The Book of the Last Word

by Jesi Bender

Chimera Aoki is a 20-something New Yorker, easy in love and working on a book of famous last words. Arthur Noyes is older, secretive, existential. They meet through Chimera’s girlfriend, and are brought together and flung apart through a cosmic collision of coincidence and deceit.

Heavily interwoven with Abrahamic religious influences, THE BOOK OF THE LAST WORD culminates with Chimera discovering Arthur’s secret and having to decide if what Arthur has done is either immensely beneficial or horrifically damaging.

175 pages, Paperback

Published May 1, 2019

Reviews

[Karlee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Evocative and disturbing. The story line to me shows that "good" and "evil" are not on a linear axis and how strongly perception truly drives our reality. Set in our modern day, the main character struggles to find her own relevancy and worth. Thought provoking with many layers, a book worth reading several times over.

[Jesse Hilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a quick read with interesting characterizations and outlay of plot. A strange relationship begins between a woman named Chimera and an older man with two kids. What’s unique about the way Bender treats her characters can be seen in the pathways the friendship takes and the preoccupations, sometimes religious, that have beset the characters. There is a lot of mental tinkering with religion in the book and Chimera, the main character, is collecting the “famous last words” of people throughout history — a fascination with life in extremis. I might need to read the book again because as good as it was, and it was good, it did not leave heavy traces of itself behind. I can’t recall every detail about it. I deducted a star for this reason. It might be my fault for writing this review not immediately after finishing the book when it was fresh in my mind. I feel like another novel from Bender might make a stronger impression, another effort with more acid in it to delineate the lithograph of the novel in a reader’s mind. I want to read her play Kinderkrankenhaus next. I liked the experience of this book! Don’t get me wrong. I read this right after a book I didn’t like so much so I appreciated Bender’s mature choices and craftiness. It just needed to be a bit bolder and more demanding of attention to get five stars.

[Mari LivTollefsonCarlson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leaving her "normal" job to write a book of last words, hardly any of which are her own, Chimera is adrift. She goes to church with her girlfriend, unconvinced. She continues to drink and sleep around. But there, she meets Arthur and the children he cares for. Could it be her chance to settle down?
At once questioning and full of conviction, the book eludes categorization. Its simple plot of tracking the relationship between Arthur and Chimera exposes all their former relationships and prophecies all the ones to succeed it. They are clearly not the only players in this tightly wound novella. The cumulative static of Biblical interpretations (Arthur fancies himself a scholar) and the last words, from mostly famous people, Chimera compiles are a noisy soundtrack that deepens the tension between them. Add to that New York City's grit, read in Chimera's girlfriend's facial scars and Arthur's mute "son," and you get a nightmare of a short read. The ending is not hopeful; it speaks, in finely crafted sentences, the artistic dignity and beauty earned through never-ending hard work. Chimera does not get the last word, but she does grow up.