The Last American Man
by Elizabeth Gilbert
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Read in January, 2007
This was my introduction to Elizabeth Gilbert. It was a random meeting, a freak of fate. Walking into my local public library I saw this book on a shelf I was passing, and thought "What... there aren't any men in America anymore?" Intrigued, I picked it up, positive it was some take-back-the-country-from-the-feminists spiel from some conservative talking head. I was a bit surprised to see it was written by a woman. What the heck… I’d check it out (mostly to see what had happen...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in June, 2008
recommended to Julie by:
Carrie
Let's see. Where do I start with this one...i guess I should say there is a spoiler alert here.
Eustace Conway is apparently brilliant in his own way, is an extremely hard worker and has great ideas. He is great at raising money, interesting people, he is charismatic, etc. Although he wants people to go back to natural living, what it seemed to me is that he wanted us to travel back in time to a pre-industrial age. I think all of that is great, but it's just not going to happen. He doesn't ke...more
Eustace Conway is apparently brilliant in his own way, is an extremely hard worker and has great ideas. He is great at raising money, interesting people, he is charismatic, etc. Although he wants people to go back to natural living, what it seemed to me is that he wanted us to travel back in time to a pre-industrial age. I think all of that is great, but it's just not going to happen. He doesn't ke...more
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Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
lovers of fiction and non-fiction
While reading this book, I wanted to sign up for Eustace Conway's summer camp. I found Eustace's way of life intriguing, and it should make us all re-examine our "American Dream" lifestyles. A lot of the funny parts in the book are about people who Eustace explains have no common sense. It's scary to think these stories are true, and I'm sure they are a lot more common that we would like to think.
One story that really left an impression on me is when he makes us question what it tru...more
One story that really left an impression on me is when he makes us question what it tru...more
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Read in December, 2007
Tells the story of Eustace Conway, an adventurer and outdoorsman who left his parent's house for an extended stay living in the woods and off the land for the first time at the age of 12, eventually moving into a tipi for 17 years, then buying up 1,000 acres to use as a "primitive" farm and outdoor classroom for countless volunteers, school groups, etc. Conway wants (or at one time wanted) to save humanity by convincing folks that escaping the 9-to-5 rat race and reconvening with natu...more
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Read in December, 2003
recommended to Michael by:
Nell Heggenrecommends it for: people who feel like they were born a century too late; urbanites
What a fascinating character Eustace Conway is!
The writer did a fine job of capturing this man's deeply complex personality. I think most adults know someone a bit like this. The person is usually male (but not always), introverted, and very skilled with his hands. He is often not very easy to get along with -- not because he is mean or obnoxious, but because he is so focused on the experience of what he is doing that other people take a back seat. Life for this person is an interesting equi...more
The writer did a fine job of capturing this man's deeply complex personality. I think most adults know someone a bit like this. The person is usually male (but not always), introverted, and very skilled with his hands. He is often not very easy to get along with -- not because he is mean or obnoxious, but because he is so focused on the experience of what he is doing that other people take a back seat. Life for this person is an interesting equi...more
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Read in March, 2008
Wow. Really enjoyed it. I feel like Gilbert hit her stride with this book much more so than with "Eat, Pray, Love." It is such a talent to be able to capture someone sensitively, warts and all, but that is exactly what Gilbert did for the obviously complex (although I suppose we're all complex) Eustace Conway, not to mention provide some interesting and unique insight into the idea of American masculinity. Conway is endearing and infuriating in equal amounts, and I finished the book wa...more
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Read in June, 2007
The Last American man is attempting to save our once great nation from its own greed and sloth by living in harmony with nature. Which obviously is not the exciting part of the book. Eustace Conway’s smaller and more successful journeys may be the exciting part of the book. What this guy has done in the name of fun, adventure, and self exertion kept my attention through the first halfish. Then rooting for Eustace to save our nation from the sedentary lifestyle, TV, and stupidity kept me in it ...more
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Read in August, 2007
Eustace Conway is an anachronism, a nineteenth-century Daniel Boone type who lived in a teepee for seventeen years and (at least partly for effect) still dances around in buckskin clothing he fashioned himself. He's a relentless worker who fancies himself a Man of Destiny, and he's hell bent on saving America from its own vile materialism. But he's no back-to-nature, spread-the-love hippie. He's painfully stubborn, as ambitious as they come, obsessively regimented in his habits, and hard as h...more
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recommends it for:
my peeps
As much as I wanted to dislike the tale of a middle-class white guy looking for his identity, Gilbert's bio of Eustace Conway and investigation of modern masculinity was too well-written to keep me disinterested. These days, I'll read any bio about a guy who kills his own food and takes a cross-country roadtrip on his horse.
The effect of the author's fascination is a satisfyingly nuanced, gender-driven dialogue. It unravels much like a bizarre romance novel: Conway's human detachments and ...more
The effect of the author's fascination is a satisfyingly nuanced, gender-driven dialogue. It unravels much like a bizarre romance novel: Conway's human detachments and ...more
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Read in June, 2005
recommends it for:
Biography
If you think you're a real man and can handle living in the woods eating berries and hunting for your next meal, check this guys life out. I'm pretty sure you'll leave such a living to the supremely focused and mildly anti-social. (Eric don't read this book)
There was few drawbacks to this book. The first is that the female author seemed to either have slept with him or really wanted to at some point and that comes through. Second, the final few chapters of this book really suck and kinda pis...more
There was few drawbacks to this book. The first is that the female author seemed to either have slept with him or really wanted to at some point and that comes through. Second, the final few chapters of this book really suck and kinda pis...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
anyone who has a huge crush on Eustace Conway
Eustace Conway could teach us all a thing or two about how we should live on this earth. Unfortunately, all Elizabeth Gilbert wants to teach us is about his father issues and his relationships with women. There is almost no wilderness ethic to be had; the book reads like the diary of a 12-year-old girl smitten by a mountain man. It's difficult to think of Gilbert as a serious journalist when she constantly fawns over her subject and actually appears (unflatteringly) in the narrative herself. She...more
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Read in January, 2007
This is a book about a deeply troubled man (Eustace). The author carefully sets up the introduction so that you can't avoid deeply symphatizing with Eustace, and I am afraid one might even idolize him - in a way he probably idolized himself in his introverted way, which came out rather hurtful for some people around him.
This character is immensely interesting, not only because of unsual adventures he chose to invent and live, and impossible tasks he demanden of himself and others, and lived...more
This character is immensely interesting, not only because of unsual adventures he chose to invent and live, and impossible tasks he demanden of himself and others, and lived...more
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Read in January, 2007
After devouring Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love, I ran to the bookstore and picked up this fascinating biography of Eustis Conway, who may or may not be the Last American Man, but he IS the last person you would want to live with or work for. He is in his own idealistic world that shuts out others and has no tolerance for varying levels of compentence or preferences that differ from his. Gilbert attempts to show why Conway is who he is, and the reader does develop empathy for this lost, misplaced-in-t...more
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Read in March, 2008
Before reading this book I knew nothing about Eustace Conway (The Last American Man) and I'm not sure that I really know anything about him now. His entire life has been driven by the goal of opening people's eyes to the natural world around them and making them more mindful of our relationship with our environment. While he started out living on his own in the woods in a tepee he know runs a camp in North Carolina on thousands of acres. His whole life is a series of contradictions, from his ...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommended to Josh by:
Theresarecommends it for: hikers, campers, horse-riders, and environmentalists
A biography of Eustace Conway, who lives a pre-industrial existence on a nature preserve in North Carolina. This book is a quick read and is full of interesting stories about him hunting with his bare hands, riding horses across the country, and evangelizing for a more natural existence in a society increasingly detached from it.
Conway seems like a real asshole, puffed-up with ridiculous notions of man-hood and independence, but certainly is an entertaining figure who really believes in what...more
Conway seems like a real asshole, puffed-up with ridiculous notions of man-hood and independence, but certainly is an entertaining figure who really believes in what...more
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I forgot how much I disliked this book and kept it out of my memory until skimming past it on this site. Thanks whoever's books I was looking at.
I did not enjoy this book for two reasons. 1. The character is a moralist, arrogant, pompous ass and subsequently made reading about him difficult, and 2. the author adored him to the point that you questioned if she wasn't one of his many failed romances that are depicted in the retelling. There is constructive engagement with a character and there...more
I did not enjoy this book for two reasons. 1. The character is a moralist, arrogant, pompous ass and subsequently made reading about him difficult, and 2. the author adored him to the point that you questioned if she wasn't one of his many failed romances that are depicted in the retelling. There is constructive engagement with a character and there...more
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Dan was having such a good time reading this book that I had to read it, even though it is a far cry from the Chick-Lit I normally gravitate toward. Anyway, this is an eye-opening tale of an eclectic man who lives "off the grid" in a remote place. Try as he might to take people under his wing, they just can't live up to his supremely high standards. What make it even more interesting is that it is taking place within the past 10 years. When I started I thought, this guy sounds like...more
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reading this book wasn't a totally enjoyable experience, mostly because the author's voice was pretty annoying to me. at the end, in the "thank you's" section, she credits someone, her editor i think, for his liberal use of the acronym CTWRB (cut the will rogers bullshit) -- or something to that effect. anyway, i would have preferred fifty percent more will rogers bullshit removal. still if you're interested in american utopianism and want to learn more about a person extraordinary eno...more
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I read this book in a day it was that captivating. Eustace Conway makes for the best kind of biographical subject: He's a counterculture, self made, unique, talking the walk kind of individual. Elizabeth Gilbert casually weaves his personal life story (including many a tale of adventure- like crossing the country on horseback in 3 months, and hiking the entire Appalachian trail with only shoes and bandanna underwear on) into broader historical and societal contexts, widening the scope at all tur...more
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Read in February, 2008
The subject of the book, Eustace Conway, was fascinating. However, the writing was terrible. Eustace lives in the wild, with nothing but his wits and abilities to live off the land. His skills are remarkable and I would love to meet the man and see how he lives. Elizabeth Gilbert's writing does not have the same quality as Eustace's abilities. The writing was disjointed at times, with the author rambling on about some other historical character or some random story from her past. The langu...more
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