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| The Garden of Last Days: A Novel | 
| Author: Andre Dubus Iii
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $10.75
You Save: $14.20 (57%)
New (53) Collectible (18) from $10.75
Avg. Customer Rating:  70 reviews
Sales Rank: 10304
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.6 x 1.6
ISBN: 0393041654
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780393041651
ASIN: 0393041654
Publication Date: June 2, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: dust jacket has slight bend at top, otherwise perfect
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Product Description
From the author of the New York Times bestseller and Oprah's Book Club selection House of Sand and Fog—a new big-hearted, painful, page-turning novel.
One early September night in Florida, a stripper brings her daughter to work. April's usual babysitter is in the hospital, so she decides it's best to have her three-year-old daughter close by, watching children's videos in the office, while she works.
Except that April works at the Puma Club for Men. And tonight she has an unusual client, a foreigner both remote and too personal, and free with his money. Lots of it, all cash. His name is Bassam. Meanwhile, another man, AJ, has been thrown out of the club for holding hands with his favorite stripper, and he's drunk and angry and lonely.
From these explosive elements comes a relentless, raw, searing, passionate, page-turning narrative, a big-hearted and painful novel about sex and parenthood and honor and masculinity. Set in the seamy underside of American life at the moment before the world changed, it juxtaposes lust for domination with hunger for connection, sexual violence with family love. It seizes the reader by the throat with the same psychological tension, depth, and realism that characterized Andre Dubus's #1 bestseller, House of Sand and Fog—and an even greater sense of the dark and anguished places in the human heart.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 65 more reviews...
Hard to Grasp September 4, 2008
I disliked the first 150 pages of this book. Almost unreadable. Then it got better. I couldn't put it down. I am not a fan of his writing style in this book. I had to go back and re-read paragraphs just to get the jist of what he was trying to communicate and even then sometimes I was clueless. He does capture the very essence of life as an exotic dancer and a few other of the characters. I will not recommend it as heartily as I did his first book.
 Very Disappointing September 1, 2008
This review is based on the audio version that came from the library. Fortunately, I did not pay good money for this book which was a disappointment. I also admit to having skipped (2) of the 12 discs, but honestly, I don't feel like I missed a thing. The outcome was predictable.
The book takes place in Florida just days before 9/11. In this book of 500++ pages, or in my case (12) discs of approximately 60 minutes each, we hear the most detailed accounts of very boring minutia. If that isn't bad enough, there were too many characters and points of view.
We are introduced to April, a stripper (Stripper name Spring, but who cares) forced by circumstance to bring her 3-year-old daughter Franny to work one night. Little Franny is kidnapped from the back office of the strip club where she is was suppose to be watching Disney movies.
Who took her? For suspects we have A.J., a drunk and disorderly patron, Lonnie, the bouncer, Jean, April's lonely widowed landlord, and Bassam, a strange Middle Eastern guy with all loads of cash. Throughout the chapters there are flashbacks of the Bassam, a terrorist, his family and background; Bassam is drawn to April...AKA...Spring.
For me, once the Franny mystery is resolved, there was just no one to root for or care about.
 Fantastic Read! August 31, 2008
Like so much of Dubus' writing, the pull between the choices characters make and the circumstances they let happen to them dance to a volatile tune of fightening possiblities. The book reads quickly depsite it's size and the pace of events pulls you through the story -- I had trouble putting it down! The details of events and range of characters makes for a rich and compelling story. I highly recommend this book!!!
Disappointed August 25, 2008
I read this on the glowing recommendation of one S. King. Very disjointed, it never captured my interest and I would not recommend.
Disappointed August 20, 2008
I quite liked his previous book, and that was the only reason I bought this one. It drags, and drags. I was quite surprised (maybe i'm naive) at the ending re: the foreigner and his mission. why was this even part of the story? I thought maybe it would take a diffferent direction than what actually happened, otherwise....what was the point? Thought about putting it down several times.....should have.
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