The Last of Her Kind introduces two women who meet as freshmen on the Columbia campus in 1968. Georgette George does not know what to make of her brilliant, idealistic roommate, Ann Drayton, and her obsessive disdain for the ruling class into which she was born. She is mortified by Ann's romanticization of the underprivileged class, which Georgette herself is hoping college will enable her to escape. After the violent fight that ends their friendship, Georgette wants only to forget Ann and to turn her attention to the troubled runaway kid sister who has reappeared after years on the road. Then, in 1976, Ann is convicted of murder. At first, Ann's fate appears to be the inevitable outcome of her belief in the moral imperative to "make justice" in a world where "there are no innocent white people." But, searching for answers to the riddle of this friend of her youth, Georgette finds more complicated and mysterious forces at work. As the novel's narrator, Georgette illuminates the terrifying life of this difficult, doomed woman, and in the process discovers how much their early encounter has determined her own path, and why, decades later, as she tells us, "I have never stopped thinking about her." Nunez's ruthlessly observed portrait of countercultural America in the sixties and seventies opens in 1968, when two girls meet as roommates at Barnard College. Ann is rich and white and wants to be neither, confiding, "I wish I had been born poor"; Georgette has no illusions about poverty, having just escaped her depressed home town, where "whole families drank themselves to disgrace." Georgette finds Ann at once despicable and mesmerizing, and she's stunned—if not entirely surprised—when, years after the end of their friendship, Ann is arrested for killing a cop. In previous works, Nunez has proved herself a master of psychological acuity. Here her ambitions are grander, and the result is a remarkable and disconcerting vision of a troubled time in American history, and of its repercussions for national and individual identity. Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker Nunez explores idealism against the backdrop of gender, racial, and cultural politics. Many critics thought this "strongly imagined portrait of the 1960s" the novel’s "most striking" aspect ( Wall Street Journal ). A few, however, criticized Nunez for overemphasizing the turbulence of the period, casting judgment on it, and describing its madness—drug-induced hallucinations, for example—in unnecessary detail. The value of certain subplots, including one involving Georgette’s runaway hippie sister, also raised a few eyebrows. Yet all agreed that the novel offers gripping characterizations and an intelligent, provocative look at the lasting influencing of friendship. Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. *Starred Review* Nunez's layered, thoughtful novel opens in the heyday of the civil rights movement, when Georgette George arrives at Barnard and is greeted by her activist roommate, Ann Drayton. Ann, a child of privilege who has rejected her upper-class roots, is persistent in her attempts to befriend Georgette, who comes from a working-class background. Georgette gradually finds herself drawn in by Ann. Although she never becomes the activist Ann is, the two remain friends even after they both drop out of college, until they have a violent fight and part ways for good--or so Georgette thinks. A few years later, Ann reappears as the central figure in a murder case that garners national attention. Ann stands accused of murdering the police officer who shot and killed her lover, an African American intellectual. Ann readily admits her guilt, and her seeming lack of repentance perplexes and enrages the country, but Georgette is unsurprised. Although she doesn't completely understand Ann, she has by now learned Ann's beliefs are unshakable and sincere. Nunez moves far past the obvious cliches about activism to show a character who, while not always completely sympathetic, is nonetheless multifaceted and three-dimensional. Told in Georgette's graceful, introspective voice, this engrossing, beautiful novel will enthrall readers. Kristine Huntley Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved "A mesmerizing story of breathtaking sweep and intricate detail. . .full of the patterns, leitmotifs and turning points of a generation." -- Helen Zia, Ms. "A passionate honesty grips the heart of The Last of Her Kind. . .[A] subtle and profoundly moving novel." -- O, The Oprah Magazine "A remarkable novel. . .it startles and lingers long in the heart and the mind." -- Elizabeth Benedict, The New York Times "Every so often you close a book and the only word that comes to mind is "wow."[This]is such a work." -- Eleanor J. Bader, Library Journal "Sigrid Nunez is my kind of historical novelist. . .it s the lovingly etched details that make this novel hum." -- Joy Press, The Village Voice "This is a brilliant, dazzling, daring novel.