Last Stands: Notes from Memory

When we approach a book with very high expectations, those expectations are seldom exceeded. LAST STANDS, however, was better than I had dared to hope. I have been an Edgar Lee Masters fan since adolesence, and I've always wondered what the childhood of his youngest son, Hilary Masters, must have been like. Hilary lived with his maternal grandparents for much of his youth, but spent summers and holidays with his elderly, famous father and young mother before finally joining his parents in adolescence. This memoir does much more than record facts. Hilary Masters successfully conveys what it felt like to shift between the home of his father, an aging literary eminence, and the home of an aging, pistol-waving ex-cavalryman, his maternal grandfather. The whole cast of characters is vividly drawn. One discovers with relief that Edgar Lee, although hardly a constant presence in his son's life, did love his youngest boy and exert an influence on him. One marvels at the portrait of his Grandfather Coyne, a 19th-century soldier and adventurer whose type scarcely exists today. One cannot but admire the loyalty and determination of Hilary's mother, Edgar Lee's second wife, in taking charge of her ailing, often faithless husband and ensuring that his final years were spent more comfortably and peacefully than he had a right to expect. Two features of Hilary's evocative, often witty, narrative really stand out. The story shifts from one time to another and one locale to another, just as a reminiscing memory itself does. Hilary does this so skillfully that the reader is never confused about where he is or whom he is with. And, although writers' guides caution against the use of too much detail, Masters piles it on to great effect. He sets scenes with such an artful weaving of photographic detail that I often felt I was seated at the table or riding in the car with the participants. Hilary, now 80, still teaches creative writing at Carnegie-Mellon. I think he may be a hell of an instructor, because he's one hell of a writer--better in some ways than his legendary father. Any Edgar Lee Masters aficianado will welcome this book as a unique contribution to the literature about the author of Spoon River. However, it is not necessary to know or care a lot about Edgar Lee to enjoy this book, which succeeds purely as the story of an unusual childhood in a long-vanished era. Hilary Masters has produced a brilliant memoir, and anyone interested enough to begin it will surely finish it. Highly recommended!

Hilary Masters' memoir Last Stands exhibits uniqueness in writing with a universal appeal. Whether it be upper class zeal, lower class pride, war stories, grandparents, grandchildren, health, humor, abuse, neglect, tolerance, strength, or even food, there is something in it for everyone. Overall, Last Stands is a patchwork piece--a memoir and indirect autobiography glittered with several familial biographies. Masters constantly switches scenes and elements of focus, but he overlaps his storyline, keeping the reader grounded, despite a sequence of simultaneous events. Thus, history is tied together in a busy but logical manner. Although Masters reveals disturbing events, he adds tidbits of humor to lighten the mood. In addition, he compares and contrasts fictitious characters, such as Odysseus, to events in his own life--a technique that grants him boundless points-of-view. Furthermore, his ingenuity unfolds with his use of secondary sources: letters, poems, epitaphs, and invitations. Finally, his use of dialogue carries the story where it might otherwise seem bland.Even where memory falls short in the author's mind, he entertains the reader with his image of how a situation could have happened. Thus, Masters offers creative details of a picture that might have been there, and even if it wasn't, he proves that the truth is as real as the writer's true imagination.