The Last Fine Time

In this work of non-fiction, the American essayist Verlyn Klinkenborg brings us into the life of a family-owned bar in Buffalo, New York, at a pivotal moment in the history of that family, and of America. In 1947, at the age of 27, Eddie Wenzek inherited his father's tavern and transformed it into "George and Eddie's", a swank nightspot serving highballs and french-fried shrimp. In telling the story of the Wenzek's and their bar, Klinkenborg tells the story of urban life in America, of the immigrant experience, focusing on a time and place where everything began to change, the old way of life began to disappear, and nothing would ever be the same again.