Gone Tomorrow

by P.F. Kluge

Kluge's brilliant novel tells of George Canaris, a writing professor who is on the verge of forced retirement at a small college in Ohio when he is killed by a hit-and-run driver. Kluge's creation of Canaris as the first faculty member in half a century whose death merits an obituary in the New York Times is right on the money. A writer, a critic, a professor, a campus legend and a national figure, the very embodiment of the liberal arts, the fictional Times obituary said. And a mystery. Canaris, hero and anti-hero, was the author of two well-received novels and a book of essays, all published more than thirty years ago. Taken together, they were the beginnings of an impressive shelf to which, in all his years in Ohio, he added nothing. Compared to Faulkner and Dos Passo at the start of his career, the Times observed, in the end Canaris resembled Harper Lee. With a book listed among the 100 greatest novels of all time, decades separating Canaris from the hefty advance taken on his next book The Beast, which was to be his masterpiece and not a page to show of it, Canaris is a great fictional creation an enigma. Inevitably, speculation grows that the book was a myth, a lie, a joke. Every passing year made skeptics more confident. But never certain. Upon his death, Mark May, a young English professor who barely knew him finds himself named as Canaris's literary executor executor of what is unclear. Thus begins a search through lives and letters that is at once gripping, hilarious and affirming. A true page-turner, P.F. Kluge's Gone Tomorrow, is equal parts Richard Russo and Michael Chabon, and yet entirely unlike anything you've ever read.

Genres: Fiction, Books About Books, Academia

368 pages, Paperback

First published November 13, 2008

About the author

P.F. Kluge attended Kenyon College and the University of Chicago, and served in the U.S. Peace Corps (in Micronesia). He has worked as a reporter at the Wall Street Journal and as an editor at Life magazine. He has written for numerous publications, including Playboy, Rolling Stone, and Smithsonian, and is a contributing editor at National Geographic Traveler. As Writer-in-Residence at Kenyon, Kluge specializes in the reading and writing of American literature. He is a reporter, a writer, and a teacher.

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book tells the story of a writer and professor under many versions of "publish or perish" pressures.

It's a mystery, bouncing back and forth in time and told in two voices over 30+ years.

It is a commentary on life at a small college in the midwest, and life in the even smaller town that contains it.

But mostly, or perhaps just the part I like the most, it is a meditation on books, reading, and teaching and what they mean in the grander scheme of life and happiness.

If you enjoy a little mystery, and you enjoy a teaching environment about writing and the behind scenes of academia, you might enjoy this one!

[R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nothing really new to add to the product description, but this 2008 novel is notable in particular as the first posthumous appearance of David Foster Wallace as a fictional character - in the guise of John Henry Mallon and his doorstop novel GameShow. I'd like to think that, yes, while DFW was in town to give that now-famous Kenyon speech ("This Is Water") he and Kluge did indeed drive a few miles out of town, to a strip club, and talk shop.

[Eugenea Pollock · Rating 5 out of 5]

So true to its context—so consistently a puzzle—its central mystery so haunting—the author stays two steps ahead. Caution: You may dream about this tale. I love Professor George Canaris. ❤️ (student crush) Oh, to have been in one of his classes! Not to mention hearing about The Beast! This novel is quite an academic roller coaster ride. Do yourself a favor and READ IT!

[Brent Ecenbarger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recently, I rewatched the film Eddie and the Cruisers. For those that haven’t seen it, it’s about a singer named Eddie who released a great first album, was working on a follow-up, and then died mysteriously. The cult and fandom around his lost music grows. What would it have sounded like, what kind of musician would Eddie have been if he hadn’t died, where is the lost music now? It’s a great film with an awesome Springsteen-ish soundtrack. During the credits it said based on the book by P.F. Kluge, so I kept my eye out for a copy of it at the local book store but the only book they had by him was Gone Tomorrow so I picked it up instead.

Not having read any of Kluge’s other work, I’m wondering if this is a common theme/motif he explores in his work, because the story this reminded me the most of is *drumroll* Eddie and the Cruisers. Instead of a rock ‘n roller, this time the creator is fictional author George Canaris. Canaris is a J.D. Salinger or Harper Lee type writer, in that he wrote one of the great American novels decades ago and never published anything afterwards. (To be fair, Canaris has released 2 books and a collection of essays total, and has been teaching at a College in Ohio since then). The book begins after his death, with the mystery being where is the giant work that he’s spent his life on, and was it ever even written?

Maybe I’m a sucker for this type of story, but I really enjoyed this book. It’s got three big plot points that are told via a preface, afterward, and a a novel within a novel. It begins as written by a professor named Mark May, who tells about who Canaris was, the life’s work in progress (called “The Beast) and how Canaris was killed (or murdered) in a hit and run incident. The book then switches to a novel discovered by Mark May in Canaris’s house after his death. Not “The Beast” that everybody was expecting, but a memoir of Canaris’s last year as a professor leading up to the days before his death and interspersed with flashbacks giving us an idea of what Canaris has been doing in the 35 years since he last published a book.

As a reader, you’re interested in 1) How or why did Canaris die/get murdered 2) Did he ever actually write “The Beast,” and 3) What happens in his final year as a professor. Question 3 sounds the least interesting but it actually makes up the bulk of the novel’s plot. Canaris had been given a career appointment/tenure shortly after publishing his only works, and gradually is resented by the college for never publishing anything again. The novel within a novel begins with Canaris being told he is being replaced by another author named John Henry Mallon. Most of the authors mentioned in the book are real people, but you get the impression Canaris is really P.F. Kluge (he also spent years teaching at Kenyon college in Ohio) and Mallon is David Foster Wallace (who delivered “This is Water” as a commencement at Kenyon College). There’s even a large plot point in the book about which man will get to deliver the commencement. This book was published in 2008, the same year as Wallace’s death, and the entire thing sent me down an internet rabbit hole which is always a good sign after finishing a book.

The other two questions are more interesting on their face, and I suspect if you hate this book it will be because of the degree to which they’re answered. As to question 1) the hit and run, Kluge gave me enough to have a guess as to what happened but even I’ll admit it was a bit of a letdown after the threatening notes earlier in the novel within a novel. For question 2) “the Beast,” I got everything I wanted answered and more. By the time Gone Tomorrow is done, I understood the reality that Canaris was living in regarding his work and his reputation, and the actual reality from those that weren’t Canaris. Considering he’s a fictional character in a novel, that feels very impressive.

[Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was enjoyable reading, although I was rather hoping for an ending that would have resolved some unanswered questions. However, being intentionally vague at the end was a reflection of the life of the main character. He was an egocentric sort which came across in his recollections about times past. Inability to commit to his masterpiece novel or the women in his life, while seemingly denying the commitment he had made to the college where he taught. He did appear to be grappling with that as he reminisced. I found it interesting to be in the head of someone who had written a couple of novels that were considered must reads and the pressure they felt from everyone around them to put out another novel. We all know of authors that may have had similar experiences to our narrator.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

George Canaris, author of a book included in a list of the top 100 American novels, comes to a college in Ohio (thinly veiled as Kenyon) to teach and to write. Upon his arrival he is warned that “this is a place that eats careers, ambitions, talent. It will destroy you if you let it. Not maliciously. Fondly, smilingly, appreciatively. It will flow into every crevice of your life, occupy every vacuum, claim every moment of rest and silence, if you let it[.] Though he planned to teach for a short time, Canaris falls in love with the college and its people and soon finds himself engulfed by that love. Quickly he gains a reputation as a legendary professor, but eventually as a joke since there is no evidence that he has continued writing even though he often talks of working on his "Beast."

Shortly after the college president forces the professor to retire, Canaris dies from a hit-and-run accident. While going through Canaris’s belongings, his literary executor discovers Canaris had written a book about his final year as writer-in-residence at the college. It is in the telling of his story that we see a man observant of endings, loss, dreams and creative potential as well as life in the academic world.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel with its sense of place since I teach writing in a small liberal arts college in Ohio. I, however, particularly liked the book because the author made me care for the characters, even those who serve a small role in the plot of Canaris’s life. If you want to spend a little time back in school, I recommend P. F. Kluge’s Gone Tomorrow

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to review Gone Tommorrow PF Kluge's novel about an author and college professor in a small Ohio town in the context of just having finished NW by Zadie Smith. Kluge's novel is a solid well written and entertaining novel about a writer who achieved early literary success and may or may not be sitting on an epic novel referred to as the Beast. The novel portrays i imagine accurately the atmosphere of a small liberal arts college and the professors and administrators who live inthe community. Canaris the author and professor is deeply in love with literature and has strong opinions on what constitutes good writing.Many notable contemporary writers are discussed albeit briefly. I found this the most interesting part of the book since I love reading and writers. In the end I did not find the Canaris character particularly believeable and especially found his love affairs with a Hollywood actress, a an ambitious townie and a quasi relationship with a former student stilted. In addition I did not believe there was the Beast. Clearly Kluge is not struckhim again. with writer's block. I anticipate reading

[Alison Stackpole · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty average book. I had put it on my Amazon Wish List, and I'm not really sure why. It's about a professor at a small college in the middle-of-nowhere Ohio. When he first began teaching at the school 30 years ago, he was a world-famous writer after writing 3 books. He spends the next 30 years promising his next book, but not being able to finish it. The one thing about this book that bothered me was how many mistakes there were. I hate that, when I'm distracted by missing commas, and extra words. Also, while I liked the author's writing style, every once in awhile he would thrown in a sentence that was kinda gross. Nothing really horrible, but just not fitting with the rest of the book.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was odd. It was a mystery that wasn't mysterious and an academic satire that wasn't funny. The premise here is that a hotshot writer is hired by a small Ohio liberal arts college, where he lives out the rest of his days NOT finishing his next big novel. The book starts after his death, and the reader and all of the main character's friends and colleagues are wondering if his big unpublished opus is hidden somewhere, ready to be published.

The story is a meditation on accomplishment. It is also a commentary on college politics and the writing process and aging. There are some terrific moments and some terrific writing, but I was still left wanting more mystery and more comedy. And the ending -- bleh.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most books about writers, and especially novels about the writing of novels, suffer either from ponderous Seriousness or too much Irony of the sort that yearns to be hip. Any description of this novel's plot -- about a book that may or may not be written -- and which you may or may not be reading -- sounds like an honors student's overly ambitious creative thesis project. But it actually worked. This novel was entertaining, vicious when needed (about the culture of small college towns and of academe), and yet, surprisingly moving at moments. Recommended for anyone who's had close, even infectious contact, with Creative Writing as it exists in the college environment.

[Pammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gone Tomorrow's author is new to me and I am pleased to have discovered him! This story covers the life and times of a novelist-turned writing professor on a liberal arts campus in northern part of my home state. Hidden within the pages, which jump from past to present and back again at will, are gems of wisdom that stand alone. My favorite is : "Remember your younger selves as the years carry you away. To remember something is to keep it alive and to keep yourself alive as well. To forget or to be forgotten is to die! Remember. And remember. And remember a little bit more."

[Tattered Cover Book Store]

This book tells the story of a writer and professor under many versions of "publish or perish" pressures. It's a mystery, bouncing back and forth in time and told in two voices over 30+ years. It is a commentary on life at a small college in the midwest, and life in the even smaller town that contains it. But mostly, or perhaps just the part I like the most, it is a meditation on books, reading, and teaching and what they mean in the grander scheme of life and happiness.

Jackie

[Brendan · Rating 5 out of 5]

My professor from college wrote this. I sent him a post card when I read his last and he responded with an email promising "you liked Alma Mater, you'll love Gone Tomorrow. Money back guarantee."

I wrote him a two-page letter today with my own two little hands to tell him how much I loved this book. It's about a professor forced into early retirement and it's a surprisingly fantastic read. It made me sad and happy and I was very pleased to read it.

[Jim Townsend · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty good book about a writer-in-residence at a small liberal-arts college in Ohio who, teaching despite no professorial experience, wrote three novels and a collection of essays, and had been intermitently writing a fourth novel as he was being forced out of his position. A few typos slow a relatively quick read. I felt sorry for the main character because near the end of his career he was being ridiculed, but there are always jealousies.

[Barbara Melosh · Rating 1 out of 5]

Promising set-up for wry and witty novel of academe, but it falls flat in large part because there's no distance between the author and the first-person narrator; by the end, this led me to suspect that the character is no more than the mouthpiece for the writer's grievances. Also annoyed by the huge number of errors, one of the most poorly edited books out there.

[Zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

Were the typos there on purpose? Anyone? I kept seeing them as I was reading and thinking they were there on purpose, then I see the NYT review talks about how distracting they were...is there any way a publisher could have missed three "l's" at the beginning of listening?!

[Cedarwax · Rating 5 out of 5]

Listed among 10 best fiction titles of 2008 by the Plain Dealer. And I must say for a reason.


It's a phenomenal book, witty, warm and wise. I will read it again.

[Del · Rating 5 out of 5]

fantastic!

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

So...many...ellipses...in this book.

[Anne Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure if I should have given this book two or three stars, but decided at three because the idea for a good story was there. It starts out with a long introduction from Mark May, a professor at an Ohio college where another English professor, George Canaris, taught. Canaris was dead, killed in a hit and run accident, and Mark was named his literary executor. Canaris had written and published three works, and ever since he was hired at the college thirty some years ago, was supposedly writing "The Beast", another book that hopefully would be as famous as his previous works. The only problem is, can Mark find the manuscript? A manuscript is found, but it's about Canaris' last year at the college, as well as early years at the college. That's the bulk of this book. The other big event is what happened to Canaris the last year of his life. The college basically fires him because they've hired a new up and coming author. Canaris is understandably upset he's losing his cushy job, and lets the public know it speaking at alumni seminars and the commencement ceremony. We're brought back to the 70's and 80's at the college...certain memorable students, professors, administration, girlfriends, traveling to Germany where he was born, meeting a Jewish cousin who survived the Holocaust even though he never left Germany, and mentioning writing and thinking about The Beast. The story doesn't go into searching for the hit and run driver that killed Canaris, even though it alludes to a punk that kept giving him a hard time on the road where he lived. The manuscript is found, but I guess we'll have to guess if it was a best seller and worth the thirty plus years wait.

[Amy Malkoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a Kenyon alum, I was very interested to read this book and I did enjoy it very much...at first. Then it started to grate on me. The conceit of "The Beast", instead of being intriguing, as time went on, became more and more exhausting. I found the character development of the women (in particular) to be tedious and unbelievable, particularly Stephanie, a woman with a young son who would say to a man - at the beginning of their relationship no less - "You'll never need to meet my son", and then proceed to be in a relationship with him for 18 years or something like that. And her son is never a part of his life, and then she seems to dismiss her own son completely when she moves to New York? We never know her motivations since she's not written as a whole person. Women are written more like foils or props than actual people, and several are students who become professors' playthings..."but they're 21". Or maybe they don't even need to be 21, so there's a lot of deep creepiness here.

I liked the story-in-a-story concept and structure but it didn't hold together for me.

[Morgen · Rating 4 out of 5]

When a local professor and writer of 2 beloved novels decades ago, is killed in a hit and run it falls to a young colleague to serve as his literary executor, going through his papers, largely in search of 'the beast-' the novel he'd been working on and fans have eagerly awaited, for decades. He finds a manuscript, but it details the last year of his life as the college forces him to 'retire' from his chair in order to fill it with a newer, younger author of acclaim who has actually published in the current century. He hints a lot at the content of 'the beast,' at a few friends who have helped him organize and shape it or type a manuscript draft, but those friends say he only talked about it with them, they have never seen it. Was it a fraud, as his detractors believe, or the Great American Novel, as his fans hope for? Intriguing look at the politics of academia and of publishing. I would read The Beast!

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anyone who went to a small liberal arts college will enjoy this book. Anyone with a connection to Kenyon College will love this book.

Set in an unnamed Ohio college town the book starts with the mysterious death of a reclusive author. How the narrator gets involved and solves the problems he encounters reminded me of the beging parts of the Name of the Rose, The Three Musketeers and many other books. However, it emulated them without copying them and remained original and interesting.

Like The Name of The Rose and The Three Musketeers, the story that is eventually told is inteesting, funny and sad. It moves quickly and has a few surprises.

[L.A. Berry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me by a friend. Beautifully written, it is the story of the life of a well regarded writer who works as a college lecturer in creative writing while the world awaits his next great work. This work is nicknamed 'The Beast', a title I understand as I try to write my next novel. Events that change his life are told without melodrama and I, as the reader, felt that I had empathy and an insight to his personality. This is a good example of literary fiction and I do not hesitate to recommend it to readers of this genre.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book, but I only liked it. I found it when I was searching for a book with the same title and then I saw this book with its cover photo of one of my favorite places (Amboy, CA, which I now know has nothing to do with the book). Good writing; I cared about the plot and the characters. But - trust me, this isn't a spoiler - the ending felt like a condemnation of my problem with the book. So now I feel weird criticizing it. I don't know if that makes any sense. It actually made me think about serious things.

[Ezekiel Benzion · Rating 4 out of 5]

Literature, reading, writing, teaching, the joys of a small Midwestern town, the pain of not living up to yours or the world's potential, the insular and often bitterly competitive world of academia, going home or not, Jews and the Shoah: all topics deftly explored in this compelling novel. Definitely worth your time. For me, it was the world of my career...everything seemed so familiar and I felt I knew many of the people in the story.

[Pam Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderfully written journey through an author's life as he finds that the year or two job he takes as a professor at a small Ohio college becomes his life and career. I normally don't like multiple timelines, but this was easy to follow and fit the unraveling of the plot perfectly. I thoroughly enjoyed George Canaris' discovery of what is takes to teach college students, the loves in his life and found the ending very satisfactory.

[Growlcat · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars is probably a bit harsh. I thought this was going to be a murder mystery but even though some elements of a suspect were set up, this theme was never developed. instead the story recounted an author's struggle with finishing writing an epic novel. Did he Weir it or not? You won't find out until the end...

[Mark Gallagher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nobody recommended this book to me. I just read the description and thought it sounded interesting. It was. A dual-track novel within a novel, well-drawn characters, propulsive story-telling - I liked it a lot.
This book would have benefited greatly from a good proof reader (do those still exist?) Peter Mayer Publishers, call me. I've done this.

[Alysha Brianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just couldn't get into this book. I think I expected more of a murder mystery, thriller kind of thing and that was my mistake. It felt very drawn out. That being said, I enjoyed the format of the story within the story and it is worthy of the 3 stars just for the professor who grew on me.