The Last Man Standing

Bleak.

Very Bleak.

THE LAST MAN STANDING is a tremendously effective piece about the collapse of Europe's governments and economy. The pace at which this disaster unfolds, and the way that Davide Lango tells the story makes it entirely plausible, and exceedingly realistic. If you want a taste of what The End will really be like, try this book.

We enter the story when there are still islands of civilization. The main character, an author and former professor named Leonardo, is introduced as he is staying at a small hotel. He is taking cooking oil back to his village, and at this point the banks are still open, although the hotel is housed within a tall wire fence and guarded with fire arms.

After he returns home is when things become more show more desperate. Those with more sense are packing up and trying to get to Switzerland or France. Leonardo however stays. It's unthinkable to him that the small village life of Italy won't continue. And even after his neighbors are murdered and he waits in the snow with his daughter and her step-brother while his house is looted, he's reluctant to act.

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To a small extent THE LAST MAN STANDING made me think of Cormac McCarthy and darkness that he evoked in THE ROAD. However, THE ROAD was a much easier book to read. THE ROAD focused on a man who was capable. A man who could survive and keep his son alive. Davide Longo doesn't allow us that comfort. In fact, he makes the reader uncomfortable as he constructs a character that might be more like ourselves than we'd like. Sigh. Leonardo is a 'Marvin Milquetoast'. He's an effete intellectual who is entirely civilized and thus not capable of hurting anyone, even the young college student who previously ruined his life. He isn't the sort to accept a gun, and so he gets pushed along with the rest of human flotsam ... and I can assure you that this is painful to watch.

Which is why this book is not for young adults or anyone else looking for a cliche, fun apocalypse.

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I can understand why some readers might not like this book. The writing is so good... so effective that they feel pummeled. THE LAST MAN STANDING is not a YA dystopia. There are no gangs that are easily avoided or fought. None of the rousing good adventure. This book is more like a real collapse would be. And Leonardo isn't some hero to emulate. He's like we might fear we would be. He doesn't rise to the occasion. Leonardo watches it all go to hell. Doing nothing when people rob his house. Doing nothing but being the scholar and writer that he is. He thinks matters over. He makes astute observations, but he can't protect what he loves, because like many people, when it comes down to it, he can't murder.

So eventually, as would happen to 90% of people in a true disaster of worldly proportions, everything is stripped from him. And we are witness to this. To the horrors of wars and the collapse of civilization.

THE LAST MAN STANDING is not a perfect book. But it is a brilliant book. And happily the ending is satisfying. show less

This terrible, brilliant, totally plausible book is a compulsively readable account of post-apocalyptic Europe: set in the dystopian Italy of 2025 it details an economically and politically bereft society in which morality has collapsed.

Disgraced writer and former professor Leonardo fled the city for a rural retreat where he hoped to weather the closure of the borders and the banks, but roaming gangs of youngsters cause him to flee together with his young daughter and stepson.

Elderly, impractical, physically and spiritually weak, Leonardo has to find the courage to endure in a nightmarish landscape beset by rape, violence and inhumanity – despite the disturbing imagery, an excellent and beautifully written story.

Longo schildert ein Italien nach dem Zerfall: Die staatliche Ordnung ist zusammengebrochen, die Grenzen sind dicht, es herrscht Mangel und Gewalt. In dieser nicht allzu fernen Zukunft sucht der ehemalige Universitätsprofessor Leonardo seinen Platz und erlebt die Verrohung der Menschen und die Reduktion auf das Essentielle...

Longo gelingt es, den Leser in eine apokalyptische Atmosphäre zu versetzen, seine Analyse der menschlichen Entwicklung in Krisenzeiten ist glaubhaft, die geschilderten Eskalationsstufen nachvollziehbar. Longos Werk ist letzlich eine schlüssige Warnung, dass Sicherheit und Konsum nicht auf ewig garantiert sind.

"Der aufrechte Mann" braucht den Vergleich mit McCarthys "Die Straße" nicht zu scheuen, Longos Roman ist show more meines Erachtens sogar weitaus stimmiger. show less