This book had much promise at the start; I was interested in the time period as it has been a long while since I read a family saga starting in the '50s. It just lost all its steam about halfway through.

A smart, ambitious novel, Jessica Shattuck's "The Last House" is about oil. From the first page where she lists everything made of oil-based products. The novel begins in 1953, when WWII veteran Nick Taylor, now a corporate lawyer, hooks up with an old friend who leads him into the international world of Big Oil. Nick's wife Bet, a code breaker and artist, now a housewife, She's busy raising their two children while Nick, a thoughtful man, travels with an old friend all over the world to secure oil for the US in the post-war world. He is not open with Bet about what he does, but the income keeps them well, including the purchase of the Last house; Last being the surname of former owners. Their children come of age in the 60s and join the opposition without quite realizing their father's role in what they are protesting. "The Last House" touches on just about every important event from 1945 to the near future.

I can see this book sparking conversation and and possibly heated discussion. The characters are empathetic, but I found the earlier parts of the story more interesting than the latter. The ending filled me with trepidation--what if I don't have my own Last house when everything Nick and his buddy set in motion pays off in unexpected ways? This story does what fiction does best; provoke thought while laying the case before us , even if it may be too late.

Many thanks for the DRC provided by NetGalley and William Morrow in exchange for an honest review.

Last House is an epic family drama full of meaning and message. I'm sure it's going to be talked about a lot.

It follows the Taylor family, and I'm sure that name is chosen for a reason. In fact, the (one of the ) protagonist's name is Elizabeth Taylor, but that didn't hit me until someone called her that later in the book - otherwise, she's known as Bet. It's definitely meant to stir your brain. Everything has a reason here, from the character's names, and the Last House of course, to where the characters live and what they've chosen to do with their lives. There are layers and layers, and they are carefully-weaved throughout the story.

The writing is excellent, and for the most part, the story is well paced. I was a little surprised at how fast the story sped up when it moved into the second part. I wasn't expecting that based on how the first part worked out.

But inasmuch as some dramatic, and tragic, things happen, it feels slow. Like based on some foreshadowing, you're expecting certain things that don't end up happening. Like there's built-up tension, but it fizzles out.

The thing is, this is an "important" book, but it's kind of self-important. It hits you over the head with all of its messaging. The ideal message kind of book gives it over with subtlety - you get absorbed in the novel and pick up on what the author wants to convey. I think love in the Time of Cholera is an excellent example. But here, it's all very planned and staged, which makes the plot and story less interesting and absorbing.

I also was confused about what the messages were throughout a lot of the book, just that there was definitely meant to be some. It's more clear toward the end, but it creates an unsettled feeling throughout. Maybe that's the intention? I prefer feeling satisfied and nodding my head along while I read.

I did like the end. It tied up a lot of the threads, or was clear about some threads not getting tied up, and that's ok. It's hopeful and satisfying. The last line was perfection.

4 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for an advanced copy for review.

Having read and enjoyed The Women in the Castle several years ago, I was excited to read another book by Jessica Shattuck. Unfortunately, I was not as impressed by this book. Told throughout several decades, it’s a story focused on the Taylor family, and told mainly from the points of view of 3 members, Nick, Bet, and their daughter Katherine. As the story progresses, there are many elements of the times relating to environmental, political, social, and human rights issues. Unfortunately, I never felt a connection to any of the characters in the story. It starts out with getting to know Nick and Bet a bit, but just when I felt the story (which was slow moving) might have been going somewhere, it changed to part 2, focusing on their daughter Katherine. This was probably my favorite part of the story as it moved at a slightly quicker pace and was more interesting. However, as it moved to part 3, I felt the pace slow again with Nick and Bet’s story and I trudged through it to finish the book. The final part threw in too many extra characters and took a while to try to remember who each of them were as the story finished up.
Perhaps it took on too many topics, never really focusing enough on the characters. I really wanted to love this one, but it wasn’t a favorite of mine, unfortunately.
Thank you to Netgalley and William Morrow for an ARC of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.

Thank you for this ARC! I thoroughly enjoy a family drama set over many generations and this did not disappoint. It was historical, with the Vietnam War as a backdrop and that is an interesting time period to read about. Not as overdone as WWII. I am also a huge fan of cli-fi and this book had some aspects of eco/environmental fiction. Especially the ending, which I loved. It will leave you thinking about the legacy you leave behind.

Last House starts at the end of World War II and continues to the present. It starts with Nick and Bet how they met and became a family. Last house is a dwelling in Vermont close to a state forest. It is a place to get away from suburbia. Nick works for an oil company as a lawyer and brokers deal with Iran. This is a time period where the CIA was active in the Middle East. Nick is trying to make the best life for his family and look to the future. His children have a privileged childhood. But as we enter the sixties everything is questioned. The turmoil of the sixties is shown through the eyes of Nick's daughter Katherine. The story also continues after Nick and Bet are gone.
This is a book with a large time period. It is a lot of history to cover in one story. It is also the story of a family with family drama. I found the story slow in some places but then it always picked up. If you like sweeping family narratives, this is a book for you.
Thank you to #NetGalley, #JessicaShattuck, and #WilliamMorrow for a copy of this book.
#LastHouse

Last House is a family saga set mostly in the 50s and 60s with blips ahead to the 80s and beyond. The problems and opportunities of the characters mirror the news of the time: nuclear war worries, civil rights, environmentalism, classism. The cast of characters take shape slowly and really blossom in the second half of the book. I found it to be a little slow going, and I wished we’d spent more time seeing characters develop in the first half instead of being told of their developments. I wanted to care more for some of them before major things happened to them, but some received more attention and build up than others. There were many times in the story where I felt like more would take shape from an event or a hint, and then nothing would come of it.

Overall, this is a book I’d recommend for a fan of contemporary fiction who may want to dabble in literary fiction. And if you like a neat bow on top of your stories, you pretty much get it with this. Enjoyable, even if my attention wavered at times, but it likely won’t stick with me for long

This story begins in 1953, and proceeds to cover the years that follow in the 1960’s, 1970’s and the changes as the years go by as each generation’s hopes and desires evolve, and as the country, and the world, as well, experience changes. Some good, some not, depending on the generation and location, and event.

Early on, this centers around a family, a family who have recently come into money, and how that changes their lives. They buy an old home while on their vacation, and this becomes their refuge from the world and the realities of things happening outside this place.

This covers a lot in terms of eras, from the 1940’s to the 2020’s, and includes pretty much every noteworthy change in the world, from politics to wars and how these changes have reshaped this country, as well as others.

There were moments in this story that I enjoyed, but overall, while it was interesting to revisit those times, my favourite part of this story was at the beginning, and the more that I read it, the less it pulled me in. Not that it was difficult to understand or that I disliked the story, overall, but I felt that it needed more balance.


Pub Date: 14 May 2024

Many thanks for the ARC provided by William Morrow

This ambitious and beautifully written novel takes on a large chunk of history. Jessica Shattuck begins Last House in the 1940's with Bet, an English Major who becomes a code breaker. It is Bet's story and that of her husband, Nick, and their children and, subsequently, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Although Bet's is the main thread of the story's beginning, there is a long section of Bet's daughter Katherine's life and her connection to her brother Harry. Nick, an attorney for a major oil company, becomes involved with the CIA in Iran's politics and returning the Shah to the throne. Carter, a CIA operative, becomes close friends with Nick and Bet and is responsible for their purchase of Last House in Vermont (Last being the name of its original owner). The property becomes a kind of survivalist community.

Catherine's life unfolds as she becomes a columnist for a left-wing newspaper and there meets a group of peaceful protestors and later Weather Underground members. We follow her through King's assassination and protests against the Viet Nam w ar and big oil companies.
Racism, even after the; passage of the Voting Rights Act, is part of Katheriine's life as she falls in love with a Black man.

The travel through 20th Century history culminates in a return to Last House to celebrate Katherine's 79th birthday with a reunion party while there is a massive blackout across the country. Thís novel has some lovely characters and descriptions like the Shah's lavish party.
But ultimately, the novel may leave readers behind as it rushes to its conclusion. It could have earned 5 Stars had it been more character driven and less of a history lesson.

Thank to Netgalley and William Morrow for an ARC copy to read pre-publication.

A strong story about The Last House, an escape from the world's pressures. A story set in a time of uprising against big corporation, and environmental exploitation, and for peoples rights. One generation was benefitting from these and the next was fighting against them. Nick and Bet made their living off of International Oil dreaming of stability and a better future for their children Kat and Harry who were raised with the privilege to question everything. Then turbulent times crashed into the Taylor family and caused them all to doubt their beliefs and understand the importance of family.
The story moved a bit slow at first but picked up about midway. I liked the characters but wasn't invested in them. The setting could have played a larger role. A good book overall but I felt it skimmed along too quickly at times, making me wish for more.

Thank you to Publisher William Morrow and NetGalley for the Advanced Readers Copy.

Little argument, I would think even from the staunchest America booster, that the U.S. hasn’t exactly shown itself to fine advantage in its foreign involvements of the last century, with a particularly egregious instance being Iran, whose repressiveness of recent years – to my mind the scariest part of the recent bump-in-the night Iranian thriller “Under The Shadow” – could be seen as an inexorable outcome of the U.S.-assisted ouster of democratically elected Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953 and reinstallation of the shah.
“Getting the (oil) pumps going again,” is the rationale given for the deposing by U.S. operative Carter Weston in Jessica Shattuck's “Last House,” and indeed the novel begins with Weston attempting to bring on board to the oil venture one of the novel’s major characters, Nick Taylor, who isn’t wildly enthusiastic about the endeavor, particularly as he takes in from the air the unsavory evidence of the effort. “Like a burned-out forest, the pipes and columns and laddered derricks like a wilderness of bare trunks and fallen trees,” he thinks of the venture that Carter is presenting figuratively as the “turning point” for “freedom and oppression” and "the battle over the future of civilization, no less.”
Enough almost to make Nick laugh, the sentiment, after what he endured in the literal WWII fighting that left him with shrapnel in one of his shoulders and enough of an aversion to war to have made him want to use his law degree for world harmony and to have proposed by mail from the Pacific to his wife-to-be, Bet.
My favorite character by far in the novel, Bet is a maverick among her circle, with her ambition to do a Ph.D. in literature and her expressed sympathy for the Rosenbergs, or their children, anyway, which put me in mind of Jillian Cantor’s “The Hours Count” as well as Ellen Feldman’s “The Unwitting,” which may not have expressly referred to the Rosenbergs, I don’t recall, but remains for me overall the best depiction of the Cold War that I’ve read.
More than just a revisiting of the Cold War, though, Shattuck’s novel is something of an overall look at postwar America, with an extended treatment of Vietnam, which will ensnare daughter Katherine and son Harry, who for all the central role he will end up playing was to my mind insufficiently developed. Indeed, a fuller treatment, almost as though it’s a character itself, is accorded the house that the family comes to acquire (hence the title), even if, there too, I found the conceit not entirely successful. Nevertheless, the novel’s writing is top-drawer – “Nick felt the daily flesh and blood of marriage turn to gristle” is a particularly fine example – and its imperialist concerns, reminiscent for me of Joan Didion, are particularly germane at a time of the grave moral complexities posed by the current situations in Gaza and Ukraine.

This is an intellectual book and not plot driven. Maybe the point went above my head, but I just couldn't connect with this one. I'm surprised I even finished it. I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved parts of this book. The family drama is captivating. The oil industry is fascinating. The historical events are interesting (if often full of rage). But a great deal of the book is too slow for my taste, lots of passages with characters musing on life and society.

And I think the book covers too much time. It goes from historical fiction, starting in the 1940s, to contemporary fiction in the 2020s (complete with today’s societal issues that I usually try to escape from by reading a novel!).

Still, Shattuck is a skilled writer. Even though the book was a miss for me, it will no doubt be a favorite for another reader.

I appreciate the chance to read an ARC of Last House. Thank you, NetGalley and William Morrow.

This family epic reminded me of The Most Fun We Ever Had or maybe Hello Beautiful, in structure and form. The subject matter around counterculture and the Vietnam conflict felt fresh and like less trod ground.

This lovely book brings us into the intimate family circle of Nick, Bet, their children Katherine and Harry, and eventually their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Multi-generational family epics are one of my favorite types of books. This one was extra fun because it felt very close to home (for a historical novel). I could really see my grandmother in Bet and my mother in Katherine, as the book began in 1953 (the year my mother was born). I loved getting the perspectives of these two women as they negotiated careers, beliefs, their family relationships (and to a lesser extent, romantic relationships -- that really didn't feel like the focus to me). Last House is a book about civil unrest and how domestic and international affairs affect families and loved ones -- but it's also about finding oneself. Definitely recommend for fans of Maggie Shipstead and Ann Patchett!

This book is truly exquisite. It is both poetic and simple, with beautifully crafted prose. Spanning across decades, it delves into the intricacies of a family drama, creating an incredibly intimate experience for the reader. It portrays a multifaceted love story, encompassing romantic, platonic, and familial love from various perspectives throughout a person's life. The book eloquently explores the idea that love is not a one-time occurrence, but a series of choices made in the moments that shape our lives, delving into the complexities of our relationships.

As I delved into the story, I felt as though I had become a part of the family. Each character's voice was so distinct that it felt like I was listening to an audiobook with multiple narrators, a testament to Jessica Shattuck’s powerful writing.

The book also weaves in strong eco/environmental themes through the internal thoughts of each character. What stood out to me was the refreshing, beautiful, and insightful way in which each character, like real people, had their own unique perspective on the same issues or topics, shaped by their individual life experiences and the influence of their generation on the era, and vice versa.

The writing is so captivating that I found myself highlighting numerous sentences throughout the book. It truly is a work of beauty.

Intricately written family saga, beginning with the two main characters during WWII and taking us through the 60s and turbulent 70’s with protestation after protestation, the Viet Nam war, the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King and then ultimately ending in current times, spanning 80 years. The book was well researched and so very interesting. History does repeat itself. And will continue to do so, as my take-away. Thank you NetGallery and HarperCollins Publishers for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own. #LastHouse, #HarperCollinsPunlishers.

Last House is a novel that spans decades and generations, which, in the hands of a writer far less deft than Jessica Shattuck could have been trite.

This book, though, is not at all trite: it is a timely meditation on Big Oil and its exploitation, not only of the natural resource, but of the characters directly involved in the story as well as the effects of such exploitation on the global society.

We meet Nick and his wife Bet in 1953. He’s a lawyer from an oil company and she’s the stay at home mom of two young, delightful children - Katherine and Harry. Underneath this apparent lovely small-town life, though, is an undercurrent of secrecy and cloak and dagger manipulation of Middle Eastern oil production by the CIA, into which Nick is subtly drawn. Everything in the story revolves around this central deception. The children rebel as they grow up, with consequences one might never imagine. That’s all I want to say here. It’s a complex story that drew me in from the beginning and didn’t let me go until the end.

The writing is excellent. I do think the ending is somewhat forced and the story would have been even more powerful had it ended before the generations who came after Katherine, which subtracts one star for me. Nevertheless, it’s a great story of family dynamics, including those of “The Family”, that I will not soon stop thinking about.

I requested to read “Last House” by Jessica Shattuck because I am always looking for good historical fiction to enjoy. Here, the focus is on multiple generations of one family (and one house) told in a variety of voices.

The story opens in the early 1950’s where the reader is introduced to the Taylors. While the family lives in Connecticut, they own a summer house in Vermont where the Taylors appreciate the solitude of the mountains. Yet, the world is changing around them and those changes affect this family in many ways. The story jumps to the late sixties and forward, noting several significant historical events through different characters’ perspective.

I thought this story was well-executed without trying to make a statement, political or otherwise. I enjoyed the characters as told through Shattuck’s evocative writing. While the novel had slower moments, I was sad when this story came to an end.

Thanks to Net Galley, the author, and the publisher for sharing this great read.

Jessica Shattuck's "Last House" is a moving account of generational differences, family legacies, and the hold homes have on us. Although the book mostly takes place in the past, it feels very timely in this polarizing era. It is a book that made me think about my own interactions with friends and family and how my advocacy work can evolve. I would read everything written by Shattuck!

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC; all opinions are my own.