103 pages 3 hours read

Rodman Philbrick

The Last Book In The Universe

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2000

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Character Analysis

Spaz

The young male narrator, Spaz, has lived in the Urb his whole life. Spaz has epilepsy, which is feared by most people because of the seizures to which he is subjected; he got his name “Spaz” as a result of these seizures. While he grew up with a foster family consisting of a mother, Kay, a father, Charly, and a younger sister, Bean, he was kicked out for his illness and banished from his latch. Now, he lives under the care of Billy Bizmo and the Bully Bangers in their headquarters, called the Crypts. A side effect of his epilepsy is that Spaz is allergic to electrode needles, so a popular pastime in the Urb, called probing, is off limits for him; he has to find entertainment elsewhere, such as through watching old 3Ds. While most people his age have forgotten the past, a positive outcome of his allergy is that his short-term and long-term memories are intact, and he can remember things from his childhood and day-to-day life that most others rarely think about, or perhaps could not even recall if they tried.

Spaz has very fond memories of his younger sister, Bean, with whom he shared a close bond despite not being blood related.