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The Missingby Tim Gautreaux
Review-a-Day (What is Review-a-Day?)"Tim Gautreaux's new novel is set right after World War I, but so much of his peripatetic story involves the adventures of an old Mississippi riverboat that it's hard not to think of Mark Twain. Indeed, there's something 19th-century about The Missing, this slightly improbable, morally serious but continually engaging novel about a kidnapped child. If you've been complaining that nobody writes novels as they used to, this could be your book for the spring." Ron Charles, The Washington Post Book World (read the entire Washington Post Book World review) Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:The author of The Clearing ("the finest American novel in a long, long time" — Annie Proulx) now surpasses himself with a story whose range and cast of characters is broader still, with the fate of a stolen child looming throughout. After World War I, Sam Simoneaux returns to New Orleans determined to leave mayhem and destruction behind, and to start anew with his wife years after losing a son to illness. But when a little girl disappears from the department store where he works, he has no recourse but to join her musician parents on a Mississippi excursion steamboat, hoping to unearth clues somewhere along the river. Though ill-prepared for this rough trade in hamlets where neither civilization nor law is familiar, he enforces tolerable behavior on board and ventures ashore to piece together what happened to the girl — making a discovery that not only endangers everyone involved but also sheds new light on the murder of his own family decades before. Against this vivid evocation of a ragged frontier nation, a man fights to redeem himself, parents contend with horrific loss, and others consider kidnapping either another job or a dream come true. The suspense — and the web of violence linking Sam to complete strangers — is relentless, compelling, and moving, the finest demonstration yet of Gautreaux's understanding of landscape, history, and human travail and hope. Review:"Bayou shepherd of half-sunk souls, Gautreaux returns to the land of the lost and the lonely in his haunting and transient third book (after The Clearing). Post-WWI Louisiana is a 'root-buckled' and 'magnolia-haunted' underworld for seedy, drunken mobs and twisted backwoods families. Floating through the chaos is Sam Simoneaux, who, 'half dead' after the slaughter of his parents and the later loss of his two-year-old son to fever, undertakes a quest to find a missing girl. Encountering embittered thieves, forlorn vaudevillians and icy bourgeoisie, Simoneaux is a keen observer who can find the one good stitch of humanity in an otherwise sordid tableau, even as his investigation begins to connect back to his family's murders. He is also a refreshingly candid voice, brimming with a lyrical intensity that graces some of the best Southern literature. Though the hasty, romantic wrapup to Sam's investigation and his refusal to exact revenge on his family's murderers — emotionally tepid even through the novel's decisive climax — obscure Gautreaux's finer redemptive tones, Sam's struggle to redeem the memories of his son and parents sustains the book's raw beauty." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Review:Tim Gautreaux's new novel is set right after World War I, but so much of his peripatetic story involves the adventures of an old Mississippi riverboat that it's hard not to think of Mark Twain. Indeed, there's something 19th-century about "The Missing," this slightly improbable, morally serious but continually engaging novel about a kidnapped child. If you've been complaining that nobody writes novels... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) Review:"Gautreaux...again displays fluent prose, accomplished storytelling, and strong characterizations in this paean to the indefatigability of the human spirit. An exceptional novel." Booklist Review:"The Missing revisits the clash of post-World War I modernism with rural America that was at the heart of Gautreaux's acclaimed 2003 novel The Clearing. Only now he has expanded the tableau and created a grand story with unconventional heft." Miami Herald Synopsis:The author of The Clearing returns with the story of a man fighting to redeem himself, of parents coping with horrific loss, and of others for whom kidnapping is only a job, in this novel that brings to vivid life the exotic world of steamboats and shifting currents and rough crowds.
About the AuthorTim Gautreaux is the author of two previous novels and two collections of stories. His work has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, GQ, Harper's, and Zoetrope, as well as in volumes of The O. Henry Prize Stories and The Best American Short Stories. A professor emeritus in the creative writing program at Southeastern Louisiana University, he lives with his family in Hammond. What Our Readers Are SayingAdd a comment for a chance to win!
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