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The Last of How it Was
Set in fictitious Neely, North Carolina, this final volume of the trilogy features Louis Benfield narrating the convoluted and often tragic Benfield family history
368 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published July 15, 1987
37 people are currently reading
88 people want to read
About the author
T.R. Pearson
34 books274 followersThomas Reid Pearson is an American novelist born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He is the author of seventeen novels and four works of non-fiction under his own name, including A Short History of a Small Place, Cry Me A River, Jerusalem Gap, and Seaworthy, and has written three additional novels -- Ranchero, Beluga, and Nowhere Nice -- under the pseudonym Rick Gavin. Pearson has also ghostwritten several other books, both fiction and nonfiction, and has written or co-written various feature film and TV scripts.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 31, 2011
This is a book about stories and storytelling, and especially about oral narrative.
It contains a lot of stories, but not in the way that, say, a collection of short stories contains a lot of stories. At one level this book is a single story. But in telling the story, the narrators--there is more than one--repeatedly get sidetracked and start off in new narrative directions in order to tell other stories, the purpose of which, sometimes, is to further illuminate the main story. Then again, sometimes, the new story just seems to be so interesting that the narrator can't resist the temptation to tell it. So stories spin off of the main story, and then stories spin off from those stories, and so forth in a fractal pattern.
The meandering narration contributes both to the book's glory and to its difficulty. In addition to the non-linear exposition of what plot there is, the book reads the way people talk. Sometimes it is long-winded and hard to follow. But don't get the wrong impression--despite the difficulty, I liked the book very much!
That isn't to say that the book will appeal to everyone. It's not a quick, light summer read. As I said, it is difficult in its way. But once you settle into the cadence and the style, the reward is worth the effort. I haven't even mentioned yet that the book is hilarious! Many of the stories are just laugh-out-loud funny. My favorite one involved a triple-A baseball game at Ernie Shore Field in Winston-Salem. It took me a long time to stop laughing about how the Gold Leaf Queen, Miss Pamela Louise Spainhour of Lexington, awarded the door prizes between games of the double-header.
The other reason that it will not appeal to everyone is because of the numerous racial epithets that it contains. If you think the recent censorship of Huckleberry Finn was a good idea, then don't bother with this book.
Getting back to what I claim is the fractal nature of this book's structure, the image of the Lichtenburg figure that I used might leave you with the wrong impression. This isn't a hierarchical or tree structure. It's more like this:
Overall, highly recommended.
It contains a lot of stories, but not in the way that, say, a collection of short stories contains a lot of stories. At one level this book is a single story. But in telling the story, the narrators--there is more than one--repeatedly get sidetracked and start off in new narrative directions in order to tell other stories, the purpose of which, sometimes, is to further illuminate the main story. Then again, sometimes, the new story just seems to be so interesting that the narrator can't resist the temptation to tell it. So stories spin off of the main story, and then stories spin off from those stories, and so forth in a fractal pattern.
[image error]
a Lichtenburg figure
The meandering narration contributes both to the book's glory and to its difficulty. In addition to the non-linear exposition of what plot there is, the book reads the way people talk. Sometimes it is long-winded and hard to follow. But don't get the wrong impression--despite the difficulty, I liked the book very much!
That isn't to say that the book will appeal to everyone. It's not a quick, light summer read. As I said, it is difficult in its way. But once you settle into the cadence and the style, the reward is worth the effort. I haven't even mentioned yet that the book is hilarious! Many of the stories are just laugh-out-loud funny. My favorite one involved a triple-A baseball game at Ernie Shore Field in Winston-Salem. It took me a long time to stop laughing about how the Gold Leaf Queen, Miss Pamela Louise Spainhour of Lexington, awarded the door prizes between games of the double-header.
The other reason that it will not appeal to everyone is because of the numerous racial epithets that it contains. If you think the recent censorship of Huckleberry Finn was a good idea, then don't bother with this book.
Getting back to what I claim is the fractal nature of this book's structure, the image of the Lichtenburg figure that I used might leave you with the wrong impression. This isn't a hierarchical or tree structure. It's more like this:
Overall, highly recommended.
November 17, 2022
Enjoy the journey before political correctness was a watchword
Never expect a nonStop flight when you're traveling with TR Pearson. Its the journey you take pleasure in. All the twisted. winding. Sidesteps that double back onto themselves that weave the tale. Maybe not woven into what you expect to be solid broadcloth. but an intricately handmade fine lace of a tale with some stitches dropped and some ugly parts that makeup the final bolt of cloth. Look closely and you'll find the amusement knit right in.
Never expect a nonStop flight when you're traveling with TR Pearson. Its the journey you take pleasure in. All the twisted. winding. Sidesteps that double back onto themselves that weave the tale. Maybe not woven into what you expect to be solid broadcloth. but an intricately handmade fine lace of a tale with some stitches dropped and some ugly parts that makeup the final bolt of cloth. Look closely and you'll find the amusement knit right in.
August 15, 2018
One of the best series in the Southern literature canon. I read this book every few years in the summer. All I can tell you is its like a lighter version of Faulkner, less cartoonish than Flannery O'Connor with a taste of Harper Lee thrown in. The author has done some amazing work with his NEELY series. Definitely worth reading for anyone who has true southern roots.
March 17, 2019
He is jsut so up and down. I wasn't crazy about his first book (short history of a small place) but loved the second. Now teh third book in the series wasn't that good either. His writing is so "faulknerized" that it really walks a fine line between entertainment and getting in the way of the story. the latter dominated in this book
May 27, 2019
(no 17 of 2019)
January 30, 2020
Love this author's story telling
Takes time to read but what a hoot!
Told by the little boy, the stories and personalities are hilarious but totally human.
Takes time to read but what a hoot!
Told by the little boy, the stories and personalities are hilarious but totally human.
November 12, 2011
The Last of How It Was is the best book I almost never read.
I grew up lollygagging in living rooms and kitchens listening to family gossip, soap operas and grapevine news flashes. Keeping a low profile and an open ear was the pipeline to all the best information the world had to offer, courtesy of my mother and aunts.
So too, does Pearson’s fictional Louis Benfield, gain his education in the Last of How It Was. A rambling tale of a fictitious Southern family, chock full of strange yet loveable characters, it tells stories of a better, gentler time, from a South I never visited but feel right at home in thanks to the author’s wonderful ear for dialect and eye for detail.
T.R. Pearson weaves a rich tale; only it isn’t simply one tale. It’s story spun off of story spun off of story in the best of family-storytelling styles. Each hilarious character and their story, only puts the storyteller (various elder members of Louis Benfield’s family) in mind of another even more outrageous character with all of their eccentric essential details, which leads to another and another and…
It’s laugh-out-loud funny. It’s Pearson having a summit meeting with William Falkner, the Beverly Hillbillies, and Mark Twain. It’s the funniest book I ever read.
In at least two places, I literally laughed until I cried when I tried to read it out loud to someone.
But it is not a read for the faint of heart. It takes some tenacity to take on the flow and rhythm of the dialog and setting. It is in fact, confusing at first as the reader is plunged into Deep Southern dialog and rambling monologue, with no good explanation offered as to what is going on, or why.
I almost gave up; I almost put it down, more than once. For some reason, I kept wading through the characters; the rich, fat, juicy descriptions; and the personal histories of people and mules alike and was rewarded. It happened somewhere between pages 40-65, and after that I was hooked.
Hang in there until page 65, and enjoy all the wisdom, adventures, and foibles of the Benfield family and all of their charming southern-fried acquaintances. You will be very glad you did.
I grew up lollygagging in living rooms and kitchens listening to family gossip, soap operas and grapevine news flashes. Keeping a low profile and an open ear was the pipeline to all the best information the world had to offer, courtesy of my mother and aunts.
So too, does Pearson’s fictional Louis Benfield, gain his education in the Last of How It Was. A rambling tale of a fictitious Southern family, chock full of strange yet loveable characters, it tells stories of a better, gentler time, from a South I never visited but feel right at home in thanks to the author’s wonderful ear for dialect and eye for detail.
T.R. Pearson weaves a rich tale; only it isn’t simply one tale. It’s story spun off of story spun off of story in the best of family-storytelling styles. Each hilarious character and their story, only puts the storyteller (various elder members of Louis Benfield’s family) in mind of another even more outrageous character with all of their eccentric essential details, which leads to another and another and…
It’s laugh-out-loud funny. It’s Pearson having a summit meeting with William Falkner, the Beverly Hillbillies, and Mark Twain. It’s the funniest book I ever read.
In at least two places, I literally laughed until I cried when I tried to read it out loud to someone.
But it is not a read for the faint of heart. It takes some tenacity to take on the flow and rhythm of the dialog and setting. It is in fact, confusing at first as the reader is plunged into Deep Southern dialog and rambling monologue, with no good explanation offered as to what is going on, or why.
I almost gave up; I almost put it down, more than once. For some reason, I kept wading through the characters; the rich, fat, juicy descriptions; and the personal histories of people and mules alike and was rewarded. It happened somewhere between pages 40-65, and after that I was hooked.
Hang in there until page 65, and enjoy all the wisdom, adventures, and foibles of the Benfield family and all of their charming southern-fried acquaintances. You will be very glad you did.
August 12, 2011
T.R, Pearson's books do not really get this side of the pond. After reading the very excellent Cry Me a River and A Short History of a Small Place I was expecting more from this one.After plugging away and plugging away at it, by the middle you finally DO come to realise that it is a book with something to say but so stylised as to be one track only. The e.e.cummings "i had an uncle named sol......" long winded discursive style gets to be too much and this is a real pity. Buried in there are some real gems of humour but the quality of the writing is so buried beneath this forced style that, once set by Pearson, it has to be stuck too. A real shame but don't give up ....read the other two instead
October 11, 2014
Unquestionably the funniest book I've ever read. The first time I read the book, my mother was in the same room with me and kept asking me why I was laughing so hard, but it's impossible to read a passage from this book aloud.
Some people might find Pearson's style of writing hard to get used to - unless they're from the South. The book is written exactly as if it's being told to someone and there are sentences that go on for paragraphs and stories that splinter off into asides and back again. I don't think any other writer could make this work, but Pearson does and he does it to amazing effect.
Don't read this in public and don't read it if there's a good chance you'll be interrupted frequently. If you have bladder issues, wear an adult diaper and settle in.
Some people might find Pearson's style of writing hard to get used to - unless they're from the South. The book is written exactly as if it's being told to someone and there are sentences that go on for paragraphs and stories that splinter off into asides and back again. I don't think any other writer could make this work, but Pearson does and he does it to amazing effect.
Don't read this in public and don't read it if there's a good chance you'll be interrupted frequently. If you have bladder issues, wear an adult diaper and settle in.
August 21, 2014
Clearly not for everyone and an effort to get through, even for me who loves it. A funny, poignant, outrageous story about the stories we tell. No story is not dependent on another story. Any story worth its salt reminds us of another story. Every story has some story that went before. In this very southern novel our family story is part and parcel of who we are, yet anyone is capable of surprising us. We can usurp someone's story, but no one but that person can really appreciate what that story means to them.
June 20, 2014
It took me forever (70 pages at least!) to get into Pearson's writing style--long paragraphs of one long sentence with minimal punctuation. But the family stories, relationships, and tangential stories were humorous. The last 30 pages were my favorite, and I'm glad I stuck with it.
March 29, 2013
Quirky isn't the half of how it is. Very peculiar style, engaging sometimes, but long. What's the story? Where is it going? Anywhere?
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews