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rachcannoli's review against another edition
2.0
Maybe I missed something that the plethora of good reviews saw, but this book just didn’t do much for me. Michael is a disenfranchised, to put it bluntly, loser recounting how his stunted emotional depth from never processing a death of a close childhood friend affected his life and that’s basically it. I get being in a job that feels meaningless and just having zero clue what the future holds for you, but there’s no message or growth that happens in this book. He and his friends just continually do awful things and don’t really make any steps to better themselves or change anything. In the end Michael has become less sarcastic and more honest with the shit state of his life that he depicts in his comics soo yay? Idk, I just don’t understand what message I’m supposed to gather from this read and it left me just feeling empty. I definitely had to buy this book for some creative writing class in college, it reeks of that pretentious complaining white male bullshit that my professors ate up. Eh, just not my thing at all. Maybe it’ll mean more to others, but not for me.
bhirts's review against another edition
3.0
I don't really want to put stars on this book. I will say I read it very quickly, in long sessions over three or five days. It was a joy to read at work, something about the pacing was perfect; often I find "getting in" to the book and being "forced" out by work duties jarring and tiring, I didn't feel so much that way with this book. I think a very large portion of my "enjoyment" of this book was due to it being set in Pittsburgh, and "my" Pittsburgh at that, temporally and geographically. It made being a twenty something seem "romantic" in self-conscious "one foot in one foot out" way, like dressing up in a suit for an event. This is also hard to explain but it seems like a very well written book by someone who is not a writer, who is "fundamentally" an artist/comic strip-ist; in some of the descriptions of his inward "fantasies", like ninja dropping his boss or whatever, I sensed a longing to "have it happen", that an "instant" image would have been "preferable" (maybe just more natural?) to description. I feel like I have to stress that that is just an observation, not necessarily a criticism.
katemilty's review against another edition
4.0
I liked this book a lot. It felt much longer than it actually was, just 216 pages. It took me no time at all to read, would have gone even faster if life hadn't intruded, but I felt more of a connection to these characters than I did to either of the other two books I read last week by powerhouse authors (John Gardner & Phillip Pullman). I think a lot of that has to do with how Sal set out to write a story, and to make it a good story, instead of to see how far he could push the story form.
This is Pane's first book, and you can sometimes tell. The writing falters occasionally, but there was so much worthwhile in here, so many different concerns interwoven neatly with an excellent, consequence driven story.
Two things I was really impressed with:
1. The honest way the author dealt with religion. The main character's relationship to religion was real. He understood believing and he also understood how that faith could be lost. It wasn't the focus of the story, but it also was dealt with.
2. The framing of the story on Obama's election night. The way Pane set us up to believe that everything would NOT work out, but how we still wanted to believe it would. It created a building momentum. And I liked how Pane wrapped it up, showed how nothing can change and yet things can also change immensely.
I'm looking forward to a re-read!
This is Pane's first book, and you can sometimes tell. The writing falters occasionally, but there was so much worthwhile in here, so many different concerns interwoven neatly with an excellent, consequence driven story.
Two things I was really impressed with:
1. The honest way the author dealt with religion. The main character's relationship to religion was real. He understood believing and he also understood how that faith could be lost. It wasn't the focus of the story, but it also was dealt with.
2. The framing of the story on Obama's election night. The way Pane set us up to believe that everything would NOT work out, but how we still wanted to believe it would. It created a building momentum. And I liked how Pane wrapped it up, showed how nothing can change and yet things can also change immensely.
I'm looking forward to a re-read!
nikkibd4033's review
3.0
This book was so up and down, it's almost hard to rate.
I love books about Pittsburgh. Authors who are from, or who have lived in Pittsburgh, have a tendency to write novels that are love stories to their city. And this is no exception. I don't live in Pittsburgh, but it is one of my favorite cities ever, and I'm a sucker for a good story set in the 'Burgh. I got this, because it sounded like it would be kind of similar to Mysteries of Pittsburgh, one of my all-time favorites.
That said, Last Call started off incredibly slow and painfully. It takes until nearly halfway through to even begin to like the main character, Michael. But once you get into the groove of accepting Michael as someone who is legitimately running from something in his past, rather than a whiny millennial, he's much easier to like (and sometimes - despite being over a decade younger than me - even to relate to.) The millennial thing is a little overplayed; so much ironic self-awareness and a little too strong on the technological references.
The supporting cast are all strong. Oz the unstable academic, Sloan the girl who's just a friend and her fiance, the serial cheater, Noah, Ivy the cute girl Michael falls for who is inexplicable religiousness is a total mystery to Michael and to the reader. I think the problem with the book is that the protagonist is really the weakest link.
I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this to anyone looking for a twenty-something coming-of-age story, though it wouldn't be on the top of my list, it certainly wouldn't be at the bottom either.
I love books about Pittsburgh. Authors who are from, or who have lived in Pittsburgh, have a tendency to write novels that are love stories to their city. And this is no exception. I don't live in Pittsburgh, but it is one of my favorite cities ever, and I'm a sucker for a good story set in the 'Burgh. I got this, because it sounded like it would be kind of similar to Mysteries of Pittsburgh, one of my all-time favorites.
That said, Last Call started off incredibly slow and painfully. It takes until nearly halfway through to even begin to like the main character, Michael. But once you get into the groove of accepting Michael as someone who is legitimately running from something in his past, rather than a whiny millennial, he's much easier to like (and sometimes - despite being over a decade younger than me - even to relate to.) The millennial thing is a little overplayed; so much ironic self-awareness and a little too strong on the technological references.
The supporting cast are all strong. Oz the unstable academic, Sloan the girl who's just a friend and her fiance, the serial cheater, Noah, Ivy the cute girl Michael falls for who is inexplicable religiousness is a total mystery to Michael and to the reader. I think the problem with the book is that the protagonist is really the weakest link.
I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this to anyone looking for a twenty-something coming-of-age story, though it wouldn't be on the top of my list, it certainly wouldn't be at the bottom either.
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