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The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin

The Last Romantics

by Tara Conklin

  • Critics' Consensus (1):
  • Readers' Rating (49):
  • Published:
  • Feb 2019, 368 pages
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There are currently 49 reader reviews for The Last Romantics
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Ginny from TX

It was a good book but had issues the bothered me
I had a great deal of uncertainty about how to write my review of this book. I could have begun it by telling about what I liked or instead what I did not like although you can tell by my rating that I felt obliged to give it a rather high rating overall. Actually, I probably felt more intense about one thing that made me uncomfortable about the book. So I will start there.
I really wondered why, with what I considered a unique story line, the author felt obliged to include mention at the beginning and the end of the story something that infers a lack of faith in the ability of humans to solve problems. Thismore
Janine S. (Wyoming, MI)

Lovely, lyrical, intriguing novel
The Last Romantics is a lovely, lyrical story well worth the reading. The author has a magical ability to pull you into the story of the Skinner family as told by the youngest member, Fiona. The twists and turns within the story compel you to read on because this family just becomes a part of you. The author has the ability to make you like her characters while recognizing their flaws but because there is such a intriguing charm to them all you are constantly pulled into them that even having to stop reading makes you want to get back to them as soon as possible. And structuring the story about "what happened"more
Peggy Howell

Last Romantics
Fascinating and well written saga of a family torn apart when young by the early death of a father and the withdrawal from life of the mother. The writer follows the lives of the four children, their successes and failures and the way they cope with their lives. Each of them are well drawn, and the reader is easily pulled into wondering about their future. The three girls and one boy have each chosen a different path and the reader is left to decide why. Not having read the author’s first book I am eager to read it. I especially liked the single narrator rather than each character telling his own story.
Michelle A. (Elmwood, IL)

The Last Romantics
I have been anxiously awaiting this book since I read The House Girl in 2013 and loved it! I enjoyed this book about a family of four siblings, their mother & the others in their lives. I liked the complex relationships that the siblings have with each other and their mother. I felt like most people would be able to connect to some trait of at least one of the characters. The death of their father makes a lasting impression on each of the siblings in a different way. There are many emotional moments in the book.
Susan T. (Bahama, NC)

Good read
I enjoyed this novel. I liked how the author explored how a two year break in just about any responsible parenting, known as "the Pause", affected each sibling differently and also affected their relationships with each other over the course of their lives. The story of the siblings is being told by the youngest, Fiona, late in her life, to an audience, while some kind of environmental crisis is occurring outside the auditorium. Thus was the only thing that I found a bit out of place. The interjection of climate change into the story--both through Fiona's job and the setting for the story-telling seemed somewhatmore
Christine D. (Oregon, WI)

The Last Romantics
The Last Romantics spans the years from 1981 when the narrator, Fiona Skinner, was four years old until 2079. Fiona and her siblings survived a traumatic childhood after the death of their father, when their mother virtually ignored them for several years. This is the story of those years and their growth into adulthood.
Sara L. (Highland Park, IL)

The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin
Both The Friend, by Sigrid Nunez (winner of the 2018 National Book Award) and Asymmetry, by Lisa Halliday (The New York Times and New Yorker Best of 2018 Lists) are books featuring writers as the central character. The Last Romantics, by Tara Conklin, is narrated by a centenarian poet of "some renown" as she relates the story of her family. The book explores the impact of trauma on four siblings and its effect on each of them personally and collectively. It serves as both a tribute and an assessment of love--familial as well as romantic - in terms of how much we owe others and at what cost to ourselves. Bookmore
Power Reviewer
Mary Lou F. (Naples, FL)

What is love?
This dysfunctional family try to figure, in their own ways, what love is all about. Interesting conclusions made by all of them.

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