Product Description

Opposites do attract--but is that really such a good idea?

Whit Stillman has won international acclaim as one of the wittiest, most original filmmakers of his generation--"the Balzac of the ironic class, the Dickens of people with too much inner life." in the words of Stephen Hunter in The Washington Post. Now, twisting the film novelization genre in an entirely new direction, Stillman has produced something equally fresh and surprising; a novel based on the characters and events touched on in The Last Days of Disco--the movie The New York Times called "deft, funny, and improbably touching"--with results that are even defter, funnier, and more improbably poignant.

Jimmy Steinway, the "Dancing Adman" of The Last Days of Disco (and, we later discover, a frustrated, desk-drawer novelist), gets his lucky break when Castle Rock Entertainment, unable to find anyone else to write a novelization of the movie, reluctantly gives the assignment to him. Jimmy struggles to bring to light the true origins of the story at Kate Preston's party in Sag Harbor, and the fast, then slow, then fast again unfolding of his love for Alice Kinnon, the boyfriendless social failure from Hampshire College whose quiet charm detonated a bitter rivalry between him and four of his Harvard classmates. (He also sets the record straight about the beautiful, passionate, painfully candid Charlotte Pingree.)

Set primarily in Manhattan in the early 1980s--but spanning two continents and two decades--The Last Days of Disco, With Cocktails at Petrossian Afterwards redresses the wrongs done these characters and this period, while helping to ameliorate the comic novel shortage in the world today.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #578159 in Books
• Published on: 2000-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 339 pages

Customer Reviews

Astounding and Beautiful
When I saw this book on Amazon's site as coming soon...I ordered it blindly. I had no idea what I would be getting (this was august) and it took me several months to get to it. Any new Stillman project is like music to my ears (pardon the horrific pun). He takes 4 years between movies and this was something new(ish).

Stillman's movies have been compared to Woody Allen many times, notably by Roger Ebert. While it is unlikely you will find a bigger Woody Allen fan than yours truely, I think the comparison is off the mark. Perhaps they both deal with similar comedy of manners and city life, but Stillman is not Allen. That is a good thing. Stillman, clearly influenced by many sources, is an original voice.

The other reviewers have done an outstanding job of explaining this extraordinary novel. We all say, "the book was better than movie" but when has a book been written after the film, by the screenwriter and turned into a novel that smoothly references the film? Got me. The book WAS better than the movie, but that is besides the point.

I watched the film (for the 3rd time) shortly before the I read the book. While I found the actor's images in my mind, it also made the references to the movie much easier to recall. They work best as companion pieces. I loved getting to know Jimmy, a really good guy. The book was moving and made me nostalgic for the early '80s when I was 6 or 7 and my own growing up years. Stillman touched a nerve. Even if you don't enjoy Stillman, you might enjoy the book.

By now, Stillman's signature style is well known. Ingenious dialogue,confused, but good young people. The film triliogy (Metropolitan remains the masterpiece) is now done, but what a way to end. I loved this book so much. This is not a very clear or literary review, but something about this book struck me very deeply. Not since Nick Hornby has a writer struck me like this. I find myself thinking it over often and looking forward (as I often do with his films) to reading it again.

I particularly enjoyed hearing what had become the characters in the "cocktails at the Petrossian" and "epilogue" sections. Fascinating revelations and lessons. I wonder, what happened to Charlotte? That we never know. No matter.

Poignant, hilarious, and fascinating. Read it. You will be changed.

Superb
An unusual novelization of a film after its theatrical release, that also happens to be written by its director/writer. By telling the story of the movie from the point of view of one of its characters -- who knows about the movie, its script, and various other background materials -- The Last Days of Disco, with Cocktails at Petrossian Afterwards actually improves upon what was an excellent, enjoyable film to begin with. But don't be concerned that this is some trite post-modern, deconstructionist gobbledygook, because Stillman is just as talented a novelist as he is a filmmaker, and he allows the wonderful, affecting story about a group of young people finding their way in the world hold center stage. Set against his marvelous descriptions of New York City at night, and its early 1980s club scene, along with the great dialogue Stillman's films are known for, Stillman's novelization of his own film succeeds greatly on its own.

Ingenious Novelization Reveals Strengths, Shallowness
Ever had a hankerin' for Hemingway? Or found yourself fixin' for some Fitzgerald? Sure, you could go back and reread *The Sun Also Rises* for the fifth time. Or *The Great Gatsby* for the seventh or eighth. But why bother when you want something new, something fresh, something that captures that same decadent ennui while referencing Chic's "Good Times" and Evelyne "Champagne" King's "I Don't Know If It's Alright"? Now, I'm not saying Whit Stillman's debut novel(ization) deserves automatic entry into the canon of Western literature. However, as a refreshing tonic of socio-sexual commentary, I assure you it can't be beat.

Here's what I like most about this novel: The narrative concept. Yeah, I saw the movie and liked it. (If you saw the movie and hated it, move on.) But the movie confused me at times, because -- quite frankly -- most of the male characters looked so similar that I kept confusing them. But, but, but...in the book, Stillman ingeniously casts fictional character Jimmy Steinway as the first-person, omniscient narrator -- with full knowledge of the movie, its script and various other background materials that the film's producers supposedly and graciously granted him. (Not to mention about twenty years of hindsight.) So Steinway can not only tell his side of the story, poor sod, but also elucidate many other goings on, including events to which he himself was not privied.

Long story short, this is indeed a retelling of the film that reveals all the strengths and weaknesses of the original story. The strengths being, first, great (great, great) dialogue. I found myself *thinking* like Stillman's dialogue for hours after I put down the book. Second, the novel (and film) present a very dignified and righteous defense of disco culture. Who knew? I grew up hating disco, believing it fake, stupid and empty like any red-blooded rock 'n roller. How enlightening to learn that disco, like any genre, had its artistes and its scam artists. And, y'know, it's true -- who really dances anymore? Nowadays, you're either thrown to the floor in a mosh pit or trampled to death by hundreds of ecstasy-whacked ravers trying to get the DJ's autograph.

The weaknesses? Well, as in the movie, you really must focus at times to keep the male characters in order. (The ladies aren't so difficult, their characters are clearly drawn and, uh, rounder.) And in the novel as well as the film, the lawyerly character Josh's sudden emergence as the story's driving force took me off guard. He seemed to emerge out of nowhere as this very important sympathetic character well after I'd already settled on Des McGrath and Jimmy as the major players. And, perhaps fittingly, Josh disappears in the very end -- leaving us with Des and Jimmy. Also, the lack of resolution among the characters leaves one a tad aching but, maybe that's a strength in disguise.

To sum up, I guess I'm saying the characterizations were a little shallow. But that's a minor criticism when set against the great verbal repartee and succinct, delightful descriptions of early-80s New York nightlife. Wilt Stillman has done what few writer/directors dare -- dig deeper into one of his movies, not via a sequel, but in the pages of a novel. That's a brave, brave deed, and one well worth an interested reader's time.