In the year 2079, Fiona Skinner is a celebrated poet - her most famous
work, The Love Poem, is a heartfelt story of true love and the collection
she is most asked about at events. A young woman named Luna,
named after one of the recurring characters in The Love Poem, asks
her about the real Luna, and memories Fiona thought long buried come
flooding back to her...
Fiona is the youngest of the four Skinner siblings: Renee, Caroline, Joe,
and Fiona. Their father unexpectedly dies, sending their mother, Noni,
into a deep depression that they refer to as "the Pause." During the
years-long pause, Renee essentially raises her sisters and brother, and
the events that take place during this time set in motion many things to
come. Renee is straightforward and intelligent, becoming a renowned
doctor. Caroline marries her childhood sweetheart, has three kids, and
find herself wondering if this life is the one she really wants. Joe, once
a baseball star, starts using whatever he can - drugs, alcohol, and
people, until he meets a mysterious woman named Luna. And Fiona,
growing up awkward and pudgy, moves to New York, works for an
environmentalist firm, a starts a blog called The Last Romantic, where
she writes anonymous poems about the men she sleeps with and
sometimes dates. As they navigate through adulthood, another crisis
brings the family together, Fiona and her siblings must decide what
they are willing to do for the people they truly love.
THE LAST ROMANTICS by Tara
Conklin is an engrossing family drama. I found the parts of the book
exploring the Skinner siblings' childhoods especially intriguing and then
reading about how they processed those experiences as adults. Their
mother, who eventually comes out of the "pause" and becomes an
independent, strongly feminist woman, was an interesting character
who I wish I could have learned more about. While much of the book is
from Fiona's point of view as she looks back at her life, I found it
disjointed when she could somehow have an omniscient presence in
her siblings' minds, particularly during their middle-age years. I found
myself spending a lot of the novel wishing it could have been about
their tumultuous childhoods, rather than their messy adult lives. The
mystery of Luna takes up much of the second half of the book, and I
wasn't as invested in her as I was with the Skinner sisters. The
character of Joe, who Luna is intrinsically linked with, was also not my
favorite, but his sisters seemed to hold him up on a pedestal that
wasn't at all deserved. Additionally, in the parts of the book set in 2079,
the world has been ravaged by climate change, and while Fiona did
work in the environmental industry, something so altering didn't add
anything at the plot or relate to the siblings' stories in a meaningful way
- it felt tacked on. Nonetheless, I did want to see how the novel ended,
and things to come to a satisfying conclusion. This is a character-
driven study of a family's tragedies and triumphs, and though it has
flaws, was carefully crafted and thoughtful.
The New York Times bestselling author of The
House Girl explores the lives of four siblings in this
ambitious and absorbing novel in the vein of
Commonwealth and The
Interestings.
"It is the strength and fragility of the siblings' bond, the
evolving nature of love that is at the core of Conklin's
novel....Gracefully rendered, The Last Romantics
focuses on the familiar theme of family with great
originality." -- Washington Post
When the renowned poet Fiona Skinner is asked about the
inspiration behind her iconic work, The Love Poem,
she tells her audience a story about her family and a
betrayal that reverberates through time.
It begins in a big yellow house with a funeral, an iron
poker, and a brief variation forever known as the Pause: a
free and feral summer in a middle-class Connecticut town.
Caught between the predictable life they once led and an
uncertain future that stretches before them, the Skinner
siblings—fierce Renee, sensitive Caroline, golden boy Joe
and watchful Fiona—emerge from the Pause staunchly loyal and
deeply connected. Two decades later, the siblings find
themselves once again confronted with a family crisis that
tests the strength of these bonds and forces them to
question the life choices they've made and ask what,
exactly, they will do for love.
A sweeping yet intimate epic about one American family,
The Last Romantics is an unforgettable exploration
of the ties that bind us together, the responsibilities we
embrace and the duties we resent, and how we can lose—and
sometimes rescue—the ones we love. A novel that pierces the
heart and lingers in the mind, it is also a beautiful
meditation on the power of stories—how they navigate us
through difficult times, help us understand the past, and
point the way toward our future.
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