Book Review: The Last Transaction by Barry N. Malzberg

The Last Transaction by Barry N. Malzberg

Paperback, 180 pages

Published November 1977 by Pinnacle Books

As a podcaster and scholar of Philip K Dick and the new wave of Science Fiction, it is nice that Hollywood has helped Phil to be remembered. Ne American Library editions and various other honors have come to the tradition and memory of Dick, but sadly all that happened after his death. to those of us who study the field and go deeper, it is somewhat frustrating when other equally as talented science fiction provocateurs get ignored. Harlan Ellison got some attention in part to his personal antics but the John Brunners and Judith Merill's of the genre are close to being lost.

Another one of those voices is Barry Malzberg who we interviewed on the podcast less than a month from his 8th decade on planet earth. With great exhaustion, he spoke of how horrible it was to see so many of the ideas in his science fiction coming true. He talked at length about his book Revelations which is soon to be re-released by D. Harlan Wilson's excellent publishing imprint Anti-Odious Press.

I read and reviewed that book last year, it was about the way mass media turned misery into profit and it was something Malzberg nailed more than a decade before the gotcha TV shows were a big deal. It is all done with the aspects you expect from the gonzo new wave sci-fi authors. Paranoid unreliable narrators, sadistic psychosexual manipulation, horrible political realities, and dark humor.

The Last Transaction is similar and like Revelations, it is uncomfortable in how the satire feels pretty close to home. An aging President losing his mind in the office is something we are watching on the news each night. While we don't have the Cold War standoff of this novel we get a pandemic. This novel is the story of the President who just lost the 1984 election and is sitting done to record his memories so they can be preserved. Eric Springer is very much an asshole and his senile memories provide the kinda unreliable narration that Malzberg loves to employ.

In some books the psycho-sexual Mysgonist moments make sense in the horrors of the story here they seem out of place and distracting from the point. It took me out of the novel. My feeling was the point was how scary it is to have a man losing his mind and be the President. Since Malzberg is still with us he has seen this cute concept become horror film worthy reality twice. It was clear last in the Regan years that his mind was slipping, and there is little doubt what is happening with Trump.

I wanted to like this more as I am generally a fan of Malzberg's work, and I thought the concept of President losing his mind written in 1977 might seem like a prophecy. That being said this novel not only gets really violently sexual for no good story reason, but the point seems dead on arrival. Springer does not seem to have much of political identity and if you are writing about America with its two-party system it is like eating a soaking wet potato chip. This story has no crunch without the partisan divide. The Last Transaction is a cake that was baked without flour in that regard. It has some interesting moments, but nothing groundbreaking or essential to check out like Revelations or Beyond Apollo.

I am glad I read this because I am going to be over the next few years I will be a gonzo new wave sci-fi completionist. If your not in that camp then there are two dozens Mala\zberg novels you should read before this one.