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A review by kirstiecat
The Last Life by Claire Messud
4.0
This was a much better book in many ways than The Emperor's Children but still revolves around the legacy of a wealthy family. Most of the book is set in France and Algiers but some of it is set in the United States on the East Coast. At its core, this book is an exploration of identity centered around a protagonist female who is "coming of age." At the same time, growing up with a brother who has a serious disability (from the sounds of the description, severe profound cognition and physical disabilities), changes any sibling and her/his own experience of life. In many ways, what we also see is the tremendous effect that leaving Algiers had on the family. The protagonist learns about the traumatic exit of her own father.
This book is political and, in my opinion, deals with a plethora of issues that many books don't ever explore. For example: racism and sexism, classism, adolescence, family, disability, national identity vs. personal identity, infidelity, and history. It has already encouraged me to read more about The Battle of Algiers and I expect to continue that. The 4/5 rating basically means I think this book is well worth reading. I don't give books a 5/5 rating unless I think every word is pretty much brilliant and you should stop whatever you're doing right this second and read something that is profoundly life changing. That said, this one is still a keeper. Messud also has a way of language...it's poetic without knocking you over the head with it most of the time.
Memorable quotes:
pg. 47 "It would have been so easy not to go: the plunge into the sleeping night seemed like an enormous effort, a question mark."
pg. 113 "I laughed. I lay back too, and could hear the tiny tickings of the grass blades. The earth smelled like pennies. "The sky is incredible." I agreed. There was no breeze, but high above clouds were chasing across the ether, their shapes erratic and amusing."
pg. 120 They had been examining men's bones for years but it occurred to them that the peculiar afflictions of women required special attention, that their secrets lay in the osteal geography of the fairer sets. Their conclusions revolutionized not only medical but social understanding. Woman, the scientists explained to scores of German medical students, all eyes on the female skeleton dangling cheerily at the lectern, Woman has a smaller brain, and wider hips. Her constitution is lower to the ground and that great gaping cavern in her abdomen is the center of her soul. Woman is mother, a separate creature from man, with a distinct and scientifically proven role. She is the Angel in the House , they said, or others said after them: it's bred in the bone.
What the scientists did not mention, perhaps forgot themselves, was that the woman on whom this analysis of Woman was based wasn't one. Her hands and head and hips and ribs were not born together. They were all bones of different women, wired together. The scientists threw the pieces into the air, and this is what came down. And there were no more tosses, mo more chances. Women were stuck with Her, even though she didn't really exist. It made me wonder, how much is pretending.
pg. 317 "My father chuckled, 'Good, very good. Why did the man beat his head against the wall?'"
It was an old joke in our house. 'Because it felt so good when he stopped.' I kept my tone flat."
This book is political and, in my opinion, deals with a plethora of issues that many books don't ever explore. For example: racism and sexism, classism, adolescence, family, disability, national identity vs. personal identity, infidelity, and history. It has already encouraged me to read more about The Battle of Algiers and I expect to continue that. The 4/5 rating basically means I think this book is well worth reading. I don't give books a 5/5 rating unless I think every word is pretty much brilliant and you should stop whatever you're doing right this second and read something that is profoundly life changing. That said, this one is still a keeper. Messud also has a way of language...it's poetic without knocking you over the head with it most of the time.
Memorable quotes:
pg. 47 "It would have been so easy not to go: the plunge into the sleeping night seemed like an enormous effort, a question mark."
pg. 113 "I laughed. I lay back too, and could hear the tiny tickings of the grass blades. The earth smelled like pennies. "The sky is incredible." I agreed. There was no breeze, but high above clouds were chasing across the ether, their shapes erratic and amusing."
pg. 120 They had been examining men's bones for years but it occurred to them that the peculiar afflictions of women required special attention, that their secrets lay in the osteal geography of the fairer sets. Their conclusions revolutionized not only medical but social understanding. Woman, the scientists explained to scores of German medical students, all eyes on the female skeleton dangling cheerily at the lectern, Woman has a smaller brain, and wider hips. Her constitution is lower to the ground and that great gaping cavern in her abdomen is the center of her soul. Woman is mother, a separate creature from man, with a distinct and scientifically proven role. She is the Angel in the House , they said, or others said after them: it's bred in the bone.
What the scientists did not mention, perhaps forgot themselves, was that the woman on whom this analysis of Woman was based wasn't one. Her hands and head and hips and ribs were not born together. They were all bones of different women, wired together. The scientists threw the pieces into the air, and this is what came down. And there were no more tosses, mo more chances. Women were stuck with Her, even though she didn't really exist. It made me wonder, how much is pretending.
pg. 317 "My father chuckled, 'Good, very good. Why did the man beat his head against the wall?'"
It was an old joke in our house. 'Because it felt so good when he stopped.' I kept my tone flat."