The Last Supper (novel)

The Last Supper is a 1983 novel by Stanley Elkin. It is a dark comedy exploring themes of mortality, identity, and artistic creation. The protagonist is Manny Salzburg, a Jewish writer suffering from a terminal illness (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS). He decides to host a series of elaborate dinners, each honoring a different major figure in Western literature. The guest list includes fictionalized versions of figures like Leo Tolstoy, Marcel Proust, and James Joyce, all portrayed with exaggerated personalities and suffering from their own unique ailments.

Through these increasingly bizarre and chaotic dinners, Salzburg attempts to grapple with his impending death and leave a lasting mark on the literary world. The novel satirizes the literary establishment and explores the nature of genius, the burdens of creativity, and the absurdity of human existence in the face of inevitable decay. Elkin's characteristic prose style is on full display, filled with elaborate sentences, witty observations, and a pervasive sense of the grotesque.