The Last of How It Was: A Novel [Paperback]

T. R. Pearson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 15, 1996

The last volume in an unforgettable trilogy (with A Short History of a Small Place and Off for the Sweet Hereafter)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his third installment (after A Short History of a Small Place and Off for the Sweet Hereafter of hilarious adventures narrated by young Louis Benfield of Neely, N.C., Pearson again spins a rollicking yarn with somber undertones and reveals himself to be a shrewd social commentator. Essentially the chronicle of the pursuit of a stolen Chevrolet that ends with the murder of a black man, the kernel of the story is embroidered on, digressed from, told and retold with deepening significance each time. Everything that goes on in the real worldincluding the sordid and the profaneis here as the darker side of the crazy quilt Pearson stitches. He clearly is quite fond of his redneck characters, but underlying the comic patter and the outrageous antics is a depiction of Southern prejudice and racism; the authentic and unsanitized dialogue includes the word "nigger," correct for the time but, nevertheless, potentially offensive to some. Pearson is still a wizard with headlong, run-on sentences and inspired set pieces, but sometimes he is a bit too obfuscatory here for clarity. Yet, although it takes longer to get going than the earlier volumes, the narrative abounds in "your conflict . . . your crisis, . . . your complication . . . your pacing, . . . your poetical ve-locity" and plenty more.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"In a small place in North Carolina, T. R. Pearson has found the stuff of life, and thus given us a world that is both his own and ours. "-The Washington Post Book World

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Holt Paperbacks (July 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805037578
• ISBN-13: 978-0805037579
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,870,707 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Like a hysterically funny Faulkner, April 9, 2001

By 

Sam W (Austintatious, Tejas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last of How It Was: A Novel (Paperback)

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 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.

5.0 out of 5 stars Passion. Madness. Murder. Mayhem. Funny., May 24, 2006

By 

Christina Dunigan (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last of How It Was: A Novel (Paperback)

The closing book of T. R. Pearson's Neely trilogy, "The Last of How It Was" seems to ramble, but is tight as a drum. Does murder run in the family? Young Louis Benfied, Jr., listens raptly as Daddy and Momma and Aunt Sister explain.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Passion. Madness. Murder. Mayhem. Funny., December 17, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last of How It Was: A Novel (Paperback)

The closing book of T. R. Pearson's Neely trilogy, The Last of How It Was seems to ramble, but is tight as a drum. Does murder run in the family? Louis Benfied, Jr., listens raptly as Daddy and Momma and Aunt Sister explain.