The Last Sumurai by Helen DeWitt. 2000 Hyperion/Miramax Books, first U.S. edition, 530 pages. This book is a beast! Cerebral, tricky, engrossing, DeWitt complicates the quest storyline with linguistics and point of view. A boy genius disrupts his mother's ambitions with his questions about language and paternity. The book went out of print after the publisher folded and permissions, rights, and formatting prevented reissues. It has since come back in print, but here is the original epic, now recognized as a masterpiece. Condition: VG. Bumps to corners of the boards, creasing at the corners, darkening at the text block corners. "I was still drunk, and I was still trying to think of things I could do without being unpardonably rude. Well, I thought, I could sleep with him without being rude, and so I responded in a a suitable manner as he unbuttoned the buttons of my dress."
