Re-read. I admired this on my first reading, but I also under-rated it. This is as accomplished as any of Joan Didion's novels and one of the finest political thrillers (among many other things) I've encountered. On first reading, I went too fast, letting myself get pulled along by the rhythmic riptide of the prose. On a second read, crucial background details became more apparent and the love story that's slipped almost imperceptibly into the crux of the narrative made complete sense. This is t...

The crux of what went on in this book could have fit in a 15 page short story. That it ends up a 220 plus page novel, with a narrative that circles and circles the central event without ever really touching it and yet still manages to remain intriguing and fresh and compellingly page turning is an example of Didion's genius. Some of her sentences just cut right through you. I have to be in a certain mood to read Didion, but boy do I love it when I am.

Originally published here.The dull and overwrought title, the fuzzy monochrome cover art dominated by letters, not to mention the plot and published date (1996) delineates this book as a certain kind of novel, native to the late 80s and 90s. The political-thriller involving shady arms deals and some person or persons just caught in-between. The American government is corrupt. Parts of it anyway. But it’s a sophisticated hands-off puppetmaster corruption. Bad things happen. People in third world

Fascinating writing - but so hard to follow that I was lost almost all the time. It is one of those books that I think I should read all over again to see what the heck was going on - except I don't want to.

There are those writers who write well about life and then there are those writers like Didion who excel in documenting the in-betweenness of life. The ambience of being between careers, between relationships, estranged from families and those folks who happen to be where they are less by choice and more by resigned indifference to elect to go anywhere else make up her characters' milieu. She is in her element with vanquished characters who are jaded, spent and unable to gain entry back to the

This is my first Joan Didion book. Thank you, friend, for recommending her work.The author writes in such a clear and distinctive voice, using an omniscient but disinterested narrator; one that creates mystery and suspense by revealing the twists and turns in the book's dark and murky plot in small but rewarding increments."The Last Thing He Wanted's" most memorable aspect was the complexity of the relationship between its main character and her father. Their story unfolds in the third person, i...

I'll admit the impetus for reading this was hearing about the film adaptation, and then subsequently watching the trailer. Haven't seen the film yet, but seems to (necessarily!) veer sharply from the book, since it is both ambiguous and never quite clear about exactly what happens (also, there is no corresponding character to whoever Rosie Perez plays). Anyway, it is a very quick moving story, and the elliptical structure works to keep one involved. I just wish I were a BIT more confident in wha...

I read this specifically because of the Netflix movie. The movie looked interesting in the trailer, so I wanted to read the book first. Even having read the book, I'm not totally sure what happened in the movie. I love Didion's nonfiction, this was the first novel I've read by her. The plot is both more complicated and more simple than the book makes it seem. The arms dealing is fairly easy to grasp if you are aware of the history the book is based on, but the weirdness of the main character hav...

I badly want to give this novel more than three stars. I badly want it to deserve more than three stars. It has remarkable qualities but is, ultimately, less than the sum of its parts.Foremost, I am glad to have a novel about how our government sold arms to the Contras in the 80s. Just having something touch on black operations at all is highly welcome. (I suppose there is a decent amount of nonfiction on the matter, but having it fictionalized, and by a well-known name, suggests something left

Lance Cleland (Captain): A friend who knows my literary predilections recommended a spy novel earlier this month. I was shocked to learn it was by Joan Didion. I had somehow missed the memo on The Last Thing He Wanted. When I looked for her work on the shelf, I always went strait for some vintage copy of Play It as It Lays or to the early nonfiction, always passing over her last novel because the title was too vague, the cover image of file folders not helping the case against its dimness. But t...

It would be impossible for a young person—say, a teenager—to comprehend the world of this book now. In DEMOCRACY and LAST THING, Didion was obsessed with sinister business as usual. Now we don’t have any. The foundations—what MSNBC people call “norms”—are being stripped away like copper from the innards of a palatial yacht. Here we have another Durasian novella from Joan—I simply can’t imagine how much Didion would detest Duras if she actually read her! This is a sort of INDIA SONG that accessed...

This book was very slow, did not capture my attention at all as my mind kept wandering. I was reading the words but not absorbing anything. Joan Didion is one of my favorite authors but this book was unfortunately a dud :(

The wait was long (especially if one had already read most of the non-fiction pieces collected in 1992's "After Henry") and this novel, like "A Book of Common Prayer" and "Democracy," is spare while somehow coming across as strangely heavy. The opening few paragraphs are a stunning work of synthesis about the 1980s from a certain point of view -- shrouded, spooky (literally, in the CIA sense of the word). From there, a tedium sets in. I don't consider this novel one of Didion's successes, but I

The undeniable stylishness of this novel made up for its confusing plot and odd pacing. I would never have finished it if it weren’t for the sheer pleasure of Didion’s sentences. But I’m glad I did. For the sentences.

This novel from 1996 is set in 1984, and is vaguely related to the murky dealings of the contra scandal. Everything is very shadowy and unclear, and what I managed to understand is a story of an almost-innocent bystander getting caught up in machinations beyond their comprehension. That is : Elena McMahon, dutiful daughter to her aging arms-dealer father, gets on a plane to somewhere in South America to deliver cargo. But the promised payment is not handed over, so she ends up in an unnamed Car...

How fabulous is JD? She is so consistently good and so erudite that it is a joy to open the page and let the words flow over you. This is a great story, I really enjoyed the way she played out the thriller aspect, and I believe it will be made into a movie soon - in the right hands this could be brilliant. Set in the Central American islands or thereabouts, in the early 1980's when all those arms deals and shady happenings where being whispered about in certain circles, this book seems to me to

This certainly has Didion's sharp prose. It also evokes the intelligence-ish dealing game well. It discombobulated me a bit more than I could quite keep up with though. I felt a bit lost most of the time and didn't end up with it as much as I felt I should be.

The thing about thrillers is that, however stylishly they are written, they ultimately live and die by the the intricacies of the plot. At some point, the reader needs answers, and logic. Whatever writing devices are used to create mystery, suspense and anticipation - all the things that keep you turning the page, in other words - the reward in the end cannot come down to the ‘aesthetics’ of the writing alone. Joan Didion’s writing is deliberately (and beautifully) bleak, staccato, unsentimental...

"Maybe they looked at each other and knew that nothing they could do would matter as much as the slightest tremor of the earth, the blind trembling of the Pacific in its bowl, the heavy snows closing the mountain passes, the rattlers in the dry grass, the sharks cruising the deep cold water through the Golden Gate." arguably one of the most perfect lines ever written. this book was so unlike anything i've read by joan but still such amazing writing and her classic style. this was super fun and h...

An enjoyable read that leaves you slightly discombobulated, but always wanting to find out what happens next. In this first reading I was really impressed by Didion’s writing style and look forward to a reread and further research to draw out some of the contextual nuances I may have missed.“You will notice that participants in disasters typically locate the ‘beginning’ of the disaster at a point suggesting their own control over events. A plane crash retold will begin not with the pressure syst...

Halfway through I would have unhesitatingly declared this the secret summit of the entire Didion canon (alongside Democracy) but a few highly ill-conceived detours in the final stretches do a shocking amount to take the edges off this bitter snake of a book. Come for the elusive and allusive Washingtonese incantations but maybe jump ship before the mawkish hobbles toward genuine romance and (worst of all) the completely superfluous retrograde gay character who (sigh) does little else than throws...

I found this book very hard to follow. When reading a book of conspiracy and intrigue, I do expect things to be unclear, but here the narrator is unidentified; we never know how she came by the information she is imparting. We are left to decide for ourselves any motive for the decisions made by Elena, who as the main character is not very well filled-out. Her father, who is slipping into dementia, is a more interesting figure than she. The narrator does make the point several times that if you

A curious political thriller, fragmented, like a rough draft of something you have to piece together. An imagined investigation into the Iran-Contra scandal, a take that doesn't directly involve the players who normally come to mind.

I.. think I mostly enjoyed this?? Only read this bc the movie is apparently terrible and after finishing the book I can understand why this must’ve a pain to adapt, nothing is happening and yet too much is happening on every page how did she do this.......

Plot so intricate that most of it went over my head! But it does seem to be intentionally cryptic. I’m excited to watch the new film adaptation and hope to get a little more clarity.This is my second piece of fiction to read by Didion, and I much prefer Play It As It Lays.

The recursive metering seen throughout this book can either draw ire or or get one’s groove. Rate accordingly.

Excellently complex! It’s my first Didion to read, won’t be my last!

I read Play It As It Lays and loved it and wanted more Didion. I just finished this one and have absolutely no idea what happened.

meh...stopped reading about 20% into it kindle library loaner can't figure out what the hell is going on i suspect that is the point not for me

When Joan Didion died last week, I decided to read this 1996 novel, because it was the only book by her I owned but hadn't yet read. It's apparently her final novel by choice. She lived another 25 years after publishing it and so presumably could have written more novels if she'd wanted. Its very Didion-like self-styled "not quite omniscient narrator" hints at why she preferred not to when she says that the story she wishes to relate "lacked coherence. Logical connections were missing, cause and...