gimley reviewed Goodbye Without Leaving by Laurie Colwin
Review of 'Goodbye Without Leaving' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
About a woman, Geraldine, trying to find out where she belongs. (M)others try and tell her but she rejects what they say. Sometimes her very rejection looks like a place to belong. While we enjoy searching with her, rooting for her to succeed, we understand that her search is misguided.
Her friend Mary appears to know where she herself belongs (and eventually goes there). Her husband finds that Geraldine is where he belongs--paradoxical since Geraldine thinks she's nowhere at all. She understands that her son will need a heritage or share her fate and attempts to learn one for him while we and the others just shrug our shoulders at this.
Her best bet, those closest to her often tell her, is to accept her role of rock singer. She is (sort of) convinced that to do so would at best be to co-opt Black music, and yet, maybe this …
About a woman, Geraldine, trying to find out where she belongs. (M)others try and tell her but she rejects what they say. Sometimes her very rejection looks like a place to belong. While we enjoy searching with her, rooting for her to succeed, we understand that her search is misguided.
Her friend Mary appears to know where she herself belongs (and eventually goes there). Her husband finds that Geraldine is where he belongs--paradoxical since Geraldine thinks she's nowhere at all. She understands that her son will need a heritage or share her fate and attempts to learn one for him while we and the others just shrug our shoulders at this.
Her best bet, those closest to her often tell her, is to accept her role of rock singer. She is (sort of) convinced that to do so would at best be to co-opt Black music, and yet, maybe this dishonorable role (though her Black colleagues are only encouraging) is what she needs to embrace.
The reader himself should not have to feel lost in the end, even if the main character doesn't succeed in finding herself. Or should he? Is that need for closure nothing but a lie that other novels pander to their readers to supply?