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      The Last Thing He Wanted

      by Joan Didion
      Published
      Sep 1996
      Main Genre
      General Fiction General Fiction
      Rating
      Pages
      240
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      About This Book

      NATIONAL BESTSELLER â€¢ "Didion at her finest" —USA Today • An intricate, fast-paced novel about trying to create a context for democracy and getting hands a little dirty in the process, complete with conspiracies, arms dealing, and assassinations. From the author of The Year of Magical Thinking and Let Me Tell You What I Mean

      The narrator introduces Elena McMahon, estranged from a life of celebrity fundraisers and from her powerful West Coast husband, Wynn Janklow, whom she has left, taking Catherine, her daughter, to become a reporter for The Washington Post. She finds herself boarding a plane for Florida to see her father. She becomes embroiled in her his business even though "she had trained herself since childhood not to have any interest in what he was doing." It is from this moment that she is caught up in something much larger than she could have imagined.

      Didion makes connections among Dallas, Iran-Contra, and Castro, and points out how "spectral companies with high-concept names tended to interlock." As this book builds to its terrifying finish, we see the underpinnings of a dark historical underbelly.

      Genres & Themes

      Genres

      General Fiction

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      Formats & Editions

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      Paperback

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      Trade Paperback
      Sep 1997 Vintage ISBN13 9780679752851 ISBN10 0679752854
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      Trade Paperback
      Nov 2011 Fourth Estate (UK) ISBN13 9780007454242 ISBN10 0007454244
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      Hardcover

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      Hardcover
      First Edition Sep 1996 Knopf ISBN13 9780679433316 ISBN10 0679433317
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      Hardcover
      Sep 1997 Turtleback Books ISBN13 9781417719037 ISBN10 1417719036
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      Hardcover
      Oct 1998 Random House ISBN13 9780517268117 ISBN10 0517268116
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      Hardcover
      Nov 1998 Random House ISBN13 9780517279083 ISBN10 0517279088
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      eBook

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      eBook
      Feb 2011 Knopf ISBN13 9780307787330 ISBN10 0307787338
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      eBook
      Feb 2011 Vintage ISBN10 B004KABEV0
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      Audio

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      Audio Cassette
      Sep 1996 Random House Audio ISBN13 9780679457923 ISBN10 0679457925
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      Audible
      May 2013 Audible Studios ISBN10 B00COH9IH8
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      MP3 CD
      Aug 2016 Brilliance Audio ISBN13 9781531812058 ISBN10 1531812058
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      Audio CD
      Dec 2018 Brilliance Audio ISBN13 9781978604308 ISBN10 1978604300
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