Last of the Savages
By Jay McInerney
Published by Bloomsbury
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As part of a recent reprint of McInerney’s work, Last of the Savages is an interesting dissection of the civil rights movement, as seen through the eyes of two privileged white kids at a prep school
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Book Review
As part of a recent reprint of McInerney’s work, Last of the Savages is an interesting dissection of the civil rights movement, as seen through the eyes of two privileged white kids at a prep school, running through their fallout in the mid-nineties.
Preppie Patrick fondly remembers his wild-eyed roommate Will, now a successful record producer and reproducer of ‘black music for the masses.’ When they first meet, Will is the privileged white son of the Mississippi Delta, has embraced black soul music and adopted its raw, searing anthems as his own. He is naive and spiritual. Patrick watches as Will’s relationship with his right-wing dysfunctional family disintegrates, as his marriage to a black girl causes his home life to erupt in violence, as drugs ravage him physically and mentally. Meanwhile Patrick suppresses secrets of his own, secrets that go beyond just friendship.
Spanning three decades from the turbulent sixties to the nineties, Last of the Savages is a profound exploration of interracial love, music, family, honour and friendship.
