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A review by gwalt118
The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin
4.0
Tara Conklin's second novel is a beautiful, well-written, compelling story about one family over time. I enjoy books that explore relationships between people in order to teach us lessons about overarching concepts that affect humanity, and that is precisely what Conklin does with The Last Romantics. She uses complex and complicated relationships between seemingly simple people to teach us about love. This is a story about the love between parents and children, between siblings, between lovers, between spouses. It's about loving others, loving yourself, and figuring out how to do both of those at the same time.
The story is structured such that Fiona, who has become a well-known writer, is addressing an audience in 2079 about her most famous work titled - you guessed it - The Last Romantic. The structure of the novel is quite creative and I think adds quite a bit of nuance to the overall story. Because it's not a direct, linear progression, the reader can make some inferences about the events and the characters' feelings surrounding them. In the vein of Fiona's evolution as a poet, Conklin's writing is poetic in some instances of the novel. The last two paragraphs of the novel will stick with me for quite some time. I won't share them here because I want you to experience them for yourself. I encourage you not to read them before you get to the end of the novel. Conklin saves them for the end intentionally, and you should experience them that way. I hope her words elicit a special feeling in you when you finish this novel.
The novel revolves around four siblings - Joe, Renee, Caroline, and Fiona. As an only child, I can't speak to the actuality of having a sibling; however, I think Conklin represented the tumultuous aspects of sibling relationships very well. I came to care deeply about each of these siblings and I enjoyed watching them grow and evolve individually and collectively throughout their lives. This is an extremely character-driven novel, which I enjoy.
I like watching writers evolve their craft over time, and Conklin has grown and changed her style and form since she wrote The House Girl in 2013. I have been anxiously awaiting her next novel, and the six years was worth the wait.
I'm giving this novel 4 stars instead of 5 because I think there are quite a few people who won't like this book for some of the reasons I did enjoy it (poetic language, character-driven, non-linear structure). I view 5 star novels as pretty universally loved, as books that I would recommend to just about anyone and everyone. I would not recommend this novel to everyone. I loved it, but I can understand why some don't.
The story is structured such that Fiona, who has become a well-known writer, is addressing an audience in 2079 about her most famous work titled - you guessed it - The Last Romantic. The structure of the novel is quite creative and I think adds quite a bit of nuance to the overall story. Because it's not a direct, linear progression, the reader can make some inferences about the events and the characters' feelings surrounding them. In the vein of Fiona's evolution as a poet, Conklin's writing is poetic in some instances of the novel. The last two paragraphs of the novel will stick with me for quite some time. I won't share them here because I want you to experience them for yourself. I encourage you not to read them before you get to the end of the novel. Conklin saves them for the end intentionally, and you should experience them that way. I hope her words elicit a special feeling in you when you finish this novel.
The novel revolves around four siblings - Joe, Renee, Caroline, and Fiona. As an only child, I can't speak to the actuality of having a sibling; however, I think Conklin represented the tumultuous aspects of sibling relationships very well. I came to care deeply about each of these siblings and I enjoyed watching them grow and evolve individually and collectively throughout their lives. This is an extremely character-driven novel, which I enjoy.
I like watching writers evolve their craft over time, and Conklin has grown and changed her style and form since she wrote The House Girl in 2013. I have been anxiously awaiting her next novel, and the six years was worth the wait.
I'm giving this novel 4 stars instead of 5 because I think there are quite a few people who won't like this book for some of the reasons I did enjoy it (poetic language, character-driven, non-linear structure). I view 5 star novels as pretty universally loved, as books that I would recommend to just about anyone and everyone. I would not recommend this novel to everyone. I loved it, but I can understand why some don't.