LAST NOTES FROM HOME

by Frederick Exley ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 25, 1988

The inimitable Exley does it again. As in the first volume (A Fan's Notes) of his here-finished trilogy, he takes the confessional, quasi-autobiographical mode to new heights and depths. Vain, narcissistic, self-loathing, mad, spiteful, and mean, Exley is certainly not afraid to put his worst foot forward. Of course, we're talking about ""Frederick Exley,"" the narrator/liar who's trying ""to stick his dirty fingers into posterity,"" and who's also an admitted ""alcoholic in thrall to his own and inevitable paranoia."" Without the annoying star-gazing of his second volume (Pages From a Cold Island), this narrative returns to the all-American myths of Exley's personal history. Exley in Watertown, N.Y., is a sort of Everyman in ""Our Town."" And his ever-failing quest slams head on into the Seven Deadly Sins, all dressed in red, white, and blue. Exley frames this woolly fiction with his journey to Hawaii, where he joins a death-watch for his brother ""the Brigadier."" Proud of his brother's success in the military, Exley is also haunted by the senseless wars his brother participated in. Of Exley's lust, there are few limits: four years of spontaneous ejaculations in his horny teens; more years of greedy teen sex with a pathetic orphan; an on-again, off-again affair with his bitch-goddess analyst, Alissa; and after failed marriages, vigorous sex with the stewardess-hooker-pathological liar who becomes his new spouse. Envious of great athletes early on, Exley now covets literary fame, though his general slothfulness threatens completion of this, his masterpiece. Gluttony barely describes the excess his fool flesh is given to--the booze that courses through his veins, the food scarfed down in haste. And what's he so angry about? Well, there're the Dulles brothers and their Cold War legacy; there're the lunatic Irishmen, O'Toomey, a putative IRA bankroller, and Exley's jailer in Hawaii; and of course, there's the past--a history of American failure (""an obscene spectacle"") filtered through the warped mind of a crank. Full of culture high (Joyce, Shakespeare, Waugh) and low (Matt Dillon, Travis McGee, Hawaii Five-O), the imagination on display here ""runs the gamut from the utterly morbid and diseased to the rarefied and heady heights of the generous and eloquent."" Exley's American genius is loud and uncivilized, a barbaric yawp of original sin.

Pub Date: Sept. 25, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1988

Categories: FICTION