Questions of loyalty and morality arise when a small town's attempt at economic renewal uncovers deeper troubles in Tom Barbash's debut novel,
The Last Good Chance. Ivy League-educated urban-planning star Jack Lambeau has returned to his hometown of Lakeland, New York to manage the slumping upstate port's reinvention as a boutique-filled tourist destination. Joining him is his fiancée, Anne, who has left her Manhattan home to pursue her interest in painting. Caught up in the regenerative fervor of his own devising, Jack chooses to ignore flaws in his professional and personal designs, including the toxic waste barrels being illegally dumped on area farms by Lakeland's mayor. Among those carrying out the dumping is Jack's underachieving brother Harris, who attempts to cover up a related death in his crew by secretly burying the body in Jack's backyard. Jack's close friend Steven Turner, a restless journalist for the local paper, is soon tipped off to the scandal. His big break, however, might come at the cost of the town's prosperity, Jack's career, and their friendship, which becomes additionally strained when Turner begins an affair with Anne.
Throughout, each character attempts their own form of reinvention to overcome personal crises, and The Last Good Chance becomes, among other things, a satisfying study of transformation and its limits. "If the past was a flexible thing," Jack contemplates, "so might the future be, in the right hands." While his realistic prose at times fails to match the ambition of his outline, Barbash often incorporates just the right amount of suspense, humor, and insight to make for an ultimately multifaceted and engaging drama. --Ross Doll
