The Last Suppers by Mandy Mikulencak: A book review

The Last Suppers by Mandy Mikulencak
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Last Suppers has an intriguing premise. It is set in prison grounds in Louisiana with the protagonist, Ginny (a young white woman, who I though was black until about halfway through the novel for some reason :P), is charged with preparing the last suppers of death row inmates, a task that she takes very seriously. All of the death row inmates welcome this last touch of humanity and request various dishes that remind them of their families or their childhood. But, the latest death row inmate, Samuel, refuses it sending her on a quest to retrieve the recipe of his favorite dish from his family. Samuel's refusal and erratic behavior opens a whole can of worms from her own past from the time when her own father was murdered and the accused had been sent to the electric chair. It is, as I said, a very interesting premise. It keeps you engrossed from the very first page.

But, its only drawback is when the author chooses to use the well known trope of the the Ku Klux Klan and then attempts to make Ginny, the white protagonist, a savior of the black family wronged by the system almost twenty years ago. This is a trope used in so many books and movies now, that it just comes across as lazy and unimaginative. Also, I'm not particularly fond of the "white person redeems themselves in the eyes of a black person and gets regarded as some sort of a hero" angle. But, other than that, the idea that last suppers carry with it some significance in the eyes of those condemned to death is mighty interesting. It almost shows what goes on in their psyche. I will definitely recommend it, if only for the handling of a very interesting premise.

xxRS

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