The Last Eucharist has as its beginning an image of a man, both legs amputated just below the knee, doing a headstand on the sidewalk outside of a cinema.Looking at the world through satirical eyes, this book shines a bright light on human foibles. And author Ian T. King's sarcastic humor makes unusual sense out of a chaotic world in the same vein as satirists such as George Saunders and Joseph Heller.Navigating the line between illusion and reality, the plot flows from the scene at the Palais de Th tre in Jackrabbit, Arizona, toward a chance meeting between Thomas, the weathered old cripple, and a pretty twenty-something named Sally Graham. It continues moving forward, heading to Saigon, Vietnam, where serendipity again works its magic, drawing in a street urchin named Tomaso, another boy named Bao, and Thomas's childhood friend Billy Smith. From the waywardness and confusion of the plot line, a strange logic emerges.Ultimately, The Last Eucharist is a story about the enigmatic nature of human existence-a philosophical statement about the human condition. It's a unique statement, expressed through a wonderfully original work.


Ian T. King was born a British citizen in 1951, and served five years in the Royal Navy as a hydrographic surveyor. He holds a BA in politics in England and a PhD in political science from the University of Minnesota in the United States. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1998. In 2011, after twenty-six years at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, he retired as a distinguished professor of politics and international relations.His debut novel, The Last Eucharist, emerged from a creative writing class exercise and grew to become a philosophical statement about the human condition.