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The Last American Man | 
| Author: Elizabeth Gilbert
Publisher: HighBridge Audio
Category: Book
Buy New: CDN$ 72.01
New (6) Used (1) from CDN$ 3.81
Rating:  63 reviews
Media: Audio Cassette
Edition: Abridged
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.2 x 4.6 x 1.2
ISBN: 1565116526
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.310973
EAN: 9781565116528
ASIN: 1565116526
Publication Date: May 1, 2002
Availability: Usually ships within 1 - 2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new. In stock. Ships from FL, USA. Exceptional customer service guaranteed!!!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 58 more reviews...
 Liz Gilbert Powerful Author January 23, 2008
R. Alfredson (Chicago, IL USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Last American Man is a powerful book by Elizabeth Gilbert (of "Eat, Pray, Love" fame, which is also great book). She profiles Eustace Conway a man who believes that Americans are completely disconnected from nature and rely on material objects for happiness. Gilbert does not write Eustace Conway as a saint, however introduces his ideas and way of life to her readers. As an author Gilbert is honest, and witty. As a subject Conway is fascinating, and multilayered. I recommend this book to everyone. On a personal note I found Conway's message to be true and well needed. I changed several aspects of my lifestyle after reading about Eustace Conway's life in nature. Great book.
A modern-day Daniel Boone. . . June 13, 2004
Ronald Scheer (Los Angeles)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is one of those books that stir up strong opinions and heated controversy. Eustace Conway, the back-to-nature mountain man of the title, is someone you can see as a living American myth or a nut case. The author's portrait of him, full of ironies right from the title onward, lends itself to either point of view. And depending on how the book is read, you can see either admiration or skepticism in what she says about Conway. pOr you can see subject and author in all of these ways which, as I understand the book, is what the author intends. Eustace Conway is full of contradictions. He's both immensely appealing and stridently off-putting. A rigorous thinker, naturalist, and walking whole-earth-catalog, he is still a babe in the woods in knowing how to negotiate just about any kind of relationship with another human being - including the many, many young women he attracts. By the author's account, few men so lucky in bed have been so unlucky in love.pFor every amateur psychologist the author provides more than enough back-story to puzzle over Conway's behavior. There's a tyrant father who heaps withering scorn on his son, starting at the age of two. And there's his great-outdoors-loving mother, who rescues him from his father by encouraging his unsupervised forays into the woods. By the time he is out of high school, he's already living in a teepee, beading his own moccasins, killing game for food, skinning animals, and hiking the entire Appalachian Trail wearing nothing more than two bandanas, weather permitting.pMeanwhile, his epic journeys on foot and on horseback and his pioneering in the North Carolina backcountry are mythic Americana. While our first reaction to all this may be admiration, Gilbert writes in a wisecracking tone that heightens the ironies and more than once made me laugh out loud. And she reminds us that if there's anyone to fault, it's not Conway but the gullibly romantic Americans who believe literally in their own national mythology and heroes. Looking back to Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett, for instance, she reveals that they were in fact no different. Like Conway, they were supporters of the myths and legends that grew up around them and good old-fashioned American entrepreneurs and self-promoters.pAnyway, there's much to enjoy in this book. And it's full of surprises - right up to the last pages, as Gilbert tells a poignant story of how Conway touched the life of a troubled teenager who spent a week with him in the woods building a fence. And the author's closing image captures the spirit of the entire book - Conway getting out of his truck and shouting, I love you! at a buck deer that refuses to move off the road. The image is moving, ridiculous, or both; take your pick.
 Broken March 11, 2004
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Read within these pages the effects of extreme mental and emotional abuse upon a child and the way it plays out as an adult. Eustace is a broken human. His unfortunate treatment at the hands of his father seriously crippled him. People who have suffered like Eustace are often over-achieving, perfectionists; unable to maintain relations with others; either oblivious to the needs of others or slavishly catering to the whims of others and they almost always come to closley resemble the abuser. pBig Eustace was a denizen of the office and the classroom- liked to write out long equations and ramble on to hear the sound of his own voice, so little Eustace subcociously chose a path 180 degrees away from father and becomes a creature of the forest but ended up rambling in his classroom just the same, just a different subject. brTo me this was an eminently sad tale of a boy going to any length for father's notice and approval. Neither of which came at least by the conclusion of this book.brEutace-walk away.
awful December 13, 2003
Julie (East Coast)
It's too bad that Eustace Conway's story had to be told by Elizabeth Gilbert. She's totally immature as a writer, and she doesn't know how to maintain any sort of distance from her subject. Last American Man reads like you'd expect it would, coming from a city gal who has a little romp in the woods with an outdoorsman. She is completely clueless. She retells Eustace's stories without skepticism. She quotes liberally from the work of Richard Slotkin, a hip scholar -- perhaps to bring some heft to this otherwise lightweight work. I travelled to Boone, N.C., shortly after the book came out and talked to folks who knew Eustace, had him in a class, etc. They thought the book was a laughable piece of trash, too -- a not-very-accurate picture of the man, and certainly not an accurate picture of that corner of Appalachia. Don't waste your time. (I notice that most of the reviewers here focus more on whether they like Eustace as a person, and not whether the book is any good. Which it's not.)
A fantastic, thought provoking book. December 1, 2003
I can't decide whether to write a review of the book, or criticize my fellow reviewers, so I think I will do both. I bought this book, read it in four hours, gave it to my husband who then couldn't put it down, and then wrestled it away from him and re-read it. It is that compelling. pElizabeth Gilbert is supremely talented, able to spin a yarn, laugh at herself, and deliver razor sharp character assessments in a few short sentences. Despite the opinions of some of the critics on this board, she is not in love with Eustace Conway. She does not fawn over this remarkable man, ever. pInstead, she tells Eustace's story with clarity and grace, never losing site of the metaphor she engages in comparing this man's story to the history of the American male, and America in general. Eustace's talent for self promotion seems to rub people the wrong way, even in his own family, but it is this very talent that has enabled Eustace to purchase his land and live his life according to his beliefs. pAs for Eustace being deplorable, unlikable, despicable. etc... I had to ask myself if I had read the same book as these folks. I think the word they must be looking for is conflicted. Never did I see any examples of cruelty, anger or hatred in Eustace's behavior. What I did read about was a lot of candy-assed weenies who didn't like being told what to do, people who need to have their every completed task validated with a compliment, people Eustace eventually tires of, and thankfully so. Frankly, I found Gilbert too understanding of these punks, and a bit hard on Eustace. So much for her being in love with him.pAs for those who call Eustace a hypocrite, please. This man lived in a tipi for 17 years, lives now with no electricity or running water, and built his homestead with his bare hands and no nails. He is the first to admit he drives a truck, uses plastic buckets and appreciates the power of a chain saw. He never says otherwise, and even if he did, would it make his other accomplishments less valid? Oh yeah, I guess so. The worst thing you can do nowadays is be a hypocrite, right? That negates every accomplishment, invalidates every honor.pAs for the claims that thousands live in rural Tennessee, etc... more naturally than Eustace, yeah right. This man is a blacksmith, plows his fields with horses, makes clothes out of buckskin, makes jars from clay found in riverbeds, catches skins and eats rattlesnakes, set two endurance ride records, on and on. I daresay maybe a handful of people live like him, if that many, and they are paid to be 'historical interpreters' at Jamestown and the likes. At the end of the day they punch out and go to Starbucks.pLastly, the condescension surrounding Eustace's inability to find a mate, as if he is somehow so scarred and despicable he will never marry is ludicrous. If everyone who marries is somehow at a place of peace Eustace will never find because of his mixed up psyche, then the bar must be very low indeed, and Eustace is the smart one. pWhat I found most interesting about this book is the way it made me take a hard look at some of the decisions I have made in my life. Only the best books do that. I encourage you to read this book and ignore the naysayers. People of heroic proportions tend to polarize everyone, and I think those who dislike this book and Eustace are jealous on some level. Jealous of his decisiveness, his character and his astounding achievements.
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