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Last Collection
Snappy dialogue and a plot full of twists and turns blend to make an adventure story with the unlikeliest hero—and the unlikeliest villains!
The Last Collection takes the reader into the peculiar side of modern-day Montreal, a big city filled with colorful people such as Solly the Hawk Weisskopf and Big Moishie Mandelberg, loan sharks whose collection methods rely more on ingenuity (such as before-and-after pictures of their victims) than violence; and Artie Kerner, their "mark," whose rare addiction to purchasing expensive but worthless items finally leads him to seek professional help from Dr. Lehman, a psychiatrist only slightly more neurotic than his patients—practicing in an office that resembles a South Sea island, complete with lagoon.
The result is a fast-paced satire with an unconventional humor that binds the book from beginning to unmatchable end.
The Last Collection takes the reader into the peculiar side of modern-day Montreal, a big city filled with colorful people such as Solly the Hawk Weisskopf and Big Moishie Mandelberg, loan sharks whose collection methods rely more on ingenuity (such as before-and-after pictures of their victims) than violence; and Artie Kerner, their "mark," whose rare addiction to purchasing expensive but worthless items finally leads him to seek professional help from Dr. Lehman, a psychiatrist only slightly more neurotic than his patients—practicing in an office that resembles a South Sea island, complete with lagoon.
The result is a fast-paced satire with an unconventional humor that binds the book from beginning to unmatchable end.
269 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1976
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February 27, 2015
Absolutely hysterical and thoroughly enjoyable. Canada is not known for its satirical novels, but in Shmucks and The Last Collection Seymour Blicker proves himself to be equal to the masters of the genre, especially the Jewish sub genre, which has it's own style and flavour. This novel is especially reminiscent of Woody Allen's wackiest. Memorable characters include a particularly neurotic psychiatrist who's office features tropical decor and a remote controlled recliner chair that spins and rises to the ceiling, and a Jewish thug with a soft spot. Blicker does what all the best authors do, he turns the tables on the characters and at the same time on the reader. The cons get conned, and we can't ever really be sure who is the genuine article. And therein lies the deeper resonance of this novel, as in all superior satire, the layers of truth and deceit are revealed. The last collection referred to in the title is not only collection on a debt, or the mental illness of hoarding and greed which afflicts the protagonist and which gets him into debt in the first place. But it also cleverly refers to the collection of moral sins that one party wants to atone for and the collection of guilt that the other party wants to liberate themselves from.
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