Last Resort
A Novel
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3.9 • 17 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Named a Top 10 Book of the Year by Slate
Named a Best Book of 2022 by The New Yorker
Named a Best Book of 2022 by Vulture
A New York Times Editors’ Choice
Shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction
In his blazing debut novel, Andrew Lipstein blurs the lines of fact and fiction with a thrilling story of fame, fortune, and impossible choices.
Caleb Horowitz is twenty-seven, and his wildest dreams are about to come true. His manuscript has caught the attention of the agent, who offers him money, acclaim, and a taste of the literary life. He can’t wait for his book to be shopped to every editor in New York, except one: Avi Deitsch, an old college rival and the novel’s “inspiration.” When Avi gets his hands on it, he sees nothing but theft—and opportunity. Caleb is forced to make a Faustian bargain, one that tests his theories of success, ambition, and the limits of art.
Last Resort is the razor-edged account of a young man’s reckless journey into authenticity. As Caleb fights to right his mistakes and reclaim his name, he must burn every bridge, confront his deepest desires, and finally see his work from the perspectives of characters he’d imagined were his own.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lipstein debuts with a fluidly written but tepid send-up of publishing's thorny issues of authorship and attribution. Caleb Horowitz leaves an advertising job in New York to pursue writing in Florida. After the manuscript of his first novel is roundly rejected, he crashes with an old college friend, Avi Dietsch, in Los Angeles, and Avi relates a steamy tale about a foursome he had in Greece. Caleb uses this anecdote, without permission, as the basis for a new novel. Five months later, Caleb falls in love with Sandra, a woman he met on Tinder, and sells the book for $830,000, but the fantasy evaporates when Avi, who now works in publishing and is dating Sandra's best friend, recognizes the manuscript because Caleb didn't rename the characters. In a hush-hush legal deal, Caleb cedes authorship to Avi in exchange for retaining the advance in full. Caleb is mollified by his newfound wealth and steady girlfriend until the book is a runaway success and Avi gets the acclaim. His regret leads him into a series of schadenfreude-laden missteps that, while occasionally entertaining, do little to illuminate why Caleb is stuck repeating old wrongs. The underdeveloped characters add to the muddiness at the heart of this story. This lands decidedly off target, somewhere between fairy tale and satire.
