The Last Resort

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Like a loyal Victorian wife, Jenny has devoted her life to her much older husband, the famous writer and naturalist Wilkie Walker, bringing up their children and researching and editing his best-selling books. But this year, as winter approaches, Wilkie is increasingly depressed and withdrawn. At her wit’s end, Jenny persuades him to visit Key West—the Last Resort. But Key West is not called the Last Resort for nothing. Lives can turn upside down here, and even short-term visitors can have experiences they never imagined. Within weeks of their arrival, Jenny not only has a part-time job but is becoming involved with assorted local characters, including Gerry, an ex-beatnik poet, and Lee, the dramatically attractive manager of a women-only guest house. Wilkie, meanwhile, is planning his own “accidental” death by drowning—a task that turns out to be more difficult than he thought—and trying to avoid the attentions of a breathless young female fan. The Last Resort is Pulitzer Prize winner Alison Lurie’s first novel in ten years. It is a perfect evocation of Key West and another dazzling demonstration of Lurie’s talent for high comedy and social comment.