Friday Find: Last Last Chance by Fiona Maazel

Title: Last Last Chance
Author: Fiona Maazel
ISBN: 9780312428310
Publisher: Picador USA/2009
Pages: 368

Lucy Clark has to much in her hands after her father commits suicide. He had been accused of having a hand in the disappearance of a lethal strain of virus, resulting in Superplague. To make matters worse, she too like her mother is addicted to drugs. Hannah, her younger half sister, is always speaking out about diseases. Lucy wants to set right everything but doesn't really know how to do it. Her older lover, Stanley, does not help. He is on the lookout for someone who will carry a child from his dead wife's frozen eggs. Lucy dwells in the misery and seems to love being miserable.

"It's like you are more attached to being miserable than you are to being with me," a lover tells her as he walks out.

With such massive problems, Lucy tries to do the best she can. In the face of gravest of despair, Lucy has the ability to laugh at herself, her ways, the world. Initially it appears, she can't cope. But she does. Her relationship with her half-sister is beautifully depicted. With wit, and self-deriosion, Lucy does rise to the occasion rather very well and learns to survive. The novel speaks of the present times and future. It also speaks of lethargy, personal demons. The writing is surreal, nothing seems straight but makes sense. It is a book which makes the reader think.