"Last Last Chance" by Fiona Maazel (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, ISBN
9780374183851, $25.00)
What if our drug-addled, recovery addicted, disconnected population were
threatened by a real viral super-plague instead of the plague of insensitive
political, economic, and social leadership under which we now suffer? This is
more or less the premise of Fiona Maazel's rambunctious first novel, but she
packs a lot more into its three hundred pages.
Here goes: Lucy Clark has done rehab over and over, but embarks on yet another
attempt accompanied by her crack addicted mother at a remote Texas "ranch." Her
father has just committed suicide after a life with the Center for Disease
Control creating a super-plague virus to study preventive antibodies, but the
virus is stolen and let loose across America. Lucy's one true love Eric has
married her best friend Kam, but she can't let him go. Her grandmother who
believes completely in reincarnation dies and instills in Lucy tales of her
Viking ancestry which permeate her drug fogged musings. Alcoholic Stanley enters
to care for Lucy and her confused step-sister Hannah while trying to find a
surrogate mother to bear his child in honor of his deceased wife whom he
"killed" while he was driving drunk.
Add humor, history, sparkling language, and warmth and you can see why this
novel defies characterization but also stands out from the pack. Maazel is one
to watch, which the National Book Foundation is already doing since she was
recently named one of its "5 under 35" selections for 2008.
Review by
Bruce Jacobs,
November 13, 2008
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