Goneaway Road

Rating:
Summary: IS THERE AN EDITOR IN THE HOUSE?
Review: Edgerton shows promise with sparks of wit and sometimes fine writing. However, the characters are too one dimensional, right out of Hollywood central [bad] casting. The overall problem though is that the novel is about one hundred pages too long. The characters aren't strong enough and the narrative too weak to carry off a book this long and it sinks under the weight of it's bulk. Sadly, this could have been a fine debut novel, had the characters been fleshed out more and an editor trimmed the fluff and fodder. But Edgerton does show enough promise that I will check out his next offering.

Rating:
Summary: IS THERE AN EDITOR IN THE HOUSE?
Review: Edgerton shows promise with sparks of wit and sometimes fine writing. However, the characters are too one dimensional, right out of Hollywood central [bad] casting. The overall problem though is that the novel is about one hundred pages too long. The characters aren't strong enough and the narrative too weak to carry off a book this long and it sinks under the weight of it's bulk. Sadly, this could have been a fine debut novel, had the characters been fleshed out more and an editor trimmed the fluff and fodder. But Edgerton does show enough promise that I will check out his next offering.

Rating:
Summary: New friends
Review: From the first paragraph, you feel as if you have been invited to pull up a chair and join this great circle of friends. They tell you everything. Their vitality and spunk make you want to be a part of their world - a world of wonderful parties, new love and connection. But, because it is a world that is all too real, sadness is never far behind. Just when your heart is breaking, however, someone says something to make you laugh.

As these wonderful characters search for love and meaning, you find it on Goneaway Road.

Rating:
Summary: a long and winding road...
Review: Goneaway Road is a great read. It made me laugh, cry, and remember with both fondness and amazement some of the great good days and nights of youth.

Edgerton's characters are well-developed and interesting - there are no stereotypes here. This book left me feeling satisfied and yet wanting more - a rare combination.

Rating:
Summary: A gentle, delightfully bittersweet read...
Review: Someone once said that we read novels to find ourselves. Someone else said that we read novels to remind ourselves that we're not alone. In reading "Goneaway Road" we fortunate readers get to do both!

I read this book with my gay fiction book club in June 2003; we members unanimously thought "Goneaway Road" one of the better and more enjoyable books we've read in quite a few months. The characters are very plausibly drawn and thoroughly believable. Both their flaws and flaws are ones we recognize as belonging both to us and to those people we've loved...

In writing primarily from the viewpoints of three main characters, the author escapes trying to follow too many characters over two decades. While I do wish that one secondary character had been more thoroughly "fleshed out" by having his own voice, in novels as in life the most we can even know about someone is by seeing him through other's eyes; Edgerton's style ably affords the reader that opportunity. By seeing these characters through the eyes of those that love them, including the author, we grow to love them, too. And to remember that we're not alone...

In "Gay City News", the reviewer described his reaction to "Goneaway Road" in the following way: "Sometimes, as an engrossing novel winds down, you read it more slowly, even hesitantly, dragging out the inevitable end." I couldn't have phrased my own personal reaction to this novel any better myself!

Rating:
Summary: Fun, but tepid
Review: Spanning from the 1970s to the 1990s, "Goneaway Road" follows the lives and loves of a cast of characters who come from a small North Carolina town and who resettle in the stark world of New York City. Evangeline and Eric flit through a relationship, but drift apart for years, but eventually they find their way back to each other. But can they make it work? Her cousin Harry has a crush on Buck, but he's much older and already has his eyes on another. Following these four people through the various decades as they ebb and flow in their friendships, the novel strives to be like a Southern-flavored "Tales of the City", but the characters are never deepened enough. There are moments of playful storytelling here, but "Goneaway Road" meanders a lot and jumps from one point of view to another, and this weakens the narrative.