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    The Last Romantics: A Read with Jenna Pick
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    The Last Romantics: A Read with Jenna Pick
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    The Last Romantics: A Read with Jenna Pick
    Ebook416 pages7 hours

    The Last Romantics: A Read with Jenna Pick

    By Tara Conklin

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick!

    “A richly observed novel, both ambitious and welcoming.” -- Meg Wolitzer

    An Instant New York Times Bestseller

    Named a Best Book of the Month by Goodreads • Lithub • Refinery29 • InStyle • HelloGiggles • Real Simple • Parade • PureWow • Bustle

    A sweeping yet intimate epic about one American family, The Last Romantics is an unforgettable exploration of the ties that bind us together, the responsibilities we embrace and the duties we resent, and how we can lose—and sometimes rescue—the ones we love.

    When the renowned poet Fiona Skinner is asked about the inspiration behind her iconic work, The Love Poem, she tells her audience a story about her family and a betrayal that reverberates through time.

    It begins in a big yellow house with a funeral, an iron poker, and a brief variation forever known as the Pause: a free and feral summer in a middle-class Connecticut town. Caught between the predictable life they once led and an uncertain future that stretches before them, the Skinner siblings—fierce Renee, sensitive Caroline, golden boy Joe and watchful Fiona—emerge from the Pause staunchly loyal and deeply connected.  Two decades later, the siblings find themselves once again confronted with a family crisis that tests the strength of these bonds and forces them to question the life choices they’ve made and ask what, exactly, they will do for love. 

    A novel that pierces the heart and lingers in the mind, The Last Romantics is also a beautiful meditation on the power of stories—how they navigate us through difficult times, help us understand the past, and point the way toward our future.


    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateFeb 5, 2019
    ISBN9780062358226
    Unavailable
    The Last Romantics: A Read with Jenna Pick
    Author

    Tara Conklin

    Tara Conklin was born on St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands and raised in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. She is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Last Romantics and The House Girl.  

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    Reviews for The Last Romantics

    4/5

    311 ratings55 reviews

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    • 3/5
      This slow-moving, character-driven novel had some good elements to it, but it missed the mark for me. Some of the characters are flawed in peculiar ways, with questionable morals, and I just couldn’t warm up to them. The story begins with the death of the father, and death and how people cope with grief will figure in much of the story. Depression, anger, unhappiness, drug abuse, and deceit are all present in the tale, but are somewhat balanced by some good memories of happy times along the way. Readers learn about the characters through some lengthy flashbacks, and the conclusion of the story will wrap up most of the story threads. The main characters were well developed, and the writing was good for a plot that was more about about characters’ reactions than an intricate storyline.
    • 4/5
      This was a beautifully written family saga involving four siblings and there sometimes present, mother. The story actually begins in the future with the youngest sibling Fiona, now 102 years old. She is finally able to tell her story. The four siblings go through ups and downs and yet they remain in each other's life for the most part. It's an intensely moving story of their how fragile they are and yet how intensely strong they can become with the support of each other. I really enjoyed every bit of this book. Renee, Caroline, Joe and Fiona were all characters one can relate to. I definitely will be adding the author's first book, The House Girl on my to read list!
    • 4/5
      Sibling stories are never my favorite, but the author can certainly turn a phrase.
    • 4/5
      The complicated sibling relationships made this one memorable. Covers depression, multi-generations, and drug addiction.
    • 2/5
      First 40% was good. Last 60% of this family saga dragged.

      The best character in the book was Joe and, unfortunately, we didn't really get to know him that well since the book was written in 1st person and we only got to hear what one of his three sisters, Fiona, wanted to tell us.
    • 4/5
      The Last Romantics: Confession while the world collapses

      Tara Conklin’s novel, book-ended by inferred scenes of the end of the world surprised me by being both vivid and intense. The Last Romantics was paced just right- I did not burn through the pages, while keeping a solid cadence.

      In 2079, poet Fiona Skinner stands before a crowd of fans and critics. She is 102 years old, answering questions about her life long work as an author. From the crowd comes a young woman, asking after the origin of her namesake (Luna) from Fiona’s most famous work ‘The Love Poem’.

      Fiona, amidst power outages and emergency sirens, narrates the history of the Skinners from the death of their father to a wedding ring with no bride.

      Well crafted novel.
    • 5/5
      The story is compelling. Good job writer! If you have some great stories like this one, you can publish it on Novel Star, just submit your story to hardy@novelstar.top or joye@novelstar.top
    • 5/5
      This is awesome! I was able to talk about the book after I read it. You did well! ... If you have some great stories like this one, you can publish it on Novel Star, just submit your story to hardy@novelstar.top or joye@novelstar.top
    • 4/5
      Digital Audio performed by Cassandra Campbell.A family epic following the four Skinner siblings over several decades. It begins with a tragedy – the death of their father, and their mother’s subsequent depression. Renee, Caroline, Joe and Fiona are basically left to their own devices over a summer, protecting each other and their mother from intrusion as much as they are able. The result of what they always refer to as “the Pause” is that they are fiercely loyal to one another. Two decades later that connection will be tested by another tragedy.I love character-driven novels, getting to know and understand the psychology of the characters as they cause and/or react to events in their lives. In this case the siblings’ early experience makes them guarded and as the point of view shifts from character to character and from one time frame to another, that guardedness makes it easy to understand how outsiders (i.e. those outside the family) would be unaware of the need and/or unwilling to assist. That these four people are damaged by their childhood is without question. The ways they find to cope, or not, is what fascinated me in the novel. I recognized how the roles taken on by siblings in childhood often continue into adulthood; that’s certainly true in m own family, and we didn’t suffer the trauma of losing a parent during our formative years. I was sorry that COVID19 interrupted our book club’s scheduled meeting on this work. I would certainly have enjoyed that discussion.Cassandra Campbell is a talented voice artist and does a marvelous job performing the audio. However, the complexity of the novel’s structure, with changing points of views and timeframes, made it a bit more challenging in this format. If I re-read it, I’ll do so in text format.
    • 4/5
      A good family drama is like a pint of chocolate ice cream...just a spoonful...ok, maybe a small bowl...fine! Just give me the pint and a spoon!I really didn’t mean to stay up way past my bedtime or get up early to keep reading, but once I started The Last Romantics I couldn’t stop. It has all the elements: tragedy for 4 siblings at a young age, parents not involved, one “star” sibling that will be the one who makes it...and then the twists and turns as they change completely in adulthood. Conklin sets it very much in the time period with references to 80s fashion, 90s pop culture, the start of the internet and social media and climate change. I’d recommend if you like Meg Wolitzer or Chloe Benjamin.
    • 4/5
      This was a very interesting book. In a way the plot is straightforward but the characters are so well done that it makes the plot all the more interesting. I'm not so sure that it needed the chapters that covered the year 2079 but there weren't that many of them so it wasn't that distracting.
    • 4/5
      3.4 Stars, rounded to 4.This book tells the story of four siblings and the closeness they develop as children while their mother is mostly unavailable to them, for about three years. After the death of her husband, Noni Skinner sinks into a deep depression, a period her children later deem “the pause”. The Skinner children learn to depend only on each other. Fiona, the youngest, is the one who’s POV is given most often as she narrates this story, although the lives of each of the four are explored in some depth. Despite their closeness and interdependence, there are cracks that develop in the relationships of all the four siblings in their early adulthood.While I loved the earlier book I read by this author, House Girl, I can only say I mostly enjoyed this book, largely due to the author’s writing style and skills. I did not feel deeply engaged with any of the characters here, or to the story.At the opening of this book, which is set in 2079, when Fiona is 102 years ago and telling the story of her family, it sounded as if it might be a dystopian type story, due to several vague references to what is happening in that 2079 world. But those were never explored any further as the story unfolded, just left hanging.My thanks to Library Thing, the author, and the William Morrow/Harper Collins Publishing Company for the ARC of this book which I was provided.
    • 4/5
      This story takes you through the life of a poet and her family. I found myself both bored and intrigued at any given minute while reading it. There were parts that I felt it really slogged through the mud, so to speak, then other parts that were insightful and interesting. Overall, I'm happy to have read this story, it was a good one.
    • 2/5
      When dentist Ellis Skinner suddenly dies at the age of 34, his wife, Noni, goes into a depression and pretty much stays in her bedroom for three years--a period that her four children refer to as The Pause. Renee, Caroline, Joe, and Fiona are left to their own devices and learn to take care of one another. But as adults, things start to fall apart. Renee, psychologically wounded by a near-rape experience, avoids men and motherhood while second sister Caroline drops out of college to marry her high school sweetheart. Joe, the only boy, seems to be a golden child, winning a baseball scholarship to a prestigious school--until alcohol and drugs get him expelled. Fiona, the youngest, writes a popular blog, The Last Romantic, that details the failings of the many men she sleeps with, but in time she becomes a renowned poet. They go through the usual love/hate phases that most siblings do, often spurred by jealousy but sometimes just by being disappointed in one another. In other words, the story is what I would consider a soap opera, plain and simple.For some reason, Conklin chooses to start the book in 2079, when the only one left is Fiona--and there is some kind of climate crisis shaking the world. When I started reading, my first thought was, "Oh, no, not another dystopian novel!" (I am not a fan. of the genre.) But no, this seems to have been thrown in for little or no reason and has little or nothing to do with the story. The power grid goes down while the aged Fiona is giving a poetry reading--a device that seems stuck in as a way of allowing a young woman in the audience named Luna to come to her aid. Oh, there was another Luna, years ago, who looked just like this Luna, down to the mole on her cheek. That Luna apparently inspired Fiona's first successful poetry collection, and this Luna was apparently named for her by a mother who loved the book. None of this makes much sense until much, much later, and even in retrospect, it's still an awkward beginning. We keep hearing about Fiona the Famous Poet, yet we never get a glimpse of her poetry in the entire novel. And I'm still left wondering why Conklin inserted the environmental business, which really had nothing to do with the story. Fiona works for an environmental group--but we never hear anything about her work or the group's mission.Overall, this plot is clunky, and at times it's overly contrived, especially in the last quarter, when each of the Skinners' lives (including mom Noni) makes a 180 for no apparent reason at all. Then they all die. The plot moves back and forth through time--sometimes confusingly--and from one character's point of view to another's. There's also considerable sloppiness in facts and research. Just to mention one: in 1982, teenaged Fiona has a job cutting up veggies at a diner, for which she is paid $8/hour. What? It's 2019, and many Americans are still fighting for an $8/hour wage!I finished this novel in about three days--not because I was engrossed in the story, but because I was bored and began to skim it. I doubt that I will seek out another book by this author.
    • 3/5
      A parent dies, a parent retreats and the children are left to fend for themselves. Damaged psyches are left to fester and it gets uglier and more uncomfortable.The book captured my intention and held it until it didn’t. I thought the writing was masterful and while the storyline was weak and somewhat confusing it all unraveled for me when the main character starts and explains her blog. Game over for me. At that point I lost interest but I plowed through to the end.There could have been so much to care about but the real and the abstract and the emotions and justifications were all over the place. Thank you LibraryThing and William Morrow for a copy.
    • 5/5
      I love a good family saga and The Last Romantics was one of the best I have read it a long time. It seems most sagas are historical, but this one was more contemporary because it was told by Fiona from 2079 looking back on her life, so most of the story took place in the late 70s through about 2010. It helps that those were memorable years for me as well. The story is primarily about three sisters and a brother, all with different personalities, so I believe most readers will be able to identify with one of the characters. This was one book I didn't want to end.
    • 4/5
      This is the story of a family, primarily of the four siblings from when they are very young right through to the end of their lives. This is a very softly spoken story and moves at a relaxed pace. No page turning action here, but what you get instead is highly developed characters with complex relationships. You really bond with these siblings, worrying about them in times of trouble and rejoicing with them in times of joy. You become part of the family. I found it to be a really comforting reading experience with themes of the nurturing individual personalities within a family and accepting that life is an ever changing experience that is rarely all good or all bad. The end is fully wrapped up - not necessarily with a bow but very complete and satisfying anyway.
    • 4/5
      The thing about The Last Romantics that hooked me from the beginning was the name Luna. The mysterious Luna had something to do with Fiona's brother's "incident" and I couldn't stop turning pages to find out how. But this isn't a mystery or even a suspense novel; it's a family history, starting from Fiona's childhood, through the Pause when her mother's depression left Fiona and her siblings to fend for themselves and develop bonds between them that would prove tenuous in later years, to the distant future when an elderly Fiona is recounting the whole story through her poetry. I enjoyed reading this book through it's meandering beginnings to its sweeping ending.
    • 5/5
      There are four Skinner siblings in Tara Conklin's The Last Romantics. Renee is the oldest, the responsible one. Caroline, the next oldest, is soft-hearted and traditional. Then Joe, the only boy, the gifted athlete, the apple of everyone's eye. And finally Fiona, the baby. The Skinners are a happy family until they're not: when their father dies in an accident, their mother Noni finds out that they're not as well off as she thought, and the loss of not only her husband but the life she thought she had achieved pitches her into a deep depression. They downsize, and Noni takes to her bed. For a couple years. The Skinner children are more or less left to raise themselves during what they come to call The Pause.The seeds of what will become of them are planted during The Pause. Renee takes her responsibilities to take care of the others seriously, and becomes dedicated to achieving at a level that will keep anyone from guessing what's going on at home, setting her down a path towards becoming a doctor. Caroline falls in with a neighbor family, forming a bond with one of their boys that will deepen into romance and marriage. Joe's talent and good looks ensure that his outward needs are met, even if he struggles to process his trauma. And Fiona learns to observe, a skill that comes in handy as she becomes a writer and poet. Noni does recover, and the family seems more or less intact, but the damage that's been done can't be undone.I was biased towards this one from the start: this kind of following-a-group-of-characters-over-time thing is something I absolutely love in a book. I tend to find that the books that stay with me the most are ones where character is first and foremost, and this book is all about character. The siblings and their relationships feel complicated and real. Though they all had moments of being their worst selves, their behaviors felt rooted in how their experiences, particularly during their childhoods, interacted with their innate personalities. I also appreciated that the book never felt the need to have there be a dramatic confrontation between the children and their mother...it generally leaned away from melodrama rather than leaning into it, and I think there are plenty of families that do just try their best to forget the bad moments and move on.As much as I loved this book for the most part, there were some plot elements that kept me from considering it truly great. First was the idea that The Pause could go on for multiple years without anyone really noticing. As much as Renee was able to serve in loco parentis to her younger siblings, there are things like doctor's visits and parent-teacher conferences and signing up for extracurriculars that seem like they could have been patched over for a while but not for as long as Conklin asked us to believe. And then there was the framing device, which featured a very elderly Fiona (in a world where global climate change has changed things for the worse) interacting with a young woman who might have a connection to the Skinners. This did strike me as a little too convenient and neat. On the whole, though, this is a lovely book about the bonds between siblings and would be perfect for a reader who loves well-realized characters. I very much enjoyed it and highly recommend it!
    • 4/5
      There are events in life that shape people, forge them, become an integral piece of who they are. Sometimes these events are seemingly insignificant and other times they are clearly big, life-changing occasions. In Tara Conklin's newest novel, The Last Romantics, two of these huge, defining events happen back to back, leading inexorably toward an outcome and an ending that feels fated, determined by the past and written from the beginning.Ellis Skinner was 34 when he died suddenly, leaving behind 4 children, ranging in age from 11 to 4, and a wife who had no idea of the dismal state of their finances until her dentist husband is gone. Mother Noni falls into an all consuming depression that lasts for years and that the children call The Pause, during which they must fend for themselves, running a little feral and solidifying each of them into the person she and he will grow to be as adults. Renee is the oldest, driven to take on the responsibility of her younger siblings, taking care of others before herself. Eight year old Caroline is the worrier, leaning into family, although not to her own family but to the Duffy crew the Skinner kids meet that first summer. Seven year old Joe is the golden child, beloved by everyone but whose troubles are either hidden, ignored, or explained away, leaving him searching for what he's missing, first through baseball and then through alcohol. And four year old Fiona, the baby of the family is the observer, coming to hold the family story close and finally to record it through her poetry, to give it voice. The children persevere and survive and eventually Noni comes out of her crushing depression but the siblings always wonder about her emotional resiliency and protect her from any unpleasantness until there is no way to protect her or their own hearts.The story is framed, and occasionally interrupted, by celebrated poet Fiona Skinner at a reading in 2079, answering audience questions, one of which leads her to tell her family's story, continuing on even during a power outage that seems to stretch on and become slightly sinister. Fiona, now 102 years old and quite famous, narrates the majority of the story in the first person, slowly revealing long held secrets and highlighting the enduring bond that grew between the four Skinner siblings in the aftermath of their father's death and their mother's retreat. The narration occasionally shifts to third person when Conklin wants to show the reader a closer look at what is going on with the other three siblings that Fiona could not have known. The shifts are smooth but sometimes they are so subtle, it takes the reader a minute to adjust to the fact that the focus has changed. The sibling relationships are the anchor of this novel. They are messy and sometimes frayed, but the strength of the Skinners' history with each other keeps them forever tethered no matter how far they may roam. The conceit of the future setting seems unnecessary as there are only small hints of the reality of life in 2079; the real story is that of Fiona's childhood into adulthood, perhaps even as far as middle age. The beginning is a little slow but the occasional allusions to further tragedy will keep the reader engaged in the story and invested in these flawed but oh so real feeling siblings. The end comes quickly, even as events come fast and furious, each sibling's life wrapped up in just a few sentences once Fiona has revealed what she has lived with for so long. Each character is scarred, perhaps not visibly like two of the minor characters, but marked nonetheless, forever carrying proof of the pain they endured but eventually allowing it to heal and be relegated to the past. This is a sensitive, well-written look at love, responsibility, addiction, mental health, and grief in a family fractured and mended over and over again and fans of sibling books and of families struggling but ultimately uniting will enjoy this for sure.
    • 4/5
      The story of 4 siblings whose lives were shaped by a period of time called "the pause" after their father's death and another tragedy once they are adults. I liked the story and I felt the pacing and revealing of their lives was told in an engaging manner. This was mostly told via the youngest sister Fiona. One complaint was that I felt like I would have liked to know her better as a character.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book about four siblings who lose their father and have to raise themselves and each other during the years their mother is in a depression afterwards. I felt that each character was unique and well drawn and I enjoyed reading about their relationships with one another and with the world as they each moved into and thru adulthood. The book begins in 2079 from the perspective of the youngest sibling, a poet who is giving a talk. The author drops many tidbits in these 2079 sections about how the world has changed and what like is life but we never get a very full picture of this. I found this aspect of the novel fascinating and wished this had been developed more. I would recommend this book.
    • 4/5
      Loved this book. The family dynamic amongst the siblings was perfectly balanced and complex while remaining relatable to the reader. While set in the future this story provided a non dystopia realistic preview of what the future could be while offering lookbacks to current time and the switch between present and past was done well and seemed fluid. Now I want to read Conklin’s other highly reviewed book, House Girl.
    • 4/5
      The aging Poet, Fiona, begins to answer questions about her milestone work, The Love Poem, to students both reverent and aggressive in their need to draw the truth from her as an author. Each story has its truth, its context, none quickly shared or understood, and while the inquisitors may get restless with the delivery of interconnecting pieces, the reader will not. The Last Romantics delves into a cluster of siblings whose life threads and memories are tangled together in ways that can be revealed in careful unraveling. Engaging, set later in our century with memories in our present, Conklin keeps us with her through the ride.
    • 4/5
      I received an advance reader copy from the Goodreads giveaway program in exchange for this review. The Last Romantics was a novel that was easy to fall into, well written and nicely paced. The four siblings at the center of the story provide realistic depictions of family dynamics, the good and the bad. There are some serious messages here about the challenges of parenthood, about career building, and about dealing with grief. It was an interesting twist to set parts of the narrative in 2079 with ominous overtones of future climate issues. A good book for readers who enjoy family sagas.
    • 4/5
      A special thank you to Edelweiss and HarperCollins for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.Renowned poet, Fiona Skinner, is asked about the inspiration behind "The Love Poem," her most iconic piece. The poem is actually a story about her family and a betrayal that spans years.The Skinner siblings—Renee, Caroline, Joe, and Fiona—are in limbo. They are caught between their previous life when their father was still alive, and their uncertain future without him. His death sets in motion several events: Joe's baseball career, the Pause (a period of time where their mother was incapable of leaving her bedroom), moving to a smaller home, and one unsupervised summer where they were almost feral by its end. But what happened that summer was that they forged a deep connection and became incredibly loyal to one another.Two decades later the family is once again marred by tragedy and the siblings are left questioning how deep their bonds really are, their own life choices, and just how far they will go for true love.Conklin's intimate portrait of the Skinners speaks to family obligation, resentment, tragedy, and above all, love. More specifically, the kind of love that is eclipsed by grief and how one family is changed forever after such a monumental loss.This sweeping and moving novel spans a large period of time. Conklin tackles the early years with ease but as the Skinners grow, the more dysfunctional and unlikeable they become. Unfortunately this is how she propels the narrative and I couldn't engage with the older versions of the characters. Also problematic was the futuristic dystopian parts, they didn't work or fit with the style of the rest of the narrative and caused unnecessary bulk. Ultimately what saves the book is Conklin's beautiful writing—I loved The House Girl and really enjoyed parts of this book.
    • 5/5
      This follows the Skinner family from childhood to adulthood and how they deal with death, love, and life. I liked this story. I liked Fiona's first person point-of-view. I liked the Skinner children. I was ambivalent about Noni. The character development is fantastic. I came to know each one and could figure out what they would do in a particular situation. I liked how the story starts in the future then flashes back to the present day times as Fiona tells her story. There is a lot to think about in the story and relate it to today's happenings. I wanted to know Fiona's story as much as Luna did. I was riveted.
    • 4/5
      A family saga that spans a century. A story of sibling relationships, how they grow close due to a family situation, come apart, and finally come together again, albeit not the same. Conklin does an excellent job looking into her characters lives with a keen insight and a generosity towards the flaws each holds within. The pacing is terrific, despite the time period it covers it never feels rushed. Fiona, the youngest sister is our narrator, and her experiences as the youngest in a family of four seems authentic and real. Although I'm not quite sure that she should have the knowledge she has towards what the others are thinking and seeing. That is the only minor quibble I have, though it is effective.There are a few unexpected twists, roadblocks thrown in here and there, the things many of us have to deal with a times. Ultimately, this is a novel about love, what we survive, what we forgive and what we pretend not to know to spare another. It is about growing and reacting to the situations we experience. There is happiness, sadness, challenges, all the things of which life and family are made. I enjoyed this, though the ending was a little more emotional that I would have liked. But like life, perfection is not always possible and I enjoyed these characters very much."For many years loved seemed to me not something that enriched or emboldened but a blind hole into which you fell, and in the falling you forgot what it was to live in your own light."ARC from Edelweiss.
    • 5/5
      Even though the story frame was a bit clunky, I truly enjoyed this book. The Last Romantics is a well written look at the bonds between family members, warts and all. The characters, all realistically flawed, were very believable/relatable. As for the end of the novel - WOW. Just WOW. I highly recommend Tara Conklin's latest work.
    • 4/5
      This was an early review book and I'm not exactly sure how I feel about it. I really liked The House Girl but this was much different from that novel. For many pages I was wondering where the story was going and why I should care about the characters. It grabbed me immediately by the first chapter being set in 2079. There were comments that allowed the reader to think that something terrible may have happened but there is never much explanation as to what had happened or was happened. A throw-away line that the 2nd Amendment "hadn't made it" but nothing more. I think the author wanted to put a lot in the book but then ran out of space. By page 168 I was wondering why I was still reading. The last 80 pages of the book were the best but I felt the author was just trying to wrap up the story. There were also a few chapters where I wasn't certain which sister was speaking and would have to go back and try to figure it out. I just think this book could have been so much more than it was.