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50th out of 69 books
—
115 voters
Last Last Chance
by
Fiona Maazel (Goodreads Author)
"Last Last Chance," Fiona Maazel's first novel, is one of the most distinctive debuts of recent years: a rollicking comic tale about (in no particular order) plague, narcotics recovery, and reincarnation.
A lethal strain of virus vanishes from a lab in Washington, D.C., unleashing an epidemic--and the world thinks Lucy Clark's dead father is to blame. The plague may be the...more
A lethal strain of virus vanishes from a lab in Washington, D.C., unleashing an epidemic--and the world thinks Lucy Clark's dead father is to blame. The plague may be the...more
Hardcover, 337 pages
Published
March 18th 2008
by Farrar Straus Giroux
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Read the STOP SMILING interview with Last Last Chance author Fiona Maazel:
FIONA MAAZEL'S GOT THE HUMAN CONDITION -- AND OUR CONDOLENCES
Fiona Maazel, whose first novel, Last Last Chance, was published in March by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, thinks her résumé is a bit boring. She obtained her BA at Williams College and her MFA at Bennington. Interned at The Paris Review in the summer of 1997; served as managing editor, 2003-2005. Received a Lannan Fellowship for Fiction in 2005. Has contributed t...more
FIONA MAAZEL'S GOT THE HUMAN CONDITION -- AND OUR CONDOLENCES
Fiona Maazel, whose first novel, Last Last Chance, was published in March by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, thinks her résumé is a bit boring. She obtained her BA at Williams College and her MFA at Bennington. Interned at The Paris Review in the summer of 1997; served as managing editor, 2003-2005. Received a Lannan Fellowship for Fiction in 2005. Has contributed t...more
I find myself only writing reviews for books I enjoy, and Last Last Chance is definitely one of those books. There's a lot going on in it: drug abuse, strained family dynamics, cross country travel, rehab, reincarnation, spurned love, and, of course, a flu-like epidemic that threatens to end all human life as we know it. Strange and disparate as all of these elements may be, they come together in the form of a solid story about a young woman who both wants and does not want to get her life and h...more
I used the "science-fiction" tag because it seemed appropriate for a novel about the outbreak of a superplague that steadily makes its way across the U.S. towards the protagonist, but Fiona's storytelling most reminds of the not-quite-science-fiction worlds of Ted Mooney novels, or a slightly more accelerated version of the "mainstream" books William Gibson has been doing recently like Pattern Recognition and Spook Country. (The acknowledgments at the back of the book cite Jim Shepard; you might...more
I could have put this down at any time; still not sure why I kept with it since I knew early on that I was hating it. Hated the characters, hated the writing style, hated the weird reincarnation chapters. I can kinda sorta see how someone could like it; it's not bad per se, it's just not for me. This is also the second book I've read recently where a thirty something woman spends years pining away for an old boyfriend, which is something I just cannot stand. I know I'm unsentimental in this way,...more
With the news filled with talk of the swine flu, Fiona Maazel's debut novel Last Last Chance, and its storyline of the release of a superplague, seems prescient.
Lucy is a thirty-year-old drug addict with six failed rehab stints behind her. Her mother is a wealthy business owner and crack addict, her twelve-year-old half sister dabbles in disease, cutting herself and fundamental Christianity, and her scientist father committed suicide after a deadly superplague created in the government lab where...more
Lucy is a thirty-year-old drug addict with six failed rehab stints behind her. Her mother is a wealthy business owner and crack addict, her twelve-year-old half sister dabbles in disease, cutting herself and fundamental Christianity, and her scientist father committed suicide after a deadly superplague created in the government lab where...more
I was actually somewhat leery of this book based on the description. It felt as if there would be too much going on for it to ever come together into a meaningful whole. Norse mythology, drug addiction, a super plague, radical fundamentalism and teenage angst. A lot of quirky characters that could easily have over powered each other. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised by how well the novel came together somehow managing to balance all these things relatively neatly and presenting a main...more
Last Last Chance is about Lucy, who is a drug addict. Her dad worked for the CDC creating the plague. When a vial goes missing her dad is accused of stealing it. The world is waiting to see if the plague will be released when we start the story.
I love books about plague, or the apocalypse in general so I was really looking forward to reading this. But it wasn't actually about the plague. It was about an insufferable drug addict who just keeps using drugs and making excuses for it. That's not a r...more
I love books about plague, or the apocalypse in general so I was really looking forward to reading this. But it wasn't actually about the plague. It was about an insufferable drug addict who just keeps using drugs and making excuses for it. That's not a r...more
Though not the typical type of book I pick up, Fiona Maazel's debut is definitely going on my list of top fiction books. It's a good book to start with, but considering it's a debut, I'm that much more impressed.
The first thing that struck me is the depth of Maazel's characters. The protagonist, Lucy, spends the length of the novel dealing with the suicide of her father, her social standing as an outcast, and her drug addictions. Her family members- a crack addict mother, a fundamentalist siste...more
The first thing that struck me is the depth of Maazel's characters. The protagonist, Lucy, spends the length of the novel dealing with the suicide of her father, her social standing as an outcast, and her drug addictions. Her family members- a crack addict mother, a fundamentalist siste...more
Lucy's life is not exactly what she imagined for herself by the time she turned 30. She is a drug-addict working in a chicken plant; her rich mother is a crackhead; her father who previously worked for Centers for Disease Control commit suicide, most likely after the outbreak of the superplague is blamed on him; her 12-year-old half-sister, Hannah, is obsessed with disease; and she has an obsession with her best friend's new husband, Eric, whom Lucy knew and loved first. She is, in other words,...more
Kind of a hectic tale about a crackhead daughter of a crackhead who lives in NYC...Brooklyn? Although these people are addicts, it is clear that they are not public about their drug use. They enjoy inhabiting a niche of middle class city society complete with brie and crudite parties on occasion. Combines a know-it-all and world weary young woman's introspections and observations of her peers, surroundings, and family, with an ominous allusion to pending plague of illness befalling the nation. P...more
The surrealism of this book cannot be overrated! Despite the disturbing subject matter, the apocalyptic events, and the instability of the narrator, the writing draws you into the world that circles the drain in concentric circles of devotion.
I ended up loving every character and wishing for more from this fantastic author!
I ended up loving every character and wishing for more from this fantastic author!
Randomly picked up this book. Was a little hard to get into, but then ended up keeping me reading 'til the end . She's a good writer, liked the character development. Weird to be reading it - about spread of superplague across US - during the swine flu scare. But it's not really sci-fi and about plague. Hard to classify.
Beside the fact that I began reading this book about a super plague right before the swine flu hit, I found the story pretty boring. The book pretty much plodded along. Maybe I just don't "get" being an addict.
This is one of those novels that needs to simmer. Ripen. Percolate. Okay..I think you get the point. At first I felt annoyed and contemplated stopping reading. I persevered and ended up truly enjoying it.
I have been following @picadorUSA on Twitter for awhile now, and this was one of the books they offered free copies of for the 140 character book club. I'm really glad I discovered Maazel's quirky first novel even if it was a rather unconventional way. Last Last Chance is not an easy read but it was a rewarding one. I found the characters to be believable and even a bit likeable despite their many flaws. Maazel has a fantastic imagination and brings a lot of unique elements together into one coh...more
This was, uh, weird. My judgement on the 'quirky but good' front seems to be way off these days (see Arsonist's Guide). It's the story of Lucy, an addict who's father may or may not have released a superplague from his laboratory, and her family - her wealthy crack-addict mom (hey, she makes her own!), her grandmother, and her 12 year old half-sister (a product of Dad's affair)- as she attempts to get clean, take care of her sister, and deal with the likely spread of the superplague. It had its...more
I like it. The tension of such a dysfunctional family who share drug abuse, escapism, and a super plague threatening to kill all of mankind. Mixed in with everything is wonderful prose and humor. The characters are real and could be any of us. I'm anxious to finish it.
I'm finished and I have to say that I enjoyed the last third of the book much more than the beginning. Maybe because I was able to truly give my attention to it. Even the reincarnation scenes were much more effortless in the last...more
I'm finished and I have to say that I enjoyed the last third of the book much more than the beginning. Maybe because I was able to truly give my attention to it. Even the reincarnation scenes were much more effortless in the last...more
This book has a lot of fun and/or poignant moments that kept me reading. But between them are long soliloquys about the narrator's apathy, which made me wonder why I should care either.
David really enjoyed this, and finished it quickly. I've been "reading" it for two months, got through about 10 chapters, and finally put it back on the shelf. I just couldn't get into it. I hate having to make an "abandoned" category -- what sad images of water-logged, discarded books it conjures! -- but I don't know that I care to return to this one. He can give this one to his sister and I won't mind (unlike the others that have "disappeared" from the shelves). It insists my books retain a re...more
Nutty and fun and hilarious, contains similarly dystopic themes as DeLillo's White Noise.
One of the very best contemporary novels I have read.
I'm almost finished so I will probably finish but I don't really care how it ends.
ETA: Nope, I couldn't do it. Ugh.
The chapters from different perspectives are schlocky and sloppy. There's too much going on. The main love story can go nowhere. Yuck.
ETA: Nope, I couldn't do it. Ugh.
The chapters from different perspectives are schlocky and sloppy. There's too much going on. The main love story can go nowhere. Yuck.
It was slow growing at first but around page 150 I started to really enjoy it. I believe the author shows a substantial amount of promise, but i felt too much of an observer while reading this, I didn't really care all that much about the characters. Not that I need to to enjoy a book, by any means. However, I think Maazel wanted me to, and this is where the problem lies.
i am giving this book two stars. initially.
i just finished it, and i think i need to digest a bit before i write my review.
i will say, the author does a good job of making weird and rather unlikeable characters sympathetic and funny and worthy of reading about.
i want to revisit this review later.
i just finished it, and i think i need to digest a bit before i write my review.
i will say, the author does a good job of making weird and rather unlikeable characters sympathetic and funny and worthy of reading about.
i want to revisit this review later.
The writer is the conductor Lorin Maazel's daughter.
Her quirky sense of humor and feeling for language make this debut novel an interesting and ultimately moving read.
And I love her website. Click on the bio "dot" on it to play the video and you'll see why.
http://www.lastlastchance.com/
Her quirky sense of humor and feeling for language make this debut novel an interesting and ultimately moving read.
And I love her website. Click on the bio "dot" on it to play the video and you'll see why.
http://www.lastlastchance.com/
Jan 09, 2011
Kaethe
marked it as abandoned
There was a mention of something plague, but right now we're dealing with an addict and the all important issue of a date for a wedding, which is irking me, and I don't have the patience to work through the idiosyncratic first person narration to get to the plague.
Interesting so far...
Ugh. If you can't decide whether to read a zombie novel, chick lit, or rehab memoir; and you want something that combines the worst of all three, written in a whiney OMG vernacular, this book is for you.
It started out very, very slowly for me - but I loved it by the end. Maazel's turns of phrase frequently stopped me in my tracks.
This book totally did me right. Excellent for a plane ride or a long trip because you'll want to keep reading.
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Fiona Maazel is the author of the novels LAST LAST CHANCE (FSG, 2008) and WOKE UP LONELY (Graywolf, 2013). She teaches at NYU, Brooklyn College, Columbia, and Princeton, and lives in Brooklyn, NY.
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