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Elizabeth Gilbert

The Last American Man Hardcover – May 13, 2002

by Elizabeth Gilbert (Author)

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The author of Pilgrims moves from short fiction to nonfiction, offering a cultural examination of the modern American male, exploring the meaning of manhood in all of its contradictions, meaning, and challenges. 35,000 first printing.

Print length

271 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Riverhead Hardcover
Publication date

May 13, 2002
Dimensions

6.25 x 1 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

0670030864
ISBN-13

978-0670030866
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"By the time Eustace Conway was seven years old he could throw a knife accurately enough to nail a chipmunk to a tree." Such behavior might qualify Eustace as a potential Columbine-style triggerman, but in Gilbert's startling and fascinating account of his life, he becomes a great American countercultural hero. At 17, Conway "headed into the mountains... and dressed in the skins of animals he had hunted and eaten." By his late 30s, Eustace owned "a thousand acres of pristine wilderness" and lived in a teepee in the woods full-time. He is, as Gilbert (Stern Men) implies with her literary and historical references, a cross between Davy Crockett and Henry David Thoreau. Gilbert, who is friends with Conway and interviewed his family, evidences enormous enthusiasm for her subject, whether discussing Conway's need for alcohol to calm down; his relationship with a physically and emotionally abusive father; or his horrific hand-to-antler fight with a deer buck he was trying to kill yet she always keeps her reporter's distance. At times, Conway's story can be wonderfully moving (as when he buries kindergartners in a shallow trench with their faces turned skyward to help them understand that the forest floor is "alive") or disconcerting (as when, in 1995, he's uncertain about Bill Clinton's identity). Gilbert has a jaunty, breathless style, and she paints a complicated portrait of American maleness that is as original as it is surprising.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Eustace Conway discovered nature's wonders as a boy growing up in South Carolina during the 1960s. Miserable at home, a born perfectionist and fanatic, he took to the woods and developed wilderness skills unknown to most modern Americans. By the time he finished high school and moved into a teepee (his abode for 17 years), he was convinced that only encounters with "the high art and godliness of nature" could help save American society from its catastrophically wasteful habits and soul-deadening trivial pursuits. Conway is not alone in his beliefs, but he is unique in his maniacal drive to proselytize, and, ironically enough, he's taken his teaching mission to such extremes by attempting to create an Appalachian wilderness utopia that it's impossible for him to live the very life he champions. Tough, shrewd, gifted, vigorous, and contradictory, Conway, who set a world record crossing the continent on horseback in 103 days, both enlightens and confounds all who know him. Gilbert, a top-notch journalist and fiction writer, braids keen and provocative observations about the American frontier, the myth of the mountain man, and the peculiar state of contemporary America with its "profound alienation" from nature into her spirited and canny portrait, ultimately concluding that Conway's magnetism is due in part to his embodying society's most urgent conundrums. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Riverhead Hardcover (May 13, 2002)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 271 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0670030864
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0670030866
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.2 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #874,759 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #602 in Environmentalist & Naturalist Biographies
- #659 in Men's Gender Studies
- #4,107 in Author Biographies

Customer Reviews:
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Elizabeth Gilbert

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Elizabeth Gilbert is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love, as well as the short story collection, Pilgrims—a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award, and winner of the 1999 John C. Zacharis First Book Award from Ploughshares. A Pushcart Prize winner and National Magazine Award-nominated journalist, she works as writer-at-large for GQ. Her journalism has been published in Harper's Bazaar, Spin, and The New York Times Magazine, and her stories have appeared in Esquire, Story, and the Paris Review.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

1,544 global ratings

5 star		58%
4 star		24%
3 star		12%
2 star		4%
1 star		3%

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thePost

If you like tall tales

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 10, 2016

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I first started seeing this book talked about on survival/outdoors forums. When I saw Eustace on Mountain Men I decided he would be an interesting subject to read on.

If you were to ask me to rate this book on story alone, I'd give it at least 4 stars. If you like tall tales, the thrill-seeking adventurist, and nature then this is a really great book. I myself am a slow reader, but I blew through this in a couple of days. Once you get started it is positively gripping. It is like a larger than life wilderness trek that actually happened. Sort of...

That being said, the book fails at what it is intended to be, which is a biography. Many reviews criticize Gilbert's writing as coming off as immature, and I agree, and it is definitely not unbiased. She tries to sell Eustace like a wingman tries to sell his best friend at the bar. This leads to a lot of lawyer talk that makes her stories unbelievable. For example, she spends the majority of the book making Eustace's father seem like the most horrible person on Earth, and yet he still loans his son $80,000? She tells a story about them bonding and then, with no explanation at all, apparently Eustace's father goes back into his shell and starts being mean to Eustace? She talks about how Eustace doesn't use his power and fame over women and yet every single relationship she goes over ends for the same reason- Eustace neglects women and expects them to do his chores while he goes and plays mountain man and then when it goes south, he writes them letters with content most of us would likely turn over to the authorities. Gilbert talks about how patient Eustace is and how he loves to teach, and yet he makes his students sign at least 2 year agreements to stay and work for him and when they don't perform up to his expectations he throws tantrums and kicks them to the curb, forgetting he is trying to teach ancient ways of life that took thousands of years to cultivate, to modern people. I hate to even mention the part in which Gilbert makes reference to one of Eustace's horses feeling as good between his thighs as one of his women. That part was absolutely creepy and a horrible choice of wording, I actually put the book down and thought "WTF" for a moment. I only bring it up because the book is full of these little awkward nuances.
Gilbert tells us we must fall in love with Eustace himself, and not the idea of him, however, this is exactly what she does. Eustace is her hero, but inadvertently she brings out how flawed he really is. And it is ugly. Eustace comes off as abusive- some might even say psychopathic, but the whole time Gilbert makes a half-hearted attempt to place the blame on everyone else. If anything, this book confirmed my suspicions aroused by the Mountain Men show, that Eustace is a real jerk.
If you want to keep the image most of you probably have of Eustace, which is the happy hippy, or you want an honest look into the man, I would avoid this book. If you are looking for an exciting read about some (most likely embellished) outdoor Wildman fun then The Last American Man is definitely worth a read.

86 people found this helpful

Helpful

Schuyler T Wallace

CONWAY IS NOT THE AMERICAN MAN I WANT TO BE

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 3, 2015

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“The Last American Man” is the third Elizabeth Gilbert book I’ve read: In fact, that makes three Gilberts in a row, something I rarely do. Although I’ve come to admire her spirit and writing ability, this book is somewhat disappointing. The interesting subject matter is still there, the writing is impeccable, and, as usual, she keeps me engrossed. But somewhere, in her study of this unusual man’s makeup, I consider her subject, Eustace Conway, as being an unlikeable person with flawed makeup who doesn’t deserve her soft-pedaled praise and admiration.

It’s the story of a survivalist with such a strange and outrageous lifestyle that, in my opinion, his mental balance comes into question. I appreciate Conway’s passion for uncomplicated living and return-to-nature enthusiasm. But his intent to convert all wasteful and thoughtless humans into his own image while using tyranny, selfishness, and one-sided logic does not make him an admirable figure; especially as he leaves in his wake a history of family turmoil, broken friendships, and disillusioned women. A lengthy succession of brilliant women, initially enthralled with his charisma, has abandoned him because of his unreasonable dominating nature. I was highly offended by his actions and expectations of other people.

Eustace Conroy IV is a product of his father’s brutal nurturing and agonizes over it, yet he displays the same sort of cruel demeanor. He believes that obedience, discipline, and order is the way people should endure life and he doesn’t like to have his convictions or his demands on how to achieve such a life be questioned. If folks desire to be trained in the rigorous procedure of returning to nature at his service farm community at Turtle Rock in North Carolina, all demands for compliance with his techniques must be met. Over the years, however, he has found that very few employees or campers share his enthusiasm for backbreaking work, meager rations, and unpleasant living conditions. They leave in droves with unpleasant memories.

I am uneasy with Gilbert’s apparent fascination with Conway. She does disparage him a bit for his self-centered behavior and agonizes over his failure to make corrections in the way he treats people, but I detect a sprinkling
of admiration in some of her observations of his deportment. In my opinion he doesn’t rate even a drizzle and I would not have expected this based on other Gilbert writing or her personal convictions.

But my faith in this author and her talent has not diminished. I still stand in admiration for her research, her writing clarity, and her ability to capture the reader’s interest. In spite of my misgivings about the man, I found “Last American” to be very illuminating. I urge you to read this book because my displeasure might be misguided and there might be other merits I’m overlooking. You shouldn’t miss the chance for some thought-provoking musing and the opportunity to tell me that I’m full of crap.

Schuyler T Wallace
Author of TIN LIZARD TALES

157 people found this helpful

Helpful

Belinda Bright

Well Written and Informative

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 26, 2022

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I've watched Eustace Conway on TV for years and thoroughly enjoyed his way of life, work ethic, and his efforts to p preserve a portion of this country from being over developed and lost to housing developments. In the book, I discovered more about his younger years and how he came to be the man he is. I will admit there were a few things about his character discussed in the book that were disappointing. With that said, I think the first part of the book that deals with Eustace's younger years explains a lot of why he acted the way he did. For me, it was quick read that added a little more life to a man's accomplishments.

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Top reviews from other countries

Janie U

Too much obsession

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 4, 2020

Verified Purchase

I've read two novels by this author which I adored and, of course, Eat Pray Love was always an amazing read so I had high expectations of this book.
The book is 270 pages of a fairly tight text. split into 9 chapters and was first published in 2002.
Whilst the writing is still a high standard I think that the author's obsession with her subject distracts from the purpose of the book which is for the reader to be interested in Eustace. I lost interest in him very early and never recovered.

Cyberella

Beautifully written from "Eat, Pray, Love" Elizabeth Gilbert

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 5, 2009

Verified Purchase

I have read 'Eat, Pray, Love' from Elizabeth Gilbert twice and adored her witty, endearing ways of describing a very emotional time in her life (having been through a painful divorce myself, I could really relate!). I was therefore very eager to read another of her offerings and as I am an American (living in the UK but from the deep south originally), it made sense that the next book should be 'The Last American Man'. I can not praise this book highly enough.

Eustace Conway is one of the most fascinating real-life characters I have read in a non-fiction work in a VERY long time. Although compared to Davey Crockett, Daniel Boone and even a young Roosevelt, he is definitely a unique individual who's charismatic ways pull you in from the first few pages. It's especially interesting to witness an almost 'evolution of man' in the last several hundred years spread out before you in between the covers of the book.

Elizabeth Gilbert has captured his very essence and has told his story brilliantly (at least to this point in his life, as he's only 48 and I doubt his exciting adventuring around the world is over). After reading it I am ready to start planning a summer camp trip to Turtle Island for my youngest 2 sons when they are a bit older. My eldest son (who's 20) was an active member of the Scouts growing up and has pretty good survivalist skills, but having a summer camp like the one Eustace organises would have been invaluable in his education.

If you only read one non-fiction book this year, this should be the one :) 10/10

29 people found this helpful

Sue Richards

I first came across Eustace Conway by watching the show Mountain Men on TV and right from the start there was something differen

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 8, 2017

Verified Purchase

I first came across Eustace Conway by watching the show Mountain Men on TV and right from the start there was something different about him. I have always been intrigued by people who chose to live the off grid lifestyle but rarely do we get an insight into why or how they have come to live that way. This book certainly gives you the reasons behind why this man choses to live as he does in the beautiful blue ridge mountains of north Carolina. He has overcome so much inner turmoil present in his formative years to become a driven passionate man fighting to keep alive the life skills and Pioneer spirit which helped to make America the nation it has become but on the other hand has largely forgotten. It is clear that the author has enormous respect,admiration and love for her friend and shows caring towards him and concern for his future happiness. I must admit I felt a little of the same in the fact that I wish him well in achieving the things he wants. However I got to feeling I wish I could shake him up and say...look at what you have done..enjoy it..slow things just a little..smell the roses!!!!!

5 people found this helpful

HB

Impossible solitude

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 22, 2022

Verified Purchase

When you want to have an impact and change the world but you only end up changing yourself. Beautifully written characters connecting to the natural world.

Lynn Cordery

Brilliant Book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 27, 2022

Verified Purchase

My partner enjoyed reading this book, it was an interesting read. Would definitely recommend.

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