Sunday Reading: Last Night at the Lobster

Stuart O'Nan's Last Night at the Lobster is a sensitive and beautifully written novella about working life. The main character, Manny DeLeon, is struggling to hold his team together for the last night of service before the Red Lobster branch he manages is closed for good. Although some of his employees have been chosen to follow him to the nearby Olive Garden where the corporation has reassigned him as assistant manager, the others have no reason to stick around on a snowy New England night. As the snow accumulates, the customers disappear, and Manny is left with a skeleton crew, the ex-girlfriend he pines for, and his thoughts.



Structurally, O'Nan narrates the story chronologically through a work day, beginning the narrative as Manny arrives to open the restaurant and continuing through the lunch rush and the empty dinner hour.

Manny's concerns have less to do with his business and his future, which is secure, than with his complicated personal life. He is expecting a child with his girlfriend, Deena, but has painful memories of his relationship with Jackie, one of his servers what has come to work this last shift. Jackie is also involved with someone else, and has been the one to tell Manny that their relationship can't work, that they have responsibilities elsewhere that prevent them from being together. Manny, meanwhile, holds hope against hope that this last shift can lead to some sort of reconciliation and one last chance for the two of them to be together.

"... I'd love to have that again with you Manny, but it's not possible. And we both know it's not right."

Rodney she means, and now Deena, and the baby. Her life and his, the complications he conveniently forgets. He's always known it was wrong, yet he wants to argue with her--things change, they can do anything they want--but knows she'll only get mad at him, as if he doesn't understand. Maybe he's just being stubborn. They agreed this would be the easiest way; at times he's felt guilty about how conveient it is, walking away clean. Now he's not even sure what that means.

Throughout the novella, O'Nan has a delicate touch, dealing sensitively with the feelings of his characters. The waitstaff has their petty jealousies, arguing about who has the best tables and the most lucrative customers. The kitchen staff has their disagreements, until one of the line workers storms off in a huff, angry as his mistreatment from the head cook, slashing coats with his knife and cracking windshields in a final act of defiance. O'Nan illustrates the pride these workers have, and the greivances that may seem small to others but are important to them.

Manny's day is filled with stresses of work, but also with kindnesses and acts of humility. When a bratty child throws up on the dining room carpet, Manny cleans the mess himself without complaining, and remains calm when the boy's mother complains about the staff. When his bartender asks to leave early, Manny allows it. When an elderly couple comes arrives in the snow, Manny comps their bill. His entire day is about keeping his employees happy and his customers, while maintaining his composure and adhering to an ethic of doing his best up until the last moment of his employment.

All the while, the novel is written in poetic prose, as the opening demonstrates:

Mall traffic on a gray winter's day, stalled. Midmorning and the streetlights are still on, weakly. Scattered flakes drift down like ash, but for now the roads are dry. It's the holidays--a garbage truck stopped at the light has a big wreath wired to its grille, complete with a red velvet bow. th turning lane waits for the green arrow above to blink on, and a line of salted cars takes a left into the mall entrance, splitting as they sniff for parking spots.

One goes on alone across the far vastness of the lot, where a bulldozed mound of old snow towers like a dirty iceberg. A white shitbox of a Buick, the kind a grandmother might leave behind, the driver's side door missing a strip of molding. The Regal keeps to the designated lane along the edge, stopping at the stop sign, though there's nothing out there but empty spaces, and off in a distant corner, as if anchoring the lot, the Regal's destination, a dark stick-framed box with its own segregated parking and unlit sign facing the highway--a Red Lobster.

Terrific short read. Go pick up this honest, real novella.

Links:

Maureen Corrigan's terrific review for NPR.

O'Nan's site with multiple reviews linked.