To The Last City
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Review
"One of our most compelling contemporary novelists." - "Independent"
"From the Hardcover edition."
The Times
‘[To the Last City] is a tense, precarious achievement, brilliantly evoking a dangerous journey’
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
79 of 83 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Colin Thubron's last major oeuvre was In Siberia - highly acclaimed non-fiction about one of the bleakest places on earth. Everyone wondered where he'd go next - both literally and in literary terms. To The Last City is our answer.
In this frightening novel Thubron brings fictional characters to the furthest flung Inca ruins to be found along a precipitous trail amid 'cloud forests', which he has himself taken. The travel writing side is therefore all a Thubron reader would expect - flawless - but enriched in this book by the addition of new points of view. Each of his characters sees their journey and surroundings in their own way. A fat Belgian architect indulging the whim of his doll-like wife in embarking on this 'holiday', sees the mountains as mere 'geology'(an opinion degenerating to rocks viewed as 'turds' as the party's journey becomes distinctly troubling.) Whereas an English journalist longing to do some honest writing, craves to 'possess' the magnificence around him with words. A frail Spanish Deacon, carrying in his baggage all the guilt of a Conquistador's ancestor, seeks to apologise for the savage genocide of his forebears.And for the first time, Thubron speaks through the voice of a woman - Camilla, the journalist's forty-something wife who is at a pivotal stage in her own life. Thubron's lens on the landscape zooms in and out through these different eyes, with their individual self-consciousness convincingly in place, and his own narrative - lyrical and brutal as required - drives the reader steadily forward through the 'devouring and devoured' jungle, and through history.
Central among the themes woven liana-like through To The Last City are questions about the value of writing (does it replace memory?) and why the civilisation of the Incas seems not to have favoured it as an art form at all. Death - ancient and modern - also has a starring role in the tale and sex puts in a refreshingly delicate appearance. But I don't want to give too much away. You'll want to know what happens to each of the travellers when you meet them. Held in your hands, the novel seems frustratingly slim. But this is because Thubron is an expert at elision. He's said what he wanted to say without a spare word.
In this frightening novel Thubron brings fictional characters to the furthest flung Inca ruins to be found along a precipitous trail amid 'cloud forests', which he has himself taken. The travel writing side is therefore all a Thubron reader would expect - flawless - but enriched in this book by the addition of new points of view. Each of his characters sees their journey and surroundings in their own way. A fat Belgian architect indulging the whim of his doll-like wife in embarking on this 'holiday', sees the mountains as mere 'geology'(an opinion degenerating to rocks viewed as 'turds' as the party's journey becomes distinctly troubling.) Whereas an English journalist longing to do some honest writing, craves to 'possess' the magnificence around him with words. A frail Spanish Deacon, carrying in his baggage all the guilt of a Conquistador's ancestor, seeks to apologise for the savage genocide of his forebears.And for the first time, Thubron speaks through the voice of a woman - Camilla, the journalist's forty-something wife who is at a pivotal stage in her own life. Thubron's lens on the landscape zooms in and out through these different eyes, with their individual self-consciousness convincingly in place, and his own narrative - lyrical and brutal as required - drives the reader steadily forward through the 'devouring and devoured' jungle, and through history.
Central among the themes woven liana-like through To The Last City are questions about the value of writing (does it replace memory?) and why the civilisation of the Incas seems not to have favoured it as an art form at all. Death - ancient and modern - also has a starring role in the tale and sex puts in a refreshingly delicate appearance. But I don't want to give too much away. You'll want to know what happens to each of the travellers when you meet them. Held in your hands, the novel seems frustratingly slim. But this is because Thubron is an expert at elision. He's said what he wanted to say without a spare word.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Past the Last
10 Oct 2002
Format:Hardcover
To The Last City is about a group of Europeans who travel deep into the Peruvian Andes in search of the lost Inca civilization's ruins and one city in particular, Vilcabamba. Each possesses a distinct viewpoint on life and their reasons for travelling to this wild place. Through his lush and fantastically evocative prose, Colin Thubron creates a novel of powerful beauty that pares down the civilised demeanour of his characters to reveal their burning spirits. His experience as a travel writes gives him unique insight into the brutality of group excursions in foreign places and detailed knowledge of exotic environments. By the relationships of the diverse characters, we experience their search for what remains of this lost civilization and their memories of the past. My only criticism is that Thubron doesn't spend enough time relating the psychology of the Peruvian characters who are travelling with the Europeans. While very occasionally he writes of the guide's thoughts, he almost exclusively follows only the European's perspectives.
What makes this novel disturbingly unique is its exploration of the way the past influences the present for the characters. Each character is fiercely trying to remember and forget. Francisco feels a terrible burden as his ancestors were Spanish conquerors who helped invade and destroy the Incan civilization. Religion wasn't enough to purge his feelings of guilt, but he feels he must offer himself as a sacrifice to the unknown of this lost city. Desire to rectify the past is a common feeling, but what can be given to compensate for what we don't understand? Their journey builds to a terrifying standoff where the present meets the past. As we travel the road to the last city where the Incans tried to subsist free of the Spanish invasion, we strip away the characters' exteriors to find their true intentions.
What makes this novel disturbingly unique is its exploration of the way the past influences the present for the characters. Each character is fiercely trying to remember and forget. Francisco feels a terrible burden as his ancestors were Spanish conquerors who helped invade and destroy the Incan civilization. Religion wasn't enough to purge his feelings of guilt, but he feels he must offer himself as a sacrifice to the unknown of this lost city. Desire to rectify the past is a common feeling, but what can be given to compensate for what we don't understand? Their journey builds to a terrifying standoff where the present meets the past. As we travel the road to the last city where the Incans tried to subsist free of the Spanish invasion, we strip away the characters' exteriors to find their true intentions.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Not really a novel
20 Jan 2008
Format:Paperback
This isn't quite a novel. I feel for the author, because his ambition to write a novel is apparent on each page, and even embodied by the principal character. It is a common desire, and it becomes poignant when the author is aware of it, and aware of his shortcomings, and can't quite solve them.
In this case Thubron has the adventure story, the elements of an interesting interaction between characters, and the possibility of a developed moral and ethical theme. But he just can't build characters, can't give them life, can't break out of the feeling that each scene is imagined as it might appear in a movie. We see that, and so does he, and we root for the author, but it just does not add up to a novel. A screenplay, yes, but not a novel.
In this case Thubron has the adventure story, the elements of an interesting interaction between characters, and the possibility of a developed moral and ethical theme. But he just can't build characters, can't give them life, can't break out of the feeling that each scene is imagined as it might appear in a movie. We see that, and so does he, and we root for the author, but it just does not add up to a novel. A screenplay, yes, but not a novel.
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