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Product Description: From the author of the New York Times bestseller and Oprah's Book Club selection House of Sand and Fog—a new big-hearted, painful, page-turning novel.
One early September night in Florida, a stripper brings her daughter to work. April's usual babysitter is in the hospital, so she decides it's best to have her three-year-old daughter close by, watching children's videos in the office, while she works.
Except that April works at the Puma Club for Men. And tonight she has an unusual client, a foreigner both remote and too personal, and free with his money. Lots of it, all cash. His name is Bassam. Meanwhile, another man, AJ, has been thrown out of the club for holding hands with his favorite stripper, and he's drunk and angry and lonely.
From these explosive elements comes a relentless, raw, searing, passionate, page-turning narrative, a big-hearted and painful novel about sex and parenthood and honor and masculinity. Set in the seamy underside of American life at the moment before the world changed, it juxtaposes lust for domination with hunger for connection, sexual violence with family love. It seizes the reader by the throat with the same psychological tension, depth, and realism that characterized Andre Dubus's #1 bestseller, House of Sand and Fog—and an even greater sense of the dark and anguished places in the human heart. Customer Reviews: Rating: 
Date: 2008-07-08
A sluggish story that takes too long to get going
I bought this book after reading a glowing review from Stephen King in Entertainment Weekly. He loved the book so much I shelled out $17 or so for a hardcover. I was sorry I did.
I'm all for character development, but there were too many asides that seemed to go nowhere. I kept thinking "Just get the story moving!" The pace would finally pick up and just about the time you're hitting cruising speed, Dubus would slam on the brakes and give another long aside.
The characters were interesting, but enough already! Just give me a story! Rating: 
Date: 2008-07-07
Stunning
This is the most compelling novel that I have read in a long time. The characters are complex, flawed, engaging people and the situation moves along briskly. Could not put it down. Rating:
Date: 2008-07-06
Don't waste your time on this one
This book goes on and on for over 500 pages without ever making the reader care about any of the characters. The extensive descriptions of activities at the strip club where money grubbing women display themselves spread out and naked are simply depressing. April, the main character, considers herself to be in "show business" and is proud of herself for being able to do what others are afraid to do. Nothing is too degrading if money is involved. Bassam, the 911 terrorist indulging himself days prior to the attack, engages April while her 3-year-old daughter is unattended, frightened and crying. Bassam's life is presented through his religious musings and his obsession with women, those on this earth and those he is promised in Heaven. The third major character, AJ, is a redneck patron of the club who "rescues" April's child from the club and then doesn't know what to do with her. The problem is that the author has no personal insights into any of these three lives--the stripper, the terrorist, the redneck--so none of it has the feeling of authenticity that makes a novel interesting and readable. Rating:
Date: 2008-07-06
Disappointing Predictable Hyped up Read
There has been so much said about this book that I felt compelled to buy and read it. What a sour feeling these 500-plus pages have left with me.
Once all the lead characters are introduced, somewhere around page 60, it becomes painfully clear how everything would turn out, that is not counting the horrible knowledge of the coming events of the 9/11.
A strip dancer - wonderful mother - mending her ways with and turning a real estate agent; an old washed out widow with unconvincing panic attacks and an unclear way of dealing with that condition who finally finds purpose in life though I'm still struggling to understand what purpose that is; a drunk moron driving with the sleeping child not knowing how to deposit her in a safe location; a bar bouncer secretly in love with the kindest dancer in the joint (kindest because she was tipping him better than all others at the end of the gaudy show) who so happens to lose her daughter hence his subsequent heroic platonic efforts in helping her find the child; endless repetitious descriptions of the dance rounds with so many words crammed up it creates a spinning feeling with no chance to pause and reflect. Has the author had a chance to EDIT, and what happened to the art of economy of words and thoughts - the highest aim for an author? Every character's moves are described in excruciating detail, something that reads like an exercise book - woke, stretched, made coffee, reached for a phone and then (wow) dialed the number and so on and on. Despite so much written of the three, sometimes four terrorists, the terror of their actions is just not there, just words, words, and more words with frequent references to how those same words sound in Arabic.
I'll end here considering the need for economy of words.
Rating:
Date: 2008-07-05
A great American Novel
I believe Andre Dubus III has written a great American Novel. His previous novel, House of Sand and Fog, was extraordinary and reached the level of legitimate tragedy. "The Garden of Last Days" continues to reveal the development of a talented, brilliant writer who just keeps getting better. I found the novel compelling and immediate as only a character driven narrative can be.
His characters are all given to us subjectively, that is we are invited to enter their various minds for a few days before September 11 and the terrorist attack. Who are these people? They are typical Americans, a stripper who haphazardly got into the life and now has to use it to tend her daughter and be able to escape from it, the construction worker who is hard working but has some bad habits and gets nailed for them, an aging widow who has money but little else to love in her life except for someone else's baby, and several other iconic Americans and, in contrast an Arab named Bassam who will be one of those to fly into the Twin Towers. From chapter to chapter we go from person to person in a fascinating pilgrimage through the great American substrata of our society. Their preoccupations are with money, sex, sex for money, love for children, religion as a tool for violence, religion as salvation, and many other moral vagaries that are reflective of what we are all dealing with all the time.
When I was reading about these different people, I became them. Dubus's language was their language. He takes tremendous chances, especially trying to capture the interior of Bassam, but also with the various female characters and almost never did I detect a false note. Extraordinary! There is set piece after set piece that I marveled at, such as when April in Bassam go through their creepy encounter in the VIP room or when AJ is trying to decide how to help the little girl without getting himself in trouble, using perfect logic to disastrous consequence. The point is I am them and they are me, like it or not, and a lot of the time I didn't like it and found myself squirming in my chair. Dubus takes the risks and delivers.
The prose moves the reader along with the speed and efficiency of a whodunit but provides deep insight and wrestles with complex moral issues that you don't get from mysteries. This is a splendid achievement but could be a reason some may think the book facile when in fact in is extremely complex in its exploration of American society and values. It is actually incredibly difficult to write so seamlessly, always in the service of your characters. Bravo!
I loved the ending of the novel in that it is such a qualified affirmation. Each of the characters is positively changed due to this confluence of incidents herein described and, again, all in a totally valid, believable way. Even AJ discovers that he has value when in prison. A tough lesson to be sure, but somehow uplifting.
Chekhov once stated that the only criticism worth a damn was whether or not you liked it. I loved this book |
