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The Last American Man | 
| Author: Elizabeth Gilbert
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy New: $13.68
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Avg. Customer Rating:  95 reviews
Sales Rank: 484989
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.6
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.310973
ASIN: B000MG1Z9C
Publication Date: May 27, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In this rousing examination of contemporary American male identity, acclaimed author and journalist Elizabeth Gilbert explores the fascinating true story of Eustace Conway. In 1977, at the age of seventeen, Conway left his family's comfortable suburban home to move to the Appalachian Mountains. For more than two decades he has lived there, making fire with sticks, wearing skins from animals he has trapped, and trying to convince Americans to give up their materialistic lifestyles and return with him back to nature. To Gilbert, Conway's mythical character challenges all our assumptions about what it is to be a modern man in America; he is a symbol of much we feel how our men should be, but rarely are.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 90 more reviews...
A different kind of biography June 17, 2008
This is the biography of a man who has spent his whole life in the woods, living off the land. The difference between him and the many others who live off the land? He has flourished. Plus, he does it partially to convince others to give up the trap of luxury and return to a simple nature-centric lifestyle. The author gives us a solid background then weaves interesting tales about the "last american man" and how hardworking and different he is compared to an average man. A well-written book that drags a little in the end reiterating the same dogma that keeping up with the joneses is futile. However Elizabeth Gilbert hadn't quite polished off her writing style as she does in Eat, Pray, Love. A worthy read for anyone disinterested in suburban sprawl along with Into The Wild.
Reluctant Disciple March 31, 2008
I enjoyed reading this book and I have often dreamed of living the type of lifestyle that Eustace Conway lives, though not quite so harsh. It seems to me that his many hang-ups have created a personal "river" that no one is able to cross and join him. He seems to be a carbon copy of his father, with just enough minor differences to convince himself that he is nothing like him. Sadly, he has decided to turn away from the only source that could give him true happiness, a relationship with Jesus Christ. I think the old saying, "no one is as blind as he who refuses to see" fits Eustace well. His desire for acceptance from his father has blinded him to the joys of life. The disatisfaction that his apprentises experience and which Eustace cannot understand appears to stem largely from his use of them as slave labor. The expectations of those who come to work on Turtle Island are not the expectations of Eustace himself, which seems to be based on a phylosophy of, " hey, I dug a one hundred foot long ditch, three feet deep through solid rock! It took me two months and nearly killed me, and though I didn't really learn anything about living off the land, by golly I know I can dig a ditch through solid rock and knowing that gives me a warm feeling about who I am." No. The book gives the impression that the apprentises thought they were there to learn how to live off the land but Eustace failed to tell them that they were there to find out what he himself had always practised, "I will do one thing no matter how hard or how impossible it may seem until it kills me or I master it. Then I can stand straight and in my mind know that I am worth something if to no one but myself."
This is somewhat of a harsh review of a book about a man I've never met but it is based on the impression I got from the book. I wish you eventual happiness Mr. Conway. You've certainly strived for it.
I recommend this book.
Very interesting! Wonderfully written! March 28, 2008
I really enjoyed this book. It gave an unbiased account of a man, who even in his best intentions, falls short of what he wants to be. Contrary to some of the negative reviews, Gilbert DOES see all that is not right about this man, and she tells us about it.
This book is a journey through the mind and heart of a troubled man and those people who were raptured by his personality and then inevitably disappointed. I loved it!
 Eustace March 22, 2008
I have purchased approx. 10 copies of this book-- I find it entertaining, amusing and cannot decide if I liked this man at the end or not. As I live in North Carolina; not far from the subject- guests often think it would be fun to meet him and see how he as aged. Great gift book for -mostly the men in ones life.
A fascinating mirror March 11, 2008
This book is more than the biography of an American eccentric. It allows us to look at our own, peculiarly American, mythologies through the lens of one person's life. Many American men aspire to the kind of skills and challenges that Eustace Conway provides for himself. We have a long tradition of reinventing ourselves by way of trials-by-nature. And we are running up to the end of an oil-based economy that has given many Americans unprecedented freedom and mobility, as well as the luxury of ignoring the limitations imposed by natural systems. It is good that Gilbert, with her gentle sense of humor, has documented Conway's achievements and philosophy for us by way of the durable technology of the written book. It may come in handy in years to come.
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