Not A Review Of Celtic Thunder

I finished reading Graham Swift's "Last Orders" on Tuesday, November 27th - it took me 15 days to read it, but I've been having a difficult time blogging about it. Not that I didn't enjoy the novel - I really did! - I've just been distracted this week. Completely lacking focus on anything that doesn't directly involve Celtic Thunder.  The day job has suffered, sleep has suffered, reading has suffered (I can't read while listening to music - weird, I know!), and I'm fairly certain that my friends, Twitter followers and family would really like me to just Shut. The. Fuck. Up. but I had an amazing time at the concert on Monday, I'm really excited to see the acoustic Hurricane Sandy benefit concert next weekend, and I'm seriously tempted by the cruise next November. It's been an emotionally busy week for me! I do feel bad about not blogging, but I really couldn't focus, and I didn't want to write an entire post just about how amazingly fun the show was.  So that's all I will say about it! ;)

I was a bit concerned that "Last Orders" would be similar to "The Old Devils" - just a bunch of old people drinking and depressing me.  Turns out it's more of a road trip story, with the four principle characters driving across country to spread the ashes of a recently deceased friend, Jack.  During the trip they all privately reflect on their relationships with Jack.  It's also a story about family, the ones we chose and the ones we don't, and how their expectations of us (and ours of them!) affect our lives. There are moments of bittersweet humour and revelations about the interconnections in their past, some surprising and some obvious, all told in bite sized chapters which fit perfectly into my 'bus reader' schedule.  I wanted the novel to go beyond it's natural conclusion because I really grew to care about the characters - which means, of course, that Swift did his job perfectly!

The theme of isolation ran deep in this novel, highlighted by the characters seeming inability to have an intimate conversation with each other.  They are all more or less alone, and facing mortality, but they never speak to each other about the fears that come along with that, even as they are all preoccupied with them in their own thoughts.  They worry about their children, and who will see to their remains when they pass on.  Despite that, it feels like a hopeful novel, as they all still have time left to them in which they can try to reconnect.  There's something beautiful about that.

All said, I really enjoyed this novel, will gladly recommend it, and I'm looking forward to reading more of Graham Swift's writing in the future.  For now, my next read is Arundhati Roy's "The God Of Small Things" - which has been in my purse since Tuesday, and hasn't been opened once.  Also, I'm no further along in Pat Baker's Regeneration trilogy because as hard as it is for me to read while listening to music, it is 100% more difficult to 'read' an audio book while listening to music!

In my defence, it was a really amazing concert!

Happy reading!