The Last Night at the Ritz

Nancy Pearl's Book Lust Rediscoveries

De: Elizabeth Savage, Nancy Pearl - introduction

Narrado por: Janet Metzger

The charming, and not entirely trustworthy, unnamed narrator of The Last Night at the Ritz invites three friends to join her for lunch at the elegant Ritz-Carlton in Boston to celebrate her birthday. Two of them, Gay and Len, are a long-married couple and her best friends from college. The third, Wes, was once her lover.

As the afternoon gives way to evening and as the drinks flow, the past and present intrude upon the festivities and the atmosphere turns somber. Before the night is through, truths and secrets slip out that will change their relationships forever.

Back in print for the first time in a generation, The Last Night at the Ritz, a masterfully written novel of friendship and love and the ways we deceive each other and ourselves, is quite simply unforgettable.

©1973 Elizabeth Savage (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Smart and sassy

Would you listen to The Last Night at the Ritz again? Why?

The reader, Janet Metzger, got just the right tone for the unnamed first person narrator, who has a witty, devil may care attitude even in the face of tragedy.

What does Janet Metzger bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The sassy, witty tone that permeates the narration. I don't think I would have gotten it in quite the same way if I had read the book instead of listening. She has a flip way of expressing herself like when her friend is talking about her grandparents' graves and the narrator says, "I thought we were here to have fun."

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When the narrator gives advice to Charlie, her best friend's son. Also, when her friend says if she won't sleep with her boyfriend someone else will and we suspect that she knows that the narrator has done so.

I Feel Like Going to the Ritz For a Drink!

I have no idea how to explain this book. It’s about everything and nothing. A woman and her friends go out for drinks and dinner and through flashbacks we learn about her life.

Sounds boring put that way, but it wasn’t! I liked this woman very much and “enjoyed her company” so to speak. I also enjoyed the fact that it was set in Boston – I went for the first time last December and really enjoyed it; since it’s still fresh in my mind it was easy to picture the story… never mind that it’s set in the 60s.