So Long, See You Tomorrow

By: William Maxwell

Narrated by: William Maxwell

Length: 6 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

On an Illinois farm in the 1920s, a man is murdered, and in the same moment the tenous friendship between two lonely boys comes to an end. In telling their interconnected stories, American Book Award-winner William delivers a masterfully restrained and magically evocative meditation on the past.

©1980 William Maxwell (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"A small, perfect novel." ( Washington Post Book World)

A Jewel

So Long, See You Tomorrow is always on my list of "books you would want if you were stranded on a desert island." Mr. Maxwell tells a story like no one else I know, with language so clean, almost spare, and yet so perfectly evocative.

A Most Vehement Flame

"jealousy is cruel as the grave:
the coals thereof are coals of fire,
which hath a most vehement flame"
Solomon 8:6, King James Bible


This short novel about a 1921 murder-suicide in a small Illinois farming town mesmerized me. Written as the recollection of the narrator's friendship with another 14-year-old and his reconstruction of events from newspaper accounts fifty years on after he cannot shake a lingering memory of the last time he saw his friend, whose father killed his mother's lover and then himself.

The book is a timeless depiction of the human condition marred by matters of the heart, steeped in imagery of the moors of marital moral dilemmas as neighbors fall in love, she an abused and unhappy mom and he who married young and longs for love, as the author meticulously imagines how the marital betrayals metastasize into a cuckolded husband's mania, the isolation of their son (his friend), the estrangement of her married lover's children, and even the broken heart of the boy's/family's dog. What particularly haunts the narrator though is an event magnified in his mind in a later brief encounter with the friend, after which the friend disappeared from his life.

A raw, jarring novel I highly recommend.

Sublime

I was initially resistant to William Maxwell reading his own book. It seemed narcissistic to me. Then 40 minutes in, I was so hooked. This is a gorgeous telling of an intimate story. I love this book and his narrating broke my heart wide open. Get.

wonderful

the part of the story which was from the dogs perspective tore at my heart. an amazing skillful writer.

just don't get this one

Lincoln,IL. People live and die, marry, work, have children and much more. Question: Is, Cletus, one of the primary characters, a ghost? He's the only one who's not in the yearbook. Also, the author is not a good reader.

Awful

I am an avid reader who simply cannot see the attraction in this book. It is terribly dull. The reading is awful, like some old guy about to deliver a recolection and then it wanders all over the place. Worse, the audio book starts with a rather sappy 1 and a half hour interview with the author.

Normally when I don't care for a book I can at least understand how some people might like it. Not this. Best summary? Terribly dull.

thanks for bad reviews

in addition to clicking dentures, the story was rambling and uninteresting. don't waste any of your time

Very enjoyable!

Other reviewers dinged this story for having been read by the author, but I loved it. It was like listening to my long deceased and much loved Grandfather tell me a story.

A treat!

Hearing William Maxwell’s interview and then hearing him read is a treat. An insight into a wonderful writer of another era.

Judge not, people!

This story was AMAZING, brilliantly written & narrated. The reviewers commenting on the sounds coming from the narrator’s voice might recall his advanced age at the time and give him a little slack. This story is how all stories should be told. I felt as though his words were my thoughts and my thoughts his words. And how fortunate are we to have heard them spoken by the hand that penned them?

Short but moving and deep

This is the first William Maxwell book I have read. It’s short but a real treasure. Part memoir and part imagined story from his childhood. So moving and deep. Great narration from the author and a very interesting interview with him as a bonus.