The Last Days of Video: A Novel

Image of The Last Days of Video: A Novel
Author(s): 
Release Date: 
March 17, 2015
Publisher/Imprint: 
Soft Skull Press
Pages: 
304
Reviewed by: 

“Those were certainly the good old days.”

Reading The Last Days of Video by Jeremy Hawkins is likely to elicit nostalgia for a generation that trekked to the video rental store. And reminder of this lost ritual may compel some to embark on a fruitless search for the local Blockbuster, though some supermarkets still seem to offer these rentals.

The Last Days of Video is about a small movie rental store, Star Video, on the verge of going out of business in 2007. Star Video’s owner and devoted employees are colorful and quirky characters who bring this story to life each with their own neurosis and obvious love of film.  

This novel provides timely commentary about our culture on the cusp of binge watching Netflix online with a narrative that is wise, entertaining, and littered with a million vague movie references you probably won’t understand.

In this book you will meet:

  • Waring Wax, Star Video’s owner, who is loved and loathed by his employees and portrayed as the cantankerous, forever drunk, and recovering Manhattanite. You can’t help be enthralled with the fact that every time Waring opens his mouth he offends someone.  
  • Alaura Eden, Star Video’s manager, is an older 20-something, tattooed beauty who is always soul searching and coming to the painful realization her youth is slipping away. Alaura is a conflicted but faithful STAR employee.  
  • Jeff is the newbie employee and young college freshman, who is very naïve when it comes to women and struggling to overcome his religious, small town roots. 

These characters are hardcore cinephiles who love Star Video. As a reader, you’ll admire them for doing what they love.

Waring refuses to admit his business is waning and no longer recognized as part of the cultural scene of Appleton, a small college town in North Carolina. Star Video is now viewed as an eyesore and an outcast among the trendy upcoming stores and boutiques. The Blockbuster that opens across the street (in 2007!) only further exaggerates this plot point.  

Waring is slow to act to save Star Video, but Alaura comes to the rescue with a plan to connect with her high school sweetheart, Match Anderson, who is a big-time Hollywood director and just so happens to be in town filming the movie, The Buried Mirror. The story quickly moves from these characters meandering to find meaning in their lives to people on a purposeful mission to save their beloved Star Video.

The back stories and personalities of Waring, Alaura and Jeff are compelling enough for this story but the book would be better if the supporting cast of characters, not even worth mentioning here, had a stronger presence in this novel.  

Nevertheless, the plot and main characters are so likeable and compelling this book is well worth the read. While this starts off slow and you might wonder why you should care about this story, this quickly changes to needing to know how this one ends and rooting for Star Video’s survival.

An underlying message of this book seems to be that the appreciation of good filmmaking and storytelling is a lost concept. While we stream gobs of content online, the conversations with people who are truly knowledgeable about what makes a good movie has sadly become less important. As a general observation, it seems clear our culture struggles with balancing how we consume, discuss, and judge media. And our viewing experiences have become an even more solitary and less personal endeavor. 

You will also enjoy how this novel represents the ways technology alters industries. And if you are old enough, you can remember fondly the days when it was exciting to see the new releases in the video store, the phrase “be kind and rewind,” and racing to return a DVD or video to avoid late fees. Those were certainly the good old days.