Last Call

Blair Oliver
World Audience, Inc. (2007)
ISBN 9781934209745
Reviewed by Carol Hoyer for Reader Views (5/08)


Blair Oliver has given us all an opportunity to see that sometimes what we see isn’t really so. We come into relationships, jobs and social situations with rose-colored glasses on and it isn’t until a crisis happens that we really see what is going on.

Through several short stories, Oliver has shown that we as individuals are really “noble savages” that believe all is good in the world and no one would ever intentionally hurt us. Through nine stories, issues such as not discussing what is happening in relationships, moving into a house you really don’t want to live in, or being sociable to people you really don’t care about involves all of us at one time or another. Why do we feel the need to please everyone but ourselves? Each story is entertaining but at the same time makes one think about their life – are we living a lie?

The reader felt right at home with all the characters in these stories. I could imagine being in their house or their relationship from the way Oliver described every nook and cranny. What I liked best about “Last Call” is that it made me re-think my priorities.


Reviewed by Danielle Feliciano for Reader Views (12/07)


Let me start with a confession: I am not at all a fan of short stories.  I have tried over and over to be open to this genre but I can count on one hand the number of times that I have actually been able to finish a collection of short stories.  Blair Oliver has restored my rapidly dwindling faith in the possibility of ever finding a short story collection I actually enjoy.

In his book “Last Call,” Oliver strips away all pretenses and forces the reader to face that we are, in fact, human.  We all make mistakes, and those mistakes affect not only us, but those around us.  Man or woman, everyone faces the same basic themes in life (love, loss, betrayal, redemption), but how we choose to deal with those life themes is what is at the core.  Do we ignore life and watch it pass by or do we choose to actively live?

Some of the actions of the men in this collection are hard to like.  Starting with the boy who plans to use his father’s rare coins to pay for a date and continuing with infidelity and lack of love, it would be obvious to detest these characters and place the blame on them.  However, Oliver brilliantly manages to get the reader, if not to feel sorry for, to at least understand these men and the choices they make.  It would be easy to judge, easy to say “how horrible,” easy to say “I’d never do that,” but as you are reading, it’s not so easy to imagine yourself being any better than the characters.

The main theme throughout each story seems to be of disconnect, not only the disconnect from child or spouse, but the disconnect from one’s self.  Each of the main characters seems to be an observer rather than a participant in his own life.  He finds himself married to someone whom he doesn’t like.  He finds himself a father to a child he has nothing in common with.  He finds himself waking up each day and saying to himself “How did I get here?” without ever really seeking the answer to that question.

The stories in this collection are bleak and raw but in the end, Blair Oliver finds humor in the black hole his characters have created for themselves.  He makes it possible for us to see ourselves mirrored in the depressing circumstances, yet in the safety of an outsider’s opinion, find a small silver lining.  I am honestly stunned by this collection and the stories in “Last Call” will stay with me for a long time to come.

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