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    The Last Night at the Ritz
    The Last Night at the Ritz
    The Last Night at the Ritz
    Audiobook7 hours

    The Last Night at the Ritz

    Written by Elizabeth Savage and Nancy Pearl

    Narrated by Janet Metzger

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Brazen, candid, and always willing to take chances, the unnamed and not entirely trustworthy narrator of The Last Night at the Ritz celebrates her birthday with three old and dear friends. Two of them, Gay and Len, are a long-married couple and her best friends from college. The third, Wes, was once her lover.

    Organizing a luncheon at Boston’s esteemed Ritz Carlton—an old favorite of the group’s—the narrator expects the occasion will be an excellent chance to catch up with her friends and enjoy each other’s company. But almost immediately upon arriving at the hotel, she senses things are different, though she can’t quite put her finger on what’s wrong. Even the Ritz has changed, no longer displaying the lion—its trademark symbol of hospitality—on its ashtrays.

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateOct 2, 2012
    ISBN9781469205502
    The Last Night at the Ritz
    Author

    Elizabeth Savage

    Elizabeth Savage was the acclaimed author of numerous novels, including The Girls of the Five Great Valleys, Summer of Pride, But Not for Love, A Fall of Angels, and Happy Ending. She lived in Maine and was married to the novelist Thomas Savage. She died in 1989.

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    Reviews for The Last Night at the Ritz

    4/5

    28 ratings5 reviews

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    • 5/5
      A good novel is more than a string of good sentences, but the sentences in Elisabeth Savage's “The Last Night at the Ritz” (1973) are so good you might miss the fact that it is also a good novel. I found myself reading many of these sentences more than once, meaning that reading the novel once was almost like reading it twice. No wonder it took me so long to make it through a 188-page book.Another reason for that could be the many digressions by the story's unnamed narrator, a middle-aged woman whose literary aspirations, like her first husband (she calls him "the real one"), died young. Even her digressions often have digressions, meaning readers frequently need to reorientate themselves to figure out where they are. In other words, the novel takes a little work, worth it though it is.The novel occupies just one day in Boston when our narrator meets her best friend, Gay, and Gay's husband, Len, for some drinking, dining and reminiscing. Yet through the many digressions, or flashbacks, we learn virtually everything significant about the relationship of these three people from college days till now.Our narrator — how I wish she had a name — had a brief affair with Len years before. She is childless but regards Gay and Len's eldest son, Charley, as her own son. Len works for a publishing company. Both Gay and nameless once hoped to be published themselves.Several factors bring things to a boil on this day in Boston. They are all drinking too much. Len worries about Charley, now in Canada dodging the draft. Gay worries about Marta, Len's lovely and self-assured assistant who goes with them on their night on the town. Wes, a man with whom the narrator has had a casual affair, is also at their table, as is Walter, an author whose first book has just been accepted for publication.OK, not much really happens, but Savage gives us every subtle nuance, every little change in mood, so one is aware of a great deal happening just beneath the surface.And then there are those wonderful sentences. One could almost open the novel anywhere, point a finger blindly and find a choice one.Although an excellent novel, “The Last Night at the Ritz” was quickly forgotten soon after publication, forgotten by everyone but Nancy Pearl, that is. Pearl raved about it in one of her “Book Lust” books. Then it and few other forgotten treasures were reprinted as Book Lust Rediscoveries. Before it is forgotten again, discover it for yourself.
    • 5/5
      Here's what I loved about Last Night at the Ritz: perfectly chosen words in a perfect pace, full characters who reveal themselves slowly at just the right time, and an acute but naughtily humorous observation of the best and worst in all of us.

      To a certain type of reader, and I count myself among them, it may seem humdrum at first. Even some of your favorite books must be approached in the right mood. Since it's the remembered chronicle of a friendship between two women who met in college during the 1930s, its particular tone and voice might have to grow on you, as you get to know the narrator, a woman with a certain amount of decorum and a healthy amount of wicked frankness. It's the comical, no-nonsense approach that really endears the narrator to me, and makes me trust and sympathize with her.

      Every sentence is either so true and yet rarely articulated, or so full of the right detail, or with just the right compelling action, that you sink comfortably into in to devour it. Here are a couple choice favorites:

      When the wife and the mistress greet one another:"My friend greeted [Marta] with a smile that I know from way back--radiant, brilliant, totally false. The girl returned the look in a way that was totally honest and that scared me to death. Because I saw that Gay was in bigger trouble than she knew. This girl is much too tolerant of Len's wife and if I read her right, much too sure of Glen."

      "When he started throwing the glasses I made sure I finished mine before he got to it. Waste not, want not."

      I loved the narrator, so if she doesn't grab you then the book isn't for you. She's a classy and slightly drunk grandmotherly type. According to her, there are some things you just don't do, some things you don't mean to do but do anyway, and very many things you must laugh at with kindness.
    • 4/5
      I was in the mood for a classic type of literary fiction & so I finally got to this on my Kindle. I'm very glad that I did. Our narrator is unnamed & not wholly reliable but she has a wit & way about her that really makes the story. She & her married friends Gay & Len are boozing it up one "last" time & as the drinks flow, so do some not so pretty truths & long held secrets about each of them. At just over the midpoint I was getting a little bored of her tangents & the Boston references but I was all in for the reveals about Charley (this was the heart of the story for me), Len and the rest. It's what I would consider a period piece (set in the late 60s & heavily references a 20-25 year span) but not quite historical fiction. I definitely had a bit of a curve to understand some of the references to the time but it was worth sticking with it & calling my mother to ask some questions about the 60s & 70s. The story's conclusion is open-ended but I took it as hopeful (no matter which way it goes for our narrator) & I really enjoyed it. I was just glad she had finally decided to call Sam. ;)
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this narrator, and this slice of early 1970s Boston, but it never totally grabbed me. I read it in bits and chunks around other books.
    • 4/5
      “The Last Night at the Ritz” is a treasure trove of great quotes. Some of them were very reminiscent of Dorothy Parker – straight to the heart of the matter with sarcasm and wit.“Or take this, which concerns whiskey, a topic in which many of us are interested. Those undesirables which contaminate the product are known in America as the heads and tails. In England they are called feints, which give one pause. Among these is fusel oil, “from which it is very desirable that the spirit be freed as much as possible.” Any way you want to take it, that statement is correct.” Or, “We buy our liquor by the case so that we won’t get nervous about running out, and we buy the big half-gallon bottles so we won’t have to go back and forth to the pantry. The other night after a normal cocktail session, a rather good dinner and a pleasant sleep, I pointed out that we had done away with a half of a half gallon. Since there had been no blows and no sobbing in the night I don’t suppose it was important, but if you figure it up, I suppose we spend on liquor in a month what a semester’s tuition used to be. There is some moral issue here which I should like to think about, if I have the time.”Some passages sneak up on the reader. Mocking at first…but finishing with a sentimentality and time softened wisdom. (These passages become all the more delicate once the reader reaches the end of the book.)Like, “At seventeen, Charley didn’t believe in means and averages. I don’t say he didn’t approve of them – he didn’t believe in them. He believed in Olympian heights and Stygian depths. He didn’t know how delicately it is all balanced; that even in grief a shaft of sun can rest upon your shoulder like a hand, or that even true love can harbor true discontent.”And, “On the whole, I prefer being married; it is neater and eliminates all the cat-and-mouse busy-ness that is fun to think about but not much fun to act out. I got tired of the stolen hour, the stolen night, the disguised telephone message, the accommodation address. I wanted to wake up with someone warm beside me who would kiss me before my teeth were brushed.” Although I did not experience the era(s) in which this story takes place, I felt like I was there along with the nameless narrator…at once experiencing these events and observing them. Her clarity of vision when trained on her and those people who had the greatest impacts on her life create a rich, textured story.“What we had admired about Len from the beginning was his self-possession. He had that quality that in those days we would not have called cool. Force that he didn’t have to raise his voice to exert. Humor, but never had to laugh too loud. In fact, he had in what our salad days we used to see in heroes – strength with the capacity for tenderness.”This clear eyed examination of one present day and several key moments from the past are carefully brought together to provide a fascinating look at this one woman’s life – the details of the journey that led to this last night with her closest friends.