The Last Enchantments by Charles Finch

Discussion questions

Characters: Will, Tom, Alison, Jess, Anneliese, Anil, Timmo, Sophie, St. John Jarvis, Ella, Jem, Katie, Kristin, Sullivan, Giorgio, Richard, Peter, Jack, Will’s mother, Will’s father, Alison’s father, Lula, Daisy

1.  What role does the British class system play in the story? How do the foreign students fit into it? Which characters, if any, would you describe as snobs?

2.  Did you find Will a sympathetic character? How did your feelings about him change as the book went on?

3.  How does Will’s past in politics, working for John Kerry’s presidential campaign in 2004, color your perceptions of him? How do his ruminations of American politics, George W. Bush’s presidency, and the Iraq War affect the book?

4.  Will says (p. 75) that “memory can go wrong…when you use it as a weapon against the future, or when you bind it too tightly with regret.” He also says, “Better to think of memory as like food, or sex, or books: a reason to believe in the perishable days. A way to manage being alive.” What does he mean? Do you agree?

5.  What role does St. John Jarvis play in the novel? Is he a good mentor to Will?

6.  Anil tries to adopt the posture, language, and dress of black rap and hip hop performers. Why? Is he running away from the expectations of his family or does he have a genuine appreciation for the music and lifestyle? How do others regard his obsession? Are they right?

7.  Why does Will fall so heavily under Sophie’s spell? Is his behavior towards her after she rebuffs him natural? How do their friends react to the situation?

8.  The death of his sister Katie sends Tom into a tailspin. How do the manner of her death (shot in the head while working for the British Embassy in Syria) and the past tragedy of losing their parents compound his grief? How do his friends try to support him and is their behavior appropriate?

9.  Why does Will try to hang on to Alison after he’s dumped her, continually asking whether she’s had sex with anyone and denying that he has? What is the nature of their relationship? What does Will’s behavior say about his personality?

10.  Why is Will’s visit to Paris to see Kristen, a fellow Kerry campaign staff member, important? How does their shared disappointment in the 2004 election bind them together? How does her continued interest in electoral politics affect him?

11.  Why does Sophie sleep with Will before the James Bond bop? The next day she tells him it was a one-time thing and she doesn’t want to get involved. Is she behaving fairly towards Will? Towards herself?

12.  When he ends his romantic relationship with Ella, Tom tells her that he could have loved her but that she would always remind him of his sister’s death. Is this true or is it a cop-out on his part? What role did Ella play for Tom after Katie’s death and how does he treat her?

13.  One of Will’s professors questions the importance of novels and what they do that other art forms (television, music, art) cannot, and says novels offer “the most sustained, honest interrogation of the human experience” (p. 195) and are “how we moved each other into recognition of ourselves” (p. 194). Do you agree with her, and why or why not? She also implies that postmodern novelists are using old forms with a few tricks but not pushing the novel forward in terms of technique and boundaries. Do you think this is true?

14.  How does the subplot of Giorgio, Richard, and the MCR meetings fit in with the novel’s main thrust? Are we meant to compare the small-scale politics and alliance-forming of the MCR with the large-scale political machinations of the campaign trail that Will has left behind in the U.S.?

15.  During the spring, in his last term at Oxford, Will says (p. 240), “It was a great mental unburdening to live there” and that the lives and struggles of his friends in the U.S. “seemed mute and evanescent…. What a relief, after so many years of striving!” Was Will running away when he enrolled at Oxford, or did he need time and distance to find his true goals and heal from traumatic experiences? Is it ultimately a good or bad thing that he went?

16.  What is the nature of Sophie and Jack’s relationship? Why does she stay with him (and later return to him)? Do they “deserve” each other? Will says that Sophie is Jack’s Alison; how are Sophie and Alison similar and different? How would you compare Jack and Will’s behavior towards their girlfriends?

17.  Why does Will agree to take a political job in Ohio after he finishes his year at Oxford? Why does he change his mind at the last minute, as he and Alison are packing up his room? Why does he take a financial job for which he has no training or aptitude? How long would he have remained in that position if the firm had not folded?

18.  Many of Will’s Oxford friends are unsure of their post-graduation plans. Did you find them particularly directionless or are they simply searching for their place in the world?

19.  When he leaves Oxford for his job at the investment firm, Will reflects (p. 315), “When you’re finally a grown-up, one of the things you find out is that there are no grown-ups.” What does he mean? Do you agree with him?

About the author

Charles Finch was born in 1980 in New York City. He graduated from Yale University, where he majored in English and history, and holds a master’s degree in Renaissance English literature from the University of Oxford. He is the grandson of American artist and writer Anne Truitt.

Finch has written seven mystery novels set in Victorian England featuring gentleman sleuth Charles Lenox. The first of these books, A Beautiful Blue Death, was nominated for an Agatha Award and was named one of Library Journal’s Best Books of 2007, while the third entry in the series, The Fleet Street Murders, was nominated for a Nero Award.

His first contemporary novel, The Last Enchantments, was published in 2014. He has written for The New York Times and regularly reviews books for The Chicago Tribune and USA Today. He lives in Chicago.