“The moment I started reading this book, the hair went up on my neck. I blasted through it in a night, thrilled by the energy. Shields doesn’t wear out the form; it keeps doing remarkable tricks on the reader’s brain right to the finish. Stunning.”
Jonathan Lethem
“A sort of existential mixtape, and at the heart of it all is how others see us, what they imagine of us. ‘Do you think anyone can understand anyone else, and if not, what are any of us doing other than walking around trapped for an eternity in our own space suits?’ The Very Last Interview attempts to answer this question and at the same time complicates it in an utterly thrilling way. I love this book.”
Nick Flynn
“David Shields, the wild card in contemporary nonfiction, always challenges the presumptions of genre. His terrific new book, The Very Last Interview, is alternately hilarious, sad, and, for any author, excruciatingly recognizable. By submitting to a self-inquisition, Shields demonstrates how much of our self-image is determined or undermined by the outside world, how much the voice of that doppelgänger feeds our doubt and inevitable sense of failure. Ironically, the book itself is a triumph of honesty and craft.”
Phillip Lopate
“Not for the first time when confronted with a book by David Shields, I approached with skepticism, was initially irritated, then charmed, and ended up being thoroughly captivated.”
Geoff Dyer
“Engaging, lively, funny, and fascinating, partly for the way the questions answer themselves and partly for the gaps we have to imagine when the questions are answered in a way that we can’t hear. Shields’s preoccupations are very much in evidence, but I saw a lot of myself in it, as will, I would think, most readers. Quite wonderful.”
Charles Baxter