[Cocko]

In my comments regarding Ever After I decided not to draw too many parallels to Last Orders. While they do share some similar themes Last Orders does take a different narrative approach. That said, I should mention that Last Orders is also a book a hold in very high regard. And, from my reading of interviews with Swift he has certainly defended the book well in my mind (although it must be a strange situation to have to defend you book just because it wins a couple of prizes).

I think the one thing that is common through Waterland and Last Orders is there ability to pack a mighty powerful emotional punch. The depths of character development and sense of history in the books is staggering, particularly as they are both around 300 pages... I've read books double the length that have tried and failed to explore the themes of death and loss to the same extent (mind you, the benchmark is probably set by Tolstoy in his Death of Ivan Illych!).