Goodbye Without Leaving

Rating:
Summary: Laurie loved music
Review: I came here to buy this book, and realized I've never reviewed it.
I find the first paragraph a stumbling block-- Laurie Colwin is growing up?- but after that almost everything about this novel (the writing especially) leaves me speechless. The notion that she is the white Shakette, the images of dancing and hanging out with the band-- or buying the record, "I've Got What it Takes, But it Breaks my hear to give it away," it's all skillfully done.
I almost feel as if we share the same soul. Laurie loved cooking and food, and dancing and R&B.

And she knew how to put it all down on paper.
Goodbye Without Leaving: perhaps the title says it all. Still, I miss her.

Rating:
Summary: Dreamy fun and witty contempt
Review: I first discovered Laurie Colwin within the pages of Gourmet magazine about 15 years ago. With pleasure, I awaited each issue to see if another of her wonderful columns would appear. Then, in 1992 came the sad announcement of her untimely death at age 48. It was then that I discovered she wasn't only a food writer of incomparable wit and wisdom; she was also a novelist. So I began reading everything she'd written. My favorites are A Big Storm Knocked It Over and this one, Goodbye Without Leaving.
Geraldine Coleshares gives up grad school at the Univ of Chicago to become the only white backup singer for a R&B group, the Shakettes. Her days with the band, life on the bus and on the road, make everything that comes after (marriage, kids, a job) pale by comparison. Told mostly in retrospect, Geraldine's story is a never-boring exploration of such potential clichés as family, friendship, career, parenthood, and love.
Terrific. Read it, and then read her other ones.

Rating:
Summary: A loving portrayal of modern womanhood.
Review: Though a Laurie Colwin devotee, it took me three or four tries to get into "Goodbye without Leaving." Now, however, it is my favorite of all of her novels, and I turn to it like an old friend. Geraldine's struggle for harmony is simultaneously amusing and poignant. Though the book does not include the anguish of "Shine On, Bright and Dangerous Object" and "Family Happiness" or the buoyant fairy tale quality of "Happy All the Time," it addresses the fundamental worries of family, friendship, religion, career, and love without resorting to cliche. A tender and abiding story that resonates deeply.