Spanning multiple generations and nearly eighty years, Last House tells the story of one American family during an age of grand ideals and even greater downfalls. This family drama takes place against the backdrop of our nation’s history, from World War II through the protests of the 60s and to the present day (and beyond), and digs deeply into questions of what we owe each other while examining the double edge of progress, and the hubris of empire.

This story, told from multiple perspectives, follows the members of the Taylor family. Nick, WWII veteran tuned oil company lawyer, his wife Bet, who trades in one potential future as an intellectual to become a suburban wife and mother, and their two children, Katherine and Harry. Nick comes from humble origins but thanks to his work for American Oil, he can provide every comfort for his family, including Last House, a secluded country escape.

Last House is a complicated and nuanced portrayal of one family’s deeply complicated relationship with oil -the resource that built their fortune and fueled their greatest tragedy. While the Greatest Generation labored to make the world a better place for their children, the next generation rebels against the world their parents have created for them.

I enjoyed this book and loved Shattuck’s writing, though I felt the book dragged in parts. I appreciate the hopeful note it ends on and think it’s well worth the read.

Thank you to @netgalley and @williammorrow for an advanced reader copy. All opinions are my own.

A family saga set mostly in the 1960's and 1970's. A husband, a WWII veteran, is involved in the oil industry in the Middle East. The wife once had her own ambitions. As their children grow up in the 1960's they are confused about their paths in life. The different pieces of this book were interesting but overall things felt disjointed and not fully explored.

Last House by Jessica Shattuck
4/5 stars

At first description, this book seemed absolutely perfect for me. Then, just before I started reading, I worried that perhaps the concept was too much, that a book covering so much time, so many historical events and eras, so many generations, might not be able to deliver.

That worry was unnecessary. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more by the author.

The Taylor family had me hooked from the start. Even just the first few pages when Nick is first describing his career, and relatedly, his wife and what she has given up for him and their family, told me this story was going to be fleshed out well.

Each of these characters has so much depth. The complexity of their lives and relationships and the way they’re relating to the world around them is just so well done. The deep, sort of philosophical questions this book presents in such an accessible way, and the way it feels like it really connects to American life today, is impressive.

In a book full of compelling characters, I felt most pulled to Bet’s character. I would read an entire book of Bet Taylor. The introspective and very humanistic way she views the world and her own actions within it had me wanting so much more of her story.

ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley in exchange for honest review.

This book was interesting and a quick read. The writing was engaging and beautiful at times. The author creates a perspective of the Taylor family that is as pitiless and uncaring as life can be. This is an oblique book, told through the lens of looking back years from now at something foolish and antiquated. It’s not like any other books I’ve read in a while. The book sums up the human condition as wanting more until we’re numb, defining oneself by the ability to acquire those things. The modern condition which is yearning for something our ancestors ran away from but also being unable to live at all in the moment to be satisfied with what one has now. The ending is particularly relevant to the trials we will soon face in the 21 century. Truly wish the book had been longer.

This is a multigenerational novel that spans from the 1950s to nearly 80 years later. It starts with the patriarch of the family, Nick Taylor, and how he works in American Oil and what that brings to the table (money) for the family to have a place that they can get away from stresses of life. It's called Last House, and it's a secluded house in Vermont. We get to know his family, which includes his wife, Bet, and their two children, Katherine and Harry. Then we move to the late 1960s and Katherine's story of dealing with the consequences of her father working in the oil industry and how she feels about that and the current events happening, like the Vietnam War. We continue through 2026. It's interesting to see how each family member deals with their legacy.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for advanced copy, and I give my review freely

This is a roughly historical novel. There are a gazillion historical novels set in WW2 so I appreciate this is not on trend. The history part is covering our relationship with Iran in the service of Big Oil. The other side was the hippy movement against all things government. For the family in the book, this is was breeds alienation of daughter from parents. The first half seemed uneven as it starts with the mother had her ambitions but these become extinguished when she accepts the construct of the 1950s era. 85% of book focuses on daughter and flows more seamlessly. Thanks to NetGalley for a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

A sweeping story of the Taylor family starting in 1953 with Nick’s oil career and stretching nearly eighty years.

I love family sagas like this where you get to know each generation very well. My interest was a bit disjointed. I found Nick’s parts with him overseas a bit boring and had a hard time sticking with it. A parts in the US though, were interesting to me, especially the history of the 1960’s and how it affected the family.

“Life is full of minor characters we slough off. In memory, they step forward - bigger sometimes than the people we thought were essential to us.”

Last House comes out 5/14.

The Taylor family's saga spans multiple generations. Nick, the father, is a lawyer and a WW2 veteran with Mennonite roots. Bet, the mother, served as a WW2 codebreaker before embracing family life and motherhood. Their daughter, Katherine, is an activist from the Vietnam era, and their son, Harry, is a naturalist. The narrative, while lacking a central plot, offers a beautifully penned character study that provides deep insights into each family member's life, compelling me to continue reading. My thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the opportunity to read this book in advance in exchange for an honest review.

The author's writing style is great, but the plot of this book didn't engage me. After reading the author's previous book this was a little disappointing. It's a family drama that includes the perspectives of different family members over the course of decades. It's a story that shows the changes that people go through over time and how decisions influence later outcomes. I enjoy family dramas and historical fiction, but this one just didn't pull me in.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced digital copy of this book.

Shortly after crawling up the beach at Saipan and surviving the Japanese gunfire, Nick Taylor realized he wanted to go home and marry the girl he left behind and build a family which would protect him from the future battles, or at least offer an oasis between battles. When he returns, he marries Elizabeth "Bet" O'Malley and they settle into life in postwar America. Nick, a lawyer before he was a soldier, works for a major oil company in Manhattan, while Bet tends to the family home as well as 5-year old Katherine and baby Harry in Mapleton, a suburb only a train ride away.

Nick travels a lot for the firm and when we first meet him in 1953, he has been away from home for a month, the longest absence yet. Bet meets him at the train station to find there is another man with him, Carter Weston, who will have a major part in all their lives. For Carter works for the CIA and he recruits Nick to help him in Iran, where American oil companies want the Shah to return to power. As the years pass and the children grow up, the Taylors become part of a group who buys the houses in a secluded town in upstate Vermont, dubbing themselves "the End of the World gang". The Taylor's house is Last House, named for the former owner, whose name was Last, but was also the last person to abandon the town.

In 1968, America is in turmoil, with protests against the Vietnam war, but also against almost everything. Big Pharma, Women's Rights, but especially Big Oil, which is seen to be oppressive and, after a spectacular oil spill in California, ruining the world. Katherine has graduated from college and finds herself at loose ends, in a job she doesn't particularly like, so soon falls in with a radical group which publishes a newspaper airing all the grievances from all over the world. Her younger brother Harry drops out of college and wants to fight in Vietnam, but fails the physical, so hangs around Kate and her friends instead. But Kate doesn't realize how much Harry is being radicalized. The climax of the story comes in 1971, while Nick and Bet are in Iran at the Shah's infamous party in the desert, and things at home take a disastrous turn.

Spanning approximately 80 years in the life of the Taylor family, this is a story of post-war America, how the Greatest Generation made a better world for their children, but their children's dreams of a better world are not their parents' dreams.

When you see a book listed as Historical fiction, one thinks WWll or even longer. What we often forget is that America has a rich history. A lot of conflict and resolutions have happened in the last one hundred years.
The family starts in the idyllic suburbs. They are new and shiny and there seems to be a surplus of everything. Country homes are the thing if you can afford them. A little does Nick know, the Last House will not only be the family's retreat but the only thing that holds the family together when the next generations find their footing in a world different than the ones those before had.
Though we follow the family for eighty some years and the novel barely makes it to this century, the division between generations is still the same today.

"Last House depicts a family drama unfolding over 80 years, but the storytelling seems to skim over many years, focusing only on select short periods. Consequently, the character development feels shallow, and the narrative lacks depth. Overall, it fell short of my expectations based on the description provided."

I was expecting more of a historical fiction novel than a family saga, which left me feeling a little disappointed - and wanting for more. I really enjoyed the multigenerational point of view from the book - and different perspectives husband vs wife (mom vs dad) - but also felt like this took away from the overall storyline. I think that there were too many emotions, opinions and experiences - although the book would not have been the same with fewer, i think each additional point of view, decade and experience took away from the others. I enjoyed the book, but never felt drawn to any character. If you are looking for a book that describes a family's experience from the post-war generation, through the boomers to present day, definitely pick this up!

Thank you netgalley for my advanced reader copy.

Writing: 5/5 Plot: 5/5 Characters: 5/5

This is a brilliant epic of a book. It spans a period of 90 years (~1950 to 2040) via the trajectories of a single family — each member ensconced in his or her own cultural context while engaging with the others who are firmly planted in their own contemporaneous but often dissonant contexts. The story begins with Nick and Bet Taylor — he a junior lawyer attached to an American oil team negotiating deals in the Middle East and she a WWII cryptographer who gave up her dreams of a PhD to become a wife and mother (as women did in the 50s). From this stability and cultural conformity came two children — Katherine and Harry — who grow up in a clash between the middle class values of their parents and the anger and rhetoric of the 60s, complete with Marxist hyperbole and anger-fueled violence in the name of peace and justice. Decades later, by the time the third generation comes of age, their social cohort is beset by the overwhelming angst from the imminent collapse of society from climate change, war, and shifting values.

What impresses me about this book is how well Shattuck captures the feelings of the time(s) from so many different perspectives. Anger, fear, bewilderment, passion. Sometimes it was hard to read because she captured it so well; other times it was chilling to read because the activism of the 60s (the good, the bad, and the ugly) is blatantly mirrored in what is happening today. She must have finished writing this book before the Israel / Hamas war began and yet she captured the mix of intentions, propaganda and stupidity of the current situation perfectly.

I loved that the multiple viewpoints were captured via highly reflective characters — their feelings of joy, frustration, rage, and angst appearing in response to a rapidly shifting cultural landscape. I love that they pondered, each in his or her own way, the responsibilities that are incurred simply by being alive. The pages are full of insight with regard to parenting, political attitudes, alliances, friendship, and familial support.

I was (pleasantly) surprised by the lack of cliche and manipulation in the narrative. If the author has a strong opinion on climate change, greed, politics, democracy, or activism, I couldn’t tell you what it was. She covered several competing thoughts on how a person chooses to live in the world as it is. One of my favorite parts (towards the end) was a 2-3 page summary of an optimistic and pessimistic view of the same world. Perfectly crystalized (IMHO) into personal attitudes and interpretations. This book could have been depressing but came off to me as more wistful — the wistfulness that always accompanies the passage of time, regardless of how sweet that passing is.

Some good quotes:

“That’s what civilization is,” Brent said. “Living with people outside your tribe. All those rules and norms and structures that allow you to coexist. Right? Without those, we’re just – cave dwellers, protecting our own turf. You escape civilization, you escape back into your tribe. “

“The Weather Underground had gone off the deep end. They had aligned themselves with history’s most violent killers, people who thought the righteousness of their cause gave them the right to make decisions about life and death: Hitler, Stalin, Charles Manson. In the name of justice, how could you choose that?”

“Still, Katherine‘s knee jerk cynicism, annoyed him. She had never even been to the Middle East. She knew nothing about Iran. She knew nothing about the oil industry or the complicated politics of resource distribution. She had never even taken an economics class. She did not grasp that she was on the top floor of a great complicated structure with her lofty ideals while he was in the basement, stoking the boiler, making sure she would not freeze to death. Her generation took so much for granted! All the peace and plenty they had grown up with wasn’t given — it was protected by a sheath of young men’s bones strewn across Europe and the Pacific“

“How will it work when everyone is exactly equal?” my mother wanted to know. “Is there enough, really, to go around?” I was appalled by this sentiment, so chauvinist, racist, survivalist. I railed at her about the capitalist racket, the smallness of her Depression-era mindset (“But I don’t have a mindset,” she protested. “I have questions”). She was a good sport about it, really, mild-mannered in the face of my patronizing. But she persisted: Wouldn’t there always be some way people sorted themselves? If it wasn’t race or gender or class, would it be intelligence? Physical strength? Blood type? Weren’t there always bound to be haves and have-nots on account of finite resources? The constraints of weather and geography, for instance? Who got the high ground with fertile soil versus who got the desert?”

“My father wanted calm and safety, not emotion. Everything in their life was set. That was her generation, I guess. Their households clean, tidy, and immobile, built to last. So, too, was their concept of the relationships of the people who populated it: mother, daughter, neighbor, housecleaner — these were static entities. I can see now that for my father, this was vital, the best protection he knew against all that was ugly, tangled, and difficult. My mother, though, longed for something different. She was forty-seven years old, and she’d been living the same life since she was twenty-three.”

“Conflict avoidance is a luxury of the bourgeoisie,” I said as if this were a well-known quote. Maybe it was. My head was awash in edict and directives and liberal platitudes.

“The idea disturbed him. They were raising a daughter who felt free to be unpleasant when she was unhappy? He would have been caned by his father if he’d ever been ‘unpleasant.’ ”

Last House reminds me of what happens with every generation – we question the actions of the previous generation, and that is a good thing.

In this book, Nick Taylor is a WWII veteran and a lawyer, whose company focuses primarily on the oil industry. He is married to Bet, who was a former codebreaker during the war but is now your typical housewife. They have two children, Katherine and Harry. As the story unfolds, Katherine seems to struggle with the comfortable world her parents created for her and her brother in the face of the Vietnam War, racism, conflicts about the U.S. reliance on foreign oil, etc. Katherine is more of the outspoken child. On the other hand, Harry quiet and reflective but seems to empathize with all the “wrongs” of the world.

I liked the story and found the characters interesting, but there was something missing. I felt like I was reading about individual characters, some were more developed than others and found the story to be disjointed. Towards the end of the story, there seemed to be more clarity and connection. Despite the challenges with the book, I still enjoyed it and appreciated the focus on generational differences, right and wrong and family.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

#LastHouse #JessicaShattuck

While many reviews of this finely crafted novel have focused on Nick Taylor's involvement in Iran as an oil company executive beginning in 1953, this isn't really about Iran at all- it's about a family during a tumultuous era and a tragedy. Bet and Nick are strivers and they marry when Nick returns from war, with Bet leaving behind her nascent career working on the Venona papers and her aspirations for a Phd in English lit. Their life changes when Nick's mysterious and well connected pal Carter invites them to buy an off the grid sort of home in Vermont. Their children Katherine and Harry flourish there unti they don't. The second part of the novel sees Katherine, newly graduated from college in the early 1970s, falling in with a group of radicals, a group Harry eventually adopts as well. This unfolds over the years, with historical events echoing into their lives. This is thought provoking (and sometimes Shattuck might try just a bit too hard to wrap everything in) about the period, about Big Oil, about protests, about the roles of women, and so on. It's also beautifully written and while you know something has happened, the actual event is not telegraphed. If I have a quibble, it's with the final chapters which feel more chaotic than the measured earlier parts. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. Excellent read.

This book is definitely timely and hits differently than it would have had I read it even a couple of months ago. What I really enjoyed about this book is the portrayal of radicalization of youth. While their parents fought to create a life with fewer struggles for their children. The children in a way rebel against this lack of struggle but funneling their energy into a struggle they create for themselves…..activism, which can start out as earnest and well intended but result in extremism and short sightedness. I also like that the book ends with an element of hope and the message that only in working together can we solve the problems that we created together.

Set near the beginning of “The Age of Oil,” Last House follows the Taylor family. Nick served in the war and works for American Oil. Bet had a secret job decoding Russian intelligence that she gave up, along with dreams of a PhD, to be a suburban mom. Katherine is a boisterous, unhappy child. And Harry is a model son. As the family matures, each member diverges on their own path of survival. This novel teaches parts of history many do not know or have forgotten, and shows how people lived from many different perspectives.

The author paints a realistic picture of life in the USA from the 1950's to the 2000's. Quite a change here over that period of time. Having lived it myself, I could relate to the characters and understand the changes that occurred. Well done!

This is the first book I've read by Jessica Shatluck and this historical fiction book ranks high up on the list with Kristen Harmel, Kristin Hannah's books! Wow!!! She accurately captures the turmoil and lifestyles of the 1950s through the present and even ventures into 2026 as to what might be. Thanks for the advance copy!!