One More Last Dance is a compelling story about the power of friendship, one that develops between two men through an unlikely road trip.
Peckerwood Finch has a lot going against him. The 25-year-old Cajun man was abandoned at birth by his parents, endured abusive foster parents, is illiterate, and there’s his name—an unflattering term for a rural white Southerner. Fortunately, he’s affectionately known as Peck (his given name is Boudreaux Clement Finch). Peck is a fisherman and mows the grass at a small hospice on a Louisiana bayou. There he meets Gabriel “Gabe” Jordan, an elderly African American man dying of cancer whose final wish is to attend the Newport Jazz Festival. Despite his own shortcomings, Peck is determined to make Gabe’s dream come true.
The new friends hit the road only to be stymied by, among other things, a lack of funds and Peck’s poor sense of direction. At times, guardian angels come to their rescue, including a wealthy real estate broker who offers to buy airline tickets, among many other generosities. But Peck has no form of identification and must travel by bus while Gabe flies. The bulk of the story then concerns Peck’s adventures en route.
Antil’s moving narrative about selflessness relies heavily on readers believing that kindness from strangers exists, but it’s never syrupy. Each character is fully developed, complete with foibles, hopes and triumphs. Peck’s voice—uneducated, but respectful and kind—is thick with Cajun patois, interspersed with Cajun French (“I don’t have it, cher…I gived it to you las’ night”), and Gabe displays authentic knowledge about blues and jazz. Their friendship is the story’s heart: Peck literally leaves everything, including a fishing line in the water, to help Gabe, who becomes a father figure.
Although suspension of disbelief is occasionally required, as the story relays numerous serendipitous encounters, One More Last Dance is a sensitive, engaging portrait of the beauty of true friendship—one readers will surely savor.
For the last three days I have been thoroughly immersed in One More Last Dance. Let me begin by saying how gripping this story is. Not only is the plot packed full of twists and turns, but the setting – and the characters – are lovingly described. There is, I think, nothing better than a novel written by an author who knows how to balance setting, speech and plot.
So, what did I like? Well, the opening chapter is a real ‘grabber’. I’m very fond of books which open with a ‘BANG!' and not with endless paragraphs of flowery prose. Well, trust me, this opens BIG, hooking the reader in. In it we get to know Peck and his lawyer, Lily Cup. The dialogue between the two is pacey and intriguing.
But it is the characters and the way that they develop which I particularly enjoyed. It is here that the author excels, showing off not only his fluid style of writing but also his knowledge of Peck, Gabe, Sasha and Lily Cup. I often find with many novels, the author falls into the trap of bringing too many characters into the story which results in a confused reader and a watering down of the plot. Thankfully, this author did not do this and the six or so central characters were well developed and impossible to mix up.
Now to the plot. Is there a plot? Yes, and it’s very good. It is very much a John Grisham-style legal thriller and, in many ways: the setting, the characters, it reminded me of A Time To Kill. But it wasn’t the plot that I enjoyed the most. Though I did enjoy it. It was the characters. What you will find in this novel is a host of splendidly-developed characters that will not only fascinate you but will also force you to think. There’s a lot of commentary hidden in here, on how parts of America work or, indeed, how they don’t work. But the author’s sly and has such competent writing skills, he can put over his message without the reader ever feeling overwhelmed.
Now to setting. The author works particularly well with this. He understands how important it is not to just simply describe the setting but, rather, have the characters interact with it in a natural and unobtrusive way. This is particularly important in this story, where the setting is almost a character in the book.
Probably the strongest part of the book is the writing style. It is very accessible with plenty of descriptive prose which is well-written and imaginative. The author is also confident with ‘speech’ with plenty of ‘showing’ and not ‘telling’, a good sign of a confident author. Finally, the author is not scared to keep a sentence short and simple where it’s needed; and, by doing so, helping to improve the pacing where speed is important.
Now to the only problem I had with the story. And that was the way Peck spoke. The problem is, the author did such a good job of displaying the character’s accent, I had problems following what he was saying. For example, “I’m goin’ to New Or-lee-anh to larn to read, if’n I kin get out of dis mess an’ I din’t kidnap nobody.” Now, remember, Peck is pretty much the most important character in the story so a reader will have to struggle with this for large parts of the novel. I understand that Peck’s upbringing is an important aspect of the story, but I still wonder if it would be worth toning the dialect down a little to help readers living in different parts of the world to understand what he’s saying. There’s nothing kills a story more than having to stop, go back and try to work out what the hero is talking about. But this, honestly, was my only grumble.
Finally, the cover; and what a fantastic cover it is. Powerful, exciting, tempting the prospective buyer to lift it off the shelf and enjoy the wonders of a superbly written story. They say you can’t judge a book by the cover. Well, in this case, you can.
One More Last Dance is a compelling story about the power of friendship, one that develops between two men through an unlikely road trip.
Peckerwood Finch has a lot going against him. The 25-year-old Cajun man was abandoned at birth by his parents, endured abusive foster parents, is illiterate, and there’s his name—an unflattering term for a rural white Southerner. Fortunately, he’s affectionately known as Peck (his given name is Boudreaux Clement Finch). Peck is a fisherman and mows the grass at a small hospice on a Louisiana bayou. There he meets Gabriel “Gabe” Jordan, an elderly African American man dying of cancer whose final wish is to attend the Newport Jazz Festival. Despite his own shortcomings, Peck is determined to make Gabe’s dream come true.
The new friends hit the road only to be stymied by, among other things, a lack of funds and Peck’s poor sense of direction. At times, guardian angels come to their rescue, including a wealthy real estate broker who offers to buy airline tickets, among many other generosities. But Peck has no form of identification and must travel by bus while Gabe flies. The bulk of the story then concerns Peck’s adventures en route.
Antil’s moving narrative about selflessness relies heavily on readers believing that kindness from strangers exists, but it’s never syrupy. Each character is fully developed, complete with foibles, hopes and triumphs. Peck’s voice—uneducated, but respectful and kind—is thick with Cajun patois, interspersed with Cajun French (“I don’t have it, cher…I gived it to you las’ night”), and Gabe displays authentic knowledge about blues and jazz. Their friendship is the story’s heart: Peck literally leaves everything, including a fishing line in the water, to help Gabe, who becomes a father figure.
Although suspension of disbelief is occasionally required, as the story relays numerous serendipitous encounters, One More Last Dance is a sensitive, engaging portrait of the beauty of true friendship—one readers will surely savor.
One More Last Dance is a compelling story about the power of friendship, one that develops between two men through an unlikely road trip.
Peckerwood Finch has a lot going against him. The 25-year-old Cajun man was abandoned at birth by his parents, endured abusive foster parents, is illiterate, and there’s his name—an unflattering term for a rural white Southerner. Fortunately, he’s affectionately known as Peck (his given name is Boudreaux Clement Finch). Peck is a fisherman and mows the grass at a small hospice on a Louisiana bayou. There he meets Gabriel “Gabe” Jordan, an elderly African American man dying of cancer whose final wish is to attend the Newport Jazz Festival. Despite his own shortcomings, Peck is determined to make Gabe’s dream come true.
The new friends hit the road only to be stymied by, among other things, a lack of funds and Peck’s poor sense of direction. At times, guardian angels come to their rescue, including a wealthy real estate broker who offers to buy airline tickets, among many other generosities. But Peck has no form of identification and must travel by bus while Gabe flies. The bulk of the story then concerns Peck’s adventures en route.
Antil’s moving narrative about selflessness relies heavily on readers believing that kindness from strangers exists, but it’s never syrupy. Each character is fully developed, complete with foibles, hopes and triumphs. Peck’s voice—uneducated, but respectful and kind—is thick with Cajun patois, interspersed with Cajun French (“I don’t have it, cher…I gived it to you las’ night”), and Gabe displays authentic knowledge about blues and jazz. Their friendship is the story’s heart: Peck literally leaves everything, including a fishing line in the water, to help Gabe, who becomes a father figure.
Although suspension of disbelief is occasionally required, as the story relays numerous serendipitous encounters, One More Last Dance is a sensitive, engaging portrait of the beauty of true friendship—one readers will surely savor.
Boudreaux Clemont Finch generally responds to Peck—short for Peckerwood—a moniker he was given as a child for his imprudent loquaciousness. Peck works at a hospice in Carencro, Louisiana, as a yardman and caretaker, and one of the patients—Gabe Jordan—conspires to escape with his help. Gabe, an older man who’s dying from stomach cancer, is a widower whose son died while serving in Iraq. He wants to make his way to Newport, Rhode Island, for a jazz festival there, but due to Peck’s errant navigation, they find themselves in New Orleans. Gabe decides to make the best of their detour, and they head to famous Frenchman Street to hear some jazz. There, Gabe meets Sasha, the owner of a successful real estate firm and who’s also Cajun French, and the romantic chemistry between the two immediately begins to simmer. Sasha is so taken with him she offers to drive the two tourists as far as Memphis in her Bentley, and slowly Gabe reveals to her his sad plight. Peck is later suspected of kidnapping Gabe and is eventually arrested for the crime. Sasha has to find Gabe—now off on his own—to prove Peck’s innocence. Ensconced within the engaging and surprising main plot is a secondary crime drama—a violent biker steals Gabe’s pain medication, and Peck heroically retrieves it with the help of two travelers, one of whom is stabbed by the thief. With the assistance of a young woman he meets on a Greyhound bus, Peck attempts to track down the thug. Antil (Return to Tiffany’s, 2017, etc.) has a gift for conjuring magnetically complex characters, with Peck the best of them: an illiterate, nearly incomprehensible, French-speaking 25-year-old man who’s so deeply sensitive he’s irresistible to women. The author overzealously packs too much plot into a short novel—Peck’s hunt for the fugitive is an unnecessary narrative distraction. But the story as a whole brims with charm and authentic emotions.
A delightfully quirky tale both unpredictable and affecting.
