The Last of Her Kind by Sigrid Nunez

The Last of Her Kind is a compelling account of the America of the 1960's, the turmoil and the counterculture that it produced. Nunez brilliantly explores the political climate in America during the 60's and 70's through the eyes of two young women. Georgette George, a product of an impoverished an abusive family, arrives at Barnard College for her freshman year to find she will share her room with Ann Drayton, white, rich and angry about the injustices she sees in the country. Ann rejects her family and sets out to make the world a more egalitarian place to live.
Georgette is appalled at the way Ann romanticizes poverty but becomes mesmerized by Ann's single-minded committment to issues of class, race, gender politics and social justice. George marries twice, has two children and a career in journalism and one great love affair. Nine years after their freshman year Ann murders a policeman in an attempt to rescue her black boyfriend from a confrontation with the police and spends many years in jail. There she continues to advocate for women, even when her services are not requested or wanted. She is in fact "the last of her kind"

Nunez has written a remarkably readable story of the last three decades in America, the divisiveness of the Vietnam War, and the violent idealism that existed. She has created two women from opposite sides of the economic spectrum whose lives are informed by their early relationship.

Sigrid Nunez has received several awards for her work including a Whiting Writer's Award, The Rome Prize for Literature and a Berlin Prize Fellowship.