~ The Last American Man, by Elizabeth Gilbert ~
This is one of Gilbert’s earlier works, published in 2002, but her writing voice was distinctive already. It is an aptly named book, chronicling the personality of Eustace Conway, born in South Carolina in 1961, who could turn his hand to anything, who could make his own shelter, catch and cook his own food, survive off the land – and all that when he was just 12! Eustace is evangelistic about spreading the word to modern America that they can return to this simpler life without all the mod cons, speaking at schools, speaking anywhere he is invited to actually, inspiring people, trying to spread his message. He did the two thousand mile Appalachian trail surviving on only what he hunted and gathered, went to Guatemala and lived with the Mayan Indian for months, kayaked across Alaska, scaled cliffs in New Zealand, hiked across the German Alps, rode a horse across America.
According to Gilbert, Americans were enamoured by Eustace because although they may not want to or dare to or be able to follow in his way of life, they find it comforting and aspirational to know he is doing it, living it. Gilbert writes that in classic European coming-of-age tradition, the provincial boy transforms into a gentleman. But the American tradition, she says, went the opposite way;
The American boy came of age by leaving civilization and striking out towards the hills. There, he shed his cosmopolitan manners and became a robust and proficient man. Not a gentleman, mind you, but a man” 4-5. The American Man or the Western Man as an ideal, became a tourist attraction in the 18th and 19th centuries apparently, exoticised for being resourceful, hardy, “born out of the challenges of wrenching a New World from virgin wilderness. Unhindered by class restrictions, bureaucracy, or urban squalor, these Americans simply got more done in a single day than anyone had imagined possible.
p5
Gilbert cites English traveller, Isabel Bird, writing that they are
blithe, cheerful souls […] chivalrous in the manners the free as the winds” 6. And that Americans bought into this hype. And hence, when the American frontier was closed in 1890, worries spread about what would become of our boys without the wilderness as proving ground? “Why, they might become effete, pampered, decadent.Lord help us, they might become Europeans.
p7
Enter Eustace Conway, whom Gilbert knew through his brother, Judson.
Eustace’s skills in the wilderness are truly legion. he is wildly competent. He is physically and intellectually predestined to acquire proficiency. he has perfect eyesight, perfect hearing, perfect balance, perfect reflexes, and perfect focus. He has long muscles on a light but strongly constructed frame, like a natural middle-distance runner. His body can do anything he asks of it. His mind, too. he has to be exposed to an idea or shown a process only once to get it right, to lock it in, and immediately begin improving on its principles. he pays closer attention to his surroundings than anyone I’ve ever seen. His mind operates, as Henry Adams wrote of the minds of the earliest American settlers, like “a mere cutting instrument, practical, economical, sharp, and direct.”
p17
Well now, how about that for a character reference? She also depicts him as incredibly articulate, charismatic, adored wherever he goes, mesmerising to audiences, able to connect with apparently anyone and everyone, cool beyond cool.
The book is well written despite the early gush over the man. It comes across as a very real or realistically rendered depiction. Gilbert sees Eustace’s struggles, his shortcoming, his arrogance (my word, not hers, but he notes he doesn’t have humility), his intolerance (her word, this time). She details his life, his plans, his development, his many adventures. Her admiration does not blind her. She writes compellingly of a compelling character, powerfully attractive or repellent depending on one’s own tastes, but compelling. Eustace seems psychologically damaged for all his vaunted serenity – he struggles to maintain a long term partnership with any woman though he falls in love repeatedly, and although many women are crazy about him. He is traumatised by his father’s lack of respect and approval and childhood brutalities, and brainwashed by his loving mother’s indoctrination that he is a Man of Destiny. Eustace himself is aware that his relationships with those closest to him are often rocky, and even seeks help for this at one point. He is driven, and drives others without mercy. He expects the same from everyone as he expects from himself, apparently not able to appreciate they may not have had the same starting point and natural gifts. His employees keep leaving or else he keeps firing them, and he finds it hard to maintain a team who can live up to his expectations and standards. Like most paragons, he does not come across as a comfortable person to live with.
Eustace Conway also seems a bit of a sucker for punishment and/or pain. When working with a chain saw sawing up logs,
“the chain hit a knot, kicked back, and jumped up towards his face. He deflected it with his left hand, sawing into two of his fingers”
p132
According to Gilbert who personally witnessed this, blood starting pumping out. He carried on sawing, made no attempt to try to stem the flow. By the end of the day, his entire arm, the logs, the tools, Gilbert’s hands and the hands of another assistant, were covered in blood, apparently. When riding across America and thrown by his horse, Eustace
landed on his had on a rock and split his scalp. He was so badly hurt, he could barely see straight, and every step gave him a spasm
p168
but he just continued riding, letting the blood clot.
Nevertheless, he is a character well worth spending some time with, and reading this book was a pleasure. Both for its depiction of this remarkable man, this Last American man, as well as for Gilbert’s smooth, poised writing.
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