Last Word

Fiction. LAST WORD, a novella, tells the story of Kip Langer, a successful orthognathic surgeon, who is trying to raise three children, including Eric, a bright but socially awkward thirteen-year-old from his first marriage. As Eric gets into more and more trouble at his Conservative Jewish Day School, Kip tries to understand Eric and guide him toward making better choices. The story, set in a Southern suburban community, examines patterns of love, anger, intimacy, inheritance, and disconnection within one modern blended family.

"Friends, come close, closer still: now, marvel at the trueness of Jonathan Blum's voice as he unravels a family saga for the ages. Blum's LAST WORD explores the lengths one father will travel to know his son's heart and the distances that son will journey to keep his heart hidden. With this debut, Jonathan Blum proves himself to be a writer of tireless compassion and infinite wisdom. Richly detailed, brimming with warmth, humor, and tenderness, LAST WORD is a 'honey jar' of a book."--Amber Dermont

"Jonathan Blum is a masterful writer, and LAST WORD is his most compelling work to date. Its narrator is loveable but deluded, and the story he tells us about his son's offensive Internet hijinks is hugely entertaining."--Mark Jude Poirier

"Following in the great tradition of the form, Jonathan Blum has written a novella of extraordinary beauty and profound intelligence. Infused with his trademark humor and wit, LAST WORD casts an incisive eye on our parenting culture, while at the same time telling a riveting and emotionally complex story of one man's struggle to connect with son. It's a stunning work, written by an author whose prodigious talent is matched only by his generous heart."--Andrew Porter

"Parents and Children Beware: with Old Testament firepower and disarming sweetness, Jonathan Blum hacks into the dark heart of the 'online' American family, where every road is paved with the best intentions and no one, not even the computer, gets out alive. A smashing and gifted debut that will still your pulse and rock your soul! It's beautiful, man."--Holiday Reinhorn

"The Jewish-American family saga lives on in Jonathan Blum's funny and humane LAST WORD. Think of it as When the Maccabees Met the iMac--a compulsively observant family thrown into chaos by the Internet. This is a sharp, knowing debut, rich without a wasted word, funny without a drop of malice."--Scott Spencer

"I've long been an admirer of the strange, intense, and yet incredibly intimate work of Jonathan Blum. Here in his new novella, LAST WORD, Blum gives us a father who does his best to love his son, and a family very much in peril. LAST WORD often made me laugh--he knows his people so well. It also often made me wonder: what more is in store for us--as sons, as fathers, as families--in this time of incredible technological upheaval? A necessary book for a very fraught time."--Peter Orner

Jonathan Blum is the author of LAST WORD, a novella, which has been featured on The Huffington Post, KCRW's Bookworm, and Iowa Public Radio. Blum grew up in Miami and graduated from UCLA and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. His short stories have appeared in Green Mountains Review, Gulf Coast, New York Stories, Northwest Review, Other Voices, Playboy, Zaum, and elsewhere. He has taught fiction writing at The University of Iowa and at Drew University, and is the recipient of a Michener-Copernicus Society of America Award and a grant from the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation. He lives in Los Angeles.