Last Night at the Lobster

By Stewart O'Nan

A frank and funny yet emotionally resonant tale set within a vivid work day world, from the author of Emily, Alone and Henry, Himself--named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Entertainment Weekly

A Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize

Perched in the far corner of a run-down New England mall, the Red Lobster hasn't been making its numbers and headquarters has pulled the plug. But manager Manny DeLeon still needs to navigate a tricky last shift--just four days before Christmas and in the midst of a fierce blizzard--with a near-mutinous staff and the final onslaught of hungry retirees, lunatics, and holiday office parties. All the while, he's wondering how to handle the waitress he's still in love with, his pregnant girlfriend, and where to find the present that will make everything better. 

Stewart O'Nan has been called "the bard of the working class," and Last Night at the Lobster is a poignant yet redemptive look at what a man does when he discovers that his best might not be good enough.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Release date: Nov 1, 2007
• ISBN: 9781440619878

Stewart O'Nan

Stewart O’Nan’s award-winning fiction includes Snow Angels, A Prayer for the Dying, Last Night at the Lobster, and Emily, Alone. His novel The Odds was hailed by The Boston Globe as “a gorgeous fable, a stunning meditation and a hope-filled Valentine.” Granta named him one of America’s Best Young Novelists. He was born and raised and lives in Pittsburgh. 

Reviews for Last Night at the Lobster

[foggidawn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Corporate headquarters has pulled the plug. It’s four days before Christmas, and it’s Manny’s last shift as manager of the Red Lobster. He’ll have to contend with snow, cranky holiday shoppers, staff who may or may not come to work, and carving out time to shop for a gift for his pregnant girlfriend — all the while dealing with his own emotions about the waitress he’s still in love with. This melancholy slice-of-life story strikes me as realistic and well-written. There are no big surprises in terms of plot, but by the end you find you care about these characters and their drama. If this sounds like the sort of book you enjoy, I’d recommend it.

[paradiseporch · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Lisa at Lit and Life recommended this short novel about a Red Lobster restaurant in a Maine mall on its last night of business. The last shift sees a motley crew present (many have already found work elsewhere), and a blizzard that keeps away the supper trade.It’s character-driven, but there’s not a lot of time for character development. Again, I was mildly disappointed.3½ stars

[smallwonder56_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Amazing characters and writing. I felt like I was in the story and knew these people. Wonderful book and a quick read.

[clue_4 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Manny is the manager of a rundown Red Lobster in New England. He comes to work at 11:00 A.M. on Dec. 22 just like he always does, ready to do the best job he can at his Lobster. It's a Saturday, always the busiest day of the week and he wonders who will show up for work that day. In 12 hours the restaurant will close. Not for that day like all the other Saturdays through the years, but for the last time. In just 12 hours the restaurant will no longer exist and the employees will no longer exist either. The book begins with Manny driving into the parking lot and it ends with Manny being the last to drive out. In between O'Nan doesn't make one misstep. His characters are genuine and the setting is one that I can see, smell and hear. It turns out to be a bad weather day with a snowstorm driving customers home. Since only a few come in the employees have time to talk. We learn about a shattered romance, about silly rivalries, about good intentions, about loyalty. Some characters have painful shortcomings and some have survival skills. Manny is a sterling guy just hoping he can figure out how to talk to the waitress that doesn't want him no matter how much he loves her and what to do about his pregnant girlfriend he's not sure he wants to marry. The story is touching because we know these people and wish they weren't caught up in this storm.

[dorie.craig · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is certainly not for everyone, but it certainly spoke to me. By the end of the book I felt like I had lived through it myself -- that I had worked the last day of a Red Lobster restaurnt during a snowstorm. This was my first but not last experience with this author.

[ffortsa · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

At first I was put off by all the detail O'Nan puts in, but that's really the point - his protagonist is a man lost in and comforted by detail, routine, checklists. And the details also make the snowstorm that ends the last night at a closing Red Lobster restaurant so real, I almost told my partner not to slip in the slush. So it became at the end a vivid, bittersweet story of real life, with all its small decisions and disappointments.,

[ameise1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Here the feelings and memory of Manny are told. He is the manager of the Lobster. It is the last day the restaurant is open. Some employees have a new job others are looking. Manny has hired his employees for various reasons. The harmony among themselves is not always the best and animosities escalate on this last day.I liked the story. It is subtly written and easy to read.

[rbeffa_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a little slice of life novel that takes a look at the workers and customers on the last shift of a Red Lobster restaurant. It is a look at simple working class people doing what they have to do. The restaurant is closing and only some workers show up for the last day's shift, and those who do are there pretty much for Manny, their manager. All sorts of interpersonal relationships at play, but mostly this is about Manny sorting through his life at that moment. If you have ever worked at a place like this sometime in life you will immediately recognize the atmosphere everyone is in. The author clearly has captured a bit of reality in this fiction. Good stuff.

[rosalita_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's just a few days before Christmas, but there's no holiday cheer at the Red Lobster restaurant in New Britain, Connecticut. The corporate overlords have decided to close down the underperforming eatery, and it's left to Manny to make sure his rapidly dwindling staff keeps up standards on this last day of operations. To make matters worse, a snowstorm is moving in, making travel hazardous and giving both staff and customers even less incentive to go above and beyond. O'Nan has written a book that is almost claustrophobic in its deceptive simplicity, with the entire narrative other than one scene set within the restaurant's walls. The manger, Manny, is imbued with a sad, quiet dignity that is complicated by his hopeless romantic entanglement with one of his employees. Most of his staff has already checked out mentally, but Manny can't keep himself from doing everything by the book and giving the few customers who show up a quality dining experience. He's anxious that everyone should walk away from this last night at the Lobster with good memories, an impossible task under the circumstances but noble even in its impossibility. On a more superficial note, the glimpse "behind the curtain" of how a chain restaurant operates was also fascinating to me. I cringed in sympathetic horror as Manny and his staff tried to cope with a pint-sized terrorist, an unexpected large office party, and the elderly lunchtime regular who has no idea that his daily refuge is being yanked out from beneath his feet.

[bkohl_6 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Manny opens up the Red Lobster in New Britain, CT for one last night before it closes for good.Everything about this tiny novel is beautifully summoned: central Connecticut's aging retail structure, pointless edicts from Corporate, what it feels like to be laid off and then have to come back to work, how menial work can make you enraged, and the odds and ends of feelings left over from a relationship.

[jldarden · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this novella. These are the types of stories I find I appreciate as I get older. Just a slice of human life, relationship interactions. The characters were well drawn and though nothing earth shattering occurs it is a clever glimpse into a regular day in the life. I have read other Stewart O'Nan and find the author to my liking. Recommended.

[dreesie-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent story that perfectly captures the suburban mall landscape and so many of the people trying to exist in it. O'Nan hits the chain food establishment, the corporate-ness, Manny trying so hard to do a good job, the employees who surprise him and let him down. The customers, the relationships. Excellent narration.

[castlelass · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The title says it all. This is a slim novel about the closing night of a Red Lobster in Connecticut. Manager Manny and his staff must get through the evening in spite of a snowstorm, disgruntled employees, and a few difficult customers. It seems realistic. Manny comes across as a hard-working guy who is sad that most of his employees are losing their jobs. He has a complicated relationship history. Not much happens. The main attraction is the interaction among the characters. I enjoyed it.

[gayla.bassham · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Beautifully written character study. O'Nan isn't always my cup of tea, but I liked this one.

[deltaqueen50 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

With Last Night At the Lobster, author Steward O’Nan has perfectly captured a moment in time that made the reading experience feel quite voyeuristic. The final hours of a Red Lobster Restaurant in New England occurring on a snowy night just five days before Christmas had an authenticity about it that made the reading all the more poignant. I have often frequented these types of chain restaurants that are housed in the back end of a mall parking lot and so the book had a familiar yet despondent note. More of a mood piece than an actual story, we step into the restaurant and immediately are caught up in the employee’s last shift. As the manager, Manny opens the restaurant we learn that corporate management is closing them down. Some have jobs to move onto and others are being simply let go. It’s understandable that most of the employees who are being let go fail to show up, leaving the rest to scramble to keep the business flowing smoothly. A few customers-from-hell, a couple of surly employees, and the blighted love affair of the manager and one of the waitresses liven up the final hours of the Red Lobster but as the hours tick down the overall feeling is one of sadness.Although very low key Last Night At The Lobster is a haunting and unforgettable glimpse into the lives of a group of service industry workers who are facing the reality of job change or loss. I read this book in pretty much one sitting and was totally absorbed.

[cheryl_in_cc_nv · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Short. Good bits, boring bits, confusing bits, and a few not-quite-realistic bits. If you've worked in a restaurant, or retail or service, you might like it. I've been a cashier and a CSR so I kinda empathized.
And I didn't expect any plot, so that lack was not a problem. But it was like the author cheated by providing us with these icons of Last Day, Red Lobster, Shopping Mall, Waitress Named Rox, Snowstorm.... Nothing was enlightening, nothing fresh was revealed or proposed. But at least I remember it well enough to add to this review, here in late March 2011 - that could be considered a plus.

[huntersun9 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This slender novel is about the permanent closing of a Red Lobster and how the manager and his staff handle their last night with their patrons and each other. I liked the comraderie between some of the co-workers- and also recognized the sniping and resentments. I remember how stressed I felt managing the Waldenbooks, but how sad it was to have it close forever (and now the Fairgrounds Mall doesn't even exist). You can have deep affection for a place as well as people.

[aldusmanutius · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Less "A Novel" than "A Slightly Lengthy New Yorker Short Story."

[zmagic69 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A quick fun read, about the last night of a dying Red Lobster restaurant, I wish it had been a little funnier and more of the employees had lashed out at the customers and each other.

[bookconcierge · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Audiobook narrated by Jonathan Davis
3.5***

Five days before Christmas, Manny DeLeon arrives for his last day as manager of the Red Lobster. Corporate has sent word down that the under-performing store, near a highway and separated from a run-down mall but an expanse of parking lot, is to be closed. If their last day wasn’t bad enough, a blizzard is brewing. Manny must convince his nearly mutinous staff to excel at their jobs for just one more shift, serving the patrons as if their jobs and the restaurant’s success depended on it. And while he wears the demeanor of an unflappable manager, inside he is torn – between his pregnant girlfriend at home and the waitress he is still in love with.

This slim volume is a study in reflection. The reader witnesses Manny’s struggles, small victories, and seemingly endless defeats as he continues to put one foot in front of the other, ever hopeful that things will work out, and that he is somehow in control of his future success. There are no pretty romantic endings here, no sudden realizations or changes in character. Instead Manny plows through his day (literally and figuratively), doing his best even when he realizes that his best isn’t quite good enough.

It is a perfect appetizer of a novel, whetting my appetite for O’Nan’s writing, and leaving me hungry for more.

Jonathan Davis does a fine job on the audio. He has a gift for voices and brings the various characters to life - both men and women.

[meredy_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Six-word review: The shining art of simple narrative.Extended review:Four stars for this tiny little book, 146 pages in which not very much happens, and what does happen is a miniature drama played out on a miniature stage by characters whose sheer ordinariness is almost a distinction in itself? Yes, because to give it anything less would seem false to the idea of perfection.A chain restaurant is closing. On its last day and night, just before Christmas, a reduced staff--some of whom are facing unemployment--have to stay on task through the final cycles of the day's routine. Manny the manager takes responsibility for keeping up morale and seeing that the bases are covered, all the while dealing with an inner struggle of his own.I read this through in just a few hours. And now I'm off to look for other work by this author.

[katiecarella · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An amazing, quiet book.

[narshkite · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very quick read. A lovely portrait of a segment of society not commonly found in literature. Manny broke my heart. Such small dreams, and yet even those cannot be reached.

[crazymamie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Those of you who follow Ellen's thread might remember that Ellen picked this book up while shopping with our own Katie (katiekrug) when they had their recent meet-up. She reviewed it on her thread and then very graciously sent it to me to read, so thank you Ellen for a delightful read. This book is set in a very narrow frame of time - the last night of a Red Lobster restaurant's existence. The restaurant is being closed down, so the staff will no longer be working together, although some of them are being sent to another restaurant owned by the same chain. It is just a few days before Christmas and there is a winter storm brewing. Does it really matter if the Lobster opens one last time? Told from the perspective of Manny DeLeon, the manager, this simple story is a glimpse into the world of food service that rings true for anyone who has ever worked behind the scenes. It is also a study of how what is comfortable and familiar is hard to let go of. We don't always get what we want. And we don't always say the right thing just because the moment is ripe for eloquence. I really liked this "little gem of a novel" as Ellen referred to it and think it is one that I will return to. Highly recommended.

[dtn620 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I like O'Nan and I liked this book. One gets the sense he found a Red Lobster that was closing, sat there throughout the last day and recorded what happened. If you've ever worked a job in food service, or any sort of close customer contact job you will recognize the character types in this book.

Truth be told this is the best book taking place in a Red Lobster I've ever read (and likely the only one). Cheap jokes aside, I am looking forward to picking up another O'Nan in the near future. Luckily for me he's written another 13 or so.

[lisamaria_c · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It would be easy to slight this novel--novella really; I read its 146 pages in less than two hours. The style was described as spare in reviews and its emotions are understated and it deals with ordinary people on an ordinary day where nothing extraordinary happens. It's four shopping days before Christmas and a Red Lobster restaurant at a New England mall is closing. At the start of the novel its manager, Manny DeLeon, is opening up for the last shift. Through the day he deals with difficult customers, even more difficult employees, and an impending blizzard. That's it. But O'Nan really is brilliant in his little character sketches of the people who come through the doors of the restaurant. And even if his prose could be called spare, it's not lacking in the punctilious detail, from the yellow bands on the lobsters in the tank to the cheap toilet paper, bringing the place sharply to the eye. It's elegiac in tone but never sentimental, melancholy and bittersweet with more than a touch of humor, while the present tense lends both immediacy and lyricism. If O'Nan never worked in a restaurant, he nevertheless evidently did his homework, and serves up a slice of working class life and depicts well what it feels like to work with a group of people--the loyalties, betrayals, resentments, rivalries. I only read one O'Nan novel before this, A Prayer for the Dying, and it's hard to think of a novel more different. It was set in the American West right after the Civil War during an epidemic. It doesn't have any element of the supernatural yet won the International Horror Guild Awards for Best Novel in 2000. That novel was gruesome and grim--and a stunner. This is a much more quiet, gentle story. I'd say the only thing they have in common is the restraint in language and emotions, and in both novels that's extremely effective. I'm impressed by this author's range. I'll definitely be reading him again.

[chaosmogony · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Short, tight little book. I never thought I could be nostalgic for my own days in the restaurant biz. O'Nan has a wonderful way of capturing the little details and painting that fictive picture that really hits home.

[librarian1204 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A small story at a point in time. Reminds me of a Richard Russo. Characters doing their every day things. Doesn't sound remarkable but it is a book that you will think about and remember and maybe see a moment pass where you could almost imagine how the author would write that event as a story.

[alanna1122 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What a wonderful little book. I feel like in the past year I have read so many books that suffered from poor editing. This is the antithesis of those books. It is tidy and compact and wonderfully descriptive. I love stories like these. This is a brief peek into someone's life. In a weird way the way I felt about it was the way I felt when I saw the movie Clerks and the movie Metropolitan so many years ago. It is small in size and in plot - but it is rich in detail and atmosphere. I loved this book. One of the best I have read in a long time.

[indreamsawake · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Quite a cathartic read if you've ever worked in the restaurant business, especially a chain restaurant. This reads more like a short story, not just because of the short length, but because of the voice, the real-time events, as if it's a snapshot of life. I've known a few "Mannys" myself. O'Nan is an amazing writer.

Side note: As I mentioned in my status line, I always wondered, as I would pass by the Red Lobster in Newington, NH, who goes to a Red Lobster on the coast of New England? Seriously? Anyway, it's no longer there.