Any Day Now: A Novel

by Terry Bisson

This tour de force, road movie of a novel is a poignant excursion into the last days of the Beats and the radicalized culture of the 1960s, from Kentucky to New York City and beyond. Written in a voice that is warmhearted and hauntingly original, Any Day Now is the story of Clay, a small-town boy whose future is all mapped out. It travels as far as an isolated New Mexico commune under threat from a national revolution, with Clay battling to find his place in the new America -- and hoping desperately to forget what happened back East with the girl he loved.

Bisson, whose prose brings to life this wild tale in the vein of Philip Roth's The Plot Against America, has written a transcendent commentary on America's civil liberties and the perils of growing up, then and now.

Genres: Fiction, Alternate History, Science Fiction, Historical Fiction, Dystopia, Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy

288 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2012

About the author

Terry Ballantine Bisson was an American science fiction and fantasy author best known for his short stories, including "Bears Discover Fire" (1990), which which won both the Hugo and Nebula awards, as well as They're Made Out of Meat (1991), which has been adapted for video often.

Adapted from Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up at the library, and was intrigued by the cover blurbs and the fact that it is about the sixties. Did not realize the book was also in the alternate history genre--a genre that I theoretically should like, being a history nut, but one that so far I have not enjoyed reading. So, one of the best things about the book was that I gradually found out that the writer was playing with history. At first I thought the author was just making mistakes (Miles Davis was killed in a crash in the late 50s?. But when famous murdered political figures survive assassination attempts, I realized I was in an alternate 60s world. It was a delightful discovery at that point, because I already cared so much about the characters and the world they were trying to create. I will definitely read more of this author.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

"My aunt once said the world would never find peace until men fell at their women's feet and asked for forgiveness." (Jack Kerouac, in On the Road)

Terry Bisson's episodic novel—the longest thing I've seen from him in years—feels like a diary of a time so far gone by that its true history has been erased, only to be rewritten by strangers. I myself know... well, not its starting place exactly (Owensboro, Kentucky, over near the Indiana border), nor precisely the time (the Fifties, which is when this novel of the Sixties begins), but close enough... I too grew up in Appalachia or thereabouts, in the same culture and roughly the same era as Clayton Bewley Bauer, the rebellious protagonist of Any Day Now. Though my own history starts a little later and a little farther East, Clayton's upbringing both feels familiar and rings true.

"So what?" is Clayton's frequent refrain. Words to that effect are his response to all of the stultifying voices of respectability and scandalized normality that beset him in his hometown. Influenced early on by Roads, a jazz scholar and prototypical beatnik (or as much of one as may be, growing up in Kentucky), Clayton nevertheless manages to make it through high-school ROTC and pick up some skills as an automobile repairman before striking out on the road himself, just as the Sixties—the decade of change, that sharp inflection point in the graph of American history—really get rolling.

Clayton's journey takes him to New York City, to an apartment on the Lower East Side where he—occasionally—gets to rub shoulders with counterculture saints like Allen Ginsberg and Andy Warhol, and eventually out West, to the communal geodesic domes of "almost New Mexico," southern Colorado's Drop City.

Drop City was a real place; its domes made of reclaimed automotive sheet metal are celebrated in Alastair Gordon's Spaced Out, which I reviewed back in 2009, and elsewhere. But... Clayton's Sixties really aren't ours. I won't go into details about the changes Bisson rings on our history, and it's hard to tell exactly when things start getting skewed away from history as we know it anyway, but I noticed the first differences creeping in on page 24, when an unlikely pair of public figures seem to swap fates.

Bisson's novel isn't just a bildungsroman for Clayton Bauer... it's also an examination of what went wrong (and, perhaps more significantly, what went right) when America went through its tempestuous delayed adolescence. The flap copy's comparison to Philip Roth's stellar novel The Plot Against America seems entirely apt.

I did find myself distressed by just how quickly and comprehensively things seemed to fall apart, once Clayton's world's history diverged significantly from our own. Not that such disintegration wasn't likely or plausible—frankly, I'm amazed that our own history didn't fall down some of the same pits—but I will admit that my preference would have been to see a better alternative take hold, improbable as that may have been, hard as it may have been for Bisson to imagine. The men of Clayton's timeline don't fall at their women's feet and ask for forgiveness. Maybe that's why things went so far awry.

But Bisson doesn't flinch from hard choices, either for Clayton, boy and man, or for the country he's in. And the journey they take is both compelling and entertaining. With recommendations on the dust jacket from literary luminaries like Michael Chabon, Madison Smartt Bell, Kim Stanley Robinson and John Crowley, as well as from actor and author Peter Coyote, you hardly need me to tell you this... but I too thought Any Day Now was a very good read.

[Samuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

So. I loved this book, but I'm not sure yet whether I can call it a "great" book or add it to my all-time favorites list; but that's not exactly damning with faint praise or a backhanded compliment. The novel is a joy to read, full of language and time and humanity and mess and poetry and music and love and cars and war and politics and more humanity on top, presented in (sometimes very) short scenes. Read this book! But there are some sections I might need to re-read, or at least think about -- let me see if I can explain at all: (NOTE: AFTER HERE LIE MINOR SPOILERS FOR TWO OF BISSON'S BOOKS, SO, BE YE WARNED.)

So in alternate history, the two big joys for me are:

1. being knowledgeable enough of the actual history to know where and how history diverges
2. watching a very small change dovetail into larger changes, without overly stretching credulity

In Bisson's absolute classic of alternate history, Fire on the Mountain, both of these obtain. One must only accept one change -- that John Brown delayed his attack on Harper's Ferry until Harriet Tubman's illness passed, and his later attack was successful -- and, while the ensuing events range from the mundane to spaceflight, there isn't a major series of events which strains credulity.

Here, I'm not entirely sure about a few things. I absolutely loved the delicious, delicious way the micro level changes are introduced, and even the combining two of them into one of the most amazing moments in the history of alternate history on stage at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. But things get a bit messy in that a half-dozen (at least) significant events pop up all over the globe, leading to a mild muddling of cause and effect. But this is absolutely a minor, minor quibble on the whole; it's an alternate history novel, so who cares if a half-dozen events all change, or just one or two? The consistency of the resulting world is what matters.

And it is here where I'm just not sure yet, though the more I really sit and think about it the less unsure I am. Perhaps it is just hard for me, here in 2010+ and having grown up under the ramping-up military of Reagan, to understand why the US government is so impotent in the face of absolutely massive (yet not exactly highly militarized?) chaos within its borders in the late 1960s; how a few deserting regiments lead to such complete fragmentation. (And such a powerful UN?) Hm. Was the state of the US really on this much of a precipice in the turmoil of Vietnam?

Anyway. Read this book. It's lovely.

[Ken Houghton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terry BissonAny Day Now

Terry Bisson should be a national treasure. This is his most successful novel, and I'm going to be spending the next few months alternating between getting mad about it and raving about it to anyone who will listen.

Any Day Now starts as the moderately alternative history coming-of-age story of Clayton Bewley,* a loquacious, unassuming bloke with a talent for keeping cars running. The changes come in almost-throwaway references, until a flashpoint--an event from 1970 occurs in 1967--seems only natural, the ripples from it affecting the characters directly and the world around them significantly.

The book divides between Clayton's time in NYC and Colorado, with occasional hejiras back to Owensboro (KY), mostly for funerals and other life events. Clayton never seems comfortable. Neither the Village of the early 1960s nor a commune of affable cohorts seems his center so much as desultory environments that only seem preferable by comparison to the destruction around them. The closest equivalent to Bewley's character I can remember in fiction is Julien Sorel.

Ultimately, the clash of cultures--both locally and nationwide--leaves Bewley and his shifting coterie of Beats, radicals, dreamers, hangers-on, sympathizers, and even a few venal exploiters in a position familiar to many these days: struggling to survive, failing to thrive, and doing the best they can while facing active opposition from the government and the world. (Not a bad prediction for a 2012 book.)

Any Day Now is a legitimate novel, covering a wide range of issues and events and ultimately teaching us more about how to survive--stay warm, keep your vehicles running, live and love--as the world around us becomes increasingly hazardous. Well worth your time to read a master at his least (and most) absurdist.

*I keep thinking Bewley might be a reference to Truman Bewley, but I'm probably wrong.

[Florence Buchholz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clay, a young man from Kentucky, who sometimes writes poems, seems to exist somewhere on the periphery of whatever radical changes are taking place at the time. From the streets of New York City with the Beat generation, to the Weathermen, to a hippie commune in Southern Colorado, he is always on the scene. The prose is sparse. All forward movement of the story is told in short vignettes. I found it difficult to perceive when Clay was in love or just taking advantage of a sexual opportunity. As the United States disintingrates into violent anarchy, Clay's group of hippies are somewhat insulated in thier Buckminster Fuller dome. An ambitious tale that completely rewrites recent American history.

[David Gagen · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a great novel in here somewhere. A kinda road novel with a large cast of characters set against the cultural turmoil of the 60's, real and re-imagined in the 2nd part of the book. I wanted so much to like this bold story telling. Yet by the end, I had lost interest for the most part. Too many bit characters that came and went was a distraction. In the end nothing much was delivered unfortunately. Add half a star.

[Zach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Representative sentence: "The world got flat and wide until it was a table under the sky."

Imagines an America in the 60s if RFK and King had survived. But is so much more than that. Chabon and Lethem blurbs. Just go read it. I was lucky enough to have noticed it at my library, or I would never have bothered with it.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alternate history of the sixties through the eyes of a kid from Tennessee who experiences a lot: the beats and folk revival in New York, demonstrations against the war, hippie communes in New Mexico. A lot goes differently than our version. Not a bad book, exactly, but not really that interesting (and I generally like Bisson's short stories quite a bit). The problem for me is that the main character doesn't really act in the book, things happen to him, so it was hard to stay involved in the book, even when those things that happen to him are interesting.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wild and crazy. Fun read.

[Lisa Eckstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

At its core, this is a coming-of-age story about living in a particular time and a particular subculture. Clay grows up in 1950s Kentucky and develops an interest in the beat poets. After a short attempt at college, he moves to New York City, where he briefly encounters Allen Ginsberg and Andy Warhol. He does a bit of demonstrating against the Vietnam War, but it's Clay's friends who are more immersed in the various youth movements of the 1960s. Eventually Clay winds up living in a hippie commune in the southwest. The political events and cultural changes of this tumultuous period of U.S. history unfold in the background of the story, occasionally coming to the front as they impact Clay's life and friendships.

The writing style in this novel appealed to me. It's straightforward, with simple sentences and lots of dialogue. Some might imagine this indicates a lack of sophistication, but they would be mistaken. Bisson has masterfully crafted every paragraph of this novel.

There's another major thing to mention about ANY DAY NOW, but I've been avoiding it so far because I think it's better to encounter it unexpectedly. If what I've said already is enough to interest you in this novel, then stop reading this review and go pick up the book. If you're not convinced yet and are willing to forgo the surprise, then keep going.

Everything I've described so far is accurate, and for about the first third of the book, it really is just a story of a young man's life. The occasional references to current events are exactly what you'd expect from anything set during this time, especially once Clay and his friends start becoming politically active. The big spoiler is that the current events in the story start to become disconnected from history as we know it. This may have started with more subtlety than I had the knowledge to notice, but it soon becomes clear to any reader that Clay's world is taking a different historical path than our own. It's fascinating to see what happens as a result of the changes. It's also fascinating that even as this novel evolves into a different genre than it started as, it remains primarily a personal story about the life of one young man.

[Tuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

really compelling and readable new novel by bisson, that turns into an alternative history of the 1960's. rfk , well, ok, i'm going to stop right here on that thread, but authorial voice changes over time from little hillbilly kid, to kentucky beat, to nyc beat, to on-the-road broken hearted poet, to commune hideaway with world weary-but-willing hippie type dude, to righteous warrior fighting the dark side. bisson's book perhaps is one of the best of recent (not discounting what i heard was THE BEST [hah, we'll see] hippie time books out recently Arcadia and peter coyote's bio which is supposed to be superlative Sleeping Where I Fall: A Chronicle) smash up of 50's 60's and 70's subjected "historical" fiction. so visit the "real" drop city with bisson, it's a trip man.

[Jamie Henderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm having a hard time saying whether I enjoyed this book or not. At the beginning of the book, I found the writing style somewhat distracting. It was too similar to some of Asimov's coming of age type writing, but not quite there. Yet, I thought it was a great style for what Bisson was doing. As Bisson seemed to settle into the writing and the subject matter, things went smoother. By about a quarter of the way into the book, I felt I was somewhat into it and interested in what was happening and enjoying myself. And that lasted through the whole middle.

But, in the last quarter, there seemed to be a pacing problem that I can't entirely put my finger on. Events were clearly ramping up. But, as the reader, I didn't really feel like it. Some part of this may be purposeful, due to our somewhat detached and take-things-as-they-come main character. But really there is this surreal huge climax of events we are told about in a somewhat disinterested way as the character fails to *feel* like it is coming to anything interesting at all.

[Robert Nolin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't typically read alternate histories, but this one was fabulous. Couldn't put it down, read it in a day. I chose it because I'd read some of Bisson's short work and really liked it, and saw that this was about the Sixties. As much as I loved Arcadia by Lauren Groff, I wanted to read a book written by someone who was old enough to have lived through that time, as I had. Groff's book suffers a bit from psychic distance from the period: you can sort of tell she hadn't lived through it. Bisson's book is visceral, immediate, with its short, concise language (perhaps a bit too Hemmingway for me) and the many references that ring true. If I had known this was an alternate history, I may have passed, but I'm so glad I didn't. This was a very strong story that I will be thinking about for a while. Now for more Bisson!

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps I shouldn't have read this so soon after Super Sad True Love Story, another alter-history story (and one I liked a little better). I never had much of a feeling for Clay. Maybe his name is supposed to suggest his malleability, but I thought him more just grey and bland as properties. He never reached the Everyman status, because he is just an observer, rarely a participant. A fixer for others' vehicles.

I liked the first half quite a bit, until the Weather changes. [spoiler alert] I didn't like the resurrection of the assassinations, and couldn't buy into the revolution that didn't happen. And I got a laugh a the end to realize just how clueless our hero really was.

But I would have awarded 3.5 if that were possible.

[Lynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be fair, I picked this up on a whim, thinking it was a novel about the 60s. I not only didn't realize it was an alternative history tale, I didn't know there was such a genre! Clay, a naive young man from Kentucky is impressed with new friends he considers to be beatniks. He decides not to apply to college and to follow them to New York City. Then things take a turn for the odd. I did enjoy the beginning of the book but when it morphed into revolution and mayhem, and picked up more characters than I could comfortably keep up with, it lost me. I found the prose sometimes delightful but more often annoying. This book just says to me: to each his own.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel starts off as an account of a boy who comes of age in the 1950s and 1960s, moving from Indiana to New York City during the radical period of 1960s. Then it peels off from reality into a counter-history, in which RFK and Martin Luther King survive assassination attempts and run as a joint ticket for president. The guy ends up in a commune in the Western desert as the shit hits the fan. The style of writing is arresting, and the plot is clever. I found myself limping across the finish line, however. Not completely sure that's because the book lost its way; it may be that I lost mine.

[Cynthia · Rating 2 out of 5]

An alternate history of the sixties, most particularly 1968 as seen through the eyes of Clay and his friends living on nearby communes. Rather disappointing overall with the historical changes feeling very arbitrary and not always completely in character from what I remember of that time. The commune life as well as individual radicalization from that time has been done so many times and I needed a better why and how for the historical changes.

[Keith Rosson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bisson deftly juggles approximately seven trillion characters here, while never losing any momentum in the novel's prose or the audacity of its plot and worldview. Excellent dialogue, velocity, sentence-by-sentence craft. Had no idea who this guy was when I picked this book up, and by the time I finished it, Any Day Now had become one of my favorite books of the past few years. Straight up amazing work.

[JT · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sneaky alt history. I did not think I was going to like this book. The Beats did nothing for me, and a lead character getting into Kerouac doesn't bode well, but while this is happening, things in the background start diverging from history. Little things. Subtly. And so it builds to a real rip-snorter, but mostly offscreen. All in all a lot of fun and more than a little scarey.

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quirky coming of age story from the VietNam era with a detour (slight) into alternative history. Might be my age but the counter culture felt authentic and many wishful thoughts (e.g., a world where Allende and Martin Luther King survived) felt almost too comfortable.

[Nancy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't read this whole book. I read 1/2 and it was so boring that I skipped to the last few pages and it was just as boring. It was about some boys during the Vietnam War and the different paths they took, but it was not very good.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alternate history with numerous minor changes occurring through the 1950s and then finally boiling over in 1968. Others have noted a couple historical differences on page 24, occurring in 1955, but there is an earlier on page 14 that occurs in 1953.

[Keith Gerlach · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Beat generation. The Hippie movement! An alternate 1968 with all sorts of strange and different things. Bobby Kennedy, HHH, MLK, Alexander Haig all with different roles not of our time frame. The ending was kind of flat or it might be 3 1/2 stars.

[Kurt · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first I thought this was not science fiction... Later on as I read I came across some historical inaccuracies, but I was still not sure it was science fiction buy a literary exploration of life as a hippie. But as the book progressed things got wild. A "historical fantasy"

[Kathleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Occasionally brilliant, but not worth the slog.

[Jonathan Rosenthal · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book very engrossing. The character development is beautiful. The occasional rewriting of history and dip into dystopian meandering was a distraction for me. Still, a very good read.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terry Bisson is a remarkable writer!

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think reading this was a mind-expanding experience.

[John Day · Rating 5 out of 5]

Couldn't put it down. A coming of age story set in a very different 1968-1970.

[Joanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the first half a lot, but was not enchanted with the fantasyStyled second half. It morphed from a coming-of-age book to an allegory, and I wasn't keen on that.