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    The Last War: A Novel
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    The Last War: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Last War: A Novel
    Ebook212 pages3 hours

    The Last War: A Novel

    By Ana Menendez

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    "Exquisitely crafted. . . strikingly real and heartfelt." —Denver Post

    “[A] potent literary novel . . . A deft portrait of an estranged couple whose pain is veiled by the fog of war.” —People

    A breathtaking novel of love, war, and betrayal from the critically acclaimed author of Loving Che and the New York Times Notable Book, In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd. From the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq to the strange, shimmering streets of Istanbul, The Last War is a “seductive meditation” (O, The Oprah Magazine) on cruelty and violence, love and identity from Pushcart Prize-winning author Ana Menéndez.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMay 26, 2009
    ISBN9780061879937
    Unavailable
    The Last War: A Novel
    Author

    Ana Menendez

    Ana Menéndez is a 2008 Fulbright scholar and the Pushcart Prize-winning author of two works of fiction, In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd, which was a New York Times Notable Book, and Loving Che. She has worked as a columnist for the Miami Herald and has also contributed to The New Republic, the New York Times, and Gourmet, as well as several anthologies. She lives in Miami, Florida.

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    Reviews for The Last War

    3.5/5

    25 ratings9 reviews

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    • 3/5
      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.
    • 2/5
      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 had tried to explain to me again and again, has no free-standing prepositions, instead deploying an army of infixes and suffixes that make for an ever-mutating dictionary. Nearly every word is transformed by its relationship to every other word. It's a hard lesson for an English speaker to grasp. The world informed by Turkish syntax is not the English one, where solitary objects move through the sentence with little cause or effect. Turkish exists in a webbed landscape where relationships carry meaning and every noun is malleable." I might dispute the notion that English is a language of "solitary objects" but this passage at least piqued my interest.
    • 4/5
      Kinda beautiful but also kinda too much navel-gazing with unresolved plots. I would have liked to have the time in Afghanistan expanded upon - those sections were written with such vigor compared to the listlessness mimicking the protagonist's restlessness whilst in Istanbul. The end was too quick and without a true resolution. Like life, I suppose, but this isn't life - it's a paperback novel.
    • 4/5
      Between the publications of In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd (2001) and Adios, Happy Homeland (2011), Menéndez published two novels, lived in Istanbul, ended her marriage, lived in Egypt as a Fulbright Scholar, and worked as a journalist. Loving Che (2003) and The Last War (2009), the former set in Florida and Cuba, the latter in Istanbul during the Iraq War, continue to explore the themes of the play between illusion and reality mediated by imagination and storytelling and the need to find one’s true self. In The Last War, Flash, a photojournalist, is stranded in Istanbul awaiting a visa that will allow her to enter Iraq to join her war-correspondent husband, Brando. While there, she receives an anonymous letter claiming that her husband has been unfaithful (as Menéndez did about her war-correspondent husband, Dexter Filkins). The novel examines the unravelling of a marriage, but it also focuses on the personalities and motives of those who follow wars to bring images and stories to the rest of the world. As Flash wanders through Istanbul, she flashes back to other fronts in Afghanistan and Pakistan trying to connect her present self to her past experiences.In an interview Menéndez has stated, “For me, leaving is the way we learn about identity and place. Travel far and long enough and you realize there is no such thing as a fixed ‘identity’ – though this is often so difficult a realization that we cling to the outlines of who we thought we were.”
    • 5/5
      From my book review blog, Rundpinne....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 husband, Brando Price Phillips. The couple currently resides in Istanbul where Flash is still awaiting the proper paperwork to join Brando in Iraq to cover the war. While waiting for the appropriate paperwork, a mysterious letter arrives making Flash question the last ten years of her life with Brando. Menendez smoothly takes the reader through Flash’s memories, covering various wars in numerous cities around the world, and with fluid and vivid imagery, it is not difficult for the reader to experience the sights through Flash’s memory. I truly enjoyed this beautifully rich, detailed and deeply introspective novel of love, war and identity. I would not hesitate to recommend The Last War to anyone and believe that The Last War, with the inter-relationships between Alexandra, Flash, Brando and Nadia, would make for an exceptional discussion group pick.
    • 3/5
      The Last War By Ana Menendez The narrator of the story is a photo journalist that travels with her writer husband, Brando, around the world chasing the latest war story. Always living on the edge, near the greatest danger. Their own suffering is a sort of sacrifice as if they too were in a war. Brando has traveled to Iraq and the narrator, his wife, whom he calls Tunes, is waiting for her papers to arrive to join him. She stays in their apartment in Istanbul waiting, and falls into a melancholy. She receives a mysterious letter detailing the facts of her husbands supposed love affair with another woman. She reignites a friendship with an old journalist friend that she suspects may have written the letter. This novel is loosely based on Ana Menendez's life experience. It is a poetic, sad and heartbreaking peek into a marriage.
    • 5/5
      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 spent time there as well). I could see the tram she rode, as well as the views across the Bosphorus. In a city as charming as Istanbul, there really isn't a way for the book to continue without the city being another main character in the novel, and it definitely was for Flash. The days she spent wandering, questioning her life and marriage, and facing her fears about both, were played out in a city of as much grace, charm, and wonder as you could situate a main character within.In the end, the drama of the novel was about Flash and her husband Brando. Over time, we learn that her marriage had troubles, and we learn more about the time the two spent in Afghanistan, which left Flash somewhat traumatized. Stories of the past come in to haunt her, just as the war is in Iraq is haunting her husband Brando. The interweaving of trauma and love made for a gripping novel, and one that I absolutely couldn't wait to pick up reading each day. I really and genuinely think that Ana Menendez's novel, The Last War is a brilliant juxtaposition of the complexity of human lives to that of international conflict. While not the "war" story that some readers might have been looking for, I found the implied backdrop of the Iraq war and conflict in the Middle East to be the perfect foil for Flash's own personal issues. The novel was simply brilliant in my mind, and one that has left me thinking about and considering for days after I finished it. What more can I say than an absolutely brilliant read in my opinion.
    • 4/5
      A sensitive portrayal of marriage during wartime. Istanbul is an evocative setting for the protagonist's self-exploration.
    • 3/5
      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 him but really has little intention of joining him. Most of the book is Flash’s thoughts, depression, street wanderings and indulgences. She receives a letter that tells her Brando has been unfaithful which feeds her depression and inward focus. There is some minor coverage of the wars, bombings, but it is very minor. There is some description of the towns, cities and countries they are traveling in, but again that is mostly minor. The story line reads a little like a soap opera. I felt like Flash is very self indulgent and being able to spend many months in a nice apartment in Istanbul without having to work or actually do anything seems unrealistic. With all my travels and time spent as an expat, none of the story line rang true to me. Granted, I was not a journalist, but I did live and work in many foreign countries. There are parts of the story line that seem to be going somewhere, and then it fizzles and never really grabs me. I see glimpses of greatness but mostly just find average writing. Maybe for someone that has never traveled the experience would be different. The Last War could have benefited from some great editing and additional details of the environment. This book would be a good read for someone that is interested in the subjects of depression, inner reflection and love lost. It doesn’t, in my opinion, live up to its hype of “a breathtaking novel of love, war and betrayal”.