So Long, See You Tomorrow
National Book Award Winner
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4.0 • 103 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
In this magically evocative novel, William Maxwell explores the enigmatic gravity of the past, which compels us to keep explaining it even as it makes liars out of us every time we try. On a winter morning in the 1920s, a shot rings out on a farm in rural Illinois. A man named Lloyd Wilson has been killed. And the tenuous friendship between two lonely teenagers—one privileged yet neglected, the other a troubled farm boy—has been shattered. Fifty years later, one of those boys—now a grown man—tries to reconstruct the events that led up to the murder. In doing so, he is inevitably drawn back to his lost friend Cletus, who has the misfortune of being the son of Wilson's killer and who in the months before witnessed things that Maxwell's narrator can only guess at. Out of memory and imagination, the surmises of children and the destructive passions of their parents, Maxwell creates a luminous American classic of youth and loss.
Customer Reviews
So Long, See You Tomorrow
This is the best book I have ever read. I don't have the words to describe how beautiful this book captions what it's like for a child to grow up and look back at their childhood. Made me weep.
Overrated Book
A good story that is overshadowed by a elusive narrative that is hard to follow and very frustrating at times. You spend a great deal of time and effort trying to figure out who, where, when, etc., when the storyline is a simple one and should be a much more enjoyable and leisurely read. I am not sure if Maxwell always writes this way as it is the only book of his I have ever read, but I would hesitate to buy or read another. I read what a great book this was in the NY Times recently so ultimately disappointing...EAF
Unbelievably sloppy and schizophrenic
The narrative POV changes so often it is baffling. Within a paragraph, the POV moves from the protagonist to a random visitor in the home to THE DOG, while prose continues with the likes of “she wondered why he didn’t think to tell him about her previous feelings.” I gave up caring about any of the 20 characters.