Last Orders is a strange one for a Booker Prize. Somehow its both hard and easy to read, deep and shallow, simple and convoluted. My book club and I decided this was probably intentional. While many parts of the tail are almost soap opera-like many parts cut much deeper, all while with a humourous bent and plain language.

The books blurb is fairly explanatory but one note I will make is there is very little war in this book. One could be forgiven for expecting a harrowing tale similar to the Long Road to the Deep North, but the focus of Last Orders is on life before and after the war rather than experiences within.

Definitely worth a read, perhaps goes down in the record books for the shortest funniest chapter ever. Take a look you'll see what I mean.

Nesto ima u ovoj knjizi sto me inspirisalo da joj dam 4 zvjezdice, mada sam je u prvih stotinjak stranica htjela i ostaviti..
Nije me odusevila, kao ni vecina tih nagradjivanih knjiga, ali je ipak ostavila utisak. Poseban je dozivljaj, vrlo zivopisna, uspjeva u potpunosti stvoriti sliku predjela, likova, gradova, pabova.., prosto cijelo vrijeme vidis slike pred sobom.
Mana je sto mu je stil previse zbrkan, sve je s brda-s dola, neka velika dramatika bez stvarne drame, prosto previse rijeci. Ponekad sam se morala vracati nazad da provjerim da nisam nesto propustila u fabuli, jer je malo tesko i skoncentrisati se. Ali u glavnom nisam promasila, vec je nesto falilo u samoj fabuli

Short chapters alternating the points of view of four working class Londoners, spanning the WWII and 60s generation, very slowly revealing the intertwined stories of their lives. Since none are officially narrating (just conversing and musing, mostly while drinking), the overall story emerges slowly and obliquely and the reader's sympathy for and understanding of the characters accrues gradually with it - ultimately very moving.

Reminiscent of the working class novels of the early 60s (Stan Barstow, Alan Sillitoe et al.) though Swift is a generation later - not clear if any direct homage is intended. The style is quite different from the other book of his I have read (Waterland.

Meh. Don't get me wrong. The writer is really good. He has to be to be able to get into the skin of so many characters and portray them so distinctively. The plot is interesting too ... or could've been, if it were less convoluted with so many breaks for each character's narrative. But that's just it. It took me halfway down the book to get a grip on the story and the way it ended left me wondering what the point was. And throughout I couldn't wait to get over with it to go on to the next book. But its a fast read and you can get to it when you have nothing better to read. So to sum it up, Meh!

I listened to the audiobook version of Last Orders. It’s a relatively unusual audiobook in having 5 narrators, one for each of the main characters – Ray, Vic, Lenny, Vince and Amy.

Amy is the widow of the recently departed Jack Dodds, who when he wasn’t running his butcher’s shop in Bermondsey, London, was a regular at his local pub. He had asked for his ashes to be scattered into the sea at the town of Margate in Kent. For various reasons Amy doesn’t want to do it, and the task falls to his adopted son Vince, along with Jack’s 3 elderly drinking buddies. The perspective changes between the 5 main characters although the principal narrator is Ray, who was a wartime comrade of Jack’s and his closest friend. He’s also a gambling man who follows horse racing closely, which is significant in the story. The dialogue is in Cockney dialect, something you might want to note if English is not your first language.

The author has created some strong characters, particularly I thought, Ray, Vince and Lenny. The last is a somewhat embittered individual who tends to provoke argument within the group. The 70-odd-mile road trip between central London and Margate turns into a bit of an expedition as our gang of four decide to make numerous detours and pit stops. Basically the death of Jack causes the others to reflect on their lives and their own mortality, and in some cases to re-evaluate their priorities. Four of the five have not had their troubles to seek. The exception is Vic, whose life has gone more smoothly than the others and who seems a generally contented man. In the novel, Lenny is resentful as he feels himself to be an outsider, but to me Vic seemed the one set apart from the others. The lives of the other four have all, in one form or another, been deeply entwined with Jack’s, and they’ve been messy. The actions of these characters haven’t always been admirable, but ultimately, I retained a sympathy for all of them. They made choices at a young age that determined how their lives turned out. As Ray says near the end, “It’s all a gamble.”

رواية من القطع الثقيل، تبدأ صفحاتها باللعب بمشاعر القارئ منذ البداية حيث نصبت المترجمة فخها العاطفي والجاد في آنٍ في مقدمتها للقارئ ، وتبيان الجهد المبذول في الترجمة وعلاقتها الشخصية بالرواية.

ثم تأتي شخصيات الرواية لتسحبك إلى عالمها وأحلامها التي لم تتحقق وعيشهم على الحافة، يتمنون ما لغيرهم ويتجاهلون إصلاح مطبات حيواتهم الخاصة. يفنى العمر وتذهب بهم ريح بيرموندزي إلى لا مكان. وكل هذا يتكشّف وأكثر في رحلة لذرّ رماد صديقهم المتوفى حيث يواجهون رماده ورماد حيواتهم في ذات الوقت.

ما إن انتهت الصفحة الأخيرة حتى استقرت العاصفة التي صاحبت مراسم نثر الرماد ، انتقلت إلى صدري وعاثت فيه

الترجمة جادّة ومتقنة

Graham Swift's Last Orders is a challenging read with a simple premise of "ordinary" people. Jack Dodd, a London butcher is dead and his 3 drinking buddies along with his adopted son are out to fulfill his last wish to immerse his ashes in Margate.

Roadtrip of them old geezers in a BMW. Along the way we know each character's (anachronistic) stories, fears, complexes and hopes in their own voices spoken to the reader. Revelations happen chapter over chapter for all characters which explains ~70% why these guys would undertake such a personal request (one which Jack's wife passes).

What makes it challenging is that we don't get introduced to the character or timeline. The whole books is like a section of ERC exercise (For the uninitiated - Explain in Reference with the Context) with an almost Salingery tone and cacophony of voices.

What works is the earthiness of the characters - a fruit and veg vendor, a car salesman, an undertaker who talk of dreams and motivations. Normal people with secrets. The impulsiveness of 70 year olds is cute - They stop at a pub and decide to have a drink (Jack wold have approved) or take a deviation to Chatham Cathedral.

The realism apart, the book gets a bit weary towards the end. The more and more we get to know the characters, we sort of start having really low expectations from them. And they don't disappoint.

Challenging read.

This book reminded me a bit of a cockney Waiting for Godot, only instead of an unnamed country road, it's set on an A road from Bermondsey to Margate.

A group of elderly men from London embark on a journey in a Jaguar car to spread the ashes of their late friend at the seaside.

Along the way, Swift tells of what once was: the local pubs, the camaraderie, the betrayals, love affairs and violence of their time in the war - of losing sons and daughters as they too grow older, and the general complexity of everyday life for working people.

There's a dry humour running through it, but running parallel with the poignancy of a group of long-term friends coming to the end of their days.

Almost like ghosts of a fading group of people and way of life.

Genius. Will definitely be exploring more of Graham Swift.

This is the kind of book that used to be my bread and butter, a couple decades ago. A Booker Prize winner, a lyrical contemplation of life by men facing its end, the fundamental frustration that your life didn’t quite turn out as intended, nor did the lives of your children. A meditation on the essential loneliness of being human, even when surrounded by others. The things you don’t say to your friends, even if you see them every day. The way the past has its claws in your back, no matter how old you get. Memories traveling their well-worn grooves, the patterns shaping your past, present, and future. The way the future shrinks, and vanishes.

Not my usual genre anymore these days. But it was satisfying to revisit these old literary haunts (John Banville, Ian McEwan, ...), though it was my first time reading Swift in particular. For the first half of the book I wasn't sure I wanted to retread a world like this, but the second half brought things together and has some really beautiful prose.

"But it's either a crying shame or the biggest joke out to end up wishing we was something we aint. And I'd rather laugh than cry."

"We aren't going to look at each other so many times again, there aren't going to be so many more times we'll speak. First you count the years, the decades, then suddenly it's hours and minutes."

Perfectly enjoyable!

This was a 1996 Booker Prize winner and I bought it when it came out and cracked it but wasn't into it then. Sometimes you read a book when you are ready? It's about a bunch of older guys tasked with spreading the ashes of their dead friend at the sea. We get to know them all along the way. We get to know why the wife didn't go along. And they spread said ashes. It's beautifully written. And now I am an older guy myself, having been to more funerals lately than weddings, but I still wasn't captivated by it.

I tried to remember all the funeral books and movies I could on the related subject: Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Big Chill and so on. More engaging than this book, imho. Oh, I know, apples and oranges. Swift is a fine writer, so my three stars is not to disrespect the Booker committee, but if you want to read someone who deliberately and hilariously disrespects the Booker committee about their choice of this book, read Paul Bryant's review.

Well written and poignant account of a days outing to scatter a man's ashes, weaving in and out of the present tense. At first the narration had me confused, but other than that, I think this is a lovely novel of friendship.