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The Last War: A Novel
by
Ana Menéndez
A breathtaking novel of love, war, and betrayal
Flash, a photojournalist, chases conflicts around the globe with her war correspondent husband, Brando. Now Brando is in Iraq, awaiting her arrival. Yet instead of racing to join him, Flash idles in Istanbul, vaguely aware that her marriage is faltering.
Losing herself in a fog of memory and recrimination, Flash ponders her lif...more
Flash, a photojournalist, chases conflicts around the globe with her war correspondent husband, Brando. Now Brando is in Iraq, awaiting her arrival. Yet instead of racing to join him, Flash idles in Istanbul, vaguely aware that her marriage is faltering.
Losing herself in a fog of memory and recrimination, Flash ponders her lif...more
Hardcover, 240 pages
Published
May 26th 2009
by Harper
(first published May 21st 2009)
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I spent a good thirty minutes trying to think of ways to begin this review. The biggest challenge stems, as always, from my opinion of the book; an opinion that's torn.
On one hand I can appreciate the story being told; the story of a broken marriage, a woman used to peering into the lives of others and having to, ultimately, examine herself with that lens. There's a touch of mystery, did "Wonderboy" cheat or did he not cheat? Who wrote that damning letter? Did the letter actually affect the alre...more
On one hand I can appreciate the story being told; the story of a broken marriage, a woman used to peering into the lives of others and having to, ultimately, examine herself with that lens. There's a touch of mystery, did "Wonderboy" cheat or did he not cheat? Who wrote that damning letter? Did the letter actually affect the alre...more
Why is it so much easier to ravel a story than unravel it? Great build up, initial suspense, tension, intrigue, alluring and appealingly mopey characters, and then, somewhere just over the hill it all goes to pot, or rather goes nowhere. This is one of those static books. It begins with the main character and narrator, a depressed and bewildered photographer "Flash" sulking in her Istanbul flat while her husband "Wonderboy," blissfully ignorant of her blues, covers the war in Iraq from Baghdad....more
Certain sorts of people are attracted to the life and death workplace that is the war zone. For some it is mother’s milk to survive in the midst of death, whether as a combatant, NGO-er like Red Cross or MSF field personnel, or as a journalist. It can act as a drug, making one feel more alive than the hum-drum of a stable home with 2.5 kids and a spouse, in the same environment every day. The recent film, The Hurt Locker, captures that well. For good or ill, some need the rush of adventure, exci...more
Another novel abandoned out of boredom. I found the characters and their predicaments unconvincing either in terms of a novel or those of "real" life. Even the female protagonist's penchant for red wine (good Bordeaux or cheap domestic Turkish), although plausible on the face of it, didn't read as "true." And the nicknames, Flash for the female photographer and Wonderboy for her war correspondent boyfriend. Ugh!
The second star is due to one interesting passage regarding language: "Turkish, Alif...more
The second star is due to one interesting passage regarding language: "Turkish, Alif...more
Usually when I finish a book, I think about whether I liked the plot or the characters or what not. This was one time where what really stood out was the writing. I thought that this book was beautifully written.
The main character, Flash, is a photographer who makes her living covering wars with her journalist husband, Brando. The novel in set in 2003, and Brando is in Iraq. Meanwhile, Flash is in Istanbul ostensibly waiting for her papers to come through so she can join him. Other than a myster...more
The main character, Flash, is a photographer who makes her living covering wars with her journalist husband, Brando. The novel in set in 2003, and Brando is in Iraq. Meanwhile, Flash is in Istanbul ostensibly waiting for her papers to come through so she can join him. Other than a myster...more
I received a copy of this book from Goodreads (thank you so much) and was very interested since I had been an expat myself and lived in several countries overseas. The Last War states it is “a breathtaking novel of love, war and betrayal”. Flash is a photographer and is married to Wonderboy, a journalist. They both cover war stories, sometimes together and sometimes apart. At the beginning of the book, Flash is in Istanbul and Brando (wonderboy) is in Iraq. Flash is waiting for a visa to join hi...more
I was thoroughly, and utterly enthralled with The Last War from the first page or two, until the end. It didn't take long for me to realize that this was NOT a story about the Iraq war, about a war correspondent, nor a story to reveal the culture of the Middle East; rather, this novel was a human drama, played out in far-flung locations that added an extra depth to the novel.
Having spent time in Istanbul, I readily picked up on the locations and streets mentioned by Flash (as the author had spen...more
Having spent time in Istanbul, I readily picked up on the locations and streets mentioned by Flash (as the author had spen...more
I picked this up at random from the library. The setting was interesting and the writing was good but lots of f-bombs. I read the first half really quick, anxious to see what would happen. I must admit the heroine started to annoy me and I wished she would actually do something instead of mull around feeling sorry for herself. There were twists that made it good. In the end though I can't say I really liked the book too much. It must be my old age but I'm starting to prefer the escapism of simpl...more
I loved the fact that the author knew her way around Istanbul. I didn't like that every page she was self medicating with wine and just relaxing. It was also hard to follow the plot as it would go backward and forward with no visible dates to let the reader know if it was a flashback.
I expected the photojournalist character to have a vision or to discover and confront what was wrong with her life. I don't really think the author summed up the problem. She just let the husband journalist die be...more
I expected the photojournalist character to have a vision or to discover and confront what was wrong with her life. I don't really think the author summed up the problem. She just let the husband journalist die be...more
Mesmerizing. It pulls you in deeper and deeper - just like a dream you cannot wake up from. So much of this novel is dream-like - the writing style, switching back & forth, characters showing up out of virtually nowhere, weird conversations.
What is it about? - how a photographer living in Istanbul is dealing with the dissolution of her marriage, while her journalist husband is in Kabul covering the Iraq war. During this time, she "runs" into a friend she last saw in Afghanistan. This friend...more
What is it about? - how a photographer living in Istanbul is dealing with the dissolution of her marriage, while her journalist husband is in Kabul covering the Iraq war. During this time, she "runs" into a friend she last saw in Afghanistan. This friend...more
انتهيت من قرائتها حالا ... لا اعلم كيف اصفها ... هل هى جيده ام سئيه .. هل هى ممله ام مشوقه ... كل ما اعلمه انى تعلمت منها درس واحد فقط .. انه عندما تتاح لنا الفرصه لنعبر لمن نحبهم عن حبنا الا نضيعها لانه ربما لن تأتى تلك الفرصه مره اخرى .. عندما تأتى امامنا فرصه ان نضحى بشئ من اجل من نحب او نترك شئ نحبه من اجل التواجد معهم لا نضيعها ابدا ... نهايه مؤلمه كثيرا ولا اعلم كيف بكل قوة تحملتها البطله التى فى ظنى هى ذات قلب قاس .. وفعلا لم تبال بأنه يحبها او لم تفهم جيدا هذا الحب كل ما كانت تنظر اليه ه...more
From my book review blog, Rundpinne....[return][return]Beautifully written, spellbinding, and astonishingly detailed, The Last War by Ana Menendez is a compelling literary novel. Menendez takes the reader on an introspective journey through the last ten years of her life, taking the reader back to Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and where she currently resides in Istanbul. Margarita Anastasia Morales, known as Flash, is a photographer who has been traveling around the world with her journalist husb...more
THE LAST WAR is my favorite type of novel--it is like a dream, a painting, a photograph--provoking thought, beauty, and doubt. The prose is beautiful, impelling the mind to see and the heart to feel. The dialogue is such that it could be our own--if it were we in the place of the characters, if we had their wishes and fears. There is much more here than words on a page. There is a backstory intertwined with the creator. This type of novel is an author's attempt to make sense out of life, or at l...more
Sometimes authors write books as a way to receive some psychotherapy. Lots of "life stuff" can lead a person to step outside of the self, evaluate what's not kosher and acknowledge some hard truths. I believe Ana Menendez did this in The Last War. She needed the therapy and writing it was the best way to get there.
Sometimes these types of books are a curative for people who also need this therapy but are better readers than writers. That's me (despite my desire to be the latter). I guess what I...more
Sometimes these types of books are a curative for people who also need this therapy but are better readers than writers. That's me (despite my desire to be the latter). I guess what I...more
This was a really fast read. I finished it in a few hours. The story is about a couple in which the husband writes and the wife does the photography. For their entire marriage they are capturing different wars. By the time the reader meets them the husband is in Iraq and he wife is in Istanbul awaiting a visa to join him. She gets a weird letter from someone she doesn't know telling her that her husband is cheating on her. And the rest of the story is her unraveling and trying to decide whether...more
This novel, set in Istanbul, is about a journalist whose husband is a correspondent in Iraq during the first part of the war there. After I read it with pleasure and interest I learned from a book review that Menedez is the former wife of the journalist Dexter Filkins. He wrote an excellent account of the war in Iraq entitled "The Forever War." He had been in Afghanistan before that and is now in Afghanistan again reporting for the NY Times. So that gave this novel even more interest.
There was nothing that really stood out about this novel except its interesting look into the community of war correspondents. I always wondered what drives someone to do that. I also identified with Flash's frustration--it would be hard to struggle with depression with a war correspondent for a husband. I can see why individual internal struggles seem like a luxury to someone who watches entire families devastated by war, though they are certainly not.
This book caught my attention on Firstreads and I was lucky enough to win it, but actually found it disappointing. I kept waiting for the plot to develop, only to get to the end frustrated that I had spent the time looking for something big to happen that never did. In my opinion this book was about depression and misplaced love, not war and romance and photography. I found the environments exciting and loved to learn about the exotic places Flash went. I hated the nicknames...Flash and Wonderbo...more
This book was very interesting. The author is the ex-wife of new york times war correspondent Dexter Filkins. If this is the type of thing that interests you i would read the forever war (his non-fiction take on the same time period) first and then read this book.
Another first-reads win! The story is set against the backdrop of the U.S. invasions in Afghanistan and Iraq, but mostly takes place in Istanbul. The main character, Flash, is a photojournalist married to Brando, a journalist; both cover wars around the world. The couple has a residence in Istanbul and when Brando reports to Iraq, Flash stays behind for reasons unknown to her. When she receives a letter about her husband's infidelity, she begins to reflect on their past. Told in part in flashbac...more
I probably read this on the suggestion of NPR. I can't really remember.
This novel was very melancholy, about a photojournalist and her print journalist husband in the early years of the Afghan and Iraq wars. They are separated throughout the novel, with the suspicion of an affair by the husband looming over the main character's musings.
It wasn't the worst novel I've read. I actually finished it. But I never connected with the main character and I was bored with her self-absorbed sorrow.
I'm sure...more
This novel was very melancholy, about a photojournalist and her print journalist husband in the early years of the Afghan and Iraq wars. They are separated throughout the novel, with the suspicion of an affair by the husband looming over the main character's musings.
It wasn't the worst novel I've read. I actually finished it. But I never connected with the main character and I was bored with her self-absorbed sorrow.
I'm sure...more
i won this in the Firstreads drawing! So.... Stay tuned!
This is where I'm supposed to tell you about the plot, how good a writer she is, and things like that. Well, I can't. I can only find the barest plot. It's an amazing book, I just don't get it. So many things aren't there for a real purpose.
This is where I'm supposed to tell you about the plot, how good a writer she is, and things like that. Well, I can't. I can only find the barest plot. It's an amazing book, I just don't get it. So many things aren't there for a real purpose.
I liked the setting and premise of this book. However, something was lacking in the story & characters. In the end, I was disappointed. Perhaps because I bought it in hardback.
This is a very intriguing mystery set in the gorgeous city of Istanbul. An american photojurounalist questions her marriage in Istanbul while her husband is covering the war in Iraq, with the help of a myseterious letter. This reads almost like a biography by with more detail. The story goes back and forth in time to explain events that Flash is trying to make connections with the current outcome of her relationships. This is a quick end of the summer read that will make you want to plan your ne...more
I won this as a First Reads giveaway. It was an interesting look into the lives of war correspondents and journalists, and I really enjoyed the descriptions of the settings where the book took place. However, as other reviewers have noted I kept waiting for something "big" to happen, and I'm still unsure what the book was really about. This was a pretty short book (225 p.) that I should have been able to finish in a weekend, but I never felt that I really got pulled in and it took me a while to...more
I had a hard time connecting to the characters but enjoyed the exploration of a marriage and the parallels of it to the world at large.
It was a little difficult to get into at first, but once I got my stride, I really enjoyed it. I love the exotic setting, and it was very interesting. The only thing that was wrong with it was the slow beginning. Otherwise, a very well-written book with a unique storyline.
This was a quick read and easy to get through. I kept expecting something big to happen, but it never quite did, which left me slightly disappointed. But all in all, this was a good read.
Oct 25, 2010
Thorn MotherIssues
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
read-2010
The Istanbul stuff was interesting; the marriage stuff was not.
Author's website: www.anamenendezonline.com
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“Depression is not madness, it's just depression, the loser version, the low-energy response to bad stuff that happens in your life. When you're depressed, you think you're the only one to have ever tasted this kind of hurt. And that lonely self-regard brings with it its own painful pleasure.”
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Feb 17, 2010 09:14am