Literally Reruns: The Last Cigarette by Tim Frank

Tim Frank has published a number of stories with us and each and every one of them requires the reader to consider questions that the works create but do not answer.

This story, The Last Cigarette is a perfect example of addiction and social attitudes. Smoking is the Devil, even though I would like anyone to point out someone who drove the wrong way up a freeway exit and killed a family due to cigarettes. And what about doobie? Ultra popular in both poetry and prose, but I doubt that the smoke is special health smoke.

I’ve been smoking for over a half century and when it is clear that it will kill me I will not complain. Consequence for action is the soul of life, and death. I associate some of the finest moments in my life with smoking and I will never give any of those back. In this piece Tim shows our strange needs with subtlety; not necessarily addiction but in our requirement for Devils and others to blame our own faults on (sometimes that appears to be the only reason why we have parents, in art anyway).

It is always a pleasure to introduce work by Tim Frank and we invite him to add his thoughts about this story.

Leila

The Last Cigarette

Comments on the Last Cigarette:

I was inspired by my realisation that I had to stop smoking, because the smoker’s cough and fear of death caused by the dreaded cigarette warnings finally got to me. But the ending, with the main character’s mother being a smoker and creating a cycle of addiction from childhood is completely fictional. I wanted to create a world where addiction is inescapable and deeply personal. The main character didn’t really stand a chance because of society and family ties, showing just how difficult the situation can be.

Tim