What they say about it
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.
What I say about it
Last Orders is an engaging novel that tells the story of four men carrying out the request of a deceased friend to scatter his ashes into the sea at Margate. The plot takes place over the course of a day, with chapters of internal recollection from individual characters revealing the back story to both the day itself and the lives of those involved. The novel deals poignantly with the themes of love, loyalty and loss among its working-class characters. I liked the way that Swift subtly alludes to the various social changes during the second half of the last century through the understated narration of his characters, whose unremarkable lives seem founded on stability yet are nonetheless wrought by emotion and resilience. From a local perspective, the novel is set during a journey through south-east London to Kent, and the characters have spent most of their lives in Bermondsey.
I recommend this Booker-winning novel as a thoroughly decent read.
Alan Housden
Available in Lewisham libraries
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Filed under: Book review, Death, London Tagged: | Graham Swift
