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Lookaway, Lookaway (2013)

by Wilton Barnhardt(Favorite Author)

3.17 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1250020832 (ISBN13: 9781250020833)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

St. Martin's Press

review 1: An utterly extraordinary novel by a ferociously talented writer hitherto unknown to me. At the center of this satirically drawn portrait of contemporary North Carolina life is one of the most memorable characters of recent Southern fiction, Jerene Jarvis Johnston, the steely matriarch of a family of misfits, spinsters, Christian samaritans, sociopaths, artists, feminists, drunks, and delusional social climbers. One of the blurbs on the jacket says it well: "Walton Barnhardt has written the big Southern novel I've been wanting to read all my life. I can't think of a book that better expresses the complexity of exactly where our Southern culture is right now. His insights into his characters--both male and female--are rich and genuinely hilarious, expressed with a dange... morerous level of humor and pain" (Mark Childress, author of "Georgia Bottoms"). This triumph of a book is by turns comic, disturbing, and deeply sad. I can't say enough good things about it.
review 2: Jerene is a Southern woman absolutely confident in her place in society and her ability to bend others to her will. She is the force which holds her family together. She does all in her power to protect her family's status, reputation and fortune. The family includes Jerene's husband, her brother, her sister, her mother; her children: flighty youngest, prettiest, insecure daughter Jerilyn; smart, aggressive, prosperous daughter Annie; sweetest, handsomest gay son Josh; and God-called, sincere, doubt-filled son Bo. In addition there are Josh's friend Dorcas and Bo's wife Kate. There is a chapter for each family member. It took me until near the end of the book to realize it was about Jerene. I found this novel enjoyable if not necessarily memorable. less

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