These are the questions posed by the description of Emkay Scott’s debut novel Last Class, a comedic look at love, sex, rebellion and authority in a small rural town amidst a modern-day sexual revolution.
Though Last Class is his first, Scott writes like a veteran author with a satirical voice that must stem from something deeply rooted in the comedic experience of culture, society and the written word.
With a complimentary nod to writers like Tom Robbins, who writes wildly poetic stories with strong social and philosophical undercurrents and bizarre facts, Scott weaves together the complicated relationships of eccentric characters spanning different time periods all working towards one common goal: self expression and sexual freedom.
There is Last Mundy, the shy high school student who launches a protest against narrow-minded teachers by way of an ask column in the school newspaper and a pirate radio station with the help of his best friend turned lover Suresh and editor Muffin Ainsley.
Former herbal supplement dealer Heidi Malone gets the lulled loins of housewives to rise up in support of her sex toy business, which is under authoritative ridicule for public indecency (due to a large hand carved wooden penis on the hood of her car) and violation of the Community Decency Ordinance. With an army of dildo-wielding housewives and Last’s father Arthur behind her, Heidi rises up against the oppressing community standards.
Bringing the two seemingly different situations together is Treasure Stephens. Somewhat of a guardian angel to everyone, Treasure is the idealist, pointing each person in the right direction and providing the all knowing voice of revolution to each personal situation. By creating a fake terrorist group to perform a fake kidnapping, Treasure oversees the coming together of the small town as they stand up to local authorities and the National Guard in a hilarious standoff that you have to read to believe.
Scott pays particular attention to small, unique details, details that build these lucrative creative tangents about larger than life characters that not only make you laugh, but bask in the cleverness of what you are reading.
Judging by the colourful characters and eccentric situations found in Last Class, one can only assume that Scott must be a story within himself, bursting with artistic ideas, which we are bound to see more of in his next book, currently in the works.
Last Class by Emkay Scott is currently only available as an e-book. You can find it on amazon or wherever else e-books are sold.
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