This novel moved me to tears, which is a rare occurrence — and more than once. One Last Waltz takes the reader on a journey of several lifetimes. This novel is a rich emotional experience for the reader.
One Last Waltz is set in a retirement community/home for the elderly, The Acorns, and the stories of its residents are told through the eyes of one of its employees, a caregiver, Angie Tomlinson (Ang, to her clients and friends.) These are the days of their lives, as their lives arrive at their terminal point. The novel highlights their small moments and casual conversations, but this is not a quotidian experience for them or the reader; it is in these small, personal interactions that the most intimate exchanges are made. This is a novel about the depth that exists in the ordinary and mundane.
Over the course of three years, the novel takes us and the residents of the Acorns, to various locations. A field day for them is as much a field day for the reader. There is indeed, a final waltz, and it is a beautiful, inspiring thing to witness as a reader.
One Last Waltz is also gorgeously written. With few words — Scholes applies an economical approach to writing — he creates an emotive landscape and breathing characters. Readers should not expect verbose visual descriptions, rather, a starkness here allows the reader to fill the visual gaps with emotion; it is their joy and pain, regret and worry, contentment and satisfaction, that is the reward of this novel. Scholes handles chronological leaps easily, taking the reader back in time to witness the events of the elderly residents lives and the meaning these have had for them. Of course, their journeys are really for our benefit as readers, as we traverse the course of our own lives, parallels to theirs.
For readers at any stage of life, Our Last Waltz is an uplifting (yet deeply solemn) and profound novel well-worth the tears it will bring to the eyes.
Dr JoAnn LoSavio 