Reviews

• 「ウオーターランド」以上の傑作かも

  グレアム・スウィフトと言えば『ウオーターランド』があまりにも有名。その味わいは、このロンドン下町の男たちの奇妙な物語にも通じる。海、イングランドの風景、家族たちへの思い、さまざまな語り手から明らかになる過去の出来事、生きるということの苦さと夢と。それでもなお、人生への肯定も感じられる。面白い読み物でもあり、読後にはしみじみした想いも残る。やっぱりうまいなー。スウィフト！ 日本であんまり話題にならなかったのが（なったのでしょうか？）残念。映画も見てみたい。

• Am I missing something here?

  This book has inspired me to become a writer. I mean, if this guy can get the Booker Prize for writing such a random collection of trite observations told from over a half dozen perspectives, then maybe I can get published, too!! Basically, I labored through this book only because it won the prize and so I thought there must be SOME gem of insight waiting for me near the end. Nope. Nada. This book starts off with so many characters, you need 3 double espresso just to get your brain up to speed to avoid a cerebral vein-pop. The problem is worsened when Swift changes the narrator perspective. So while the book starts with "Ray" being the "I" voice, suddenly it's "Vic." And later on he even gets the wives telling their bits, even though the info they are revealing about the main characters has already been thrashed over a dozen times earlier. How DO you spell "redundant," anyway? Then there's that London dialect. One of the reviewers of the book wrote, "The colloquial language of Last Orders is the authentic language of a vanishing tribe, and Swift has documented it for the ages." Unfortunately, yes, he has. While I could put up with the written version of London Speak in the dialogue, the narrative being written in colloquial London Speak is annoying beyond belief. As for the story, most of the characters are also annoying the Nth degree, and the constant flipping between narrators was enough to make me want to toss the book from my balcony and into the sea in Thailand. Nothing worse than reading out of duty on holiday! Give this book a miss! And somebody take back that Booker Prize, will ya!

• ＣＤ７枚組８時間半。

  ロンドンの下町訛りで書かれているため、イギリス俗語表現や略語(by a long cholk, nipper, daft, on your tod 他)が多用されています。イギリス英語に慣れていない人は初見の単語で苦労しそうです。文法的にも口語の破格があり、それがカンマで長い一文を形成しています。それを忠実にコクニーアクセントで再現しているので（しかも速い！）リスニングの面でもちょっとつらいかもしれません。 しかし、内容は他のレビューにもあるとおり読むに値します。最後にむけて収束していく各人の過去や思いはまるで推理小説を読むかのように繊細かつ鮮やかです。ぜひ真野泰先生の名訳を傍らにこの佳作を楽しんでみてください。

• 計算を尽くして描かれた架空の「歴史物語」

  章を追うごとに進行する登場人物達にとっての「現在」と、実際に描かれなくとも歴然としているように思われる彼等の「未来」、そして彼等それぞれの追想という形で描かれる「過去」。まるでジグゾーパズルのように断片化されたこれらの事柄が、やがて収まるべき所に収まり、一枚の絵が出来上がるりました。パズルを解く過程では抽象絵画かとも思われた絵が、仕上がってみると初めに想像していたものとは全く違う、絵を見た人物が気にも止めないような小道具の一つ一つに至るまで、丁寧に描かれた細密画だったことが解る、そんな小説です。

• だって・・・読む気になります？

  原作と読み比べ英語の勉強のために、我慢して読み終えました。 だって（ネタばらしになりますが）競馬で大穴当ててお金を作るって話、 何がよくって読むのでしょう？

• Suggest reading it at one sitting, then rereading for fullest appreciation.

• Before U read this book U really need to have seen the film. To work out what the bleedin' Hells going on half the time. The book ( with its multiple narrators and numerous flashbacks and streams of consciousness ) is difficult to follow. There's 4 main characters ( 5 if U include Jack ) but U have to remember the names of their wives and kids as well. The film helps U put a face to the name. Which makes following what's going on a lot easier. Once U know what happens ... how it ends ... U wanna go back to the beginning again and re-trace the interweaving lives. Coz its your friends who break your heart .... and your friends who mend it ... coz its all a gamble ... just a gamble. Still ... U cant help thinking : don't they do this sorta stuff in East Enders ? ... every single week ? ... and don't they do it better ? ...every single week ? Maybe not. Maybe Last Orders works better as a play. It certainly works well as a film . The dialogue ( taken word for word from the book ) and the acting ( which is great ) makes the characters funny, sad and a little lovable and in Jack's case strangely heroic . The experience ( and it is an experience ) is moving and memorable enough for 5 Stars . But great literature it aint !

• Je suis tout à fait satisfaite de l'état de ce produit et de son rapport qualité-prix. J'étais persuadée en voyant l'aperçu avant l'achat qu'il s'agissait de la version poche ou en tout cas d'un plus petit format. Mais non! Le prix est bien mini pour un format et une qualité maxi ! Seule une petite griffe sur la couverture, mais rien qui ne gêne la lecture! Merci!

• I found it hopeless, could not join the dots togather as to what was the story. Plot was lost in verbose prose

• I think this is the first book I've re-read, and oh! how rewarding it is as a re-read! First time through it's easily enjoyable, although I did need to keep a note of who went with who and their occupations. It's story travels along smoothly, with each of the main characters' point of view revolving in chapters, interspersed with the story-teller, Ray's, narration of the current events. An enjoyable read indeed. But it wasn't until my RE-read that its riches truly unfolded, and many subtle references and innuendos fit into place like a glorious jigsaw. Graham Swift's style is seamless, sketching vivid pictures of character and environment through inference without superfluous description. The strata of English society into which these men fall is conveyed effortlessly through the dialogue of their thoughts and conversation. Unpretentiously splendid!

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