The Last War

by Ana Menéndez

Book Overview

" A] potent literary novel . . . A deft portrait of an estranged couple whose pain is veiled by the fog of war." --People

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 Men ndez.

Photojournalist Flash chases...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061724777
• ISBN13: 9780061724770
• Release Date: June 2010
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Novel as dream

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 least explain it. Sometimes, as in a dream, a novel reveals the world as we wished it were, or had been. The Last War appears to me to be Ana Menendez's dream. Her ex-husband is Dexter Filkins and his latest work, non-fiction, is THE FOREVER WAR, about the war in Iraq where he was an embedded reporter for the NY Times, with the Marines in the battle of Fallujah. In The LAST WAR, the narrator is the wife of "Wonderboy," a war correspondent in Iraq. "Flash," the narrator and a photojournalist, lives in Istanbul and becomes bitter and resentful of her husband after receiving an anonymous letter that he had been unfaithful. (The part about the letter happened in the real world.) There is a third character, a writer and a beauty, a "friend" of Flash, who acts as her inner voice, confidante, and rival. What ensues is the deterioration of the marriage, due largely to the failure of the couple to communicate honestly and well; the "help" of the friend; and the competition between the couple for gratification and appreciation. The author, Menendez, covers all the bases, and that could be nothing other than a reflection of the way things were. In one conversation, Wonderboy calls Flash in a hysterical state, having just escaped death while on patrol. Flash, consumed with his alleged infidelity, can't listen or support him, and they talk over and scream at one another, without compassion or understanding, each accusing the other of being "delirious." (pg. 157) In the real lives of the two authors, I wonder: What was that conversation like? Filkins did escape death when a US Marine stepped in front of him, took a bullet, and died. Is the fiction the way it went down? Is it Menendez's version? Recollection, rationalization, or dream? For the sake of art, it doesn't matter. It works. Filkins, it has been reported, armed himself, effectively becoming a fighter, a soldier, a warrior. A repeated "theme" in THE LAST WAR is: "The warrior always triumphs over the poet." In Menendez's "dream" - a roadside bomb kills Wonderboy, and Flash goes on towards a successful career. (Take that! Dexter. "Revenge is for Life." That comes from the Koran and is used in both books, recounting the same event--an execution in Afghanistan in 1998 that the couple witnessed together.) However, in the real world, Filkins is by far the more successful and acclaimed writer. It is worth noting that Menendez writes fiction because she felt two journalists in a marriage would not work. (She began he

A photographer's view

I loved this book, but first I want to say that readers who prefer a story with a definite plot, especially a chronological plot, may not care for the style of this book. It's not a novel of the wars going on in the Middle East, although that is the setting. If that is what you are looking for, there are other books, fiction and nonfiction, you will like better. The main character is a photojournalist, not a writer. This distinction is made several times and is important. Her husband is a journalist in Iraq, and friends and colleagues are journalists that have been in India, Afghanistan, Iraq, and currently Istanbul since 9/11. These people are Americans and Europeans. In photography (one of my hobbies, not my profession like the narrator's) it's really themes that are important and this is why I think they take precedence over plot in this book. Certainly war is one theme and all the destruction it causes to societies, as well as personal losses. Another is loneliness. Flash, the narrator, is still in Istanbul, while her husband is in harm's way in Baghdad. A third is the experience of being a foreigner in another part of the world, especially during a war, and how the population of the other country sees one. How much you miss by not knowing the language (Turkish is so vastly different from English that an American would really be up against a wall). Foreigners can be made fools of or walk into danger without knowing it. The foreigners' world (if any of you read details of the Green Zone) is seen as artificial by the native population, with good reason. The fact that the book is seen through the eyes of a photographer also helps create the setting. Istanbul (and I've only seen pictures) is supposed to be a really beautiful city, half in Europe and half in Asia. Even the airport Amsterdam-Schihpol (where I have been many times) is well-drawn for the reader. The writing is also beautiful. This author has won prizes. The story does have several surprise twists at the end. I'd recommend this book, with the caution above, that you expect imagery and theme over plot.

Ana Menendez' finest work

The Last War is an extraordinarily searing book. It is set against the background of war and while it illuminates that, it also takes us deep into the nuances of isolation, marriage, friendship and ambivalence. While this is a book about foreign correspondents, it will also be deeply familiar to those who have "merely" traveled in the land of marriage. Or fought with themselves over whether or not to take the exciting fork in the road, or the one that might be safer. The Last War is a spare book of 225 pages - and yet in those pages it explains much of the core of human nature.

Perils of becoming a 'war junkie.'

Ana Menendez's, THE LAST WAR, offers an opportunity to peer into the personal lives of those who dedicate themselves to chronicling the atrocities of war. While this novel is fictional, from researching Menendez's bio, online, it appears to represent many of her own personal experiences. As a world traveler---one who has lived in Istanbul and Cairo, there's no doubt she has probably really drank a few glasses of that bitter, Turkish wine. It's also no wonder, that she so deftly brings Istanbul to life, for the reader who has never ventured there. The storyline is quite simplistic, and, it's a quick read, but the prose is skilled and lovely enough to keep you drawn to the page. Basically, this is more of a story of fading love and passion, than a war-torn drama, although there are some elements of the brutality of war, and, of course, the cost to the psyche of those covering the darkest deeds of humanity---war, greed and hatred. If fortunate enough to survive, the emotional collateral damage, leaves deep scars, which is well drawn out with these characters, but not in a melodramatic manner. Instead, we see common human emotions, with which we can all relate. The story takes place in 2003. Flash is a photojournalist residing in Istanbul, while her war correspondent husband, Brando, (also known as, Wonderboy) is covering the war in Iraq. Flash is awaiting traveling documents to join Brando in Baghdad, but she appears to be procrastinating. She is beginning to feel estranged from Brando---not only by distance, but by something missing in their communication. Even so, her heart and her fond memories tell her that love is not lost. The unthinkable happens. She receives a mysterious, type-written letter claiming Wonderboy has been unfaithful. She is obviously devastated and with no one to ventilate with in Istanbul, she medicates her failing spirit with the only wine readily available---the bitterest of Turkish wines. While wandering the streets of Istanbul, she notes a mysterious figure in a black abaya. She eventually confronts this woman to learn that it is an old colleague, Alexandra, who shares quite a bit of history with she and Brando, from time spent together in Afghanistan. She has mixed emotions about their reunion. On one hand, she is glad to have company; on the other, she seeks isolation to lick her wounds. Alexandra is a very colorful character, who is integral in breathing life, and mischief, into the novel. Together, Flash and Alexandra drink more wine, and reminisce about the past, which offers some interesting back-story. With Alexandra's support, Flash is able to confront her anger, grief and feelings of betrayal, while she learns a great deal about herself---even her own ability to be dispassionate and cruel. The bitter Turkish wine, that Flash gradually learns to accept, becomes somewhat of a metaphor for her own emotional bitterness, that must be put to rest---accepted. Will she heal with, or without, Wonderboy?

Unique perspective

Not nearly enough has been written about the courage exhibited by those who are sent to war-torn countries to provide the rest of us accounts of what is actually happening or has happened in these places. I want to write a different type of "review" because I know, although not well, the author who is very much missed as a columnist at The Miami Herald. So I also know that this novel is based upon her own experiences, not as a war correspondent because, to my knowledge, she was not. But as the wife of a New York Times journalist, Dexter Filkins, who spent the first few years of the horror inflicted upon the Iraqi people. This is a poignant novel, told from the point of view of Flash, the woman married to another journalist and tells the story not only of the war but of what happens to relationships when circumstances change the path a married couple thought they would be traveling together. Ana is a remarkable writer, and it shines through in this novel.