Last Orders (1996)
Who wrote it?
Graham Colin Swift (1949-, active 1980-), born South Croydon, London. Educated at Dulwich College (on a scholarship) and Cambridge University, he is the author of 11 novels as well as several short story collections. He was first shortlisted for the Booker in 1983 for the magnificent Fenland novel Waterland, at which point he was being feted as one of Granta’s famous “Young British Novelists” alongside the likes of Martin Amis, Julian Barnes, Ian McEwan and Kazuo Ishiguro.
What's it about?
Last Orders follows a motley crew of friends and near-relatives of the recently passed-away Jack Dodds, a Bermondsey butcher’s shop owner. They’re tasked by Jack’s widow Amy with scattering his ashes in Margate. Amy herself isn’t attending, for reasons that are explored in flashback as the novel unfolds, alongside the crew’s somewhat ramshackle journey out of London and through Kent, filled with arguments, detours, pubs, and reflections on life, death and relationships.
What I liked
It’s a novel that reveals itself slowly, in numerous ways. Initially I struggled to recognise the Swift of Waterland in the somewhat mundane, patchy opening section, but his key themes and interests do surface, subtly and movingly, as you go further in.
The novel deals with similar themes of aging and death to The Old Devils, but does so (in my view) with considerably more heart and love for its cast of characters. The tone was humane rather than cynical, and I felt more engaged as a result.
Without revealing too much, the character of June is the real heart of the novel, even if she is given a relatively small amount of page-time. It was in her story (or, more aptly, lack of) that I remembered what I’d found most intriguing about Swift’s writing and philosophy. It’s in such characters (like Waterland’s Dick) that the petty foibles of the more “mundane” characters around them are exposed, powerfully and cleverly.
Despite some deep themes, there’s plenty of humour in here.
What I didn’t like
It feels very slight compared to Waterland, and the sense of it being a later reward for an author seen as overlooked up to that point is hard to fully shake. Having said that, I think it is somewhat unfairly maligned.
On a similar note, others have criticised its use of “cockerney” vernacular. In honesty I didn’t feel it was overly intrusively bad while reading, but looking back I can sort of see where they’re coming from. There’s definitely a touch of “Guy Ritchie’s East End” about the whole thing. Kind of amusing though, at worst, in my opinion.
More seriously, on this side, I did get a repeated sense that in a novel that trumpets its multiple voices as a virtue (using them as chapter headings, etc) many of those voices felt remarkably similar to Graham Swift (with a cockerney accent.) It’s hard to take some of their deep, philosophical and very “literary” thoughts as their own. They feel like ciphers for the author’s (albeit interesting) opinions, rather than living, breathing characters speaking in their own voices.
In a year when the Women’s Prize for Fiction was formally launched, it feels appropriate that the winner this year is a representative of exactly the kind of predictable, safe, male/middle class establishment that the average person on the street probably imagines when they think of the Booker, and with a book that fits all the cliches (at least superficially) of that “genre.” While I think there are many worthwhile novels to come out of that group of Granta YBNs / Booker establishment men (I will fight for Ishiguro any day of the week!) - this, perhaps, isn’t really one of the best.
The chapters in Amy’s voice are few and far between, but far more interesting (especially in relation to June). I could have done with a few more of these and less of Vince banging on about “motors.”
Food & drink pairings
A beer or two won’t hurt? Or maybe a short to avoid too many trips to the lav?
Something from the butchers, one would imagine.
Fun facts
There was some serious controversy (in the Literary pages of the broadsheets, at least) following this year’s Prize, as Swift’s winner was accused of plagiarising the premise and structure of William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying. Seemingly a storm in a teacup, it was explained (eventually) by Swift as an “homage” to Faulkner, but not before several judging panel members had been worked up into a huff by the press, with one describing the revelations as “embarrassing” for the judges. A lot of silliness, meaning either none of the esteemed panel had read the Faulkner or they had and didn’t notice the similarities. The Guardian’s excellent Booker blog summed up the controversy best, with the pertinent question “Who gives a shit?”
This was made into a film with significant fanfare in 2001. I don’t recall catching it, though I’m pretty sure that’s when I acquired the tie-in paperback which has sat on my shelf every since. It starred a who’s who of Brit thesp royalty, including Michael Caine (of course), Ray Winstone as his screen son (makes sense), Bob Hoskins (playing Lucky, obviously) and Helen Mirren as Amy. Without having seen it, I predict the adaptation to be about as direct as is possible, given the absolute literalism of the casting.
Vanquished Foes
Margaret Atwood (Alias Grace)
Beryl Bainbridge (Every Man For Himself)
Seamus Deane (Reading in the Dark)
Shena Mackay (The Orchard on Fire)
Rohinton Mistry (A Fine Balance)
Any tips from the above?
This year was also the inaugural Orange Prize for Fiction (known today as the Women’s Prize For Fiction), set up to counter the evident male domination of the Booker shortlist over the years. The first winner in 1996 was Helen Dunmore’s A Spell of Winter.
Context
In 1996:
Bill Clinton defeats Republican Bob Dole in US Presidential Election
1996 Summer Olympics takes place in Atlanta, US - blighted by a bombing incident that injures over 100
England hosts Euro 1996 football tournament, won by Germany who defeat the hosts in the semi-finals
Bombing at Canary Wharf in London brings IRA ceasefire to an end
IRA bombing devastates a large part of Manchester city centre
Dunblane Massacre in Scotland
Massacre of Hutus by Tutsis in Burundi
Indictment of Bosnian Serbs Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic for war crimes
Arrest of Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski in Montana, US
Port Arthur Massacre in Tasmania, Australia
Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party elected in Israel
Dolly the sheep is the first mammal to be successfully cloned, in Scotland
Release of Nintendo 64 console
Tamagotchi electronic pet-care toy is released in Japan by Bandai
Death of rapper Tupac Shakur, aged 25
Pulp's Jarvis Cocker disrupts Michael Jackson's performance at the BRIT awards in London
Oasis play largest gigs in British history at Knebworth
Aaliyah, One in a Million
The Fugees, The Score
Manic Street Preachers, Everything Must Go
Beck, Odelay
Spice Girls, "Wannabe"
First performances of Rent and The Vagina Monologues
Helen Fielding, Bridget Jones's Diary
Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club
David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest
Independence Day
The English Patient (Anthony Minghella film)
Fargo
Life Lessons
You aint here for long, but that dont mean you aint got plenty of time for regrets
We’re all just raw meat when it comes to it, blown away like ashes on the wind (Swift doesn’t quite go so far as to mix these obvious metaphors, but both are very much present and correct!)
A car is very much like a woman… (yeah thanks Vince)
Score
7
I think there’s more depth here than people give it credit for, and it hits its stride well in the second half despite some valid criticism. It’s no Waterland, though, that’s for sure.
Ranking to date:
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro (1989) - 9.5
Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie (1981) - 9.5
Moon Tiger - Penelope Lively (1987) - 9
Sacred Hunger - Barry Unsworth (1992) - 9
Oscar & Lucinda - Peter Carey (1988) - 9
The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch (1978) - 9
Life & Times of Michael K. - J. M. Coetzee (1983) - 9
Schindler’s Ark - Thomas Keneally (1982) - 9
The Bone People - Keri Hulme (1985) - 8.5
How Late it Was, How Late - James Kelman (1994) - 8.5
Troubles - J.G. Farrell (1970, "Lost Booker") - 8.5
Possession - A. S. Byatt (1990) - 8
Saville - David Storey (1976) - 8
The Siege of Krishnapur - J.G. Farrell (1973) - 8
The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje (1992) - 7.5
Rites of Passage - William Golding (1980) - 7.5
Offshore - Penelope Fitzgerald (1979) - 7.5
Last Orders - Graham Swift (1996) - 7
The Elected Member - Bernice Rubens (1970) - 7
The Conservationist - Nadine Gordimer (1974) - 7
Holiday - Stanley Middleton (1974) - 7
Heat & Dust - Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1975) - 6.5
In a Free State* - V.S. Naipaul (1971) - 6.5
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha - Roddy Doyle (1993) - 6
G. - John Berger (1972) - 6
The Famished Road - Ben Okri (1991) - 6
Something to Answer For - P. H. Newby (1969) - 5.5
The Ghost Road** - Pat Barker (1995) - 5.5
Staying On - Paul Scott (1977) - 5
Hotel du Lac - Anita Brookner (1984) - 4.5
The Old Devils - Kingsley Amis (1986) - 4
*Read in later condensed edition.
**Third part of a trilogy of which I hadn’t read pts 1&2
Next up
Arundhati Roy’s 1997 winner, The God of Small Things.
