The Last One Left
by John D. MacDonald
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Murder at sea. No survivors, no evidence, no loose ends. Only a boatload of cash left for the taking. In this explosive novel from the author of the Travis McGee series, nothing is certain--not with enough money at stake to change a dozen lives ... or end them.Tags
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Member Reviews
Great writer, extremely busy novel. So many well described characters, the movie plays in your head as you read along. The rich lawyer, reassesing his life,; the has-been blond, trying for one last big score; the rent-a-ships-captian, wondering how he got old; the wounded war veteran,;the love sick boy and more. Each a tale within the story. Amazing
The antihero of this novel is someone the reader quickly comes to despise. Certainly McDonald's ability to display the trimmings of an age such as princess phones and 'transistorized' Japanese tape recorders is on display. Several clever plot twists and characterizations help make the story interesting. At some level the reader knows there will be a happy ending but it is fun to see the details McDonald uses to achieve that.
Certainly the reader is brought back to the immediate post Castro and post bday of pigs era. The reader is reminded how much different the world seemed then.
Certainly the reader is brought back to the immediate post Castro and post bday of pigs era. The reader is reminded how much different the world seemed then.
“One Left” is a chilling literary work describing the horrific abuses of “comfort women” in World War II. The protagonist, a fictional Korean survivor of seven years in Japanese military brothels, is now in her 90’s, living in present day South Korea. The structure of the novel takes the reader back and forth from the protagonist’s vivid memories of her captivity, to her current isolated life of fear that her past will be discovered. Throughout the novel, the atrocities are expressed through the voices of dozens of “comfort women” survivor testimonies, with extensive references to the primary sources. This important novel brings to attention the lesser known stories of a generation of marginalized Korean women and is a show more valuable contribution to Korean literature in translation. show less
Good book. Dense with many large paragraphs of JDM waxing philosophical and giving sometimes too much details on characters and character background. All the pieces were there and they almost fit but there could have been a little more to some and a little less to others. not really much action either but it was a good look at 1960s Florida and the people who lived there. Definitely sexist and patronizing but its 1966. RK and Cisca even went to a Bond movie. You could sense Travis McGee around the corner or on the next dock down.
Unbelievably slow book takes forever for the story to develop, while there is way too much character development. The is the first book by this author that was slow and boring, which was really surprising since everything else I have read was good. The author is known for heavy character development but in this case it was too much, for this reader.
Great crime story, told well. Paints a picture of another place and time. Just great to read.
A very entertaining book, written by a master of the genre.
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Author Information
228+ Works 31,874 Members
John D. MacDonald was born in Sharon, Pennsylvania on July 24, 1916. He received a B.S. from Syracuse University in 1938 and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in 1939. During World War II, he served in the Army. His first novel, Brass Cupcake, was published in 1950. He wrote about 70 books during his lifetime show more including the Travis McGee series, Condominium, No Deadly Drug, Nothing Can Go Wrong, and A Friendship: The Letters of Dan Rowan and John Dann MacDonald. A Flash of Green was adapted into a movie by the same name and The Excuse was adapted into a movie entitled Cape Fear. He received numerous awards including the Ben Franklin Award for the best American short story in 1955, the Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere for A Key to the Suite in 1964, the Mystery Writers of America's Grand Master Award in 1972, the American Book Award for The Green Ripper in 1980. He died from complications of an earlier heart bypass surgery on December 28, 1986 at the age of 70. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1966
- Epigraph
- “Extreme terror gives us back
the gestures of our childhood.”
—Chazal - Dedication
- I dedicate this novel to Travis McGee who lent invaluable support and encouragement.
- First words
- At the small bon voyage party at the Delmar Bay Yacht Club Kip and Selma had given Howard and Junie Prowt a little brass plaque to affix to one of the bulkheads of the HoJun.
- Quotations
- Now it would be just the same with Olly Akard, who had come to her with only the experience of a couple of years of furtive intimacy with his little steady girl, Betty, had come to her with that curious conviction of the male... (show all) of limited experience that his role was that of sole aggressor, full of determined anxiety to perform properly just as it was written in the books, and with the pitiful belief that the one small pleasure he had always achieved was all his body was capable of.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"Where's the Captain's drink? Shape up, you people!"
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Statistics
- Members
- 228
- Popularity
- 142,167
- Reviews
- 7
- Rating
- (3.83)
- Languages
- English, French
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 11
- ASINs
- 12
