The Last Good Chance

by Tom Barbash

Jack Lambeau is the prodigal son returned home to Lakeland, New York; the Ivy-League educated architectural visionary brought home to reinvent the dying port town and smooth over its self-imposed scars. His friend, Steven Turner is the Brooklyn-born local reporter who will bear witness to the city's successes and failures. Between them come Jack's beautiful fiancee Anne--an artist with secrets of her own - and his undisciplined brother Harris, hired by Jack to remove the suspicious barrels of waste from Lakeland's broken heart.

As the town struggles to find a new identity, these four characters must find their way through their own unexpected transformations and along the way attempt to answer the questions that plague us all: what is the price of loyalty, filialty, goodness and love?

Genres: Fiction, Novels, American

448 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Tom Barbash is the author of the award-winning novel The Last Good Chance and the non-fiction book On Top of the World: Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick, and 9/11; A Story of Loss and Renewal, which was a New York Times bestseller. His stories and articles have been published in Tin House, McSweeney's, Virginia Quarterly Review, and other publications, and have been performed on National Public Radio's Selected Shorts series. He currently teaches in the MFA program at California College of the Arts. He grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and now lives in Marin County, California.

Reviews

[Tommie Whitener · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just wasn't invested in the characters. They were believable enough, but I didn't know them well enough to care about their successes and failures. The book was very well plotted, but lacked dramatic action, even though many of the scenes would have lent themselves to more graphic conflict and drama.

[Maggi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wanted to like since I grew up not that far from Syracuse. It reminded me of Richard Russo's writing which should have made it easy as pie to read but I just couldn't finish. Quit about half way through

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid Russo-esque portrayal of a dying Great Lakes town, with a bit too much toxic waste and bad people as 2 of the 3 leads to make it 4 stars.

The only one of the three leads I liked was Jack, and he had the worst outcome. His sins were not paying enough attention to his wife and perhaps being a little too gung ho on the project, perhaps blinding him to malfeasance. Still, the reporter, Turner, is a bit of a back stabber who only likes to date women who are married or living with their boyfriend. He does this to his friend Jack for what? Because he was in looooovvveeee? He's just an asshole.

And Anne is awful. She spends most of the novel as a deadbeat, but after she fucks around on the husband who's been financially supporting her she makes a bit of a splash on the art scene and looks to return to NYC, where she'll no doubt divorce him and be something of a success for a few years.

Jack was the one who got screwed. He did his best to bring his hometown back to life, but with his wife's infidelity, his friend nailing that wife and doing all he can to bring the whole revitalization project down with the toxic waste stories he writes for the paper, his own brother's guilty conscience bringing it all to light, and the mayor's idiocy in thinking burying waste would make it disappear, makes this whole thing a massive loss for him. I felt bad for Jack, but I don't think the author did, as his stand in Turner clearly believed Anne should have left Jack for him.

In any case, for 440 pages it's a fast read, and though I didn't like most of the characters the book in and of itself was solid.

[Zachary Houle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I come from a small town in central Ontario, but chances are — unless I was pushed somehow — I would never return. There’s nothing really for me to return to, at least, job-wise. However, perhaps if there were something that begged a return, Tom Barbash’s debut novel The Last Good Chance might point the way. Originally published in 2002 and making a return to trade paperback, this is a novel about coming back to your hometown a hero, losing that status, and finding some kind of redemption along the way. This is a thoughtful, probing, but ultimately good-natured novel that’s a little rough around the edges — but that’s part of its charm.

The story concerns a young New Yorker named Jack Lambeau who is a city planner. He returns to his Lake Ontario hometown in upstate New York to revitalize the habourfront and return the town to its past splendor. However, because it was an industrial town, there are barrels of toxic waste that have been left along the places to be revitalized. The mayor and his handlers hire Jack’s brother, Harris, to get rid of the barrels, dumping them on farms surrounding the small city. The toxic leaching attracts the attention of a reporter named Turner, who happens to be something of a friend to Jack and who also happens to have designs on Jack’s newlywed wife Anne. Anne is trying to make something of a name for herself as an artist, but is suffering from a block. Can a passionate affair bring vitality back to her painting?

Read the rest here: https://medium.com/@zachary_houle/a-r...

[Mike Wood · Rating 3 out of 5]

For all its small town intrigue, infidelity, and illegal industrial waste, not much happens in this slow moving story. It's well written, and engaging enough, but just not exciting. I LOVED "Nobody's Fool" so it's not like I need action, which leaves me to believe it was the characters. They were well-rounded and vivid, but there was no one to root for, on either side. There was no one I wanted to see succeed, and no one I was hoping would fail, just a bunch of someones plodding through life. Maybe it was TOO well-written, too true to the real life that I look to books to escape.

[Holly · Rating 2 out of 5]

A nice linear story about a man who wants to make a difference for his hometown via property development but who gets mired in scandal when the cleanup efforts are not ethical. It was a pleasant read but was not earth shattering nor, ultimately, memorable. Jack's wife and an old classmate are the other two main characters. As has been stated by other reviewers, I think the flaw of this novel was the lack of draw to the characters. I didn't love nor hate any of them; the novel overall lacked zing, zip, pizazz.

[Jaime · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too slow, couldn't stand the wife, kept waiting for something to happen.

[Randi Daeger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the way Tom Barbadh writes. It seems effortless and allows the reader to be right in the story. I want more and more and more.....

[Bridget · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great story of what is and what can become in a small town with big town ideas and ethics of the land

[Kevin Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent summer read for overeducated, slightly cynical men. A decent amalgamation of observations made over time where the writing provides no revelations and is uninteresting. Provides a decent gist of city renewal plans and projects. Has a lazy affair just off center of the main plot but it perhaps reads a little too like real life. The characters who have the affair don't fall head over heels in love but just sort of end up together because of convenience. Neither they nor their relationship are interesting. What a drag it is getting old.

[Mary L. Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Wonderful Read

Tom Barbash, like his characters, is as genuine as they come. His rendering of a dying Great Lakes town broke my heart, for I come from one and love it still and always.The complexity of the main characters personalities and relationships rings true,depicting the lurching, unpredictable nature of most people’s lives. I want to read more by this new tome author, whose prose reminds me a bit of Fitzgerald and Anne Tyler put together in his own unique and very engaging way.

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Urban planner Jack Lambeau has returned from New York City with his fiancee with a plan to help revitalize his dying industrial hometown. He befriends local report Jack, who has started to uncover some unsavory things happening in the town that may derail Jack’s plans and which his own brother Harris seems to be wrapped up in. It was an okay book that I enjoyed reading, but nothing that I would go out of my way to recommend.

[Flo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absorbing, great description of a dying America

I bought this novel by chance(!) when I joined Kindle Unlimited for a 2 month trial. Who knew this book would contain excellent writing, fascinating characters and a view of a dying upstate New York Town with a vision for its future, and the lives and loves of its inhabitants? Tom Barbash is so good I wonder how come I haven't read anything of his before this. Highly recommended.

[John Luiz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous novel about a dying town hoping it can reinvent itself by becoming a tourist attraction, but past mistakes get in the way. A wonderful story about the search to do right by your community and yourself when the conflict of big corrupt forces get in the way and you have to decide the right way to proceed. Some wonderful conflicts like upstate NY vs Manhattan,business development vs investigative journalism, and small town vs big town - with a complicated love triangle thrown in !!

[Betsy Brewster · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm glad I read this book. It was a good picture of life when things go wrong....everyone is more or less trying to do his best and everything gets messed up. Then everyone goes on and does their community service or heals from their broken heart and everything is pretty much okay. In a way, kind of a hopeful book.

[Ayny · Rating 2 out of 5]

meh, could not finish.
Felt like I was reading small town political report with dialogue added. Predictable, the characters were not that interesting. Though the setting and cultures were well described, the story did not have a good chance.

[Margot Fulmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this (always while driving). I expected more of a mystery, but was glad for no anxiety! The reader is good. The ending was a bit brief and not quite a full ending. Whatever happens to each of the characters will remain a mystery to me.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my measures of a book is whether before putting it down for the night, I have the urge (that I almost always successfully fight) to flip ahead a few pages and see how things will progress. This was one of those books.

[Ann Pierson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book enough to look up a bio of the author to see what his roots are on the east coast. To my surprise I discovered that he now lives in my hometown in Marin County , Ca. (He’s originally from the east.)

[Kevin Parsons · Rating 3 out of 5]

I agree with other reviews - very similar to Richard Russo but characters not necessarily people you are invested in. Good plot abs well written.

[Ro Hart · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so pleased to have found this book.
Very real story about revitalising the small towns around Lake Ontario.
I have already ordered this author’s book Dakota Winters!

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those books where there is no hero and people aren’t either good or bad but human. It reminded me a little of reading Raymond Carver or Anne Tyler.

[KS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought he did a really good job. Felt real. I connected.

[Bertha Rachinski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice writing..

[Janine Miki · Rating 4 out of 5]

The storyline was slow to start, but once it got going, it was a good read. However, I felt the ending left me hanging, and I wanted more to wrap it up.

[Thomas McDade · Rating 5 out of 5]

From Brooklyn Library

"Is a powerful debut novel about the moral compromises we make in the name of loyalty, ambition, and love."

[Jonathan Gruber · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just not very interesting or a good enough character study

[Izzy Ward · Rating 2 out of 5]

This reminded me of “The Sun Also Rises” by Ernest Hemingway but with a bit stronger plot. I was glad that I switched to the audiobook; I don’t think I would have finished it otherwise. I found Harris’s perspective the most rewarding while the others felt angsty.

[Marvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is told from the viewpoint of 3 main characters (though always in third person): a local boy made good who returns from NYC to his dying upstate New York hometown to oversee a project on the Lake Ontario harborfront to revitalize the town; his fiance, who gives up her advertising job to join him & pursue her painting career; & the local reporter who threatens their relationship & the town's project. It's a well-told story, with lots of good dialog writing, about loyalty to friends, spouse, & place; about how other values more valued in our culture, such as independence & career advancement, undermine such loyalties; & about how misplaced loyalties--or a willingness to pursue them through inappropriate means--are an even greater threat to genuine loyalty. Both sophisticated in theme & down to earth in setting & narration.

[Nina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Small, dying town on Lake Ontario is trying to make a comeback with a big harbor front development. The mayor is behind a secret strategy to clean up the waterfront for building by having thousands of barrels of toxic waste hauled out at night and dumped on the farmland. Reporter finds out and starts investigating. And along the way, has an affair with the wife of the city planner (who didn't initially know what the mayor was doing). I didn't like the female character at all. Book started slow, but there was some redemption in the end.