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The last volume in an unforgettable trilogy (with A Short History of a Small Place and Off for the Sweet Hereafter)Tags
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Member Reviews
The Last of How it Was by T. R. Pearson was something I looked forward to because I know several southern writers who admire Pearson. The cover blurb from the LA Times said no one today is writing like Pearson. There’s a reason for that. Published around 1984, it’s unlikely that in today’s hypersensitive atmosphere it’s any publisher would take it on due to sensitive language and stereotypes. Secondly, the narrator for this story, which takes place mid-century, spews such a convoluted, repetitive, nonsensical story I’m surprised anyone would have the patience to finish it. Apparently the narrator is supposed to be an uneducated ignorant person who frequently drops five dollar words in the tale. I’m old and southern. I’ve show more never heard anyone in the south of any age or background who speaks like this, though northern reviewers seemed to adore the quaintness. The late Sen. Sam Ervin on speed could not spew a stream of incomprehensible gibberish quite like this. I simply don’t have the patience for this and will be discarding the several Pearson books I’ve accumulated. show less
The town of Neely, North Carolina is just as Gothic as anything Faulkner ever wrote, with murders, adultery, accidentally slaughtered mules, Stonewall Jackson, escaped convicts, dropped coffins, and Injun fights, but T. R. Pearson makes Neely one hell of a lot funnier than Yoknapatawpha County. In the final volume of the trilogy that also includes A Short History of a Small Place and Off for the Sweet Hereafter, narrator Louis Benfield relates stories of his family as told by Louis's daddy Louis, with interruptions, corrections, and emendations from Aunt Sister, Louis's maternal great-aunt, and from Louis's mother. The story rambles like a footpath through the North Carolina hills, with sentences that continue for whole paragraphs and show more paragraphs that continue for pages, creating a style that seems incomprehensible on the page but which reveals its meaning when read aloud, in all its Southern baroque glory.
The Last of How It Was has the flavor and feel of a long Sunday afternoon visit, sitting on the front porch, listening to family tales that don't go anyplace much or have any enormous meaning, but which, for that very reason, are nonetheless a delight. show less
The Last of How It Was has the flavor and feel of a long Sunday afternoon visit, sitting on the front porch, listening to family tales that don't go anyplace much or have any enormous meaning, but which, for that very reason, are nonetheless a delight. show less
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Author Information
32+ Works 2,114 Members
T.R. Pearson is a LibraryThing Author, an author who lists their personal library on LibraryThing.
Series
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1987
- People/Characters
- Louis Benfield, Jr.; Louis Benfield, Sr. (Daddy); Inez Yount Benfield (Momma); William Henry Yount (Buck, Grandaddy); Alice Yount (Grandmomma); Addie Yount (Aunt Sister) (show all 14); Cyrus Barnard Yount (Uncle Jack); Della Cotten Yount (Aunt Della); Mrs. Phillip J. King; Mr. Phillip J. King; Wyatt Benbow; Emory Boyette; Wiley Gant; Emmett Dabb
- Important places
- Neely, North Carolina, USA
- Dedication
- For Marian B. S. Young
Orblike - First words
- She said it was a blood thing, Aunt Sister did, and not even from Great-Granddaddy really but likely Great-uncle Jack that would be Great-uncle Cyrus Barnard Yount who got called Jack everywhere but the front of the Bible, an... (show all)d Aunt Sister insisted it was down from him with Great-granddaddy just a conduit to Granddaddy himself who got the whole of it, and Momma asked her the whole of what like she always asked her the whole of what and Aunt Sister waved her hand in the air like usual and like usual told her back, "You know," and Daddy suggested Passion? but Aunt Sister stuck with foolishness like always, just plain foolishness she guessed with maybe some passion to it somewhere but foolishness mostly.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"A nigger," I said. "With a log," I said, and Daddy leaned against the doorframe that Momma had vacated for him and he did not say no back and he did not say yes back either but just nodded at me up and down and just pondered for a time and when he guessed he knew how he'd get at it he said to me, "Come on," and we went together through the breakfast room to fetch Momma and to fetch Aunt Sister that had come by for a cake sliver and Daddy took his chair and Momma took hers and Aunt Sister got the one with the pillow in it and I brought in the straight hard one from the living room that mostly did not get sat in at all and it was Daddy that commenced with just who'd got stabbed and how come and whereabouts and it was Aunt Sister that said blood thing and Aunt Sister that said foolishness and it was Momma that wanted passion and wanted temperament and it was Daddy that said it for her but got told No sir back by Aunt Sister that said blood thing and that said foolishness and with two fingers Daddy drew out a Tareyton from his shirtpocket and laid the filter on his lip and with the same two fingers Daddy brought out a matchpack from alongside his chaircushion and he looked at Momma and he looked at me and he looked at Aunt Sister that had not quite got still and had not quite got quiet but commenced to directly and he tore out a match and struck it and used it and shook it out and looked again at Momma and again at me and again at Aunt Sister and he let out a portion of smoky breath through his nose and with the rest of it he told us, "Alright," that way he does sometimes.
- Blurbers
- Price, Reynolds; Burns, Olive Ann; Tyler, Anne; Cheuse, Alan
- Canonical DDC/MDS
- 813.54
- Canonical LCC
- PS3566.E235
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 131
- Popularity
- 248,199
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.98)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 4
- ASINs
- 2
