Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

read excerpt* *Different edition

Heading Out To Wonderful

3.55 of 5 stars 3.55 · rating details · 3,303 ratings · 814 reviews

It is the summer of 1948 when a handsome, charismatic stranger, Charlie Beale, recently back from the war in Europe, shows up in the town of Brownsburg, a sleepy village nestled in the Valley of Virginia. All he has with him are two suitcases: one contains his few possessions, including a fine set of butcher knives; the other is full of money. A lot of money. Heading Out t...more

Hardcover, 296 pages

Published June 12th 2012 by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

what women born in the 50's have read so far in 2012

32nd out of 47 books — 7 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Sep 09, 2012 (Lonestarlibrarian) Keddy Ann Outlaw rated it 2 of 5 stars

I loved A Reliable Wife, and Goolrick had me for the first half of Heading Out to Wonderful. But I was so saddened by the unease of the 5 year-old boy taken along to many rendezvous between two lovers. I started to sense that the plot was getting too dark, with no hope of redemption, but it got even worse than that. Too much blood spilled after such a beautiful beginning... Also I really wondered where Beebo got all his money (maybe I missed something?) to buy land for himself and his adulterous...more

33 likes · like · see review

Mar 12, 2013 Trish rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Robert Goolrick is a masterful storyteller. He tells stories the old fashioned way: long and languidly, and full of description. Love, especially a great love, never goes out of style. Goolrick delivers. He writes a big love story in a small town. Everyone is involved, right from the first Annual Oyster Fest deep in midsummer, when Charlie shows his physical prowess and Sylvan wears her dark glasses and her red lipstick.

Sylvan Glass. And Sylvan herself—she was just as pretty as her name:

“She h

...more Robert Goolrick is a masterful storyteller. He tells stories the old fashioned way: long and languidly, and full of description. Love, especially a great love, never goes out of style. Goolrick delivers. He writes a big love story in a small town. Everyone is involved, right from the first Annual Oyster Fest deep in midsummer, when Charlie shows his physical prowess and Sylvan wears her dark glasses and her red lipstick.

Sylvan Glass. And Sylvan herself—she was just as pretty as her name:

“She had a country face, young, probably not much more than twenty, if that…Her lips were a crimson slash, her hair pulled up in gleaming blonde waves on top of her head, held with tortoise-shell combs studded with rhinestones. She wore dark sunglasses, a thing no other woman in town even thought to own…She had a perfect figure, rounded, soft and fleshy for a young girl, although she seemed willowy next to her bulky husband…”

We sense right at the start that a storm is on the horizon, but I don’t think any of us are prepared for the finale. But by then Goolrick has led us long and well, and we react like his town folk, good people all. We feel helpless in the face of such a love, and wish we’d never known it.

But I have to mention my favorite character, though I doubt I would have ever gotten close to her, if I lived there in Brownsburg. Claudie is like none other, with long, thin fingers “like the tines of a fork” and blessed with a special skill to sew like no one else. She created clothes for the townspeople, especially for the lovely Sylvan who wanted those dresses she saw in films and magazines and had a figure to match the finery. I nearly wept with admiration and joy to read of Claudie arriving in front of the town at the end:

Next came Claudie Wiley, dressed, fantastically, as though for a Negro Baptist wedding in New York City, bright in fuschia, cut from a pattern she had found in the back of Vogue magazine, and adapted to suit her figure, with a hat to match, and a veil, and shoes, all the same intense color, the color of sunset, the last burst of color before darkness falls.

She was some kind of character, with a life and a mind of her own. She is worthy of a book devoted just to her.

(view spoiler)

(less)

8 likes · like · see review

Jul 01, 2012 Kerry rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: southern, historical-fiction

I hardly know where to begin. I just finished this book, and I feel as though I haven't resurfaced, as though my eyes are fogged and my mind is still not my own. I haven't been this swept away by a novel in a long time. Goolrick's prose is stunning and spellbinding and the story he weaves is brilliant, devastating, very real and very human. I wish I knew how to describe his weaving together of landscape, small town southern life, movies, and baseball to create a setting that is as much a charac...more

18 likes · like · see review

Jan 11, 2012 Linda Parks rated it 5 of 5 stars

Wow. This is a very emotionally charged and heart capturing story.
A new guy in town, with money in a suitcase... it begins simple enough.
But this is the thing... it's an amazing STORY. And then there's the way it was WRITTEN.
So uniquely Robert Goolrick.
It amazes me how beautifully he uses words.
The intensity behind soft conversation. The understanding he has of people.
How he digs down to the truth of things through his storytelling.
Amazing.

There were scenes in this story so beautifully crafte...more

7 likes · like · see review

Mar 10, 2013 Carol rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

I'm certain I noticed this book first due to the author, Robert Goolrick. I had read Reliable Wife and wanted to see what Goolrick would do this time out. Also, I immediately fell in love with the title, Heading Out to Wonderful. The imagery of this drew me right in. Add the quote from the fly leaf "Let me tell you something son. When you're young, and you head out to wonderful, everything is fresh and bright as a brand-new penny, but before you get to wonderful you're going to have to pass thro...more I'm certain I noticed this book first due to the author, Robert Goolrick. I had read Reliable Wife and wanted to see what Goolrick would do this time out. Also, I immediately fell in love with the title, Heading Out to Wonderful. The imagery of this drew me right in. Add the quote from the fly leaf "Let me tell you something son. When you're young, and you head out to wonderful, everything is fresh and bright as a brand-new penny, but before you get to wonderful you're going to have to pass through all right. And when you get to all right, stop and take a good, long look, because that may be as far as you're ever going to go." and I knew I had to read it as soon as it hit our shelves.

There were parts of Heading Out to Wonderful that reminded me of Sharyn McCrumb's Ballad series, and yet different. It's that old time America, in the hills of Virginia setting, that promises peace and simplicity. The story takes place in post World War II, 1948 to be exact. The town, Brownsburg, Virginia, a place Goolrick describes as "the kind of town that existed right after the war, where the terrible American wanting hadn't touched yet, where most people lived a simple life without yearning for things they couldn't have", etc.

Charlie Beale wanders into town, out of nowhere, in his truck, 2 suitcases on the seat, one well-worn with his clothes and steel butcher knives and the other, made out of tin, filled with money. You're not quite certain where he came from but he tells the reader, he's back from war and his daddy's dead. All you know is he wants some land and a place to work and not much else. He soon finds a tract of land outside the town, by the river, and a job with the only shop that sells meat and becomes part of the lives of the owner, Will, his wife Alma and their young son, Sam. Sam calls Charlie Beebo and it sticks. All this sounds so innocent and yet, somehow I knew before the story was done that it was not going to end well. You can see the beauty of it and yet you know it can't last.

I won't tell you much more than that. Heading Out to Wonderful is a story filled to the brim with obsession, power, and passion. It is sensuously erotic in the way that only Goolrick can write it. Throughout Goolrick serenades us with mountain songs and this book begs a play list. I can hear Eva Cassidy singing The Water is Wide, maybe not the version the author intended but one of my favorites. I found myself searching out Bluegrass man, Mac Wiseman. I don't think his song More Pretty Girls than One was quoted and I bet, Charlie Beale wouldn't have heeded it anyway.

There were a couple of things I couldn't figure out and at first these annoyed me but then, I thought, the few questions remaining for me might have been left so on purpose. They are talking points and like Reliable Wife, Heading Out to Wonderful should make a great book discussion.
(less)

8 likes · like · see review

May 05, 2012 Emily Crowe rated it 4 of 5 stars

I admit up front that I was not a fan of Robert Goolrick's previous novel The Reliable Wife, so I was a little reluctant to pick up his new one called Heading Out to Wonderful. Luckily I had a little prompting from Craig Popelars at Algonquin, who told me that he thought I'd love it. As usual, he was right. Damn his eyes.

If you read enough books or watch enough movies, after a while you develop certain expectations built into certain plot points. Thus, in chapter one when a mysterious drifter ro...more I admit up front that I was not a fan of Robert Goolrick's previous novel The Reliable Wife, so I was a little reluctant to pick up his new one called Heading Out to Wonderful. Luckily I had a little prompting from Craig Popelars at Algonquin, who told me that he thought I'd love it. As usual, he was right. Damn his eyes.

If you read enough books or watch enough movies, after a while you develop certain expectations built into certain plot points. Thus, in chapter one when a mysterious drifter rolls into a small Southern town with nothing but his truck and two suitcases, and when those two suitcases are filled with nothing but cash and a set of the sharpest butcher knives anyone has ever seen, you know that by the last chapter there's no way that everything can end well. Just a fact of fictional life.

That's essentially what happens in Goolrick's book, but he does stand certain of the reader's expectations on their heads, and that's what makes for an intense but heartfelt read. You know something bad is going to happen, but it's not precisely clear at first just what path the badness is going to take: will somebody end up butchered & barbecued, a la Fried Green Tomatoes? Will the evil spring from the handsome stranger, or will it be exacted upon him by the small, xenophobic town? Is the handsome stranger's intense relationship with the young boy more insidious than it appears on the surface or is it completely innocent?

Add in a curious five year-old narrator, a small town full of busybodies, a racial divide, old time religion, a near-death resuscitation, and a man who's so rich and so mean, he has to buy himself a pretty young mountain girl for a wife, and you've got the makings of a pretty great story.

The opening paragraphs are some of the best meditations on memory that I have ever read. The book is narrated by Sam, who is an old man looking back on what happened when the drifter came to town and his family took him in:

"The thing is, all memory is fiction. You have to remember that. Of course, there are things that actually, certifiably happened, things where you can pinpoint the day, the hour, and the minute. When you think about it, though, those things mostly seem to happen to other people.

This story actually happened, and it happened pretty much the way I'm going to tell it to you. It's a true story, as much as six decades of remembering and telling can allow it to be true. Time changes things, and you don't always get everything right. You remember a little thing clear as a bell...while other things, big things even, come completely disconnected and no longer have any shape or sound. The little things seem more real than some of the big things....I'm not young any more, so sometimes I can't tell what things are the things I remember and what things are just things that other people told me They tell me things I did, and a lot of them I don't remember, but most people around here aren't liars, so I just go on and believe them, until it seems that I actually do remember the things they say."

This is not exactly a Southern gothic tale, but it has elements of that. But mostly it's the story of mountain people after the war, who are on the cusp of modernity and who know their quiet, charmed way of life won't last forever. It's the story of otherwise good people who choose to let evil into their hearts, and the blinding love of a small boy for a man he calls Beebo, who instinctively knows something about protection but is too innocent to understand what happens around him. I highly recommend it.

(less)

11 likes · like · see review

Apr 25, 2012 Cathe Olson rated it 5 of 5 stars

I loved A Reliable Wife so was excited to get a copy of Goolrick's newest book. This one is about a stranger, Charlie Beale, who one day appears in a small Virginia town and works his way into the affections of the people. But when he falls for the wife of the town's richest man, we know it's only a matter of time before things go awry.

I just love Goolrick's writing . . . opening up one of his books is like sinking into a comfortable chair. I just feel myself going awwww. . . . this is writing I...more

9 likes · like · see review

Jul 15, 2012 Marialyce rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: july-2012

Well actually 3.5 stars...

I very much like the way in which Mr Goolrick both writes and structures his stories. There is always a bit of something that is a bit murky about his characters and oftentimes there runs a undercurrent that is barely perceptible in the story, but ultimately gets you in the end. So it was with Mr Goolrick's current novel.

This was a story of a young man, Charlie Beale, newly returned from World War 2, who wants to settle down in a small Virginia town. He is looking for...more

3 likes · like · see review

Feb 21, 2013 JoAnne Pulcino rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult-fiction, book-club-selection, adult-fiction-and-e-book, audio

HEADING OUT TO WONDERFUL

Robert Goolrick

HEADING OUT TO WONDERFUL is a haunting mountain folk ballad where stories and storytelling echo far and wide in mountains and homes. Some of these tales become poems and some become songs.

This is a tragic and passionate tale of a love affair that is all consuming yet completely forbidden. This finely crafted novel takes place in the summer of 1948 in a sleepy village nestled in a valley in Virginia.

Handsome, charismatic stranger Charlie Beale wanders into...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jun 18, 2012 Bonnie Brody rated it 5 of 5 stars

I loved Robert Goolrick's book, A Reliable Wife, and his new one is even better. Heading Out to Wonderful has just about everything you could want in a book: love, redemption, betrayal, atmosphere, good characterization, and wonderful writing.

The novel takes place in Brownsburg, Virginia in 1948, just after World War II. The whites live on one side of town and the blacks on the other side. This is a 'moral' town where no crime, to anyone's knowledge, has ever been committed. It is quiet and beau...more I loved Robert Goolrick's book, A Reliable Wife, and his new one is even better. Heading Out to Wonderful has just about everything you could want in a book: love, redemption, betrayal, atmosphere, good characterization, and wonderful writing.

The novel takes place in Brownsburg, Virginia in 1948, just after World War II. The whites live on one side of town and the blacks on the other side. This is a 'moral' town where no crime, to anyone's knowledge, has ever been committed. It is quiet and beautiful, located in those beautiful unpopulated hills that �Virginia once had.

The story centers around one Charlie Beale. He is a newcomer to this small town in Virginia. All he brings with him is a suitcase of knives and another suitcase filled with money. He asks the local butcher if he can work for him for free for one month to show him his skills and then the butcher can decide if he's worth a salary. During this month a lot happens.

Charlie befriends Sam, the butcher's five year-old son and they do a lot together, not always what Sam's parents think they are doing, however. Sam is a child born to his parents late in life. Alma is 40 years old and Will is 54. Sam craves Charlie's youth and all it can offer - the strength, the fastness, the ability to play with children in a way his father can not.

When Will was growing up he was best friends with Boaty Glass, now the richest man in town, but since childhood Boaty has turned mean and sadistic, no one Will would want as a friend. For 48 years, Boaty took care of his mother and then when his mother died he went out looking for a wife. He found her in a holler, somewhere laid back in a place where no one goes unless you're born to it. He buys seventeen year-old Sylvan from her parents. Even at seventeen, Sylvan is a bit old in Boaty's eyes. The deal is this: her parents get the lease on their house and they own it as long as Sylvan doesn't leave him.

The story gets very, very interesting as people form friendships, develop love for those who are not theirs, and alliances are formed. This is a truly wonderful book and I was mesmerized by its writing, something close to magical realism but in a style that is a bit repetitive so as to get the point across. I recommend this book to anyone who likes to read. Give yourself a gift today and get yourself this book.
Comment(less)

3 likes · like · see review

May 24, 2012 Anne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2012

Heading Out to Wonderful is an engrossing story set in a small Virginia town shortly after the war. Charlie, an attractive stranger, comes to town looking for work and is soon employed by the local butcher. Oddly, Charlie develops an intense friendship with Sam Haislett a 5 year old who finds Charlie a more comfortable confidant and teacher than his parents. The two are virtually inseparable and ultimately Charlie's decisions have a huge impact on Sam's life.

The book has some of the most colorf...more

2 likes · like · see review

Mar 04, 2013 Jo at Jaffareadstoo rated it 5 of 5 stars

Brownsburg, Virginia in 1948 is a sleepy place where nothing really happens, and then Charlie Beale enters town with a tin suitcase full of money and a set of butchers knives, and from the first seven words of the opening paragraph, I knew that this book would prove to be something special. At the start of the book, we are told that the story is based on an anecdotal truth which has evolved into myth over time, but as the rawness of passion erupts page by page, the story becomes less anecdotal a...more

2 likes · like · see review

Mar 20, 2013 Natasha rated it 4 of 5 stars

Wow, Goolrick did it to me again. This reading experience was much like when I read A Reliable Wife. At first I felt the story was very drawn out and scenes were exceptionally wordy – yet at the end I look at the story as a whole and just say “Wow”. Somehow through all the negative (and man there’s A LOT) and the drawn out pages a beautiful story was told. I expect to think one thing about the book and am left feeling something completely different by the end.

That said; this story was terribly...more Wow, Goolrick did it to me again. This reading experience was much like when I read A Reliable Wife. At first I felt the story was very drawn out and scenes were exceptionally wordy – yet at the end I look at the story as a whole and just say “Wow”. Somehow through all the negative (and man there’s A LOT) and the drawn out pages a beautiful story was told. I expect to think one thing about the book and am left feeling something completely different by the end.

That said; this story was terribly disturbing and more than once I found it near impossible to continue. Charlie was seemingly a very nice guy; but he hid a disturbed and broken soul. I did not understand his obsession with Sylvan at all. I know the author made it a point to make sure the reader knew just how much he loved her; but I could never figure out WHY. And it was obvious she did not feel the same about him; I wished he’d seen who she truly was.
The use of 5 year old Sam throughout this entire book was by far the most difficult part of this story. I wanted to cry out and scream many times. How could his parents continue to let this little boy be subjected to Charlie and Sylvan’s ridiculously selfish and dangerous behavior? How on Earth does Charlie think that everything he put that boy through and everything he put on that boys shoulders is okay? I don’t understand why out of everything that happened in this book; this child had to be the primary victim – the story could have gone on just as well without that unnecessary cruelty.

Many things shocked me in this book and left me feeling hollow and uncertain. No doubt there are still people and situations like this in our world now. I just don’t know how to feel about this story, even now. It’s dark and heart breaking yet beautiful at the same time. Not the infidelity, or the abuse of Sam, or the shocking ending – but the overall story, how life can get so turned around and how two peoples actions changes the lives of others around them forever (whether good or bad) – it’s a beautifully written story. It definitely left a lasting impression on me, and likely will hurt my heart for a long time. But that’s what stories are meant to do. They’re meant to affect us and leave a lasting impression – no one said that impression had to be happy.(less)

1 like · like · see review

Jul 29, 2012 DeAnne rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: leisurereads

The stories told by Robert Goolrich are not among the easiest to listen to. This is an epic tale that seems to have Biblical and Shakesperian overtones: a modern morality tale of love and hate,
sin, retribution, destiny, forgiveness, acceptance, reality vs. wishes. The seeds have been planted slowly and carefully throughout the story that will lead to the ultimate tragedy of the ending. And yet the ending took my breath away. He is an author to be reckoned with....Goolrick tells the dark tales of...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jul 07, 2012 Laura Stone Johnson added it

Shelves: too-complex-to-rate

I need a split scoring system to rate this book. Four stars for the first three quarters of the book, one star for the ending. (Spoiler alert!) I loved the tense, doomed passion and the mysterious development of Charlie, but hated when the doomed ending in all its ugliness and improbability finally arrived. It felt cheap and cursory. Even the whole brother/coffin building scene -- he hauled that box into and out of a truck bed by himself? I know, I know, so much of many stories, and this one in...more

6 likes · like · see review

Jun 22, 2012 Amy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: arcs-or-review-copy

"I still ask myself sometimes late at night, about what happened, how it all turned out, about the life I've led, you know. Everything. I ask myself the same questions they ask me, these people who've only heard about it, who weren't even around when it all took place. What happened and why did it have to happen in the way it did?"

Long before we identify the narrator, as readers we find ourselves asking those same questions, even though we know it is 'just' a story, set in Brownsburg, Virginia i...more "I still ask myself sometimes late at night, about what happened, how it all turned out, about the life I've led, you know. Everything. I ask myself the same questions they ask me, these people who've only heard about it, who weren't even around when it all took place. What happened and why did it have to happen in the way it did?"

Long before we identify the narrator, as readers we find ourselves asking those same questions, even though we know it is 'just' a story, set in Brownsburg, Virginia in 1948. This small town feels familiar--you can imagine driving through it and stopping for soda on a long car trip. Goolrick describes it precisely, from the simple customs of returning home each day for lunch to the evenings where families sat on porches listening to the single radio station playing. In some places, it felt reminiscent of Scout and Boo's neighborhood in To Kill a Mockingbird, or as a less-jaded version of The Sound and the Fury. The almost numbing perfection of homes and streets creates a sort of unexpected tension...it's not readily apparent where or when the inevitable conflict will appear in the story.

In any case, the town setting is almost a game board of potential friction, and when Goolrick adds his complicated characters to the mix, he enriches the story in varying layers. There are seven greatly significant characters (I'm avoiding spoilers here, so I'm going to be as cryptic as possible) that each could carry the novel on their own, as they are so unique and unexpected. Each could be a subject for study in the subtext of the overall story.

Charlie Beale is a newcomer to the town, quickly buying up land while working in a butcher shop. He becomes very close to a married couple with a precocious little boy, Sam. Sam finds a nearly mythic figure in Charlie Beale, and idolizes him immediately. Charlie settles into this new town with every advantage and a mysterious box of money. What could go wrong?

Things do go wrong, but not in the ways I was predicting. I thought I knew where the story was headed and my assumptions led me astray, but I think Goolrick intended to mess a bit with what we may be expecting in this sort of story.

In creating the fictional city, Goolrick worked in all-too-real issues that his characters were facing (the budding resistance to traditional gender roles and race relations) so that each of their stories felt authentic and fully developed. Beyond these issues, the novel itself, a simple story made up of complicated people, pushes us to consider the drama on our own terms. Exactly at what point do you cut off a friendship that appears doomed? If everyone is lying, how do you find the strength to tell the truth? How do you decide when to step away from a problem and turn your back? Are you complicit if you don't?

I would have rated it higher if the complicated characters interacted more...I would have liked to see the reactions and responses between them. It would have added a level of depth that could have been explored.(less)

1 like · like · see review

Jun 29, 2012 Ann rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: drama, fiction

Very sad, tragic, depressing tale. Had hopes early on that this would be somewhat like A Reliable Wife (RG’s 2009 bk) which was a gripping tale of love, lust, betrayal and suspense with loads of twists and turns. Heading Out to Wonderful starts out with a feeling of hope for the new stranger to town, Charlie Beele, Boaty’s bought and paid for young backwoods bride Sylvan, little Sam, and even Clairie the town’s seamstress. The time is 1940’s and a small town Virginia people’s feelings can turn o...more

3 likes · like · see review

Jun 12, 2012 Jill rated it 4 of 5 stars

Think of how hard it is to reconstruct memories with only the written word: to convey mood and atmosphere; to paint, using only sentences strung together, the color and emotion and sheer force of human passions; to make a landscape come so alive that we can feel the frisson of cold water in a lake or the cruel avoidance of neighbors’ acknowledgments in the street; to enable us to feel lust and taste blood and understand what it is to do the unthinkable. This is precisely what Goolrick can do, li...more

3 likes · like · see review

Oct 19, 2012 Colleen rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. An odd book--a very odd book. I'm rather at a loss as to what to say about it. Heading Out to Wonderful has an intriguing start. Goolrick is quite good at foreshadowing and you want to read on to find out what on earth happened to this narrator. The problem is that it takes soooooo long to get answers. The story unfolds slowly and the writing is, at times, beautiful. Often it's just plain odd. This progression isn't too bad at first, but it ultimately turns out to be a lllooonnnggg slog. The sto...more An odd book--a very odd book. I'm rather at a loss as to what to say about it. Heading Out to Wonderful has an intriguing start. Goolrick is quite good at foreshadowing and you want to read on to find out what on earth happened to this narrator. The problem is that it takes soooooo long to get answers. The story unfolds slowly and the writing is, at times, beautiful. Often it's just plain odd. This progression isn't too bad at first, but it ultimately turns out to be a lllooonnnggg slog. The story is narrated by an old man, Sam, who is looking back to when he was five years old. A mysterious man, Charlie Beale, appears one day in his little town. The people aren't too welcoming to strangers, but Charlie wins them over with his charm and generosity, especially Sam. Charlie takes him places and shows him things, and Sam worships him. Then, one day, beautiful Sylvan shows up in Sam's father's butcher shop where Charlie works. Charlie immediately becomes obsessed with her. We will hear over and over again, how much Charlie loves Sylvan. It will be beaten into our brains that Charlie loves Sylvan. We will be begging for Goolrick to stop telling us how much Charlie loves Sylvan. And you will wonder why oh why Charlie loves this vacuous woman. Not surprisingly, the story turns very dark. Charlie begins to take Sam places where no five-year-old should be and shows him things no five-year-old should see. And amazingly, Sam's overprotective parents let him go with Charlie, even when the warning bells start shrieking. These dangerous missions, as you can probably guess, involve Sylvan. And then they involve her powerful, jealous husband. Now we begin to see just what mysterious Charlie really is--a selfish bastard who, for reasons that are not explained and that I cannot begin to understand, ALWAYS involves five-year-old Sam in his perilous, tawdry trysts. The story then descends from darkness to madness. The ending is so odd and over-the-top, I couldn't believe it. I think Goolrick tries to convince us that Charlie and Sylvan are golden, mythic lovers who have forever changed the lives of the people they encountered. That's true, but they did not change the lives of people in a good way. In fact, they damaged Sam for life. I couldn't think of a more awful and deserved ending for these self-centered lovers. I gave Heading Out to Wonderful two stars for originality, but what I really mean is "oddity."(less)

7 likes · like · see review

Mar 13, 2012 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher.

Robert Goolrick is becoming quite masterful in ferreting out people's dark sides and the consequences of their actions. He did it with A RELIABLE WIFE and he does it again with HEADING OUT TO WONDERFUL. In this book, stranger Charlie Beale comes to town looking for a new life and manages to alter the lives of its inhabitants forever. After surviving the war, Charlie arrives in the Virginia town of Brownsburg with a set of butcher knives...more

2 likes · like · see review

Oct 20, 2011 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Brownsburg, Virginia is a typical small Southern town where everyone knows one another and knows all their life stories. Very little goes on in these towns that is kept a secret. This is essentially a story about one of those secrets which gets out of hand. It is masterfully told by Mr. Goolrick and I look forward to reading his other books, which have been on my Goodreads list for awhile. I received this book via Book of the Month Club. It is due to be published in June, 2012. Watch for it.

Five...more Brownsburg, Virginia is a typical small Southern town where everyone knows one another and knows all their life stories. Very little goes on in these towns that is kept a secret. This is essentially a story about one of those secrets which gets out of hand. It is masterfully told by Mr. Goolrick and I look forward to reading his other books, which have been on my Goodreads list for awhile. I received this book via Book of the Month Club. It is due to be published in June, 2012. Watch for it.

Five year old Sam Haislett lives a pretty idyllic life in his small town. Good parents, supportive community, lots of fun boy things to do. But his life improves considerably when Charlie Beale comes to town. He's a butcher and goes to work for Sam's father, Will, and practically is forced to become part of the family by Sam's mother, Alma. Charlie is a free spirit who loves nature but is wary of people. He improves the cuts in the butcher shop and brings in more business, plays baseball brilliantly, and is a good-looking man whom all the women admire. When told the community expects him to attend church services, he tries them all out and settles on the black church in town as the only one who doesn't condemn people for their thoughts and feelings. When told by the black preacher that he will only make it worse for them if he attends there, he returns to the wide open fields he loves. He saves his money and slowly begins buying up all the property for sale in the county. He is almost a mythical character.

Unfortunately, he falls in love with Sylvan Glass, the wife of the richest man in town, "Boaty" Glass, who bought her from her father for $3000 and a tractor. Sylvan is 17 years old, Boaty 48, so you can see what kind of relationship this is. He has essentially bought her to impress the townspeople, who will never like him in any case. Charlie and Sylvan begin an affair, with Sam always in tow. Sam is sworn to secrecy and is so thrilled to be with Charlie, or "Beebo," as he calls him, that he keeps the secret, no matter what. Sylvan is a dreamer who lives through the movies. Her one friend in town is Claudie, a black woman who sews like a dream and makes Sylvan's clothes from those in the movies or the many magazines she reads.

To avoid spoilers I will tell you no more. Suffice it to say, tragedy ensues from the affair, but the novel is wonderful. The author has exactly the right tone of a small town; the people are as real as the folks I grew up with; and you will fall in love with Charlie and Sam. Sylvan will just break your heart. Once I started it, I couldn't put it down.(less)

1 like · like · see review

Jul 05, 2012 Tom rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is probably the best novel I've read in a long, long time. It's major theme is of love gone wrong. Very wrong. And is love reciprocal here? It's open to some debate. Minor themes include the role of religion and prejudice in small town America. The author's style reminds me somewhat of Hemingway, not a lot of description, but enough that you can clearly picture the characters and the setting in the mind's eye. I finished the last 150 pages without putting the book down, I needed to see how...more

1 like · like · see review

Apr 24, 2012 Candy rated it 4 of 5 stars

What I appreciate about Heading Out to Wonderful is the fine character development. Some authors show characters as good or evil-with little overlap. In Robert Goolrick's hands, it's so honest that people are some of both on the angel/devil scale. Here we have Charlie Beale, a good man: thoughtful to his small town neighbors; kind to children and dogs; handsome, athletic, with a love of nature and his surroundings, AND a hero to boot! We admire all of these attributes. But when Charlie falls des...more

1 like · like · see review

Jun 29, 2012 Nancy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Finished the book late last night--thought I'd give it four stars.

Then, when I woke up this morning, I was still thinking about Charlie and Sylvan and Sam and Will and Alma--and the disgusting Boaty. And how life is not fair. And how I spent a whole book wondering how Charlie got his money, where he'd been before Brownsburg. And thinking about how some people live their entire lives entranced by images that aren't real, like Sylvan, and wanting what they can't have.

I went back to re-read a coupl...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jul 03, 2012 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars

Four and a half stars.
Robert Goolrick is quickly earning a spot on my list of favorite authors. His first novel, A Reliable Wife, was fantastic and I was excited to see his name on this new book. I was not disappointed. His writing is so flawless that he makes you want to read slowly as to absorb everything you can get from his beautiful prose. That is a rare gift in a writer.
We are told the story of Charlie Beale, a man who appears in a small town in the Blue Ridge Valley in 1948, and the life...more

1 like · like · see review

Jun 23, 2012 Frances rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was fortunate to win this book in a contest from Algonquin books. It was a very intriguing story. It's set in 1948 and it's interesting to see how different things were then. Ordinary good people who take in a stranger when he comes to town. The story pulled me in although I was disturbed by a few things. Why did Charlie have to keep taking 6 year old Sam with him on his weekly trip? There was no real reason why he had to. My biggest question that I don't think was answered is where did he get...more

1 like · like · see review

Jul 02, 2012 Eleanor Dalen rated it 2 of 5 stars

I had high hopes for this tale based on the previous book I read by this author (The Reliable Wife). Alas, I was disappointed. While the writing was very well done, the story was not very original and I despised the female lead who simply annoyed me in her mania for all things Hollywood and lack of spine. Charlie also started out very promising but his shift towards giving away everything for love simply did not ring true.

2 likes · like · see review

Apr 29, 2013 Ellyn Oaksmith rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Plot spoiler dead ahead: the ending scene of this book comes out of nowhere and is disgusting. I wondered where it was going -- all moody Southern vibe and longing and bam, murder suicide, inspired, weirdly and grotesquely by the main character butchering an animal. As in "hey, I am carving up this animal, how about I carve up the woman I love but can't have." This is also one of those books where the woman acts so stupidly. She's become rich, thanks to her lover's largess and yet, refuses to le...more

like · see review

Apr 24, 2013 DeValerie rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was a beautifully written book. Visually dazzling. I was easily transported to a time gone by, that of the small town where everyone knows everyone and where no one locks their doors. I found it hard to put down. I wanted to know what was going to happen next and although I began to sense some of the events, it didn’t make them any easier to handle once they were upon me. This book did a good job of examining the meaning and consequences of obsessive behavior….Charlie is obsessed with Sylva...more

like · see review

Apr 23, 2013 Wendy Burks rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book is a bit dark, so don't read if you're looking for a light, life-reaffirming read. But it is good if you don't like neat, tidy, happy endings and want something to think about once you've finished.

Below is my review and favorite passages, but it's a complete spoiler, so stop now if you don't want to know!

Heading Out to Wonderful by Robert Goolrick
I read this book in one day, needing to know what would come of the star crossed lovers, knowing in my heart of hearts this book would not...more

like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Fiction Lover's B...: * Heading Out to Wonderful, by Robert Goolrick	1	7	Oct 18, 2012 09:25am
HarperCollins Can...: Heading Out to Wonderful	2	30	Jun 18, 2012 05:49am

combine
Other Editions (15)

More editions...

Genres

Historical Fiction

51 users

Adult Fiction

13 users

Book Club

10 users

Romance

10 users

Literary Fiction

9 users

Suspense

6 users

War

6 users

Mystery

5 users

American > Southern

5 users

Novels

4 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

City of Women
by David R. Gillham
The Cove
by Ron Rash
A Land More Kind Than Home
by Wiley Cash
Calling Invisible Women
by Jeanne Ray
Trapeze
by Simon Mawer

About Robert Goolrick

Robert Goolrick was born in a small town in Virginia and attended John Hopkins University.

Fired after 30 years in the advertising business, Goolrick wrote his memoir, The End of the World as We Know It: Scenes from a Life. A Reliable Wife is his first novel.

Goolrick currently lives in New York City.

More about Robert Goolrick...

Books by Robert Goolrick

The End of the World as We Know It: Scenes from a Life

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Heading Out To Wo...

1 trivia question

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from Heading Out To Wonderful

“When you're young, and you head out to wonderful, everything is fresh and bright as a brand new penny, but before you get to wonderful you're going to have to pass through all right. And when you get to all right, stop and take a good long look, because that may be as far as you're ever going to go.” — 9 people liked it

“There is in this valley a beating heart. It is always and ever there. And when I am gone, it will beat for you and when you are gone, it will beat for your children and theirs, forever. Forever. Until there is no water, no air, no green in the spring or gold in the autumn, no stars in the sky or wind from the north. And when you cannot speak, it will speak for you. When you cannot see, it will be your eyes. When you cannot remember, it will be your memory. It will never forget you. And when you cannot be faithful, it will save a place for your return. This is a gift to you. It cannot be taken away. It is yours forever. It is the narrative of this world, and the scrapbook of your own small life, and, when you are gone into ash and darkness and the grave, it will tell your story.” — 7 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: Heading Out To Wonderful
avg rating	preview: Heading Out To Wonderful Goodreads rating: 3.55 (3303 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13404803-heading-out-to-wonderful?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1340467289l/13404803.jpg[/img][/url] [url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13404803-heading-out-to-wonderful?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Heading Out To Wonderful by Robert Goolrick[/url]

Heading Out To Wonderful

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website