Sunday 25 June 2017

The Last Bar in NYC by Brian Michels


"I might've looked the part when I was hired at the new hot spot and I was plenty capable of handling the same old work but I didn't know a thing about biting my tongue or keeping my dick in my pants."

Firstly, for transparency I will note that I was given a copy of this by the author and I would like to thank him for that. This was just the tonic (gin and tonic?) I needed this week and will undoubtedly appeal to anyone who has a misspent youth and a thirst for vodka. 
Can our protagonist be a bit of a jerk at times? Oh yes, and yet you, dear reader, will enjoy the ride.His personality wavers between extreme cockiness ( of the 'oh yeah, I totally can bang three broads at a time' kind of scenario) - to conflicted  ('oh dear,  should I really be doing this  and does coke make it really all better?') to a guy who starts to get his act and bar together - or does he - read it and find out.
 
Sometimes the chapters are a little jerky in their transitions and it takes a few pages to re-orientate, however that is only a momentary distraction and problematic only in the sense that you want to know what happens in the interim. The writing is great, there's a real sense of immediacy and you feel that you've been to every dive bar, sports bar, hooker hangout, cramped sleeping quarters and hostile lesbian bar, standing right alongside the narrator.

5 out of 5 cocktails are the answer.


 

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