she saw how small it was.
I am grateful I took it home. It's terrific. I don't usually like books that describe the actions of just one day—they are often too constrained for me—but this book is so perfectly felt and rendered that I feel like I lived the day it describes.
The plot is that a Red Lobster restaurant in New England is closing after the day the novel takes place, a December 20th in, maybe, 2005 or 6. It's snowing heavily so not many people show up for lunch and just one couple for dinner. The main point of view is that of the manager's, a man aptly named Manny, who still has feelings for one of his workers, Jacquie, who he had an affair with well before the book begins.
If you've ever worked in retail or if you haven't, read this book. I have and found it entirely authentic. In the acknowledgements the author, Stewart O'Nan, thanks three people "for putting up with a year of Red Lobster talk." I thank those people too.
Here's a paragraph in which Manny prepares to use a snowblower to deal with the fallen snow:
Peeling back the tarp, he's almost hoping the gas tank's dry. The snowblower's old, the faded red of farm machinery, dirty bicycle grips with twin hand clutches for forward and reverse and blade speed, as well as a separate throttle and choke. Tiny cotton balls of spider's eggs dot the webs around the plug wires. He can't remember the last time he used it—March, April, back when he and Jacquie were together and the days were a blur—or putting it away, but he must have. Even then, in that careless (and, he'd thought, endless) trance, he wouldn't have left it empty. He unscrews the metal cap and tips his head to one side until light glints in the still liquid the color of ginger ale. Impossible to tell how deep or shallow. Half full, maybe. Enough.
