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The Last Noel | 
 enlarge | Author: Michael Malone
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy Used: $0.52
You Save: $13.48 (96%)
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Rating:  14 reviews
Media: Paperback
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.3 x 0.8
ISBN: 1402201478
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
UPC: 760789206399
EAN: 9781402201479
Publication Date: October 1, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
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Product Description
Award-winning author Michael Malone s The Last Noel is a beautiful gift to American fiction. In a deeply touching tale, The Last Noel captures the exuberance and poignance of a lasting friendship between a man and a woman from very different backgrounds. Noni Tilden and Kaye King grow up and grow close as their lives come dramatically together through four decades of tumultuous change in a small southern town. The story begins in 1963 when Kaye first meets Noni on the eve of their seventh birthdays. On that Christmas Eve, Kaye climbs through her bedroom window to invite her to come sledding with him in a rare southern snowfall. Over the next thirty years on twelve days of Christmas, they meet to share the passion, the sacrifice and the romance of a lifetime. At once exquisitely written and tearfully joyful, The Last Noel is one of the great love stories of our time.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 Good idea April 23, 2008
L. Phipps (CA)
This book started out well and I enjoyed the characters. Noni was an easy to love character. I just found this to be so politically correct. I thought this book had merit and I was thankful for a few things. One Kaye stayed married. I never felt fully engrossed in the characters, that was the main thing lacking throughout the story. It is an easy read and not too boring just not great
OK for a Christmas novelty book November 5, 2005
Francesca (Hyattsville, MD USA)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I admit to a mad passion for MOST of the work of Michael Malone, and was so sad to see he had succumbed to the temptation to write a "christmas book". I was so shocked I did not buy it- the only available Malone I don't own. Still, when my curiosity got the best of me in the library one day, I took it home and read it. And true to Malone's talent, it was readable and interesting and I got engaged by the characters and the perfect writing. Still, it isn't up to the standards of his best work (Try Foolscap or the Times Witness/Uncivil Seasons mysteries, for example) and I regret he didn't save the story for a deeper and less overtly commercial book. He's too good to be on a shelf with the likes of "The Christmas Gift".
 Not my cup of tea July 20, 2005
Phoenix (California, USA)
I don't think there is anything special about The Last Noel. The characters came across as flat and predictable, and were presented in such a fashion that I frankly didn't care what happened to them. Noni, as some have pointed out, was too good, and I think it's unrealistic that she could just let her life slip away from her without any complaint. She spends her life serving others without thinking of herself; how could she not even shed a tear or throw a fit about her lonely existence? Nobody seems to grow or mature in the novel; all the characters stay the same, and keep making the same mistakes.
Basically, the entire story is about how two people have refused to acknowledge what they want in life, and realize-too late-that nothing can't rectify their mistake. Noni seems to repeat the mistakes of her mother and finds herself in a less than ideal marriage, where there is a noticeable absence of love. Meanwhile, Noni can never admit to herself the person whom she really loves, and takes no action to turn her life in the right direction.
The ending may have upset some people, but I knew it was coming, and I felt that these characters who took no control of their lives deserved to suffer.
If you like reading about dysfunctional marriages and families, this is the book for you. If you liked Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, then this book will not disappoint. But if you want a book with well-developed characters and an interesting plot, I cannot recommend this book.
 The Last Noel - Alison Owens January 1, 2005
Alison S. Owens (St. Louis, Mo)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
My best friend and I have a book exchange in that we take turns choosing a book to read each month. For December I picked this book and my friend was unimpressed. I procrastinated the book because of his bad reviews until yesterday. I wasn't supposed to like it and therefore didn't for the first few pages. After that, I got hooked and read it in a day. I even stayed up this morning til 2:30 to finish it. I cried for a good hour (maybe two - I'm trying not to exaggerate) of my reading. I particularly loved the gift exchange between the two best friends. Malone captured a great deal of their love for each other in the gifts they gave. The most memorable part for me was the end, when he walked into the hall closet to get the sled and told his son "It was your mother's first gift to me....and she gave me so many". I have thought about the book all day today and grieved for Kaye, Noni, Amma and Johnny.
My husband is a professional musician and he sometimes makes fun of my choices in music. They are not musically sophisiticated enough for him. Just yesterday I heard Whitney Houston's "I will always love you" and he said he thought it had been butchered by too many singers for him to like it. The song strikes deep emotional chords for me, despite my husband's critique of it.
This book does the same despite my best friend's critique. I think when I see it on my book shelf, I will get a feeling like I do when I hear Whitney sing "I will always love you".
made for tv movie fodder December 23, 2004
B. Crook (St. Louis, Missouri)
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
The Last Noel started with a cute premise: a bold and intelligent friendship starting at age seven. Even the "kiss" in chapter one is intriguing. But from that point on it becomes too messy. The characters take a back seat to social commentary, the march of time, and the annoying little literary trick of introducing props to serve as titles for the upcoming chapters (hitchcock chair, hope chest, etc).
Its hard to write a book about a person's life without focusing on only the "bad" stuff - and Malone tries to attempt a double life story by covering Noel and Kaye. The result is a focus on one tragedy after another. Plus, the reader is never really given a fair chance to ever really care about Bud and Judy Tilden.
This book is filled with too many extra characters that are disposable. I never really cared about many of them and they ate a lot of print. Wade - idiot. Parker - couldn't trust (neither could Kaye). Roland - loser. grandpa Gordon - bigot. Shani - just there. No richness, just flat. Soap Opera and plodding.
It was a relatively easy read with a terribly unnecessary, and unoriginal ending.
I can't really think of anything positive to say about this book. But if I were a writing teacher, I would read chapter 1 aloud to my students, and stop right there. I would let the students then finish the story. That would be fun because chapter 1 is powerful and would provide a great prompt for creative writing.
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