Last Orders – Graham Swift

Last Orders is the story of four men once close to London butcher Jack Dodds, who meet to carry out his last wish: to have his ashes scattered into the sea. The men, whose lives revolve around work, family, the racetrack and their favourite pub, must make their way down to a seaside town to complete the task. Through conversation and memory they trace the paths they have followed by choice and by accident; through the Second World War and its aftermath, through the dramas of family life, and their relationships with each other. In their brilliantly realized, richly nuanced voices, Swift has created a narrative language that perfectly expresses not only the comforts of old habits and friendships, but also the complexity and courage of ordinary lives.

I read this in a under a day – it made for a good sunday read – as I found it to be a quick (despite being almost 300 pages) and strangely compelling read. I say strangely compelling – as it’s not my usual read – but I have set myself the task of reading all the booker winners and this has been on mnt tbr for a little while now. The “voices” of this novel are what make it so remarkable – they are pure London blokes of a certain age. Everything that happens in the novel takes place through memory, and conversation. The result is novel that manages to span the lives of these characters, ordinary working men and women from Bermondsy – who have had some sadnesses in their lives, and some secrets too. It is a novel about life and death, and how we live the bit in between.