The Stark Beauty of Last Things - Celine Keating - ★★★.¼

AUTHOR: Celine Keating

GENRE: Contemporary Fiction

RATING: 3.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: A character-oriented contemporary fiction based in the Hamptons. Has great potential and themes, but gets bogged down by too many details and excessive length. Still, could work well as a mood read.

Story Synopsis:

When a friend invites Clancy, a thirty-six-year-old claims adjuster, to a party in Montauk, he doesn't realise that he will soon have the power to change the fate of the community by deciding what happens to the last piece of undeveloped land in Montauk.

Several characters are involved in the ongoing drama – a bartender whose house is affected by coastal erosion, a motel owner who is also an artist and an environmentalist, an old man who is trying to reconcile with his family, a young couple who is struggling to hold on to their property.

The story comes to us through all their perspectives in third person.

Bookish Yays:

😍 The representation of Montauk and its natural beauty. The author clearly knows the region well or has done her research well.

😍 The characters, representing various age groups and behaviours. All main characters are sketched realistically, being more complex than straightforward. This works well in the character-oriented story.

😍 The small town vibes, complete with community spirit as well as internal clashes. Seeing many of the events from Clancy’s outsider perspective adds to the appeal.

😍 The tackling of environmental issues created by climate change as well as corporate greed. Loved the authentic representation of how small communities suffer when greed overrules common sense.

Bookish Mixed Bags:

😐 Quite a few impactful themes such as climate change, foster homes, parental abandonment, sexual abuse, juvenile delinquency, and many more. Some of these are apt for the plot as they connect with the core premise. The rest, while relevant in general, just clutter the book. Of course, this means that the novel will be a good choice for book club discussions. (There is a list of book club questions at the end of the novel.)

😐 The writing style is quite poetic and descriptive. Every scene is written in such a lyrical way as to bring the setting to life. However, I am not that fond of too much of descriptive prose in fiction, so this approach dragged my experience downwards.

😐 The story comes to us from multiple character perspectives, though Clancy’s pov, as the common thread, is the dominant one. This helps us know the characters well. But the constant shift in perspectives gets annoying after a while, especially as each character is tackling a separate personal problem in addition to the joint issue of safeguarding their homes.

Bookish Nays:

😒 The pacing is terribly slow, mainly due to the excessive descriptions and the extensive character build-up at the start.

😒 The blurb made it sound like the environmental angle was the main one, but the story goes all over the pace, with every character having hidden secrets and issues to be resolved. The focus was missing from the plot development with such an overreaching approach.

All in all, I did like the core story, but the meandering manner in which it unfurled was not to my reading preferences. I might have enjoyed it more had I picked it up at a more relaxed time, but in this busy period, the roundabout development and constantly shifting character perspectives just bogged down my reading flow.

Recommended to readers who would enjoy a slow-paced character-oriented story with multiple contemporary themes.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author through the Library Thing Early Reviewers Program. This review is voluntary and contains an honest opinion about my reading experience.