Book Description
It was a story to put Hideaway, Missouri, in the national headlines . . ."
A Missing Child: Clarissa Cooper, twelve, vanishes near her home -- abducted, evidence suggests, by someone close to her.
A Woman in Crisis: Noelle Cooper races back to her hometown to help in the search. In the effort to save her young cousin, she steps into a web a secrets that has haunted her family for generations.
A Man of Faith: Nathan Trask will do anything to protect Noelle from danger. Noelle's childhood friend, he might be much more . . . if she dares turn to him.
Customer Reviews:
Family Secrets Haunt Them.......2007-05-01
The Last Resort, is a medical thriller in the Hideaway series, that deals with an inherited psychological disorder. When twelve year old Carissa Cooper goes missing in Cedar Hollow. We learn that when she was a very small child, her mother abandoned the family, and Carissa subsequently had nightmares about monsters that her dad Cecil and stepmom Melva helped her deal with. At the time of her disappearance, Carissa was a fairly well adjusted child. However, when she innocently decides to do a school project on her family's history, she unwittingly stirs up an old secret that someone is willing to commit murder to keep hidden. Her older cousin Noelle has a gift of premonition, which she has fought for many years. Yet she senses something is wrong, and leaves her home in Springfield to race to Cedar Hollow. Soon she runs into Nathan Trask, her childhood friend, who has been praying for Noelle to return. He becomes her ally as they seek to unravel her family's past and to find Carissa. The suspense builds as they are racing against time. The evidence shows the abductor is a family member, and some of the family are in such denial they are giving cover to the abductor. What are they hiding? And why? And how does a psychological disorder come into play in this mystery? With Nathan's help, Noelle renews her childhood faith in her Lord as they explore what has been called "The Cooper Curse." As the book unfolds, redemption comes in many forms to many of the characters, as they learn to more fully trust in the love of God. The end of the book gives us a riveting rescue scene. It's a good read.
An engrossing story.......2006-02-05
Hannah Alexander's Last Resort, set in the beautiful Ozark town of Hideaway, has it all; romance, adventure and suspense.
Twelve year old Carissa Cooper is working on a school project of her family history when she disappears, an apparent kidnap victim.
Her cousin Noelle rushes to Cedar Hollow from her home in Springfield, determined to find her young niece. Nathan Trask, who has always loved Noelle promises to her help search for Carissa. Evidence points to the fact that the girl has accidently stirred up long hidden secrets the Cooper family has kept hidden for many years. . .secrets so dark someone would kill to keep them from being exposed. As Noelle and Nathan race against time to find Carissa, they strongly suspect the kidnapper may be a member of the Cooper family. But could a family member actually hurt Carissa? Noelle is afraid the answer may be yes.
A strong theme of love, forgiveness and redemption runs through the book as the Cooper family learns to face their fears and trust in God. Last Resort is a well-crafted, engrossing story, one I recommend.
Another exciting episode in the Hideaway series.......2005-10-01
Hannah Alexander (the husband and wife writing team of Dr. Mel and Cheryl Hodde) has written another exciting episode in the Hideaway series. Hideaway is a small town in the Ozarks peopled by families who have lived and worked there for generations. The Cooper family has been prominent in Hideaway history and has weathered more tragedies than one would expect in such a peaceful, bucolic setting.
When Carissa Cooper was six years old, her mother left and was replaced by monsters that hid under her bed and in her closet, terrorizing her every night. But her loving father Cecil, caring stepmother Melva and nearby extended family helped her, and now, at age twelve, she is a fairly well-adjusted young lady. However, when she decides to do a school project involving her family's history, she unwittingly stirs up long hidden secrets that have been haunting the Coopers for many years --- secrets so powerful that Carissa is abducted and nearly killed in an effort to keep them from being exposed.
Her cousin Noelle, who has the gift of premonition, senses something is wrong and races to Cedar Hollow from her home in Springfield. There she runs into her childhood friend Nathan Trask, who has been praying for her to return home so they could renew their once precious friendship. He becomes her ally as they seek to unravel not only the mystery of Carissa's abduction but also of the secrets that threaten the lives of the entire Cooper family.
However, evidence points to the fact that the very family that is in danger also harbors the one who is guilty of past crimes as well as the current abduction. None is above suspicion, including Carissa's brother Justin, her cousin Jill, and even her great-aunt Pearl. Has the family history of OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) transformed somehow from a neurosis to a psychosis?
With Nathan's help, Noelle begins to renew the faith of her childhood and learn to accept the gift she has instead of fearing it. Through their efforts the family learns to deal with "Cooper's Curse" and to rely upon God instead of their own feeble attempts to keep the truth hidden out of fear. As LAST RESORT unfolds, redemption comes in many forms to those who learn to embrace the love and grace of God. This is a well-written story with some breath-holding rescue scenes, and a tender love story thrown in at no extra charge!
(...)
Very Good Christain Mystery.......2005-08-21
"The Last Resort" is a very good mystery, not real intense but it does drag in spots in the story.
VERY disappointed; Boring.......2005-07-15
Sorry but it's true. I've been a huge Hannah Alexander fan but this one just fell flat. Could not even finish it. I think it's time to retire the town of Hideaway and come up with something new and fresh.
Book Description
Lawrence Baum brings students--in this thoroughly revised and updated edition--trusted, balanced, and illuminating coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court. While the Court is always evolving, the changes have been especially sweeping these past few years. Looking closely at the appointments of two new justices and the possible effects of the shift from the Rehnquist Court to the Roberts Court, Baum examines the implications of recent major decisions. Baum explores the Court's rulings on the procedural rights of suspected terrorists as well as the growth in conflict between Congress and the federal courts.
The ninth edition makes use of new scholarship on the Court, from research on the role of precedent to important biographies of Justice Blackmun and Justice O'Connor. This authoritative introduction to the nation's highest judicial body describes the Court's personalities and procedures, delving deeply to explain the actions of the Court and the behavior of justices. Through Baum's straightforward yet lively prose, students begin to understand the Court's complexity and reach.
Customer Reviews:
Great Systematic Study of the Supreme Court.......2005-11-29
Of the three branches of government, it is the Supreme Court that remains a mystery to most Americans. As the author points out, most Americans are unable to name a significant number of sitting Justices, let alone understand the many nuances of the US judicial system. However, in The Supreme Court, Dr. Baum attempts to clarify the structures and processes of the Court, as well as explain its effect on the formation of public policy.
Dr. Baum separates the book in to sections, each addressing the major components of the Court: the Justices, the selection of cases, the decision making process, the policy outputs, and lastly, the impact of the Court on the other branches of government and society as a whole.
Aside from discussing the mechanics of the Court, Baum delves into its broader impact on both the executive and legislative branch, the creation of public policy, and the shaping of America.
In conclusion, Baum's book is an excellent work covering the many aspects of the Supreme Court, written in a clear and interesting manner.
Summary of American judicial history, power, and mechanics........1999-06-24
Excellent work, suitable for classroom use. Covers the history and development of America's highest court, as well as providing insight into judicial procedure and justice voting behavior. Also gives valuable information on the use of justiciabilty as method for agenda tailoring.
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The History of the New York Court of Appeals 1847-1932
Judge Francis Bergan
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The History of the New York Court of Appeals: 1932-2003
ASIN: 0231059507 |
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The Lender of Last Resort (Routledge International Studies in Money and Banking)
Forrest H. Capie , and
Geoffrey E. Wood
Manufacturer: Routledge
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ASIN: 0415323339 |
Book Description
The capacity of national central banks to step in and bail out an economy is one which has proved to be very important over the years. This collection from Wood and Capie brings together the most import- ant literature for the first time in book form.
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What in the world has drawn veteran journalist Liz Trotta (the first American woman to report combat news during the Vietnam War) to tease St. Jude from his obscurity? Synchronicity flavors her quest--a comment made in passing to a friend that the shadowy saint had gone "high profile"--leads to the realization that Trotta herself has operated in his territory all along. Jude is the "the patron of last resorts, lost causes, the impossible, the man to summon as the ship goes down."
Her quest opens in a somewhat Martin Scorsesian mood. Trotta is in Baltimore on a bus bound for the shrine of St. Jude with 40 of Vincenzo Pullara's friends and family members. The members of this shady group sport pinkie rings and Italian last names. Pullara himself has been linked to a shooting of one of the defendants in the notorious Pizza Connection drug-ring case. It seems that his wife's fervent prayers to St. Jude have gotten the authorities to drop the charges. No comment on this strange pairing of divine intervention and criminal behavior follows.
Jude was the least known of the 12 apostles. His story, largely undocumented, would unfold after the Ascension when the apostles faced their trials and tribulations as Christian missionaries. Trotta promises a history, but her focus wavers in the early chapters. "To best explain what Jude is," she writes, "we must consider what he is not." Defining an object by what it is not, an endeavor which continues for many pages, strains the reader's patience. Trotta includes examples of prayers, requests, and petitions as evidence of a Jude resurgence. But the petitions to the saint have an "Are you kidding?" feel: "A State Farm Insurance agent prays for a big promotion in Portland, Oregon--and gets it"; "A Sri Lankan steel fitter injures his back--learning of a little shrine in the mountains of his country, he hires people to carry him there, and soon he can go back to work." They seem depressing examples of faith at the "gimme-gimme" level.
As a long and meandering essay on the nature of faith and the popularity of this shadowy saint, with its digressions into cultural commentary (which is relentlessly unoriginal), it is unfocused. But when Trotta hits the road following in the footsteps of St. Jude through Rome, Edessa, and other parts of Mesopotamia, the narrative strengthens. However good the reporting and alluring the details, though, that first vile taste is never quite erased. Something creepy remains about citing successful real-estate deals and clemency from criminal prosecution as proof of a saint's intervening power. It's as if Trotta, high on Jude, has blinded herself to these dark, disquieting discrepancies. --Hollis Giammatteo
Book Description
"Anything but high profile by nature, Jude's persona, his essence, occupies the quiet end of a saintly spectrum that includes Paul, the dynamic and even over bearing preacher; Peter, the swashbuckling sailor who lost his nerve at the crucial moment; and St. Teresa of Avila, the mystical yet outspoken intellectual. Jude is the workmanlike spiritual mechanic, the one who does his job and moves on. Approaching him takes no energy and is as secret as shouting in a cave for help."
The patron of desperate cases, Saint Jude is known as much for his miraculous powers of healing and rescue as for the obscurity of his history. A most beloved and enigmatic apostle, Jude remains -- even more now than in his own time -- the ecumenical figure of hope.
In this riveting investigation of faith and legend, award-winning journalist Liz Trotta follows the footsteps of the New Testament's most elusive saint through Italy, Turkey, the lands of Old Armenia, and the United States in search of the shadowy origins, history, and sacred sites of Jude Thaddeus. A modern-day pilgrimage, Jude is filled with rich historical lore, insightful reportage, poignant anecdotes, and personal reflections.
As though guided by Jude himself, Trotta encounters an extraordinary number of meaningful coincidences -- synchronicities which are the very heart of the Jude experience. In every city, at every turn, her sleuthing seems led by an invisible hand, drawing her down narrow alleyways, towards rarely seen relics, to conversations with miracle-seeking people with AIDS. Each experience an added tile, this portrait of Jude emerges as a beautifully rendered mosaic, filled with colorful history, strange artifacts, and stories of the miraculous powers of faith.
"Jude is on call, right down to the softest prayer, the smallest hope. Once lost himself -- on the map and in history -- he is found among those lost who, accepting their solitariness, take refuge in his invisible presence. From East to West, from the first century to the brink of the twenty-first, his message vibrates in the hallow reaches of the unanchored modern world."
Customer Reviews:
Jude: A Pilgrimage to the Saint of Last Resort.......2003-11-26
I was disappointed by this book. It lacks the compelling flow of Walking the Bible, or of John McPhee's books. It drifts from one shrine to another and seems to make the same generalizations at each one. Recommended for people who are fascinated by the minutia of St. Jude.
An exceptional book about about the Saint of Hope!.......1999-06-24
Liz Trotta has given us an exceptionally fine -- magnificently written -- account of Saint Jude's Mission as she(herself)explores the routes of what is known of his Apostolic travels. Her book is a masterpiece in calling attention to this much neglected SAINT OF HOPE as he carries out Christ's instruction to him and the 11 other Apostles.
Wonderment and passion for the non-believer as well........1999-03-10
I am neither a Catholic nor a believer in St. Jude, but this book is wonderful historical, anthropoligical and socialogical study in how Jude survives in legend and in devotion. The author writes beautifully, elegantly, magically and shows the how the inspiration of Jude provides comfort and solace to his followers. The beauty of St. Jude is not found in his large deeds, but in his personal and practical assistance to the afflicted. His small intercessions are not trivial, they are evidence of his kindness and his democratic accessability to all.
Well researched book.......1999-02-24
This is a fascinating book for anyone interested in St. Jude. For those who are not too familiar with this "behind the scenes saint", this book will be enlightening. The book is well written and well researched.
More comprehensive than Orsi.......1998-06-15
I would say that Liz Trotta's work is more comprehensive than Orsi's Thank you St. Jude. Orsi spends his energies on the CLaritian Shrine of St. Jude in Chicago. If you read his book you would not know that there are numerous shrines of St. Jude: Baltimore, New York, Dominicans in Chicago, San Francisco. Trotta's work devotes chapters to all of these. Almost every story of St. Jude is recorded in her Jude. I believe that as a journalist she has a different mission from the Scholar, Robert Orsi with all his footnotes and bibliography. Both serve devotion to St. Jude! But with different styles and energies.
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The History of the New York Court of Appeals: 1932-2003
Bernard S. Meyer ,
Burton C. Agata , and
Seth H. Agata
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The History of the New York Court of Appeals 1847-1932
ASIN: 0231136323 |
Book Description
From 1932 to 2003, the New York Court of Appeals-the highest court in the state- decided crucial cases pertaining to the social and legal issues of the day. The judges' rulings affected laws regarding motion picture censorship; obscenity, indecency, and immorality; religion; capital punishment; torts; the right to control personal medical care; and abortion.
This comprehensive history completes a two volume series that began with The History of the New York Court of Appeals, 1847-1932. Each case is richly recounted and analyzed, detailing the decisions and dissenting opinions. Short biographies are provided for the judges who served during this period, and changes in the selection of judges, as well as the court's jurisdiction, are thoroughly explained.
Particular to this volume, the authors provide the legal, social, and political contexts for these cases, showing how the law has evolved over time. They examine the court's view concerning its constitutional power to respond to an economic emergency during the Great Depression; they outline cases in which the judges ruled on the government's role in legislating morals and morality; and they focus on the evolution of the court's opinions regarding statutory interpretation, judicial federalism, censorship, constitutional reform, criminal law and capital punishment, rules of evidence, education, family law, and antitrust and labor law.
Book Description
The Caribbean has the fortune—and the misfortune—to be everyone's idea of a tropical paradise. Its sun, sand and scenery attract millions of visitors each year and make it a profitable destination for the world's fastest growing industry. Tourism is increasingly touted as its only hope of creating jobs and wealth—literally, the island's last resort.
Last Resorts examines the real impact of tourism on the people and landscape of the Caribbean. It explores the structure of ownership of the industry and shows that the benefits it brings to the region do not live up to its claims. New developments in ecotourism, sex tourism, and the burgeoning cruise industry are not changing this pattern of short-term exploitation of the region's resources. The book shows how Caribbean societies are corrupted by tourism and its culture turned into floorshow parody.
This new edition has been extensively revised and updated. It gives voice to people inside the tourism industry, its critics, and tourists themselves, and offers vital insights into a phenomenon that is central to the globalized world of today.
Customer Reviews:
Love this book.......2007-07-25
After having traveled in the Caribbean as a tourist for years, I always wanted to read a good analysis of tourism in the Caribbean. This book is the best. It explains how very little of the economic benefits of the money we spend in as a tourist reaches the local people. Pattullo explains how deep this exploitation goes and has tons of data to support her conclusions.
Towards a sustainable Caribbean.......2006-09-02
"Last Resorts" by Polly Pattullo is an excellent history and analysis of the Caribbean tourist industry. Ms. Pattullo examines the myriad social, environmental, economic and cultural changes that tourism has produced in the region. Along the way, the reader gains insight into how the promotion of the Carribean as a place of carfree escapism may be endangering the region's future unless vast inequities both within and without the Carribean are addressed in a meaningful way.
Ms. Pattullo explains that mass tourism emerged as an economic development strategy that was defined by the Caribbean's dependent relationship with the colonial powers of the 20th century and especially the United States. When air travel opened tourism to the middle classes in the 1960s, post-colonial governments turned to Western corporations to develop destinations that might attract foreign capital and thereby prop up local economies. However, the islands have gradually become ever more dependent on outside forces as airlines, cruise ship operators, and hotel chains have come to exercise near-monopolistic control over tourist itineraries. In order to maintain their privileged positions in the struggle for market share, most Carribean governments have found it necessary to concede the majority of tourist revenues to the procurement of foreign goods and services.
For example, Ms. Pattullo discusses how top jobs in the tourism sector tend to go to foreigners while locals get mostly dead-end jobs; many are resentful about earning poor wages despite working in a highly profitable industry. As street vendors and other freelancers seek to aggressively sell drugs and their bodies to tourists, more destinations have chosen to offer all-inclusive experiences that shut the dangers of the outside world away. Yet the coccoon-like world of the all-inclusives only serves to reinforce privilege, depriving locals of their own beaches and insulating visitors from the discomfort of viewing the socio-economic deprivation that often surrounds them.
Ms. Pattullo addresses that most pernicious of all tourism, the cruise ship industry which largely treats the Caribbean as a parking lot and waste dump for its 20 million annual passengers and where island culture is experienced in its most sanitized and commodified form. Most passengers spend little time onshore but frequently purchase goods at duty-free shops that are aligned with the ships, providing little revenues for the islands -- who, for their part, have found it impossible to impose reasonable rates of taxation on the industry for fear of being dropped from itineraries.
Whereas the path of corporate-controlled mass tourism is leading towards the Disneyification of island culture and the degradation of its environment, Ms. Pattullo believes that the Caribbean can secure a better future by embracing the principle of sustainability. The author contends that the region must begin to celebrate and preserve its unique history, culture and natural environment by implementing sustainable development strategies that are designed to empower local governments, businesses and people. To that end, she cites many examples of successful alternatives to the typical mass tourism model of sand and sun, including: eco-tourism, health spas, music festivals, living history, art and architectural appreciation, and other alternative vacation experiences. Indeed, it seems that the ideas advocated by the author might go a long way towards helping this remarkable part of the world both retain its uniqueness and gain a measure of the long-overdue success that it so richly deserves.
I highly recommend this book to everyone.
An in-depth study of the economic and general effects of tourism upon the Caribbean area.......2006-03-14
Last Resorts: The Cost Of Tourism In The Caribbean, second edition, updated and revised by Polly Pattullo is an in-depth study of the economic and general effects of tourism upon the Caribbean area. Knowledgeably written, Last Resorts covers the overall economic effects of employment, history, government, social impact, culture, as well as an informative prediction of future probabilities for the Caribbean. Highly recommended for the vast coverage it provides, as well as its highly acute and accurate analytical content, Last Resorts is an excellent read for economics advisors, Caribbean trade executives, and non-specialist general readers, local citizens and vacationers with an interest in the Caribbean.
Paradaise might be a victim of its own success.......1997-04-26
- Everyone's tropical paradaise might be a victim of its own success. This book
reviews the tourism industry and explores how to bring greater benefits to the
region. Excellent!
Ron Mader / El Planeta Platica
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The last resorts
Cleveland Amory
Manufacturer: Harper
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740 Park: The Story of the World's Richest Apartment Building
ASIN: B0007DECI6 |
Book Description
An adventure featuring the Eighth Doctor with Fitz and Anji. The heroes are used to finding themselves in different times, eras long before or long after the ones into which they were born. But when these eras come equipped with Hilton hotels and luxury theme parks, it's a different matter. In the 1950s, the Good Time Travel Company has discovered time travel in a big way - it's now time tourism, in fact - and they're not about to let go of their profits easily, no matter what some Doctor guy ssays about the fragility of the time/space continuum. But the ensuing paradoxes mean that chaos is swiftly encroaching on the happy day trips to Roman orgies. Something has to be done, before it engulfs the whole of time!
Customer Reviews:
I think rhyme and reason just fell apart........2004-08-09
I'm actually shocked by how much I disliked THE LAST RESORT. Paul Leonard is an author I have a lot of time for. I found something to enjoy in all of his previous NAs/EDAs (yes, even THE DREAMSTONE MOON which is almost universally loathed). Yet outside the first few chapters, I didn't enjoy any of it. There's just not much here to like. Stuff happens. None of it to people we're interested in. Then more stuff happens. Not much of it makes sense. Then the book ends. Readers are left, scratching their heads, wondering why on Earth this book exists. Maybe it doesn't. Maybe I imagined it. Once the scars heal and the memory fades, I doubt I'll ever have any reason to want to go back and prove that this book really was published.
There's a strong beginning to the story. We actually have a plot that fits comfortably into the on-going story-arc; without the Time Lords to enforce the Laws Of Time, dangerous and destructive time travel is appearing. "Destructive", because of the havoc inadvertently unleashed upon the cosmos. Alternative universes are springing up with each instance of time travel (at least, that's what the book says, although unexplained exceptions are made). Any time traveler changing history is now responsible for the existence of two time-streams -- the first being his original time-stream (the unmolested chain of events that led to his time travel), the second being the altered, new time-stream (the new and improved version which may in fact be a paradox). The book's most successful moments involve the comedy potential of having all manner of modern-day icons turning up in human history.
The biggest problem with this book is that it's obvious by about page fifty that this state of affairs can't remain true and there's clearly going to be a reset of one sort or another before the book closes. "But", I hear some of you saying, "Surely what's important is the journey itself, not necessarily what we arrive at." And usually I would agree with that sentiment. But this journey itself is technobabble-laden nonsense. Most of it probably makes logical sense, but it's difficult to care about any of it. We're told that Sabbath's nonsensical plan to fix everything will work, but we aren't told why or given any information that would let us figure it out.
We're told that alternative universes are popping up every time someone (off-screen) makes a change to history. So, how often is this occurring? How many time-streams are created during the first, say, one hundred pages? Does each inconsistency point to a newer history? Are there new universes created without immediately noticeable effects? Are new universes being created with every chapter? Every scene? Every page? Every sentence? As far as I can tell, each of these could be true, but we aren't told why or given any information that would let us figure it out.
So, given that the majority of the book is simply extended padding, is there anything worth reading in the bulk of pages that makes up THE LAST RESORT? Sadly, no. In the past, Leonard has done a reasonably good job of presenting solid characterization. At times, he's done astonishingly well on this point. But not here. His characters simply cannot overcome the "plot" that they're mired in. The only exception is a bright spot in the character of Iyeeye. Leonard is playing to his strengths here. I found her thoughts while in her own environment to be engrossing. The problem is that the story is far too splintered for a deep character like this. She's stuck in something that is impossible to care about and unfortunately the effect is to dull any interest she may have brought.
One of the advantages to creating a whole bunch of identical duplicates is that it allows the author opportunity to kill off characters as many times as he likes without having to bother creating new ones. Oh boy. But yet, maybe seeing exactly how a beloved character may choose to sacrifice himself in one reality would give us further insight into the still-living character in another time-line. It's a nice idea... that only happens once (Anji's journal). The literally thousands of other deaths are just pointless. In the MST3k episode "Time Chasers", a movie which shares the same philosophy of time travel as this novel, one copy of our bespectacled, big-chinned, hockey-haired hero is blown away. "Don't worry, folks", mocks one of the robots wearily, "This movie's got a spare." Oh, you wouldn't believe the amount of times I thought of that line during THE LAST RESORT.
The plot eventually turns back on itself. Maybe. Something inexplicable that occurs near the beginning finally gets a time-travely explanation towards the end although I'm not convinced that the link-up actually matters. It would be more impressive if there was any reason to care by that point or any reason to believe that they were all part of the same universe or time-line or whatever. So something matches up. So what? It's been mere days since I read the book and I'm already struggling to remember why key plot points took place. This novel is the poster child for demonstrating that a convoluted plot is no replacement for a complex one. A complex plot is one in which multiple layers are carefully interweaved -- characterization, plot and tone all work together to enhance the author's chosen themes. A convoluted plot is one in which weird stuff happens just because the author says so. It may all make sense by the end, but it might not. And you might not even be able to tell anyway.
I have absolutely no problem with a storyline that requires me to give it a lot of thought. But I balk when that extra thinking leads only to the discovery of plot-holes, inconsistencies and sloppiness. This is not Paul Leonard's finest hour.
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- Save the Manatee
- Academics in Key West
- Death in Key West
- Grown up fiction
- The reviewers here are being too hard on this book
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The Last Resort: A Novel
Alison Lurie
Manufacturer: Henry Holt and Co.
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Imaginary Friends
ASIN: 0805058664 |
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The Last Resort finds Alison Lurie in top, trenchant form following a 10-year hiatus from fiction. "Without sex and death," the author wrote in Don't Tell the Grown-Ups, "humans may become as angels." Suffice it to say that the term angelic suits none of her newest cast, all of whom come up against life's realities during one Key West winter. Lurie's singular ensemble is spearheaded by the much younger wife of famed naturalist and writer Wilkie Walker, who is convinced that the world is "going to hell in a nonbiodegradable plastic handbasket." When the loving, supportive Jenny suggests they repair from New England to Florida, she hopes that he'll at last be able to finish his book and, more importantly, that his erratic behavior will come to an end. Of course, she has no goal for herself, since she's spent all her adult life as custodian to the aging author and can envision no other existence. Fortunately, a chance encounter with the owner of the successful women's guesthouse will eventually suggest a far more satisfying one.
For the irascible Wilkie, the trip turns out to be a blessing in disguise. Convinced that he's no longer in ecological vogue and certain that he's suffering from cancer, he's finally free to plan a tragic swimming accident. Alas, each of his attempts is foiled: once he can't get rid of a hanger-on, and another time someone else has the audacity to kill himself, thereby stealing his limelight. What's worse, the man was suffering from AIDS, and Wilkie certainly doesn't want that sort of information to sully his own obit. The Last Resort is a hilarious--and merciless--look at social and sexual desire and literary reputation. Jenny is well aware, for example, "that to refuse to look at a writer's work is always a deadly insult," whether the writer is her husband or an ex-beatnik poet. As one character reasonably remarks, "You don't have to be intellectually brilliant to be a famous American poet. It's a handicap, sometimes. Innocent egotism, good looks, romantic sensibility, a thrilling speaking voice, and a nice little lyric gift, that's what makes it with the reviewers and the public."
Lurie is always keen to prick any human vanity or fashionable ism--and does so exquisitely. In addition to its infinitely satisfying ironies and indelible characters, The Last Resort, though far from Arcadia, offers up a serious call for us to seize the "bright full present" while we can.
Book Description
Like a loyal Victorian wife, Jenny has devoted her life to her much older husband, the famous writer and naturalist Wilkie Walker, bringing up their children and researching and editing his bestselling books. But this year, as winter approaches, Wilkie is increasingly depressed and withdrawn. At her wit's , Jenny persuades him to visit Key West, the Last Resort.
But Key West is not called the Last Resort for nothing. Lives can turn upside down here, and even short-term visitors can have experiences they never imagined. Within weeks of their arrival, Jenny not only has a part-time job but is becoming involved with assorted local characters, including Gerry, an ex-beatnik poet, and Lee, the dramatically attractive manager of a women-only guest house. Wilkie, meanwhile, is planning his own "accidental" death by drowning--a task that turns out to be more difficult than he thought--and trying to avoid the attentions of a breathless young female fan. The Last Resort is the perfect evocation of Key West and another dazzling demonstration of Alison Lurie's talent for high comedy and social comment.
Customer Reviews:
Save the Manatee.......2007-06-25
The title refers to Key West, Florida, which is the "last resort" both in the literal, geographical sense in that it is the southernmost part of the continental United States, at the far end of a long chain of islands, and also in the metaphorical sense in that it is a place where people (including several of the characters in the novel) go to start a new life when they have tried everything else.
The main characters are Wilkie Walker and his wife Jenny who travel to Key West for a winter break. Wilkie is a retired academic and scientist from a New England university. Although he is much older than his wife (he is seventy, she in her mid-forties) they have had a long and successful marriage. At the time of their Florida vacation, however, their relationship is under strain. Unknown to Jenny, Wilkie is convinced that he is suffering from terminal cancer and has resolved to commit suicide. He wants his death, however, to be thought an accident, and has decided to drown himself while swimming in the sea. (The title "The Last Resort" may also have some reference to Wilkie's planned suicide). All Jenny has noticed, however, is that her husband has become withdrawn and remote and she has concluded that he no longer loves her. Indeed, she convinces herself on very flimsy evidence that he is having an affair, and she begins a sexual relationship with Lee Weiss, the lesbian owner of a women-only boarding house.
In this novel Alison Lurie makes use of the device of recurring characters, a device used by other novelists, most famously Balzac. Her previous novel, "The Truth About Lorin Jones" was also partially set in Key West, and Lee Weiss and her boarding house also play an important part in that book. Two other characters from the same book, Polly Alter and Garrett Jones, are briefly mentioned. The Walkers meet an acquaintance, the poet Gerald Grass, who makes an unsuccessful attempt to seduce Jenny. Grass was one of Janet's housemates in "Real People"; another, Leonard Zimmern, appears at the end (it turns out he is Lee's cousin) and a third, Kenneth Foster, is mentioned. Wilkie was a lecturer at Convers College, the university featured in "Love and Friendship". It would appear that Glory Green, the young actress in "The Nowhere City", never made it in Hollywood as she reappears here as a tour guide.
The book was written in the late nineties. Today, less than ten years on, there is a tendency to look back at the Clinton years as a quiet time in American history, the interval between the fall of Communism and the 9/11 attacks when it was possible to talk about the "end of history". Nevertheless, the period had its own anxieties, and this book deals with two of them, AIDS and the environment. There is a sub-plot about Perry Jackson, an HIV-positive homosexual and the three female relatives, his mother, his formidable Aunt Myra and his cousin Barbie, unhappily married to an ambitious congressman, who come to visit him. (Barbie is the woman whom Jenny wrongly believes to be Wilkie's mistress).
Wilkie has acquired fame as a writer and broadcaster on natural history and has become an icon of the American conservation movement. His anxieties about life are not confined to the state of his health; he is also depressed by the degradation of the environment and the lack of success enjoyed by campaigners like himself in trying to preserve it. There are frequent references to environmental issues; the campaign to save the Florida manatee plays an important part in the book. The environmental themes, however, are not dealt with in a party-political way. We tend to think of the "green" cause as being a liberal one, but Wilkie is in most matters a social and political conservative, whereas Lee, a committed feminist and in all other respects a right-on liberal, has no interest in the natural world and holds views about the environment (jobs and the economy are more important than saving some threatened creature) that would not seem out of place in President Bush's cabinet.
Some of the characters do not seem convincing. I was surprised when Ms Lurie informs us that both Perry and Barbie are supposed to be in their late thirties; Perry comes across like a twenty-something, and Barbie like a neurotic teenager. Perry, who has a predilection for anonymous sex with handsome strangers, seemed too close to the image of the gay man as rampantly promiscuous (an early eighties stereotype that had become outdated by the late nineties). More importantly, Ms Lurie was never able to make convincing one of the central themes of the book, the lesbian relationship between Jenny and Lee. She failed to convince me that a woman in Jenny's position- one who had previously been exclusively heterosexual and who had been married for over twenty years- would enter into a relationship with another woman because she believed her husband was having an affair. (A relationship between Jenny and Gerry Grass might have been more plausible).
Nevertheless, I felt that many of the reviewers on this page (ten of whom only gave the book one star) were being unfair to the author. Despite its serious themes (death, suicide, terminal illness, environmental degradation) there is plenty of black or ironic humour, especially in the scenes featuring Wilkie (the book's best-realised character) whose attempts to commit suicide are continually frustrated- by a chance meeting with Grass, by bad weather, by another suicide. As with other works by this author, there is also plenty of satire, much of it directed at the fiercely conservative political activist Myra. Politically, Myra is opposed to feminism, but ends up becoming a symbol of female empowerment. Having failed to direct the male members of her family towards a political career, she decides that her only option is to run for office herself. The lush, tropical atmosphere of Key West is well conveyed, and there is a surprise revelation which brings the book's themes into perspective. This is not Alison Lurie's best book, but it is in many ways an enjoyable read.
Academics in Key West.......2006-07-07
Not a lot happens in this book, which I felt exactly matched the languid torpor of Key West, lush, beautiful and incredibly hot, as described by author Alison Lurie, who returned in 1999 from ten years without a novel with this book.
Jenny Walker, the protagonist, is self-effacing to the point of invisibility, a fact that has been pointed out to her over the years by myriad other women, from her daughter to well-meaning friends. Feminism not only passed her by, it has no reality to Jenny, a fact that is just a tad difficult to understand, given her intelligence. For Jenny's entire life is being a helpmeet to her much older husband, author and lecturer Wilkie Walker, a very unlikeable character who uses his wife to half-write his books, edit, take care of all his correspondence, run their personal lives like a maid, and, above all, make him look good.
When Wilkie sinks into a deep depression, Jenny, in desperation, suggests that they relocate for the winter from their New England home to the warmth and sun of Key West, Florida. And off they go--which I cannot believe would happen in real life, given their personalities. Once they get to Florida, they meet a number of colorful characters whose contrast with Jenny renders her even more ethereal.
Why is Jenny deliberately in thrall to her horrible husband? Other than the half-hearted explanation that Wilkie's work is hers as well, that he IS her job, there is no reason one can see. Jenny is as languid as the weather...and as hard to understand as a cypher. When the end of the book comes--extremely abruptly--we understand her no better than at the beginning, even though we cannot help liking her.
A strange book, not unlikeable, but not fulfilling in either its story or its denouement.
Death in Key West.......2005-10-25
"But even death would be different here, easier -- a kind of slow dissolving into the almost perpetual heat and moisture of Key West." With AIDS and old age, death is everpresent in Key West. One of the main characters here is an older man who is suicidal and another is a young gay man who has learned he is HIV positive. And yet love blooms, when Jenny Walker, married to Wilkie, the famed naturalist who becomes suicidal, meets Lee Weiss, owner of a Key West guest house and a feminist lesbian who sees the beauty in Jenny that Wilkie no longer appreciates. Their love blossoms amidst Wilkie's decline and Jenny, a long time faithful wife and helpmate, goes head over heels as she realizes what true love is. But the book is more than a love story. Key West is revealed with all its flora and fauna and the assortment of people who make it the rich place it is. And the book tells Wilkie's story as well as Jenny's, the fabled author whose fame is past and who wants to end it all while he has the strength to do it. He is stopped at one point by another suicide, a wheel chair bound AIDS victim who simply rolls himself into the ocean and never comes up.
Grown up fiction.......2005-10-19
I bought this book, having read lurie before, in order to escape all sense of trend or fashion. it is exhausting having to read in order to hold forth. lurie, i knew, would take me in to the real world, away from the sunday papers and the chatterati. and i was right, she did. a lovely book, this, for grown ups.
The reviewers here are being too hard on this book.......2004-05-29
This is not a great book, but better than some of the reviews here suggest. Lurie can create believable, deep characters very quickly. Contrary to what many Amazon reviewers say, she does develop some of the characters quite well. Both Jenny and Wilkie Walker are fully developed, as is Lee. Myra and Barbie are also well developed, and great fun to read about. I think some of the reviewers here might not have enjoyed having a Republican stick in the mud like Myra so successfully skewered. Which is fine, but if that is the case, then they should have stated their prejudice up front.
The book also deals with Lesbian themes in a very intimate way, and that could have upset a number of reviewers. It's surprising that so few of the other reviewers of this book mention this theme and its central roll in the book.
I had a little trouble with the main character, Wilkie Walker, being depicted as a sexist, Republican, environmentalist. That is an odd combination, and yet he is presented as being something of a stereotype to other characters in the book. I don't meet many Republican environmentalists. Aren't they somewhat rare birds? Why does no one in the book, or among the reviewers here, mention this?
I also was a bit put off by Lurie's caustic wit. Both she and most of the characters in the book are extremely judgemental. In particular, a nice but troubled young woman called Barbie is castigated by nearly everyone in the book, and the author also seems to show her little sympathy. Yet I don't think she does anyone any harm, and she is always well intentioned and often quite helpful to others. It is interesting, however, the Lurie has Barbie's story end happily, and that she let me like her even if the characters in the book didn't like her. I was also interested in the fact that we had enough background to see where Barbie's character flaws came from. She was plausible, even if she was the brunt of a number of jokes.
My copy of this book does not mention that it could be thought of as a good beach read. I don't see it as that kind of book, and I think the publishers may have done Lurie a disservice by depicting it that way in the editions read by other reviewers here on Amazon.
Though not nearly as funny as some people here seemed to think, nevertheless I found this book a very pleasant entertainment for a few short evenings. I was sad that the book ended, which is generally how I can be sure that I really enjoyed a book. It is definitely a character driven novel, but the plot was rich enough to keep me turning the pages. I think this book is a modest success, and well above most contemporary fiction in terms of quality.
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