Last ThingsGrace's father believes in science and builds his daughter a dollhouse with lights that really work. Grace's mother takes her skinny-dipping in the lake and teaches her about African hyena men who devour their wives in their sleep. Grace's world, of fact and fiction, marvels and madness, is slowly unraveling -- because her family is coming apart before her eyes. Now eight-year-old Grace must choose between her two very different, very flawed parents. And the choice will take her on a dizzying journey, away from her home in Vermont to the boozy, flooded streets of New Orleans -- and into the equally wondrous and frightening realm of her own imagination. With eloquence and compassion, Jenny Offill weaves a luminous story of a wounded family -- and of a young girl yearning to understand the difference between fiction, fact, and hope. Last Things is a stunning achievement -- at once heartbreaking, disturbing, and beautifully told. |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - jphamilton - LibraryThingIt always curious when you read a fantastic book by a particular author, and then go back and read an older book of theirs. Does it hold up? Is it as good? The short answer is, no, Jenny Offill’s Last ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - froxgirl - LibraryThingThis is the author's debut, a gentle and sweet voiced story of a very close family and the devastation wreaked when the mom goes off the rails. Grace is a very precocious eight when her adventures ... Read full review
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Alec Anna asked Aunt Fe bird black room blind girl blue breath called closed my eyes Cryptozoologists dark Davitt dead dinosaurs Disneyland dog in space doghouse door dream driveway drove dusky seaside sparrow Earth Edgar everything face father fell fish Foxface front glass Grace hair hand head hear inside Jenny Offill Joshua Tree kids kitchen knew Laika lake laughed light lived looked monster moon morning mother clapped mother took never night Offill's once opened passenger pigeons picked picture Pig Latin pulled question girl sand sea inside shoes shook showed silence game sleep slept smelled snow someone sound stars stood stopped street Swahili talk tape thing thought threw told trees tried uncle voice waited walked wanted watched window woke wolf girls woman