Review by New York Times Review
In Stewart O'Nan's new novel, the manager of a Red Lobster is about to sell his last shrimp. STEWART O'Nan's turf is the large swath of the country that lies in the dark shadow of the American dream. His fiction tends to chronicle the lives of the two classes that dwell there: the poor and, as he puts it, "the richer poor." He is a poet of strip mall ennui, road rage, fluorescent lighting and the sparse lawns of pre-fabricated real estate developments. His characters strive to make their mortgage payments, hold full-time jobs and keep the refrigerator stocked, but struggle to fend off the lurking nightmares of domestic crime, alcoholism and war trauma. They buy lottery tickets, and they always lose. From the opening sentence of his slim 11th novel, "Last Night at the Lobster," we're unmistakably in O'Nan country: "Mall traffic on a gray winter's day, stalled." It's hard to imagine a more succinct or evocative first line. If "Last Night at the Lobster" had a color palette, it would be a dirty-snow gray, set beside the chintzy surf-side pastels of the New Britain Red Lobster where the novel is set. Our hero is the restaurant's general manager, Manny DeLeon. "Easily 35, double-chinned, his skin cocoa, a wiry goatee and sideburns," he's the kind of guy who fantasizes about going to Wendy's after work for a late-night spicy chicken sandwich and a cup of chili, but denies himself the indulgence by telling himself that he's already "fat enough." Manny has been forced by corporate headquarters to close his branch five days before Christmas, though for no good reason as far as he can tell. The company has decided his location hasn't met expectations. His sales figures have been steady, but Manny doesn't question ownership. He'd just as soon question what he's been doing working at Red Lobster for his entire adult life. The novel is a methodical, minute-by-minute account of Manny's final day at the restaurant, from the moment his ramshackle Buick Regal ("the kind a grandmother might leave behind") pulls into the Red Lobster parking lot, until he drives out of the mall at 11 at night. At the heart of the book lies a love story, though not one a reader might first expect. One of Manny's employees is his former girlfriend Jacquie, whom he still pines after. Both of them have moved on to other relationships, and Manny's new girlfriend, Deena, is pregnant with his child. Shivers of longing and disappointment pass between Manny and Jacquie as they go about their business - she serving endless baskets of all-you-can-eat shrimp, he cleaning up a child's vomit - but there's little hope of a reconciliation. Manny doesn't seem to know why exactly he and Jacquie broke up, only that he's devastated by it and powerless to change anything. The correspondence between his relationship with Jacquie and his relationship with the Red Lobster seems hardly incidental. As the story progresses, one begins to suspect that the main object of Manny's unrequited devotion is not Jacquie, but the restaurant itself. O'Nan's comprehensive approach can evoke the tedium of the job too effectively - five full pages describe how Manny uses a snowblower to clear the restaurant's path. But his vivid portrait of the Lobster ultimately conveys, somewhat miraculously, the warmth and comfort the restaurant provides Manny. It's not difficult to understand Manny's attachment to the fiberglass martin hanging by the front door, with its moronic glass-eyed stare; the brushed-steel tables that "shine like mirrors"; the point-of-sale screen that glows "a square of royal blue"; the dark lacquered booths, mock shoreline décor and shellacked driftwood restroom signs; and even the "water-torture dribble of the live tank," festooned with "mangy gold tinsel." When Manny checks the ice machines and the Frialators he all but caresses them. And more than the physical space, he is devoted to his family of employees. He tries not to dwell on the fact that they all resent their jobs, one another and perhaps even him. Manny knows there's something pathetic about his slavish loyalty to a place that treats him so indifferently, and his thoughts often resemble the agonies and frustrations of a spurned lover. When he thanks a departing customer for "thinking of Red Lobster," he is thrust into something like an existential crisis: "He says this as a reflex, but what does it mean? Who, besides the people who actually work here, thinks about Red Lobster? And even they don't really think about it." When two elderly customers enjoy their meal, Manny finds himself "inordinately proud that they both cleaned up their plates." O'Nan's empathy for his characters is one of his great gifts as a novelist, and it is an impressive achievement that Manny's misplaced affection for Red Lobster is not risible, but tragic. There is a powerful dignity to Manny's proud desire to do hard, productive work and contribute something of value to the people with whom he lives and toils. But O'Nan is also a bitter realist. So when the Lobster closes, Manny doesn't re-examine his relationship with Deena or ponder a new, more fulfilling career. He goes to work at Olive Garden. Nathaniel Rich is an editor at The Paris Review. His novel, "The Mayor's Tongue," is to be published next year.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [October 27, 2009]
Review by Booklist Review
O'Nan's short novel is a day in the life of a Red Lobster, or more accurately the last day in the life of a Red Lobster. The story follows manager Manny DeLeon as he juggles disgruntled cooks, a waitress he's recently, and reluctantly, ended an affair with, and unreasonable patrons over one last shift before the restaurant is closed down. All the while a massive snowstorm percolates outside, shrouding his quietly valiant effort to make something meaningful out of this last night. Much like Nicholson Baker, O'Nan revels in the mundane yet telling details that so often go overlooked, and with striking notes of lamented lost chances, uncertain futures, and overblown nostalgia, he paints a sympathetic portrait of a man struggling with the end of an era. The place study steals this show, however, as O'Nan captures the brisk rushes and dreary lulls of the insular restaurant world that will strike chords with the untold masses who've ever worked in food service. An intriguing but limited piece of writing that stretches, rather than flexes, O'Nan's considerable talent.--Chipman, Ian Copyright 2007 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Set on the last day of business of a Connecticut Red Lobster, this touching novel by the author of Snow Angels and A Prayer for the Dying tells the story of Manny DeLeon, a conscientious, committed restaurant manager any national chain would want to keep. Instead, corporate has notified Manny that his-and Manny does think of the restaurant as his-New Britain, Conn., location is not meeting expectations and will close December 20. On top of that, he'll be assigned to a nearby Olive Garden and downgraded to assistant manager. It's a loss he tries to rationalize much as he does the loss of Jacquie, a waitress and the former not-so-secret lover he suspects means more to him than his girlfriend Deena, who is pregnant with his child. On this last night, Manny is committed to a dream of perfection, but no one and nothing seems to share his vision: a blizzard batters the area, customers are sparse, employees don't show up and Manny has a tough time finding a Christmas gift for Deena. Lunch gives way to dinner with hardly anyone stopping to eat, but Manny refuses to close early or give up hope. Small but not slight, the novel is a concise, poignant portrait of a man on the verge of losing himself. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
O'Nan's tenth novel (after The Good Wife) demonstrates once again why the author is known as the "bard of the working class." It's December 20, closing day for the New Britain, CT, Red Lobster restaurant, abandoned by headquarters owing to mediocre sales. Manager Manny De Leo had to let most of his employees go-only five can transfer with him to the Olive Garden-and is counting on the good will of a few to run the place. As he opens, we hear in intimate detail about routine tasks (changing the oil in the Frialator) and tacky decorations (the shellacked marlin on the wall). Manny will miss it; it's his shop, and he takes pride in it. He'll also miss Jacquie, the waitress with whom he had a brief, intense affair. As snow falls, Manny handles the regulars, Christmas parties, the mall crowd, and his small crew with aplomb, constantly aware of his losses. This slice-of-life novel is funny, poignant, and exquisitely rendered. Strongly recommended for all fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 7/07.]-Nancy Fontaine, Dartmouth Coll., Hanover, NH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A rueful mood piece from prolific, eclectic O'Nan (The Good Wife, 2005, etc.) about the closing of a chain restaurant. On a snowy morning just a few days before Christmas, general manager Manny DeLeon opens the Red Lobster in New Britain, Conn., for the last time. Corporate ownership is closing this branch near a dying mall, and though Manny is moving to the Olive Garden in Bristol (with a demotion to assistant manager), he can take only four people with him. Unsurprisingly, most of the understandably pissed-off, soon-to-be-unemployed workers don't bother to show for the last shift. O'Nan paints a vivid picture of the world of minimum-wage labor, where people have little incentive to be responsible or reliable. Manny is both, scrambling to keep the restaurant running smoothly in the middle of a blizzard, even though it's the last day and no one cares but him. Personally, he's less upright. He doesn't want to marry his pregnant girlfriend Deena and still carries a torch for Jacquie, a waitress who's refused to come to the Olive Garden because their affair is over. There's hardly any plot here, just the frantic rush to serve lunch--O'Nan's depiction of the complex organization of meal preparation and service is the best since Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential--and the long wait through a sparsely populated dinner to shut the place down forever. Customers from hell and surly staff interact in a dance of clashing personalities that would be a marvelous comedy of manners if the overall tone weren't so sad. In his mid-30s, Manny is plagued by regret over Jacquie and not terribly optimistic about his future. O'Nan hews to a neglected literary tradition by focusing his sympathetic attention on people with few options. He offers no political message, merely the reminder that blue-collar lives are as charged with moral quandaries and professional difficulties as those of their better-dressed, more affluent fellow Americans. Very low-key, but haunting and quietly provocative. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
