Last Call

by Blair Oliver

Last Call is the most deserving collection I have read in a long, long time and I am silenced for how splendid and days later my heart still aches from reading these powerful stories about the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1934209740
• ISBN13: 9781934209745
• Release Date: August 2007
• Publisher: World Audience, Inc.
• Length: 148 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Refreshing new voice in short stories

Reviewed by Danielle Feliciano for Reader Views (12/07) Let me start with a confession: I am not at all a fan of short stories. I have tried over and over to be open to this genre but I can count on one hand the number of times that I have actually been able to finish a collection of short stories. Blair Oliver has restored my rapidly dwindling faith in the possibility of ever finding a short story collection I actually enjoy. In his book "Last Call," Oliver strips away all pretenses and forces the reader to face that we are, in fact, human. We all make mistakes, and those mistakes affect not only us, but those around us. Man or woman, everyone faces the same basic themes in life (love, loss, betrayal, redemption), but how we choose to deal with those life themes is what is at the core. Do we ignore life and watch it pass by or do we choose to actively live? Some of the actions of the men in this collection are hard to like. Starting with the boy who plans to use his father's rare coins to pay for a date and continuing with infidelity and lack of love, it would be obvious to detest these characters and place the blame on them. However, Oliver brilliantly manages to get the reader, if not to feel sorry for, to at least understand these men and the choices they make. It would be easy to judge, easy to say "how horrible," easy to say "I'd never do that," but as you are reading, it's not so easy to imagine yourself being any better than the characters. The main theme throughout each story seems to be of disconnect, not only the disconnect from child or spouse, but the disconnect from one's self. Each of the main characters seems to be an observer rather than a participant in his own life. He finds himself married to someone whom he doesn't like. He finds himself a father to a child he has nothing in common with. He finds himself waking up each day and saying to himself "How did I get here?" without ever really seeking the answer to that question. The stories in this collection are bleak and raw but in the end, Blair Oliver finds humor in the black hole his characters have created for themselves. He makes it possible for us to see ourselves mirrored in the depressing circumstances, yet in the safety of an outsider's opinion, find a small silver lining. I am honestly stunned by this collection and the stories in "Last Call" will stay with me for a long time to come.

Terrific stuff

These are very readable, entertaining stories about the complications of love, lust, and family. The main characters dig holes for themselves and don't just fall in -- they dive. They lie and cheat but won't look at the answer to the crossword puzzle. Somehow it's a lot of fun, reading about it.

A must read collection

"Last Call" by Blair Oliver is a moving set of short stories that bring out your inner most feelings. His characters are complex yet we can relate to their lives. Oliver has an understanding of human emotions and the struggle of family relationships. A must read book.

Promising new voice

I encountered some essays by Blair Oliver in Yellowstone Journal and was hooked by the freshness of the voice and the honesty behind them; not everything ended happy or beautiful. Since then, I kept hoping to find a collection of those pieces. Instead, I found this, a collection of short stories that just might be the most promising debut collection in years (and with Nathan Englander, Junot Diaz, and Nell Freudenburger out there, these have been very good years for the short story.) The stories blur the line between the comic and the melancholic, often mining humor out of unexpected places. The characters tend to be men who have fallen in love without ever liking their love objects. They are drawn to extreme behavior and respond inappropriately to the stuff of life. In other words, very real people with open flaws. Oliver draws them with unerring sympathy. It is this sympathy that gives this collection real heart.

surprisingly funny

The voice in these stories is nothing I've ever heard before. Part of it is a sort of Tom McGuane deadpan--funny, where you start laughing at the joke three lines later. Stealing the neighbor's cat, paying for the roller rink with dad's rare coin collection...you can't believe these guys are really doing these things, but they don't seem to think them odd. The stories are also nicely linked, so that the collection offers development similar to a novel.