A review by akaroo
The Last Thing He Wanted by Joan Didion

4.0

I’m a huge Joan Didion fan, but The Last Thing He Wanted was actually my very first foray into her fictional writing—and won’t be my last. Elena McMahon, previously a journalist covering a presidential campaign, helps her ailing father out by doing what she assumes will be a small favor for him—until suddenly she finds herself on an unknown island, caught up in an arms-smuggling ring. The story, exciting and captivating, is told through the eyes of an unnamed first person narrator. Time lines jump around a lot, and the tale is narrated in a fragmentary manner, yet the style works well in delivering an intense plot in random spurts. I found the writing style to be remarkably similar to Didion’s essays and memoirs, so there was something wonderfully familiar about the book.