Last Castle (Kiernan) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
In The Last Castle, Denise Kiernan tries to reveal the answer to what is surely the greatest mystery for any of Biltmore's million annual visitors: Who, exactly, conceived of such a huge undertaking? What kind of bachelor really wanted to inhabit a 250-room house, replete with indoor swimming pool and bowling alley? … Kiernan's wider lens on the Gilded Age compensates for her protagonists' insipidness. The book's vitality lies in the details she reveals about the architects, writers, artists and peers of the Vanderbilts who spent time at the Biltmore.
Vicky Ward - New York Times Book Review


Part diary, part journalism, part social critique, the book’s broad narrative humanizes the rich and effectively characterizes an era. Kiernan’s almost 100 pages of meticulous research notes and photos lend a reassuring gravity to the ethereal world to which we are introduced.
Russell J. MacMullan Jr. - Washington Independent Review of Books


Evocative, meticulously researched.… Kiernan brings a deft eye for detail and observation to a very different kind of story.… Her re-creation of Biltmore’s origins hits like a flute of fine champagne while lending social context to the mansion.… The Last Castle is Edith Wharton’s ‘The Age of Innocence sprung to life.… Biltmore is an ideal vessel for an exploration of our worship of affluence and social cachet, and more importantly, the American myth of classlessness. The Last Castle plumbs these themes and history with subtle insight and élan.
Knoxville News-Sentinel


But reading The Last Castle, the flowing novel-like narrative really is "about America." It's about celebrity culture, wealth disparity, the remarkable charity and foresight of a few wealthy people, the urge to create and maintain a family legacy and, in its darker moments, the ever-present potential for personal tragedy. It's grounded in Kiernan's years of globe-trotting research and yet also immediately relevant to the topics that clog social media in 2017.
Asheville Citizen-Times


This thoroughly researched book… [has] plenty of famous characters sprinkled throughout, there is enough action and history to keep readers engaged and eager to turn the pages.  —Mattie Cook, Lake Odessa Comm. Lib., MI
Library Journal


The many diverting detours Kiernan takes make the book enticing for even those who will never set foot on Biltmore grounds.
Booklist


Kiernan discloses little about [the Vanderbilts'] personalities and nothing about their courtship or relationship as husband and wife.… One-dimensional characters undermine the potential drama of life within a castle.
Kirkus Reviews