The Last Man Standing by Davide Longo

Abstract

K. Sello Duiker Thirteen Cents Ohio University Press Written in a combination of Afrikaans, local dialect, and South African English, Thirteen Cents is the disturbing story of Azure, an orphaned child eking out an existence on the brutal backstreets of Cape Town. Azure’s voice resonates with a disarming innocence even as he recites the horrors of surviving in a world of violence, gangsters, pimps, and pedophiles. Dazai Osamu Blue Bamboo Ralph McCarthy, tr. Kurodahan Press The seven stories in Blue Bamboo were originally translated into English in 1993 but have been out of print for several years. This delightful new translation showcases Dazai Osamu’s masterful prose style in stories ranging from traditional folktales to imaginative autobiographical sketches. Each story is prefaced with helpful and engaging background notes by the translator. Nota Bene Island, Lahiri masterfully delineates place and mood. The bulk of the novel takes place in America, and much of it in academia, environments she captures skillfully, contrasting the crush of humanity in Calcutta with the almost barren seascapes of Rhode Island. But more than anything this is a novel about individual human beings trying to forge happiness out of the crucible of obligation and duty. Subhash marries Udayan’s very young widow, Gauri, and raises a child fathered by his brother. Therein may be enough complication, but the novel is made even more wrenching by Gauri’s chilly personality and withdrawal from love and even, in some ways, from life. Lahiri takes us into Indian life and custom just enough to have us viscerally feel the clash of cultures that Subhash encounters when he relocates to America. She also deftly limns the gradual assumption of American values that makes him, in the end, very much an American. Juggling ideas and details, abstracts and concretes, from Hindu philosophy to Descartes, Lahiri’s wideranging reference points enrich this novel and underscore the university ambience in which much of it is set. It is true that the reader never warms to Gauri, a distant, cold, and academic character, but the reader’s heart is warmed by Subhash and his overwhelming love for the character who brings meaning to his life: Bela, the daughter he shares with a ghost. In the end, the reader is rooting wholeheartedly for each of them to define and then find happiness. Rita D. Jacobs Montclair State University Davide Longo. The Last Man Standing. Silvester Mazzarella, tr. New York. MacLehose (Random House, distr.). 2013. isbn 9781623650346 In this dystopian novel, Davide Longo explores the true human nature that comes out during times of desperation . The Last Man Standing is set in a downward-spiraling modernday Italy. The roads and towns are being taken over by young groups of thugs, and nomadic people are banding together to find sustenance by any means necessary. Houses are being broken into, businesses burned down, and people brutally murdered every day for basic necessities like food and clothing. Amid this chaos is the protagonist, Leonardo, who struggles with his own demons. Once a highly respected writer, a scandalous affair has ruined his marriage and career. One day Leonardo’s ex-wife unexpectedly shows up to leave her ten-yearold son, Alberto, and their seventeenyear -old daughter, Lucia, in Leonardo’s care. As the town in which Leonardo lives begins to plummet into a wasteland with local shops burned down, January–February 2014 • 59 60 worldliteraturetoday.org reviews housesrobbed,andresidentsmurdered, Leonardo decides to take the children and journey up to Switzerland for safe haven. However, through a darkening social situation and a series of progressively unfortunate events, Leonardo andthechildrenarelefttowalkthrough the snowy northern Italian lands in the winter months, robbed of transportation and amenities. Along the way, they are attacked by a group of thugs, taken to the group’s base camp, and held in custody by the tyrannical ruler, Richard. Richard makes Lucia his mistress, Alberto joins the band of thug boys, and Leonardo is literally caged with animals. Life goes on like this for months until finally, strengthened by past events, Leonardo builds up the courage to escape the camp with Lucia and a few others. As they head toward the Italian coast, they meet unlikely friends and temporary residents...