Questions About So Long, See You Tomorrow

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Answered Questions (4)

Does anybody else love this book? I think it is exquisite writing with a Midwestern kindness in its voice.

Krista Howe I love this novel!! In fact, I loved it so much that I wrote my master's thesis on it. It is noteworthy as an American novel, especially in our troubl…moreI love this novel!! In fact, I loved it so much that I wrote my master's thesis on it. It is noteworthy as an American novel, especially in our troubled and traumatized world. This is a trauma narrative worthy of canonization in 20th Century literature. Not only does it delineate the problematic nature of memory and imagination and trauma, but also illustrates the acting out and working through of national tragedy on a personal level as it recalls the narrator's loss of his mother to the Spanish Flu and thus turns us again to Maxwell's second novel They Came Like Swallows written 40 years earlier. It is a prime example of the work that autobiography and autobiographic fiction perform in our culture, to recognize that we all have a place in history. The things that happen in our world affect us all in one way or another. We are "no more immune to misfortune than anybody else" (Maxwell 9). (less)

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I just finished So Long, See You Tomorrow, and I loved it. I have to admit, though, that I was a little confused as to what deep secret the narrator was tormented by as regards his youth. I thought it could be that his friend was the one who had either killed the farmer or that he killed his father. I wonder if I somehow missed something?

Elizabeth

This answer contains spoilers… (view spoiler)

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Surely that must be a mistake in chapter 5 (page 57 of my edition); "where she settles down in a place that she has made for herself in the high grass with her chin resting on her four paws." It must be forepaws, don't you think?

Laura Vazquez forepaw. ( ˈfɔːˌpɔː) n. (Zoology) either of the front feet of most land mammals that do not have hoofs. Collins English Dictionary
You may be right.
…moreforepaw. ( ˈfɔːˌpɔː) n. (Zoology) either of the front feet of most land mammals that do not have hoofs. Collins English Dictionary
You may be right.
(less)

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I just finished reading William Maxwell's So Long, See You Tomorrow. And overall, I found the storytelling difficult to follow. Probably because of the use of several points of view. Sort of like watching a dinnertime conversation that's constantly being interrupted by tangents. To the point that I wasn't totally sure who was doing the talking anymore. Did anyone else have this reaction???

Jane Brenner Yes. The book requires a certain slow reading tempo which I am not always capable of!

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Unanswered Questions (1)

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