'All the same underneath'? Alterity and ethics in Graham Swift's 'Last Orders'

What costs humanity very dearly is doubtless to believe that one can have done in history with a general essence of Man, on the pretext that it represents only a Hauptgespenst, arch-ghost, but also, what comes down to the same thing—at bottom—to still believe, no doubt, in this capital ghost. To believe in it as do the credulous or the dogmatic. Between the two beliefs, as always, the way remains narrow. —Jacques Demda, Specters of Marx 175 Last Orders (1996) was a new departure for Graham Swift, his first sustained attempt (except The Sweet Shop Owner; his debut novel in 1980) to represent a social milieu markedly different from the middle-class environment that he normally portrays. © 2003 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.