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Title: So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell ISBN: 0-679-76720-7 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 03 January, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.58 (40 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The Only 5-Star Book I Have Read This Year
Comment: In reading William Maxwell's So Long, See You Tomorrow, I realized a few things. First of all, in my limited experience, I have yet to see a book which fulfills both its role as a novel as well as a vehicle for some conveyance by the author better than this one. Second, I realized that my review of this novel will be glowing and perhaps superfluously positive. Take this only as an extremely strong recommendation to read this book and not as an indication that I am a little crazy. The novel is an apology from the narrator to a boy from his childhood. The two were friends in the early 20th century Midwest, only to have this friendship shattered by the murder of one boy's father. The story of what happens to the boys after this event, and the feelings that the narrator must carry with him, are the basis for his need to apologize to his childhood friend, as well as the basis for a superbly written novel. William Maxwell uses narrative effortlessly. His flashbacks, flash forwards, and imaginations blend so seamlessly into the rest of the story that the reader is able to weave them into the plot with no difficulty. He wastes no words, and spends little time on description. Now I have heard people rave about novels because the author describes rural Montana so well, of gives such an accurate description of the ocean, but let me tell you that a novel like Maxwell's awards itself a much higher place in my literary hall of fame for not needing such description, which is often beautiful but seldom integral to the plot or theme. Instead he uses his words to describe the actions of the characters in the story, which in turn reveals much about them, which illuminates the different themes of the novel excellently. Maxwell uses his novel to a degree that most writers don't. That is to say that it was written almost entirely for one person. As I said, I have a relatively small catalogue from which to reference, but it seems to be the most specifically intended novel that I have seen. Some may view this as a negative, but it my mind, it draws the reader along the narrative, if for no other reason than to see how the narrator will form the finale of his apology. You want to see how he leaves it with this person who he admittedly knows will probably never see the novel. It is not my place to say how this takes place, but I will say that, in a novel of only about 130 pages, William Maxwell has ample room to fulfill his purpose, as well as the novel's literary purpose. I feel this is a great testament to the author, and his writing. I have always been of the school that if Moby Dick could be written in ten pages, it should be. Extraneous material in a novel, no matter how beautifully written, does little more than offer the reader that which he does not need. Maxwell's book avoids this, and in the process becomes one of the finest novels I have ever read.
Rating: 4
Summary: Overall, Maxwell Succeeds
Comment: In So Long, See You Tomorrow, William Maxwell uses a unique style of narration to illustrate a theme that occurs in many of his works-the young boy struggling for friendship and understanding in a cold reality. In order to put a fresh perspective on this variation that occurs in many of his novels, Maxwell employs a challenging method of storytelling. The book starts out in first person, through the eyes of the young boy, telling about his experience of his friendship with the son of the murderer. Maxwell uses this exposition to motivate the reader into the more plot driven portion of the story, introducing them to the setting and conflict of the story. Then, a section of the way into the book, Maxwell subtly shifts from first person to try and recreate the events surrounding the shooting of Lloyd Wilson. This shift in narration distances the reader from the initial skew of the first person narrator and his take on the situation. Maxwell manages to pull through this, though, to draw the reader through a variety of different points of view, painting a vivid recollection of the murder and its aftermath through many distinct perspectives. This shift lost me for much of the middle segment of the story, because I had been caught up in the original narrator's point of view. Once that central character was lost, I floundered for a little while. On a second read, however, the change in viewpoint seems fresh and enlightening, the new twist on an old tale that differentiates So Long, See You Tomorrow from other novels on the same subject. Overall, the plot is an excellent anecdote of the trying times of young adult life and the sadness that is associated with loss and change. Maxwell is able to pull off a variety of writing styles to bring together a classic story with a surprising outlook.
Rating: 3
Summary: A morose bit of literature
Comment: So Long, See You Tomorrow is a morose little book that describes the dissolution of two families--neighboring tenant farmers in the rural Illinois of the 1920s--and the murder in which their shared misery culminates. The story, half remembered and half reconstructed, is narrated by an old man who was in his youth an acquaintance of the murderer's son.
The story, told in plain, unremarkable prose, hosts more than its share of unhappiness--dead mothers and adultery and neglected children torn from one or another parent. There is also canine unhappiness, the imagined wretchedness of an imagined dog, whose loyalty and service is repaid with beatings and abandonment.
So Long, See You Tomorrow has the feel of a high school English class must-read. That is to say, it is undoubtedly good literature, but it is not good reading.
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Title: Time Will Darken It by William Maxwell ISBN: 0679772588 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 04 February, 1997 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: They Came Like Swallows by William Maxwell ISBN: 067977257X Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 25 March, 1997 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Folded Leaf by William Maxwell ISBN: 0679772561 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 01 October, 1996 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: All the Days and Nights : The Collected Stories by William Maxwell ISBN: 0679761020 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 31 October, 1995 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Ancestors : A Family History by William Maxwell ISBN: 0679759298 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 17 January, 1995 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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