The author of The Clearing (“the finest American novel in a long, long time”—Annie Proulx) now surpasses himself with a st...
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Oct 27, 2011
James
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This is a lyrical, beautifully-written book that explores the themes of family, compassion, revenge and forgiveness. Sam Simoneaux journeys with the U.S. Army from his native Louisiana to war-torn France, arriving on November 11, 1918, the day that World War I ends. Although he sees no combat, his experience there leaves an indelible mark that will follow him the rest of his life.
Returning to the U.S., Sam attempts to make a life for himself and his young wife by working as a floorwalk More...
Returning to the U.S., Sam attempts to make a life for himself and his young wife by working as a floorwalk More...
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Jul 29, 2010
Judith
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Just after WWI, our hero, "Lucky" has a nice little wife, house, and job as a floorwalker in a fine department store. His life changes dramatically one day when a couple report their child missing in his store. During his search, he finds a toothless old crone shaving the head of a beautiful little 3 year old girl in the basement of the store, and finds himself knocked unconscious immediately thereafter. He is fired from his job and begins his own search to find the missing child.
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Feb 07, 2010
Gina
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True Confessions: I am only halfway through this book but I am totally smitten. This Gautreaux chap writes with such strength and beauty -- well, words cannot convey the wonder of this book unless they are the words of The Missing itself. The plot centers around a kidnapped child whose parents work on a Riverboat as entertainers. Their daughter Lily was abducted in a New Orleans department store where Sam Simoneaux was a floor walker. He almost foils the villains in the act but is knocked
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Jan 31, 2010
Tony
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Gautreaux, Tim. THE MISSING. (2009). ****. Here’s another nominee for this year’s Edgar Award. The author had critical claim for his previous novel, “The Clearing,” and this one has been eagerly awaited. He is a professor emeritus in the creative writing department at Southeastern Louisiana University, so you can expect his settings to be authentic. As expected, this novel is set in and around Louisiana, and a great deal of it is spent on steamboats on the Mississippi. Our protagonist is
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Jul 05, 2009
Gary
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REVIEW OF TIM GAUTREAUX NOVEL, THE MISSING
Several weeks ago, I went blog surfing and ended up on a marvelous site called "Dew on the Kudzu" where the blogmaster was celebrating the discovery of a wonderful novel entitled "The Missing" by Tim Gautreaux. I read one paragraph of the review and knew I wanted to read this novel and immediately ordered it for my Kindle. Well, kind hearts, you must read this book! I not only read it....I reread it! Please read it and com More...
Several weeks ago, I went blog surfing and ended up on a marvelous site called "Dew on the Kudzu" where the blogmaster was celebrating the discovery of a wonderful novel entitled "The Missing" by Tim Gautreaux. I read one paragraph of the review and knew I wanted to read this novel and immediately ordered it for my Kindle. Well, kind hearts, you must read this book! I not only read it....I reread it! Please read it and com More...
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May 02, 2009
Al
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Gautreaux probes the psyche of a WWI veteran, orphaned as a baby in a brutal massacre of his family, as he searches for a missing child while working on an excursion boat along the Mississippi river. This book has many attributes. The protagonist's motivations, the impact of his experiences on his actions, his ambivalences, shortcomings, and heroics are all developed in a very persuasive and realistic way. I also really enjoyed the many other characters encountered along the way; not
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Nov 27, 2009
Jennifer
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I loved this author's book, The Next Step in the Dance. He really knows Louisiana and the south. He is a great storyteller.
This is also a great story. It's set in the 1920's, the last days of the big steam paddle wheel boats that rode up and down the Mississippi. Sam takes a job on one of the boats. He's lost his job because he was partly responsible for the kidnapping of a young girl. He thinks he'll be able to help locate her somewhere up and down the river. A lot happens and he' More...
This is also a great story. It's set in the 1920's, the last days of the big steam paddle wheel boats that rode up and down the Mississippi. Sam takes a job on one of the boats. He's lost his job because he was partly responsible for the kidnapping of a young girl. He thinks he'll be able to help locate her somewhere up and down the river. A lot happens and he' More...
Sep 18, 2010
Katie
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This book was extremely well-written, and some of the descriptions were breathtaking. There was also the skeleton of an excellent plot, but it felt as though Gautreaux had ten dictionaries full of research that he simply HAD to include, whether or not it added anything to the story. At the end, I had little idea of what he was trying to do. At first, I thought the story of the missing girl and his own family would be tied together somehow, and then they weren't. Often, the three plot ties (h
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Jun 01, 2009
Bookmarks Magazine
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Reviewers appreciated not just the prose and the characters of The Missing but also how different it was from most contemporary novels. While much fiction today revels in ambiguity and irony, Gautreaux's story has an overall moral theme about justice and revenge. That's not to say it's a sermon, however: several critics compared the book to an adventure novel. They also appreciated the book's unusual pacing that "carries us along as it branches and swells, as if inspired by the great river
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Nov 11, 2010
Carol
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The last 2 books I have read have been for my book club and, very strangely, they have both
been about missing girls. The books, however, could not have been any more different. The Last Child
was a contemporary mystery that was not solved until the end. The hero of The Last Child was the girls 13 year old brother. It was sad but was an excellent read with a hopeful ending.
The Missing by Tim Gautreaux was also about a missing girl but was set in the early 1920's mostly o More...
been about missing girls. The books, however, could not have been any more different. The Last Child
was a contemporary mystery that was not solved until the end. The hero of The Last Child was the girls 13 year old brother. It was sad but was an excellent read with a hopeful ending.
The Missing by Tim Gautreaux was also about a missing girl but was set in the early 1920's mostly o More...
Nov 03, 2009
John
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Tim Gautreaux's previous novel "The Clearing" was one of my favorite novels of the decade. I liked this novel just as much. Sam Simoneaux returns to Louisiana from the first world war, gets a nice job as a floorwalker in a department store, then loses his job when a girl is stolen from the store. This leads to a quest to find the missing girl and return her to her parents, involving trips up and down the Mississippi River on a riverboat. That brief premise does no justice to the twists
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Feb 21, 2010
Trish
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Tim Gautreaux’s The Missing is written beautifully, full of evocative prose, and Southern dialect. He has an original story to tell set in the mid 1920’s on a riverboat that takes people on dance cruises, with the man character, Sam Simoneaux, working on the boat while at the same time looking for a stolen child in and round the ports where they dock. The basic themes of the book are of justice, revenge and redemption. Sam struggles with all of these, and in the end eventually finds redemption
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Nov 16, 2009
Trey
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The story and characters started off strong and I was really into the book, but as the plot continued I lost interest a bit. The time period and geography (river boat on MS river) of the book makes the read interesting. I don’t really recommend this one.
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May 19, 2010
KarenC
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Added to my list due to Edgar nomination. Didn't feel that it was as strong a mystery as other nominees. Enjoyed the story and the setting. Characters were nicely drawn and the novel held a laid back "southern" feel. Country scenes evoked a feel for the backcountry atmosphere of the time; it was the clearest, strongest chraracter in the novel. I could feel the slow water beneath the boat, the heavy, humid summer air, the mosquitoes in the woods and the pressing in of trees and vines as
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Aug 19, 2009
Su
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A really entertaining read. A New Orleans man returns home from WWI and finds a job as a floorwalker in a large department store. Unfortunately for him, a 3 year old is kidnapped while he is working and the store fires him, with the promise of him being able to return to the job if he finds the child. He takes a job with a Riverboat, where the child's mom, dad and brother work and proceeds to retrack steps to locate her. So many events take place while he is on his quest and his life gets ve
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Feb 20, 2010
Michael
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It's New Orleans at a time just after WWI. Sam Simoneaux returns from the war, not engaging in action buy experiencing the horrific aftermath of the conflict. He's ready for a quiet life and accepts a job as a floor walker at a department store. A little girl is kidnapped from the store when he is on duty and he loses his job.
Having lost a child himself, he is anguished by the parents' pain. He accepts a job, joining them on a steamboat providing entertainment along the Mississippi w More...
Having lost a child himself, he is anguished by the parents' pain. He accepts a job, joining them on a steamboat providing entertainment along the Mississippi w More...
Nov 12, 2009
Curriec
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I liked this book; it reminded me of "Water for Elephants", which was a favorite of mine. Both were set in America between the two World Wars. "Water" revolved around the lives of people in a circus traveling by train through the heartland; "Missing" is about people working aboard a run-down old steamboat that travels from town to town along the Mississippi, bringing live band music and a floating dance floor to people starved for fun and entertainment during the d
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Nov 27, 2009
Shannon
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The writing is deceptively simple, and at first I was annoyed by what felt almost condescendlingly simplistic (condescending towards the characters, more than the reader) but I was deceived and I am glad I gave the book the chance to prove itself. The plot is so intricate, and builds so slowly and subtly, that by the last third I was fully engrossed, cared more for the main character than I thought I would, and had some real moments of suspense because I truly did not know how it would end. One
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Sep 20, 2010
Tony
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Great book! It has been a while since I have read something that I would place in the literature category. Great pacing, a page turner, unpredictable, and rich. Something that deserves Pulitzer appreciation.
The story takes place during and after WWI. Young married man out of the war is working as security in a department store when a little girl is abducted on his watch. He feels guilty and takes a job on a party boat on the Mississippi and on the side looks for the girl. He More...
The story takes place during and after WWI. Young married man out of the war is working as security in a department store when a little girl is abducted on his watch. He feels guilty and takes a job on a party boat on the Mississippi and on the side looks for the girl. He More...
Mar 22, 2009
Ellen
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I came upon this novel at a book signing in New Orleans, where I had the pleasure of hearing the author read from it. The story takes place on the Mississippi River in the early 1920s; it is told from the perspective of a young man embroiled in the search for another family's lost chid. Along the way, he confronts the slaughter of his own family, a violent scene that took place when he was an infant. While the book obsesses over the importance of blood bonds, it ends up broadening the definition
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Jun 01, 2010
Mary Kay
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If you forced me to pick the best living author writing today, I would tell you that choice would be impossible. There are so many great writers out there, in so many different genres. If you then threatened to blow me to kingdom come if I didn't pick one favorite author, I would say without hesitation, Tim Gautreaux. Would not even hesitate. This man creates, seemingly without effort, a real world in which things happen. Big things, sometimes. Yet he writes in such a quiet, understated wa
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May 22, 2009
Julie
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Oct 29, 2010
Gregg
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Never heard of the guy before I grabbed this book, but as soon as I read it I hunted down two more of his books. That's how good he is.
One thing you can say about Gautreaux's books -- there's no shortage of things happening. The Missing, set in New Orleans after Wold War I, begins with the abduction of a child from a department store, and it keeps going from there. The descriptions of Cajun life, and life on a Mississippi River excursion boat were fascinating, and the main characters w More...
One thing you can say about Gautreaux's books -- there's no shortage of things happening. The Missing, set in New Orleans after Wold War I, begins with the abduction of a child from a department store, and it keeps going from there. The descriptions of Cajun life, and life on a Mississippi River excursion boat were fascinating, and the main characters w More...
Mar 04, 2011
Kathy
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I listened the audio recording of this book and it wasn't a good recording therefore I didn't enjoy it. I can see the potential of the book and would recommend it to those who is interested in life and custom in Louisiana in the 1920s. I found the excursion boat life style interesting. The lawlessness in the South at the time was quite scary and I think the author did a good job conveying the message. Beautifully written. There were quite a few french passages in the book which interupted the f
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Jun 22, 2009
Margaret
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My family was ignored for three days while I read this engrossing book. I usually refuse to read books about abducted children, but this one was different. Set right after WW l the young protagonist, a veteran of the war who has reason to feel responsible for the occurence of the abduction,is on a quest to find the child. He gets a job on a riverboat and searches towns up and down the Mississippi, and his determined efforts resolve not only the problem with the child, but also redeem him from a
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Oct 13, 2011
Joe
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Just started this but the author has a beautiful voice and tone. So far it seems to be about the tragedy of war and loss. This is wonderfully written and takes place along the Mississippi River and Delta post World War I. Sam Simoneaux has survived a family massacre as a young child and the them of lost and missing runs throughout the book. In search of another lost child that happened on his watch while acting as a "floor walker" in a New Orleans department store, Sam takes it upon hi
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Mar 21, 2010
Pamsholley
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Because much of this work was set on the Mississippi, I became very nostalgic for the River Explorer while reading it. Set after World War I, Sam Simoneaux searches for a kidnapped child after he forgets to have the department store doors locked when the parents first find their child missing. Book revolves around his search for Lily, work as a pianist and third mate aboard a steamboat on the river, and eventual peace after seeing the disease ravaged remnants of the Cloat family who killed his f
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Feb 12, 2011
Sally45
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Lots of plots and sub plots in this book. I would have been happy just to have Lily reunited with her Family but the author was determined to give us a much more complicated book. The characters good and bad were well developed. The main character Sam was a gentle guy who would really pay all his life for the carelessness of the Lily's parents. Got this book as part of a book club and very glad I did. Highly recommend it.
Mar 24, 2010
Roberta
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I loved this book. It takes place in Louisiana just after the end of WWI. The story telling is superb and the plot is engrossing. I can't wait to read other books by him. This is a mystery but the reader really knows who did what. What keeps you reading is both how the story is told and wanting to know how it all comes out. We are treated to riverboats and New Orleans music and the joy and pain of good people struggling in a hard world -- also some not-good-at-all people and what happens t
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Feb 04, 2011
Diane
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Set in the years immediately following World War I, this novel follows a young man from the Louisiana bayou to New Orleans, where he gets a job as a floor-walker in a department store. A young girl is kidnapped on his watch, and the novel details the aftermath of this event. The author does a decent job of evoking the period, but the characters didn't really draw me in, and the plot languishes.
