The Last Thing Before The Apocalypse - Softcover

Mackie, Peter G

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1849919666 ISBN 13: 9781849919661

Publisher: Chipmunkapublishing, 2013

Synopsis

The Last Thing Before the Apocalypse is a collection of somewhat mysterious writings starting with a short story Faust Returns to the Fatherland, a tale of love, drugs and tragedy as seen through the eyes of a young Scotsman who finds himself in Berlin at the time of the squatting movement in the early 1980s and discovers that everything becomes stranger and stranger all the time - and ending with A Seventies Odyssey, a narrative describing a young man's experiences as he starts travelling in Europe in the late 1970s. Most of the stories touch upon the subject of mental illness and have a dreamlike quality about them.

About this title

Review

Dreams, reality, travel, love, mental illness, sex, drugs, and more combine in the stories of The Last Thing Before The Apocalypse to give a glimpse into the lives of the many various characters. We follow along as one man relives his life in his dreams and another lives his life on the streets of Berlin. One recounts a speech heard, while someone else travels through Europe. Peter G. Mackie drops us in the middle of a dreamlike and mysterious world where anything can happen.

The Last Thing Before The Apocalypse is a collection of ten stories that span countries and decades. They are written in more of a conversational style which is good in many ways, but detrimental in others. Good because it helps the flow and it really help you feel part of the story, but it also makes it difficult to really set the scene at times and sometimes you feel like something is missing; like some details were left out. The stories are entertaining and easy to read once you get used to Mackie’s writing style. He is clearly talented, and you can tell he put a lot of heart and thought into what he wrote. There are many different themes and storylines in this book, but a major one that runs through almost all of them is the topic of mental illness, how it is perceived, and how it has been handled throughout time. This is important because it shapes the characters in the stories and makes them who they are. The Last Thing Before The Apocalypse is a great book to have if you want a quick read that will entertain you and make you think. The different characters and themes keep you interested, and the author’s writing makes you feel involved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Chipmunkapublishing
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1849919666
• ISBN 13: 9781849919661
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 110