Last Word

by Jonathan Blum

Last Word, a novella, tells the story of Kip Langer, a successful orthognathic surgeon, who is trying to raise three children, including Eric, a bright but socially awkward thirteen-year-old from his first marriage. As Eric gets into more and more trouble at his Conservative Jewish Day School, Kip tries to understand Eric and guide him toward making better choices. The story, set in a Southern suburban community, examines patterns of love, anger, intimacy, inheritance, and disconnection within one modern blended family.

Jonathan Blum grew up in Miami and graduated from UCLA and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. His short stories have appeared in Green Mountains Review, Gulf Coast, New York Stories, Northwest Review, Other Voices, Playboy, Zaum, and elsewhere. He has taught fiction writing at The University of Iowa and at Drew University, and is the recipient of a Michener-Copernicus Society of America Award and a grant from the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation. He lives in Los Angeles.

“A terrific novella. This is a book that is going to win this debut writer, I think, enormous recognition and certainly a readership.”

–Michael Silverblatt, host of KCRW’s Bookworm

Genres: Fiction

86 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Jonathan Blum grew up in Miami and graduated from UCLA and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. His short stories have appeared in Green Mountains Review, Gulf Coast, New York Stories, Northwest Review, Other Voices, Playboy, Zaum, and elsewhere. He has taught fiction writing at The University of Iowa and at Drew University, and is the recipient of a Michener-Copernicus Society of America Award and a grant from the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation. He lives in Los Angeles.

Reviews

[Karolyn Sherwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

LAST WORD, by Jonathan Blum, had the same emotional impact on me that A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving, did. For both books, I was reading and reading and reading, then suddenly, bang!, you understand what's been happening all along. In Owen Meany, that bang doesn't hit until about page 600. Thankfully, Last Word is much shorter (only 86 pages long), and that bang hits about page 84.

Last Word is the story of the Langers, a Jewish family: Kip, the father; Eric, his chubby thirteen-year-old son; Andi, the second wife; and their two younger daughters. Eric is having trouble at his private Jewish academy, and the parents are continually being brought in to discuss his behavior. The story takes place over most of a school year, so at only 86 pages, Blum has done a remarkable job of focusing on just this one storyline. The book is very well written. The father in this book upset me—I imagine he was supposed to upset me. He was so out of touch with his son that I wanted to shout at him.

Like Annie Proulx (and many other writers), Blum has, in a way, used the setting for this story (inside a strict Jewish family and school) as another character; it's that integral to the story. Not being Jewish, I was ignorant of some of the words/holidays/traditions and history that were referred to often. That didn't detract from the story, in fact, it opened a door to a rich world that I know very little about, but I did feel like an outsider.

This book has stuck with me since I finished it. It brought out quiet but real emotions in me. Because of that (especially because I don't think I am even Blum's target audience and I was still emotionally moved), Last Word earns ...

Five Stars

[World Literature Today]

"One aspiration of many writers is to maintain a comical thread throughout a serious work. Jonathan Blum is just such a writer.... I’m glad that after six years of trying, someone accepted his book for publication. Let’s hope there are more to come." - Jason Christian, Oklahoma State University

This book was reviewed in the November 2014 issue of World Literature Today. Read the full review by visiting our website: http://bit.ly/1EItTIy

[Marcie Fraser · Rating 5 out of 5]

I met Johnathon Blum as a recent student of his in a short story writing class, a fantastic teacher. Mr Blum has an amazing way of listening so intently to each of his students and offering up solid answers. At the end of the course ,I Immediately purchased Last Word at prairie lights book store and began reading on the plane home. I was pleasantly lost within a Jewish community filled with traditions and a sense of closeness despite the Father Kip and Son Eric’s difficulty to connect. What I have never come across when reading a story is the formal use of each of the other characters first and last names, giving high respect to the others in the story. Possibly showing the community as a wholesome, clean and honorable community and in walks calamity, Kips young teenage son, Eric acting like a juvenile delinquent. Kip tries to hold his family together with as much understanding as he can. Kip a respected plastic surgeon can reconstruct one of his patients, but after the dust settles, can he reconstruct his relationship with his son? Great short book well written and entertaining.

[DeeDee Prince · Rating 5 out of 5]

I met Jonathan Blum in his short story workshop at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival this past June. I was impressed by his knowledge of and passion for the writing craft and by his teaching style. I purchased “Last Word” and read it on the flight home. It was a great read!

The novella focuses on a blended family of bright characters that clearly love each other, have the advantage of money and community and yet they are often completely unaware of the impact of their actions on each other. Jonathan beautifully captured the befuddlement well intentioned and involved parents can experience when dealing with the crazy making behavior of their teenage son. I was laughing as much as I was wincing at their interactions.

Jonathan’s is a master story-teller. His wit is extraordinary and his ability to take me into a world I had no prior experience with (the Jewish private schooling) and carry me through the story-line are just two of the reasons I highly recommend this book!

Dee Dee Prince
Laguna Niguel

[Jim Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jonathan Blum is probably better known as a short story writer, but the novella works for him, too. Probably, if I had not met him and really enoyed one of his readings I would not have picked Last Word up, as the topic, family life, is not one I read about too often.

A financially successful dad of three, one of which is a computer savvy son, tries to balance love for his two daughters with the attention his socially freakish son needs in order to stop wreaking havoc at the Jewish grade school he's attending. There are lots of great knocks at private school mania culture, too, which as a private school teacher I thought was fun to see on the page.

Blum is a clear writer, writes great characters and has some wonderful observation of human character. About 85 pages. If you're looking for a short book to stay with for a few days or are into novellas, check it out.

[Woody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely little book--Jonathan Blum writes clean, beautiful sentences with seemingly effortless precision. The narrator, a Jewish plastic surgeon, the type of guy who walks into a room with a cocky smile and a cringe-worthy joke, has a tenderness that is both surprising and beautiful. Reading this novella reminded me of the moments in life where someone suddenly rips off his or her mask, revealing that, of course, there is a beautiful person just waiting to be seen.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read, thanks to an always engaging narrator and the author's clean and direct style. The novella length wound up leaving me feeling a bit incomplete at the end, though; I felt like the book could have been twenty pages shorter with the same impact, or forty pages longer with a bit more depth. I never lost interest, though, and when I put the book down the thing I was most certain of was that I'd like to see what Blum does next.

[Chuck O'Connor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well told story of individual redemption in the face of tribal ethics.