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|---|---|---|
Searching... Park Grove Library (Cottage Grove) | FICTION DUK | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | FICTION DUK | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Stillwater Public Library | FICTION DUK | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
*A July 2019 Indie Next List Great Read*
*One of Parade's Most Anticipated Books of Summer 2019*
*An O Magazine Best Beach Read of 2019*
*A New York Post Best Beach Read of 2019*
" The Last Book Party is a delight. Reading this story of a young woman trying to find herself while surrounded by the bohemian literary scene during a summer on the Cape in the late '80s, I found myself nodding along in so many moments and dreading the last page. Karen Dukess has rendered a wonderful world to spend time in."
--Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones & The Six
A propulsive tale of ambition and romance, set in the publishing world of 1980's New York and the timeless beaches of Cape Cod.
In the summer of 1987, 25-year-old Eve Rosen is an aspiring writer languishing in a low-level assistant job, unable to shake the shadow of growing up with her brilliant brother. With her professional ambitions floundering, Eve jumps at the chance to attend an early summer gathering at the Cape Cod home of famed New Yorker writer Henry Grey and his poet wife, Tillie.
Dazzled by the guests and her burgeoning crush on the hosts' artistic son, Eve lands a new job as Henry Grey's research assistant and an invitation to Henry and Tillie's exclusive and famed "Book Party"-- where attendees dress as literary characters. But by the night of the party, Eve discovers uncomfortable truths about her summer entanglements and understands that the literary world she so desperately wanted to be a part of is not at all what it seems.
A page-turning, coming-of-age story, written with a lyrical sense of place and a profound appreciation for the sustaining power of books, Karen Dukess's The Last Book Party shows what happens when youth and experience collide and what it takes to find your own voice.
Author Notes
With a background in newspaper and magazine journalism, Karen Dukess spent nearly a decade as a speechwriter on gender equality at the United Nations Development Programme. She is a graduate of Brown University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and lives in Pelham, New York. The Last Book Party is her debut novel.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Dukess's vivid debut travels back to the summer of 1987 when an aspiring writer lands a job as an assistant for a well-known writer. Eve Rosen is a secretary at Hodder, Strike and Perch, a publishing company. While staying in Truro, Mass., with her family during the summer, Eve is invited to a party at the home of writer Henry Grey, where she meets his carefree son, Franny, and the two engage in a brief affair. After realizing that her secretarial position is a career dead end, Eve takes Henry up on his offer of a research assistant position for the summer. Though she enjoys working for Henry, and he begins to value her opinion, their friendship changes into an affair they both understand will likely end once the summer is over. Henry and his wife, Tillie, meanwhile, continue to plan the their end-of-summer party where everyone dresses up as their favorite literary character. Eve's novelist friend Jeremy Grand comes for the party, but not all goes as planned, as Eve discovers some disturbing things about the origins of the plot of Jeremy's novel. Clever characterizations bolster this enticing coming-of-age story. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A young woman with literary aspirations jumps at the chance to become a summer assistant for a prestigious author in Dukess' bittersweet coming-of-age debut novel.It's June 1987, and Eve Rosen is star-struck as she walks up the driveway of the summer home of New Yorker writer Henry Grey, for the guests are "Truro's summer elite, the writers, editors, poets, and artists who left their apartments in Manhattan and Boston around Memorial Day and stayed on Cape Cod into September." An editorial secretary at Henry's New York publisher, Eve is thrilled to meet the man whose correspondence with her, however brief, is the highlight of her job. She is also dazzled by Henry's attractive son, Franny, and Henry's aloof wife, the poet Tillie Sanderson. With dreams of becoming a writer, yet lacking confidence, Eve longs to join this world, so very different from her Jewish parents' suburban, middle-class lifestyle. "I was buoyed by a sense of possibility. A tentative belief that I could have a creative life too." Returning to Manhattan, Eve meets her boss's new literary discovery, snobbish Jeremy Grand, who went to school with Franny. Jealous of Jeremy's connections with the Greys and his early success, Eve reads his unpublished novel and is stunned by the power of his voice. Her doubts about her own abilities grow, but when Eve is bypassed for a promotion, she quits her job and accepts Henry's offer to work as his research assistant for the summer. Her decision leads her to some hard (if somewhat predictable) truths that are exposed at the Greys' annual book costume party. Eve is an appealing protagonist, nave and yet assertive in trying to find her own voice as an artist.Written with fresh confidence and verve, this first novel is a bibliophile's delight, with plenty of title-dropping and humorous digs at the publishing scene of the 1980s. The lyrical evocations of the Cape Cod landscape will also enchant readers seeking that perfect summer read. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Eve Rosen has worked in publishing for most of her admittedly short career, but as an aspiring writer, she finds the constant access to other peoples' success draining. She jumps at a summer research assistantship, typing and filing for a venerated author at the New Yorker. Henry Grey and his poet wife, Tillie, live in Cape Cod, an area Eve's family has visited for decades. In Truro, where old and new money mingle, artistic and literary communities combine, and vibrant youth and established traditions collide, Eve uncovers more about herself than she ever dreamed possible. Readers aching for the sun-dappled intrigue of André Aciman's Call Me by Your Name (2007) or the wit of Francine Prose's Blue Angel (2000) will find a kindred reading experience here. Although some romantic entanglements ring a bit hollow, Eve's youthful optimism is entirely believable. Mixing ambivalence, nostalgia, and the power of innocence in an idyllic setting, this journey of self-discovery is an ideal summer read for those who might shun more typical beach-read offerings.--Stephanie Turza Copyright 2019 Booklist
