The Last Laugh

by Lynn Freed

*A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice*

From the award-winning author Lynn Freed, who’s been called a “literary star” by The New York Times Book Review , comes a hilarious and brilliant new novel about the riotous, passion-filled adventures of three women who thought they were past their prime.

To escape their griping grown children, husbands and lovers, and an abundance of grandchildren underfoot, three self-proclaimed “old bags,” Dania, Ruth, and Bess, head for a quiet island on the Aegean Sea. They’ll spend a year by the water―watching the sunset, eating grilled fish and fresh olives, sipping ouzo. They deserve it, they say. After all those years, the three women will finally have some peace.

Except that they can’t. For one, Bess, a pampered, once-beautiful inheritress, falls swiftly into an affair with a poetry-writing taxi driver―who has, of course, a territorial wife. And Dania, a therapist, begins to receive an increasing number of cryptically menacing phone calls from a psychotic patient. An ex-lover of Ruth’s shows up unexpectedly, right before one of Bess’s does―and then the women’s children arrive, with their own demanding children in tow. As the island quickly becomes crowded, the women’s serene year in Greece devolves perilously, and uproariously, into something much more complicated.

With the wit of Maria Semple’s Today Will Be Different and all the adventure of Deborah Moggach’s The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel , Lynn Freed’s The Last Laugh is at once wildly funny and deeply perceptive, an exuberant story of friendship and pleasure, family and love.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Humor, Travel, Greece

208 pages, Hardcover

First published July 3, 2017

About the author

Lynn Freed is a South African novelist and academic.

She came to the U.S. first as a foreign exchange student, and then went on to receive an M.A. and Ph.D. in English Literature from Columbia University. She taught at Bennington College, Saint Mary's College of California, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Oregon, the University of Montana, and the University of Texas in Austin.
Ms Freed's short fiction, memoirs and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's,[1] The Atlantic Monthly, Southwest Review, The Georgia Review, the Michigan Quarterly Review, Tin House, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsday, Mirabella, House Beautiful, House & Garden, and Vogue Magazine.
Her work is widely translated and anthologized, and has been listed in Best American Short Stories and in The O. Henry Award Prize Stories.
Ms. Freed is Professor of English at the University of California, Davis, and lives in Northern California.[2]

Reviews

[Sasha · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this would be a cute book about old ladies escaping to Greece, and it was. Except they weren't cute, they were mostly horrible or boring. And I love horrible people, don't get me wrong, but there was nothing to redeem them - they weren't particularly funny or clever (one was proud to be stupid), or insightful. There were some nice lines from the narrator, who was the least terrible of them all, about how the goals of romance and relationships evolve away from the idealistic heart-eyes views in youth, but the rest was only mildly interesting. Their kids are all plain old awful and shrill, and I didn't even know why I was reading this anymore - especially when a dramatic thing happened and everybody's reaction to it made so sense. Losing-faith-in-humanity level of nonsense. So, I guess read something else for an escape/schadenfreude read.

-I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own :)-

[Peebee · Rating 1 out of 5]

I liked the premise of this book -- older women getting away from their families to hang out on a Greek island -- thinking they're a role model for how I want to be in my advanced age. But the execution is simply dreadful -- none of these women are people I would want to emulate in any way. It's a short book, but even in a limited number of pages, the book managed to go completely off the rails near the end. There's homophobia, cultural insensitivity, and an adoption scenario which really caused me to lose it, and those are not even the main plot points, which are most callous and insensitive. I'm not sure this book really has any redeeming qualities, unfortunately.

[Kristen Shupe · Rating 1 out of 5]

Looks like I'll have the last laugh and stop reading this book. I made it 3/4 of the way through when I decided enough was enough. I expected a humor-filled book about three older ladies enjoying a year long holiday in beautiful Greece. What I got instead was trudging through the depressing lives of three unlikeable characters living in a nondescript setting while dealing with their family, lovers and servants all of which they didn't care for and neither did I. I had a hard time following the supporting characters but good or bad, there was a description of all of them prefacing the book. That should've been my first warning. I can count the books I've not finished on one hand. It is rare. But this earned it.

[Cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Three older women escape to Greece for a year to take a break from husbands, older children and grandchildren. A year????!!! What could have been a funny interesting story totally fell flat for me. The women were unlikable, silly, and just plain weird. When I saw a list of all the characters involved on the first page of the novel I knew it was trouble. Not my cup of tea but I would love to go to Greece! This was a Goodreads win.

[Shari · Rating 1 out of 5]

not funny

After reading 25 percent and still thinking that this is stupid I decided to give up. The book starts with a few pages of the cast of characters, never a good sign if you can't keep track of who's who naturally. And the situations they found themselves in were not funny, or even interesting.

[Donna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Could hardly get through 35 pages. Just annoying characters and writing.

[Heidi · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s not worth my time to finish this considering I dislike every character.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had mixed feelings about this book. I remember reading some of the comments before I picked it up and one reader noted she didn't like the main characters, the "grammies" who have taken a house in Greece. I remember thinking you don't have to like the characters to like a book, but after finishing this, I agree with that reader! The grammies are awful; they are privileged, annoying and they don't really like each other all that much. They don't seem to like or understand their children, who are ungrateful young adults. No character has any redeeming quality. Why do I want to spend an evening reading this? But I plugged away. Everyone is messed up but not in a way that evokes empathy on the part of the reader or even interest. It was also difficult to figure everyone out and past references to their spouses, marriages and children, thank goodness for the characters cast in the beginning, but it made the story more confusing and I ended not really knowing these women at all. I guess I was hoping for a Golden Girls type of adventure, a Shirley Valentine or Enchanted April, with some mystery tossed in, but this was disappointing. I gave it 3 stars as it is well-written. I think this would work well as a movie. The cheating husband who dies choking on marshmallows as his wife watches him die, now that is just made for cinema.

[Judith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is definitely chick-lit and I enjoyed it immensely. There's nothing too dramatic or surprising going on but it doesn't matter because the writing is so enjoyable. Three self-proclaimed "old bags" go off to Greece to live simply for a year, away from their demanding children and grandchildren. And it is a constant battle to keep the children from showing up unannounced and demanding hospitality. I love hearing stories about women who are old like me especially when they are gutsy and full of spit and vinegar. The author is dryly humorous and there are many scenes that brought a smile, such as her description of an unanticipated but delightful sexual romp enjoyed by one of the old ladies, ". . . nothing of Pilates in any of it. To be more specific than that would be to risk squeamishness in the reader, particularly for those who, like me, find nothing charming in descriptions of body parts. " Perfect!

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three women in their late 60's spend a year on a Greek Island. However, they keep receiving unexpected visits from former lovers, children, and grandchildren.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had I not been reading this book to check off a bingo square, (yes, you read that correctly) I may not have finished this book. However the last 20% of the book picked up, brought this to a three-star book, and has me searching for homes in Nafplio.

[Debbie Rothstein · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to enjoy this book-wanted it to be witty and charming and different from my usual type of reads but I couldn’t wait for it to be over. I didn’t care about the characters and what happened to them and was glad when I finished it so I could start something else.

[Noelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Way too many characters for such a short book (less than 200 pages). I should've realized this at the beginning when there was a "who's who" list. And out of all those characters - hardly any were likable! None were well developed. Had the book been any longer, I wouldn't have finished it. :-/

[Julie Nortillo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I expected a much funnier entertaining book and was greatly disappointed. Reading about a year in Greece was amazing and I cannot wait to go. The characters were slightly amusing but there was nothing earth shattering or "can't put down-able" about this book unfortunately. Waste of time. Maybe 1-2 stars would be more apropos??

[Heidi · Rating 1 out of 5]

found nothing about which to laugh in this book. it is choppy and difficult to follow. the characters are unlikable and shallow, and the story is just blah.

[Karen Repka · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this book to be neither funny nor enjoyable. I couldn't relate to the disagreeable and unlikeable characters, even though they were my age, which was an important element in the novel. There were certainly too many characters which made it confusing (the author found it necessary to include a 2 page Dramatis Personae at the start!) Their life choices and ethics were disheartening. The authors's style was jumbled and confusing and frankly random (just plain poor writing!) so that I finally asked myself why I continued to read it and stopped with 45 pages left.) Only the narrator's articles to her publisher were somewhat entertaining, but hardly worth dragging through the rest of the book ! (I am not sure if I have ever given another 1 star rating!)

[Fran · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't understand why this book had so many bad reviews. While it isn't a "wow" book, it certainly didn't deserve many of the one star ratings. True, there was a big cast but they all had a role in the story.

The book was actually the musings of a 70-year-old who, along with her friends, dispells the image of nurturing grandmothers intent on spoiling their grandchildren and who are no longer interested in romance. To the older women in the book, I raise my glass!

[Kendall · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lol what did I just read. This slim novel - just shy of 200 pages - packed in a chaotic hodgepodge of topics, including elderly women living in Greece for a year, loathing of offspring, writer/editor spats playing out in epistolary form, and... murder? I'm left scratching my head at what the author was actually trying to accomplish, and why she felt the need to pepper her book with so many mean-spirited little jabs about aging, weight, children, and so on.

[Cmm · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reviewed as funny, quirky and fresh it turned out to be flat, unpleasant woman and blah blah blah.

Ironically the media reviews have been so positive it and yet I couldn't read past page 30.

[Windsofdestiny · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring. Not funny. Women who can't get along shouldn't be on a vacation together for a year. Women were catty!

[Betsy · Rating 2 out of 5]

From the blurb, I thought it would be light-hearted and funny; instead it was annoying and kind of sad.

[Judith Wendt · Rating 1 out of 5]

I agree with everyone who didn't like it! I can't understand how the NYT Book review could give a favorable review. No depth, very little humor, meandering so-called plot.

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Within a few pages, the author had revealed her narrator, her characters and her own writing to be racist, homophobic, fat-shaming, and elitist in every way. I read the back panel and saw her photo. From South Africa. Maybe that explained the casual reference to a servant/slave yelling on the phone "in Zulu." (I looked it up, and yes, it can be referred to as a language, one of the Bantu family.)

I considered stopping. The handy list of characters in the front contained their nationalities and relationships to the three main characters. So, maybe it was an "international" novel with scenes of culture clash. There was something foreign about the way the women referred to each other and other women as "cows," and something familiar about three women in their 60's going to Greece for a year. Maybe like Mama Mia, I thought. I kept reading. But there is no hint of the charm of Greece or the Greek people. They looked down on the women of the village, stole their men, changed their recipes and put up a locked gate to keep out the ones they pissed off.

I stayed for the dramas, expectant. There was sexual competition amongst the herd - but no joy in reuniting with old lovers. No "getting their groove back." There was conflict - as would be expected with independent women, uncharacteristically living together. Their children arrived. Just as hideous as could be imagined, raised by these 3 cows. There was little maternal about them, even though they bemoaned the pull of motherhood that forced them one by one to violate their "agreement" by inviting their children, regretting it immediately and the feeling was mutual on the part of their offspring.

Stories of just really awful people seem to be popular now. But I don't think that's the case here. There's not a hint of morality. Not a straight man or foil in the bunch. The one thing I could identify as the authors' was the way she wrote the dialogue. The cow who was a psychotherapist (still practicing, virtually, even in their get-away year) and had written several books and translated some of them herself, or translated someone else's book--it wasn't clear--yet she was written speaking broken English and had a habit of using the wrong word in sentences. Why? It was annoying and implausible.

The other thing clearly the author's doing is the plot. Now I have to click the spoiler box, but there were such missed opportunities. There are slapstick murder/dead body stories. But here the author has the teenage girl going off on the back of a Vespa to a party on the beach with other young people--while a body is somewhere on that same beach, yet to be found after being pushed off the cliff by you-know-who. (Hint: Moo) Yet, when the grandmothers go tearing up the mountain around precipitous curves to rescue her virginity, the whole scene falls flat. The only tinge of emotion is jealousy for the lost glory days of their youth. The author doesn't even bother to finish the scene.

The final scene is a huge, community-wide birthday party thrown for the three, with some of their broods in attendance. But alas, another telegraphed plot development, possible denouement, dissolved as the event devolved into bickering over the lamb-on-the-spit by the cows. No bloodied almost-murder-victim showing up. No confession or arrest. No surprises. No come-uppance for the villagers. No Mama Mia declarations of love. There is an epilogue where they all get a quick sum-up of some version of happily-ever-after, which they didn't deserve. I was so glad for it to be done, I couldn't even feel disappointment.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Received an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
This book is hard to pin down for judgment. My true rating would be a 3.5 out of 5 because some things worked really well and others did not, but I suspect it's partially my fault and not that of the book.
The premise of this book hooked me from the start: a group of older women leave their assorted children and grandchildren escape to Greece for a year, setting up strict boundaries with each other and their families which are immediately challenged or all-out crumble. Drama ensues.
This story really made me consider if there is anyone I could live with in Greece for a year, and I'm fairly certain the answer is no. In the end, this was a valuable perspective for me to read and I'm not sure if my failure to connect with the characters is their fault because we don't have a lot in common.
What I really enjoyed was how Freed crafted the family relationships. Ruth, the narrator, has a dysfunctional relationship with her daughter and can never seem to avoid conflict with her, not that either of them necessarily want to avoid it. Dania likes her daughter but often feels - and is - taken advantage of by her. Bess has never settled down and had a string of lovers. Her children are strong personalities, though completely opposite, and are quite judgmental of her choices. All three women make excellent observations about what is expected of grandmothers which had never occurred to me, a childless millennial, and I think a book from their perspectives is important.
What did not work for me was how little the motivations of the core three were fleshed out. Other than why they fled to Greece, I couldn't get a good grasp on why they made these choices. As old and new lovers come in and out of the story, I never got a sense of what Ruth and Bess were feeling or why they were allowing them to stay, encouraging them, tolerating them or dismissing them. As Dania deals with an increasingly erratic therapy patient stalking her, everyone treated it breezily until they didn't and I was never clear on what Dania was thinking, further hindered by the fact that she was the only character with no first-person voice throughout the book (Bess writes a couple of entries for Ruth's column about their adventures).
Ruth's musings become increasingly annoyed and I kept wondering whose idea was this? Why did they think it would work? It became clear to me early on that they were going to drive each other crazy, how could they not see this? Ruth seems to come to this not-so-startling realization almost halfway through the book when she says, "As it was, we'd all been so full of hope--stupid, thoughtless hope--so pleased with ourselves for our escape that we hadn't considered anything like this." By the end, I was thoroughly sick of all of them, which may have been intentional because that's how they all felt about each other after the year in Greece.
Overall, Freed's writing is strong and I want to pick up more of her work, but the characters, while interesting, were not fully realized.

[Thomas Cooney · Rating 4 out of 5]

A charming twilight novel that may be more for female readers than male (ducking for cover). Ruth Frank, the protagonist from two of Freed's most loved novels—"Home Ground" and, her masterpiece, "The Bungalow"—is front and center again. Now, on the cusp of seventy, she's off to Greece with two lifelong friends who are also on the same doorstep of the same age. Though the women want little more than fresh Greek air, fresh Greek food, and refreshed friendships, it's soon obvious that the often stale items—children, lovers, and demons—are intent on visiting the island as well. The malaprops delivered by the Israeli therapist are alone worth the price of admission. And if that doesn't do it for you, Freed's piercing take on the state of society will: (her bedevilment at the way Americans constantly say "I love you" at the end of every phone call with a friend or family member; her fury that no one dies anymore in America, they just "pass" as if that makes it any less real or painful; and especially her laser sharp attack on Americans' near-maniacal obsession with their children who often run every household from the moment they come home swaddled from the hospital to the time they consider putting away childish things at the age of 30).

The beginning of the book includes a cast of characters and one is advised to study this well at the beginning as there is a lot of mention of characters off-stage and can lead to some confusion. An overall winning novel.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe you have to be of a "certain age" to appreciate this... Perhaps younger readers don't expect or aren't comfortable with seniors who have sex, act silly, are selfish, drink to excess or want to just have a good time without being beholden to or responsible for children or grandchildren. Not sure, but this woman "of a certain age" found this book entertaining and at times hilarious. It reminded me of the farce "Noises Off," a play whose characters keep switching lovers and popping in and out of scenes. In this book characters pop in and out of the Greek island on which three older women have deposited themselves, lovers switch lovers and then switch back again, cultural types are stereotypically exaggerated (Dino's wife is too broadly drawn to be anything but an exaggeration), children are pains in the neck, the three friends bicker and back up and then bicker again, and on and on. The word mangling of Dania (an Israeli woman) was perfectly done and had me laughing throughout. Don't take this book seriously; don't look for "pc'ness". Yes, the characters are annoying, spoiled and selfish. Who hasn't met people (of any age!) who are that way? I liked it! Just read it for a good laugh.

[Rhucha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was another online recommendation. It promised an interesting and exciting journey of three 70 year old ladies who plan on taking a break from their day to day life by staying in Greece for a year. It is not happy-exciting or nail-biting exciting. It feels more like a complaint monologue trying to sell itself as deprecating humor.

The story is about Ruth and her two friends - Bess and Dania. All three move to a small town in Greece to take a break from their daily lives. The story trudges along with them having flirtatious experiences, trying to deal with the resentment of their children, how their children see them as culprits. There is some sort of drama almost every 5-10 pages. But it is not exciting or scandalous drama. By the end of the year, they are none the wiser but they start accepting their situations.

The ending feels abrupt. The connection between Ruth and her grand daughter Lily is missing through the whole story and suddenly surfaces in the epilogue. Most of their time is spent in whining about things and nothing fruitful comes out of it.

[Theresa Jehlik · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave this book two stars after much debating. In the end, I liked the premise of the book, 3 women nearing 70 escape their lives to spend a year on a Greek Island, more than the actual characters or the plot line. Bess is obsessed with men and fashion, Dania is obsessed with her professional reputation and published works, and Ruth is haunted by her ex-husbands, ex-lovers, and her failed relationship with her daughter, Hester. Wronged wives, former lovers, ungrateful children, and a host of other characters intrude on the women's island escape. Most of the scenarios result in unflattering aspects of the women's character being revealed or amplified. The title is questionable if the last laugh refers to one of the characters getting away with two murders. I'm not inclined to try any more of Lynn Freed's novels.

[Pam Parker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book -- the premise was captivating -- 3 women, approaching their 70th birthdays -- decide to take off from their "normal" lives and spend a year living together on a Greek isle. What's not to love? The women. I don't have to love every character, but the 3 main ones, as well as a majority of the lesser characters, had very few redeeming qualities. I needed something/someone I could believe in and that person was hard to find -- possibly, possibly, in a brief appearance by the narrator's granddaughter, there was hope.
So, you might ask, why am I giving it a 3 star and not lower? Because, the writing is great, and at times, some of the observations of the narrator are brilliant.

[Linda (The Arizona Bookstagrammer) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three women nearing 70 leave friends, children, grandchildren, and lovers behind to live for a year on a Greek island. Of course the assorted friends, children, grandchildren, and lovers eventually show up in Greece. I liked the book. This is not a cutesy old ladies have fluffy adventures book! The women are not sugar-coated, they are opinionated and not-so-nice, even unlikeable in many ways. There are two sub-stories within the book of their year in Greece: one is the columns Ruth writes for a US magazine; the other is the journaling Ruth does as she ponders her mutually-antagonistic relationship with her daughter. The only part I didn’t enjoy was the Epilogue because I would have preferred to imagine my own prologues for all the characters.