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The Last Days of California Mary Miller 9780871405883 Books

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The Last Days of California Mary Miller 9780871405883 Books

Fifteen-year-old Jess and her family have left their home in Montgomery, Alabama, and are driving to California, with the plan to arrive before the Rapture. Along the way, they are committed to saving as many souls as they can—Jess' father wants her and her older sister, Elise, to hand out as many tracts as they can every time they stop at gas stations, fast food restaurants, motels, and the occasional casino. Despite the special and sacred nature of their pilgrimage, this car trip is like one many families experience—Jess and Elise squabble over space in the backseat, their long-suffering mother just wants to read and relax in peace, and their father refuses to use a GPS because he doesn't like machines to tell him what to do.

Other than their father, it doesn't appear that anyone in their family truly believes that the Rapture will actually happen. Elise, who is secretly pregnant, hopes in many ways that it does come, so she won't have to live with the disclosure of her secret. And Jess isn't sure what she believes, about being saved, or anything else for that matter.

"That was my problem—I had no imagination—I couldn't imagine anything other than what I knew. The way time functioned, for example. Minutes. Waiting. How long a day could be. My biggest fear was that things would go on forever and there would never be any end. The idea of forever terrified me, even if we were in heaven and everything was great there."

As her family makes their way across the country, Jess confronts her insecurity with her looks and her body, and her simultaneous envy and relief that guys stare at Elise and not her. She desperately wants something to happen in her life—she wants more meaningful friendships, she wants to fall in love—but in her heart she knows she might not be as ready for these things as she thinks she is. She says, "I didn't know how I could want things so badly while making it impossible to ever get them."

Jess also watches as her parents struggle with their own relationship, with their father's inability to hold a job, their fears about money, and with Elise's erratic behavior. They also struggle with the question of whether the trip will ultimately end in the Rapture, and what will become of their lives if it doesn't occur. Elise can't face the reality of her situation, and isn't sure whether she should keep using her looks to get her the attention she craves. Jess wants things in her family, and their relationships, to remain the same.

"If I wasn't the good daughter, I wouldn't know what I was. I wasn't popular or a cheerleader or a straight A student. ... There were so many things I wasn't that I had difficulty defining myself, especially in relation to Elise, who was so many things."

Mary Miller really told an interesting story, and I found both Jess and Elise's characters to be very dynamic—you knew there was more about them than you first saw. I wasn't sure where the plot would go, and I like the way that Miller ended things, but I thought this was a compelling exploration of how you learn to trust what you know rather than what you're told, and how complicated it can be to find yourself and become comfortable with who you are. This was a really quick read; I read nearly the entire book in about a day.


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The Last Days of California Mary Miller 9780871405883 Books Reviews

When I read the reviews for The Last Days of California, I expected a coming-of-age story, but to reduce this clever, sometimes dark and often tender novel to a 'coming-of-age' story, is to do it a disservice. In Jess and her apocalypse-hungry parents and just-pregnant prettier sister Elise, Mary Miller slyly reminds us of the keen appetites and yearnings we all share -- for love, for adulation, for the whole array of American fast food, for money, for sex, for salvation, and even for damnation. On their road trip from Montgomery to destinations west, in what their father is convinced are the last days before the rapture, Jess and Elise travel their own backseat journey. But their compass points toward adventure, not the end times. Yes, there are comic and sexual episodes. And yes, there are mishaps, flat tires, swindles, a flea market, a casino--and death--along the way.

But the plot is only one pleasure. Seeing life via Jess holds as many satisfactions. Because they're in high school, Jess and Elise waver between youth and adulthood. They share a hotel bed like small children, where Jess notes, Elise was "so close that she could only look into one of my eyes at a time." Jess is a fond younger sister, who doesn't want to go to heaven if Elise won't be there -- she'd rather chance a post-Armageddon earth overrun with criminals intent on stealing their food and guns. Jess ruminates that Elise, "was the only skinny one, and I was glad for it because I didn't want our whole family to be overweight--it would seem like a fundamental flaw, like something we'd never overcome." Under a bleach-scented motel sheet she recalls a tv show about pests. "The family with bedbugs had closed them up in a suitcase and carried them home from a motel just like this one. The bugs were hard and adapted to survive, moving up and down the stairs on the children's stuffed animals." And she's a casual but cunning observer. Of her parents "My mother put a hand on the back of his neck and told him he was doing a good job, which she did when he was doing a bad job." And of her mother "She seemed like a nice person, doing all the nice things nice people did....but when one of her best friends died, she hadn't even seemed sad about it."

The real destination in this utterly satisfying story is nowhere near California—it’s an interior journey, and you'll be richly rewarded if you ride there with Jess.
Brilliant writing by this wonderful young writer from the South. There is no end to the fabulous stories that these southern folks can tell, and tell so beautifully. This is an easy read and the characters are so well developed.
Superbly written first novel about two teenage daughters road tripping from Alabama to California with their evangelical parents three days before End Times are predicted. The writing is fresh, crisp and real. The plot and pacing are perfect. The characters are flawed but loveable. Just a terrific read.
I'm not usually a fan of minimalist literature but Mary Miller's stuff is good, transcendent in fact. She makes the simple complex, the mundane interesting, and the just plain dumb seem intelligent and she manages all this with a wry humor. I liked what I read despite knowing from the get go that California's days would roll on. Brava! Well done. Read it you'll get something good.
I would have to agree with some other reviewers that this book is only fair. It's a story of a sad family trapped in a car while the father pretends they are driving to California to witness the end of the world. There are occasional moments where it seems like something might really happen, but they don't last. I think the author meant for it to be a coming-of-age story in which the younger sister finds her identity. But it doesn't really work, because everything is so superficial. In the end, a few things happen which could have meaning, but they are merely described in a sentence. There is no depth, and it just can't compare with all the good to excellent coming-of-age stories which have been written over the last few generations. Much of the time, the reader is as bored as a teenager would be driving many miles with their dull family.
Fifteen-year-old Jess and her family have left their home in Montgomery, Alabama, and are driving to California, with the plan to arrive before the Rapture. Along the way, they are committed to saving as many souls as they can—Jess' father wants her and her older sister, Elise, to hand out as many tracts as they can every time they stop at gas stations, fast food restaurants, motels, and the occasional casino. Despite the special and sacred nature of their pilgrimage, this car trip is like one many families experience—Jess and Elise squabble over space in the backseat, their long-suffering mother just wants to read and relax in peace, and their father refuses to use a GPS because he doesn't like machines to tell him what to do.

Other than their father, it doesn't appear that anyone in their family truly believes that the Rapture will actually happen. Elise, who is secretly pregnant, hopes in many ways that it does come, so she won't have to live with the disclosure of her secret. And Jess isn't sure what she believes, about being saved, or anything else for that matter.

"That was my problem—I had no imagination—I couldn't imagine anything other than what I knew. The way time functioned, for example. Minutes. Waiting. How long a day could be. My biggest fear was that things would go on forever and there would never be any end. The idea of forever terrified me, even if we were in heaven and everything was great there."

As her family makes their way across the country, Jess confronts her insecurity with her looks and her body, and her simultaneous envy and relief that guys stare at Elise and not her. She desperately wants something to happen in her life—she wants more meaningful friendships, she wants to fall in love—but in her heart she knows she might not be as ready for these things as she thinks she is. She says, "I didn't know how I could want things so badly while making it impossible to ever get them."

Jess also watches as her parents struggle with their own relationship, with their father's inability to hold a job, their fears about money, and with Elise's erratic behavior. They also struggle with the question of whether the trip will ultimately end in the Rapture, and what will become of their lives if it doesn't occur. Elise can't face the reality of her situation, and isn't sure whether she should keep using her looks to get her the attention she craves. Jess wants things in her family, and their relationships, to remain the same.

"If I wasn't the good daughter, I wouldn't know what I was. I wasn't popular or a cheerleader or a straight A student. ... There were so many things I wasn't that I had difficulty defining myself, especially in relation to Elise, who was so many things."

Mary Miller really told an interesting story, and I found both Jess and Elise's characters to be very dynamic—you knew there was more about them than you first saw. I wasn't sure where the plot would go, and I like the way that Miller ended things, but I thought this was a compelling exploration of how you learn to trust what you know rather than what you're told, and how complicated it can be to find yourself and become comfortable with who you are. This was a really quick read; I read nearly the entire book in about a day.