The Last Good Chance: A Novel

by Tom Barbash

Book Overview

In this captivating first novel, a young man's plan to revitalize his hometown leads four of its inhabitants down alternating paths of desire and deceit.When the charismatic Jack Lambeau returns to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312287968
• Release Date: September 2002
• Publisher: Picador
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 1.5" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Good story line.

Interesting characters, a pleasure to read.

Like a great independent movie

Something about this book really got to me. I completely fell for the characters, their lives and the mistakes they make. Most of all--Harris, the "black sheep" brother, just slayed me! He goes from stealing a clean pair of socks in the gym, to finding these moments of unexpected grace. If you liked the movie "You Can Count On Me" or "In the Bedroom" you'll love this book. It's all about relationships and moments when characters find themselves doing the unthinkable and perhaps never quite admitting it to themselves. Subtle and remarkable, the prose is deceptively minimal, unlike so many of these other "big" novels nowadays. This is a real find.

There's a good chance you'll enjoy this

A very true-to-life work of fiction -- Barbash's characters really came alive for me. I was thoroughly engrossed in this somewhat bleak tale of a dying upstate NY town (Lakeland) and the lives of the people who inhabit it. This was a romance and a tale of small town America with a little bit of mystery thrown in.At the heart of the story is a love triangle between old friends Steven Turner, Jack Lambeau, and Jack's wife, Anne. Jack becomes singularly focused on becoming Lakeland's redeemer through revitalizing the town's lakefront district, so focused that he neglects Anne. She seeks solace in the arms of Turner. A good love triangle can take up an entire novel, but Barbash throws in some other drama as well -- illegal toxic waste dumping. Taking part in the dumping is Jack's brother, Harris, who has some drama of his own going on -- his wife Marla just had their baby, and since he hasn't been much of a husband, Marla doesn't want him around. Barbash has created some really complex, likeable characters. You'll find yourself rooting for all of them (except Anne, maybe -- I thought she was really stringing these two guys along). The really satisfying thing about this book is, unlike so much modern fiction, that the ending doesn't leave you in complete despair. Not to say that things work out perfectly, but you're left with some hope at the end, and that's always a good feeling to have when you turn the last page.

This one's for every American town that prosperity forgot...

I was at once delighted and saddened at the way Barbash has figured out those small communities that have been left behind by successive waves of American prosperity. The folks in those communities have no insight on the fact it's a hopeless task to rebuild their modest economies. They just don't seem to grasp the big picture. But, they are so noble in their struggle and you can't help rooting for them. Hey, I'm one of 'em. I happen to have lived in many small, upstate New York communities like the mythical one created by the author, and the folks he writes about seem as real and complex as the ones I run into downtown at the post office and the hairdresser's. Barbash's novel focuses, unblinking, on the death throes of the middle class American dream. I'm glad someone has given us the big picture.

I loved this book!

Tom Barbash's novel "The Last Good Chance" is a wonderful book that draws you in from the very first page. It is a story about urban developer Jack Lambeau who has big dreams for his small provincial home town, his friend Steven Turner who uncovers a scandal that threatens Jack's hopes and plans, and Jack's aspiring artist wife, Anne, who is caught between the two. It is in part an illustration of the ease with which good people can find themselves in bad situations, the fascinating need people have to justify the choices they make, and the creative lengths they will go to in self-deception.I found the character development in this book to be extraordinary. It is written from several perspectives, and casts both main and supporting characters in different lights that come together seamlessly in vibrant portraits. Without description, Barbash achieves characters that live and breathe. We are privy to their eloquent contemplation and reflection, and we feel our own greed, pride, betrayal, love and longing. What more can you ask of a book?I highly recommend this book, and I will be dropping The Last Good Chance into many stockings this Christmas!

An impressive debut

The Last Good Chance is a great read. It's the kind of book you'll be thinking about long after you've turned the last page. Its look at small-town American life is reminiscent of The Corrections or Empire Falls. Yet I think in some ways it's superior. It has more of a plot than Empire Falls and its characters are more human, less caricatures, than in The Corrections. It touches on deep themes and at its heart, it's a good story, well told. I found Barbash's portrait of the upstate New York community of Lakeland and what transpires as it attempts to remake itself totally absorbing. We all have a hometown and our relationship to that place can be complex and often ambivalent. Barbash touches on that in his character of urban planning whiz kid Jack Lambeau, who returns to Lakeland from New York City determined to turn around his down-on-its-luck hometown. What happens as Lambeau attempts to remake Lakeland, turn its drab waterfront into a thriving commercial and cultural centerpiece, a la Boston's Quincy Market or Baltimore's Inner Harbor, forms the core of this story. In many ways, it strikes at the heart of something very unique about being American - the desire and the ability to constantly remake ourselves - or at least try - and the choices and compromises we make along the way. This is an impressive debut from Tom Barbash and I'm looking forward to reading his next book.