What do You think about The Last Life (2000)?
I am in shock that more people did not find this book ridiculously boring. Seriously. I had the hardest time caring about any of the characters besides Sagesse and her brother. I cared a little bit about Sagesse's slutty friend, apparently more than she did; a bit about her summer paramour, again, apparently more than she did; her American cousins, see above. That the more engaging characters just sort of drifted out of the story really frustrated me, even though I know the book wasn't about them. I suppose, since the book was technically about the LaBasse family, I should have appreciated those characters a bit more, but the grandmother's stories? UNBELIEVABLY TEDIOUS.
—Emily
Claire Messud's prose is enough to make one gasp, ruminate, grab a dictionary, or all three at once. Her writing is so robust, this book can not be read quickly. It demands a slower pace, all the better to absorb the audacious phrasing.This is the story of Sagasse, told in first person, and her coming of age. She learns to think for herself as her mother reveals some less than stellar family history. Her mother is American, her father French-Algerian, and he works for her grandfather at a high-end hotel in the south of France. Go forth and read. Savor. Enjoy.
—Jan Kellis
"I was falling, so I jumped." p. 309 The Last Life is full of little lines and storylines like this - true and beautiful and brave, but rather disconnected, as unmoored and adrift as Sagesse. Nothing really seems to touch her or the reader directly. She's too prematurely reflective while recounting events, so it's never the events, but the reflections from a distance that are raw and vital, but detached, and then subjected to the service of a larger, weaker, coming-of-age story told backwards and forwards, like a frame story for thoughts and imaginings that want to be free of it. But then, "It is a terrible thing to be free. Nations know this; churches know this. People, however, seek to skirt the knowledge. They elevate freedom to a Holy Grail, disregarding the truth that constraints are what define us, in life and in language alike." p. 328
—Jenn Cavanaugh
