Tuesday, August 08, 2006
The Last of Her Kind
by Sigrid Nunez
review by J. Nuzzo
The Last of Her Kind recounts the story of Georgette George and her seminal relationship with freshman college roommate Ann Drayton. Both girls come of age during the climax of the turbulent and politically charged 1960’s and early 1970’s in New York City. Georgette and Ann first meet at Barnard College. Ann, a brilliant student who totally shuns the world of wealth and class from which she hails, ingratiates herself with Georgette, whose own origins are decidedly less-than-ideal. Georgette struggles to understand why Ann would negate her privileged past, and replace it with a nearly clinical obsession with social and political activism and the fight for those ostensibly less fortunate than she. Though the actual friendship is short-lived, the powerful presence of Ann’s willful personality and idealism continues to reside in Georgette as she navigates her way through life in the increasingly banal aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam and Woodstock. Grappling with her own desire to have essentially that which Ann abhors, Georgette’s stream of conscience recollection meditates on the enigmatic influence of the curiously singular Ann: the last of her kind.
review by J. Nuzzo
The Last of Her Kind recounts the story of Georgette George and her seminal relationship with freshman college roommate Ann Drayton. Both girls come of age during the climax of the turbulent and politically charged 1960’s and early 1970’s in New York City. Georgette and Ann first meet at Barnard College. Ann, a brilliant student who totally shuns the world of wealth and class from which she hails, ingratiates herself with Georgette, whose own origins are decidedly less-than-ideal. Georgette struggles to understand why Ann would negate her privileged past, and replace it with a nearly clinical obsession with social and political activism and the fight for those ostensibly less fortunate than she. Though the actual friendship is short-lived, the powerful presence of Ann’s willful personality and idealism continues to reside in Georgette as she navigates her way through life in the increasingly banal aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam and Woodstock. Grappling with her own desire to have essentially that which Ann abhors, Georgette’s stream of conscience recollection meditates on the enigmatic influence of the curiously singular Ann: the last of her kind.
