The second volume in the Ghosts Trilogy, Chasing the Last Whale is a novel about rage. Elliot Finell—an angry, maimed young man—meets Trey Gillespie, who is even angrier and more crippled in body and soul. They become friends, despite their utterly dissimilar backgrounds, temperaments, and worldviews. Elliot’s rage has cost him his health, his relationship with his family, and the love of his life, a moody Southerner with a secret. While navigating his strange friendship with Trey, Elliot tries to heal his damaged body. He finds that despite Trey’s negativity, this “evil Okie medicine man” somehow gives Elliot the strength to carry on.
When Trey suffers a crisis, he turns to Elliot with a request. Elliot can’t agree to help. In response, Trey commits a desperate act that triggers a memory Elliot has long repressed. Suddenly aware of the truth about himself, Elliot must decide if he will maintain the anger that has become habitual, the main component of his identity. By understanding what has really crippled him, he’s finally able to see how it has damaged so many others: his lost love, his family, the beautiful young woman who is his implacable nemesis, his ambiguous British friend, and of course Trey, a nuclear reactor of rage, suffering, and bitterness.
Clarity leaves Elliot faced with the most agonizing choices of his life.
Chasing the Last Whale explores intent and outcome. What constitutes a crime? How does victimhood end? Can mercy be immoral? Is love a choice? Does trauma always destroy?
And can almost any subject be made funny?
