Last Call
K. L. Cook’s debut collection
of linked stories spans three generations in the life of one West Texas
family. Events both tender and tragic lead to a strange and lovely vision
of a world
stitched together in tenuous ways as the characters struggle to make
sense of their lives amid the shifting boundaries of marriage, family, class
and
culture.
A series of unusual incidents—a daughter’s elopement, a sobering
holiday trip, a vicious attack by the family dog, a lightning strike—provokes
a mother of five to abandon her children. An oil rigger, inspired by sun-induced
hallucinations, rescues his estranged wife, who doesn’t appreciate
his chivalry. In the wake of his father’s and brother’s deaths,
a teenage boy finds a precarious solace working with his mother at a country-western
bar. A cosmetics salesman schemes to buy Costa Rica and flirts dangerously
with mobsters
in Las Vegas. A woman, fleeing her fourth marriage, arrives at a complicated
understanding of love and responsibility.
Railroad worker and conman, grieving
son and battered wife—these characters
explore the limits of family fragility and resilience. Their stories—suggesting
unlikely connections between comedy and pathos, cruelty and generosity—promise
a hard-won dignity and hope.
“A
family’s tragic trajectory viewed through the kaleidoscope
of time in stories that make an immensely satisfying whole.” |
— Kirkus
Reviews (starred
review) |
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Read reviews of Last Call.
Praise for Last Call
“The stories in Last Call are about fractured families, lovers and losers
(often one and the same), and coming of age the hard way. Cook writes with
ease and naturalness and a wonderful, sorrowful knowledge of human foibles.”
— National Book Award finalist Jean
Thompson, author of Who Do You Love
“The stories in Last Call are so entertaining it seems almost unfair
that they also resonate powerfully long after you’ve put down the book.
K. L. Cook has whopping gifts, and this is a splendid book.”
—
Award-winning novelist Robert
Boswell, author of Century’s Son
“Last Call is a terrific first book.
K. L. Cook starts with the pungent inventory of country-western songs but lights
it all, even his honky-tonks, fried food, downed trees, sick dogs and rain,
with a new understanding of men and women. These are rich stories by an exciting
new voice.”
— Award-winning short-story writer Ron
Carlson,
author of A Kind of Flying
Awards for Individual Stories in Last Call
- “Texas Moon” and “Last Call” won the 2002 Grand
Prize in the Santa
Fe Writers Project
- “Nature’s Way” was nominated by Witness for a Pushcart
Prize
- “Costa Rica” and “Knock Down, Drag Out” won an Arizona
Commission on the Arts Fiction Fellowship
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