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100th out of 239 books
—
287 voters
Gone
by
Jennifer Mills (Goodreads Author)
There can be no straight road home.
A young man is released from a Sydney prison, his hands empty, his identity gone. He catches a southbound train out of town, then hitchhikes west. He hasn’t been home for fifteen years.
For days Frank rides the highway through an unforgiving landscape, surviving on what he finds and the kindness of strangers. As he edges closer to a home...more
A young man is released from a Sydney prison, his hands empty, his identity gone. He catches a southbound train out of town, then hitchhikes west. He hasn’t been home for fifteen years.
For days Frank rides the highway through an unforgiving landscape, surviving on what he finds and the kindness of strangers. As he edges closer to a home...more
Paperback, 303 pages
Published
February 2011
by Unversity Of Queensland Press (UQP)
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Taciturn loner Frank is just out of prison for an unnamed crime, hitchhiking from Sydney to his childhood home, in the far west of Australia. This is a psychological thriller of sorts; the narrative driven by a desire to discover what Frank is running towards, and what he’s running from. The reader must piece the story together from shards of inherently unreliable information: Frank’s memories and reflections, and the observations of strangers.
Gone is a classic road story, as much about the jou...more
Gone is a classic road story, as much about the jou...more
Gone, by Jennifer Mills, is a remarkably good book. I couldn’t put it down, and now I’m sorry I’ve come to the end of it.
A man, nameless, is on the road after his release from an institution. At first it’s not clear whether it was a mental institution or a prison because he is disoriented and confused. He’s been released into the void with a voucher for a government support agency that – by the time he gets his act together to use it - is past its use-by date. He’s directed to a charity that giv...more
A man, nameless, is on the road after his release from an institution. At first it’s not clear whether it was a mental institution or a prison because he is disoriented and confused. He’s been released into the void with a voucher for a government support agency that – by the time he gets his act together to use it - is past its use-by date. He’s directed to a charity that giv...more
This isn't your typical roadtrip novel. Mills takes us on a psychological journey as we tag alongside the mysterious young man released from prison. He assumes the name Frank, collects some clothing, a backpack and sleeping bag from a Sydney charity service and then begins to head west. Thumb out to hitch a ride, Frank makes his way into the outback by accepting rides from a variety of folk with their own stories to share. Although, Frank is quite reserved and wants to leave his past behind, it...more
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I have been delighted by Mills writing since I bought a chap book of her poetry, Treading Earth. Large parts of Gone remind me very much the writing contained within that collection, particularly her observations of the minutiae of human interaction.
Another spill over from her poetry are the raw observations that are both economical and evocative.
Gone is both a road trip and a mystery. The road trip is an examination of an Australia that most readers, I would argue, are not used used to reading...more
Another spill over from her poetry are the raw observations that are both economical and evocative.
Gone is both a road trip and a mystery. The road trip is an examination of an Australia that most readers, I would argue, are not used used to reading...more
Jennifer Mills's second novel gone is a downbeat tale both grim and wry in its delivery. The story goes of a man named Frank who is recently released from Prison, Frank is destitute but not broken as he sets of from Sydney across the country. Franks seeks closure by going to his childhood home and trying to find his family. The story is tolled with the present day of Frank going by any means possible to go west towards home including trains, buses and hitchhiking.
Frank passes through many a town...more
Frank passes through many a town...more
view all 4 comments
Apr 22, 2013
Ðɑηηɑ
marked it as will-not-read
Sounds a little like the brother from THE THORN BIRDS, who has been to prison somewhere in eastern Australia and hasn't been home for about 20 years as well. His name was Frank, too!
Suspicious...
Suspicious...
I feel bad giving this a low mark, but I really had trouble finishing it - kept putting it down and going on to other things. Some of the language is beautiful and the premise is clever, but I just couldn't get in to it.
Dec 04, 2011
jo mo
marked it as to-read
kindle it? €7.60
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Jennifer Mills is the author of the novels Gone (2011) and The Diamond Anchor (2009) and a collection of short stories, 'The Rest is Weight,' out in July 2012. She lives in regional South Australia and is working on her third novel.
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