Uncharted Places

by Nora Johnson

Amnesia victim Dinah arrives in New York and makes an improbable new life for herself, but revelations about her past enliven her life, and she experiences a series of madcap mishaps

332 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1988

About the author

Nora Johnson was the daughter of film writer, director and producer Nunnally Johnson, pivotal in such acclaimed films as 'The Grapes of Wrath'. She attended the Brearley School in New York City and in 1954 graduated from Smith College.

Her first and most well-known novel, The World of Henry Orient (1956), was based on her experiences at the Brearley School. In 1964 it was made into a movie produced and co-scripted by her father, Nunnally Johnson, and starring Peter Sellers. In 1957 The Atlantic Monthly published her influential article "Sex and the College Girl", which culled her experiences at Smith to discuss then-current attitudes towards sex on American campuses.

Reviews

[Camryn Dixon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has me on shaky ground with where i stand on it. It starts a little slow, takes about 70-ish pages to get into, and then halfway through it goes to a place i never expected. 2/3rds of the way through, oh boy, you’re really on a journey with the two main characters and it got almost tiring to be whipped around so much. there were times i felt that we could’ve gotten to the ending a little quicker, maybe we didn’t need as many pages as we got of certain things, but then once the scene or the chapter concluded i knew it was in the story’s best interest to have been exactly as long as it was. This is an interesting read for sure, and I guess my feeling of “wow, what the hell was that all about?!” is a testament to the thoughtfulness of the fiction.