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P.F. Kluge is Writer in Residence at Kenyon College. He is the author of Gone Tomorrow and A Call From Jersey, published by Overlook. Two films, Dog Day Afternoon and Eddie and the Cruisers, are based on his work.
Gone Tomorrow
by P. F. Kluge
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ISBN-13:
9781590204535
- Publisher: The Overlook Press
- Publication date: 09/29/2009
- Sold by: Barnes & Noble
- Format: eBook
- Pages: 368
- File size: 655 KB
- Age Range: 18 Years
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The fiction surprise of 2008 heralded by The New York Times as a sharply observed yet tender novel and a quirky, tart yet unexpectedly generous story finally in paperback
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.
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Janet Maslin
a sharply observed yet tender novel of academic life and its many sand traps, P. F. Kluge (himself a writer in residence at Kenyon College, which is the subject of his nonfiction book Alma Mater) uses the persona of Canaris to describe the dangers that a writer-teacher faces.—The New York Times
Publishers Weekly
In Kluge's (Eddie and the Cruisers) thoughtful new novel, Mark May, a young professor at an Ohio college, is surprised to be named the literary executor of a recently deceased colleague he barely knew. George Canaris was a literary sensation in the 1960s, but hadn't published anything in 30 years. At the time of his death, he was rumored to be working on his magnum opus, but there is doubt the manuscript exists. While inspecting the dead man's house, Mark finds the manuscript of Canaris's memoir, which provides insight into the man and his work, and even if Mark has doubts about its veracity, it pushes him to arrive at some important decisions about his own life. The novel is suffused with Kluge's obvious affection for books, and has some cleverly aphoristic things to say about the joys of teaching, the pitfalls of academic infighting and the tragedy of artistic expectations left unfulfilled. Although not as witty or biting as Kingsley Amis's academy fiction, this novel combines elements of Citizen Kane and Goodbye, Mr. Chips for a satisfying resolution. (Nov.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Entertainment Weekly
George Canaris, the narrator of P.F. Kluge's sparkling new novel Gone Tomorrow, is a famous writer who takes a job teaching at a small Ohio college - and for the next three decades talks about (but fails to publish) his next big book, a mysterious project that he refers to as "the Beast." What, exactly, has Canaris been doing all these years, and what is the nature of the Beast? These are the questions Kluge entertains in this witty and astute tragicomedy about academia and the trajectory of an artist's life. B+—Jennifer Reese
Library Journal
In his ninth book, acclaimed writer/professor Kluge (e.g., Eddie and the Cruisers) cleverly combines an affectionate memoir with some elements of suspense. Famous writer-in-residence George Canaris is killed by a hit-and-run driver while preparing to leave his 30-year teaching post at a small Ohio college. Prior to his appointment there, Canaris was a renowned novelist, but he hasn't published anything since, so a search ensues after his death to find the hidden "beast" of a manuscript he presumably has tucked away. Instead, the work discovered was written by Canaris after he was asked to resign his position one year before; this work describes his life and teaching that final year amidst both caring colleagues and sinister foes. Readers learn about an interesting group of characters who've intersected this man's life, many of whom ring true as individuals and as archetypes of literature students, academics, and small-town inhabitants. Kluge also provides insight into a successful writer's fears about writing a failed novel and the pressures to publish continually. Effectively shunning pedantry, Kluge dispenses lively gems of wisdom about the writing process itself while sprinkling the narrative with references to contemporary culture, giving the story a worthwhile bounce. Recommended for all fiction collections.—M. Neville
From the Publisher
One of NPR’s Best Books of 2008One of The Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Top 10 Fiction titles of 2008
“A sparkling new novel, witty and astute.” —Entertainment Weekly
“The novel unspools into a wry, wise and literary pleasure.”—Cleveland Plain Dealer
"Kluge has dozens of gorgeous, wrenching passages, details, throw-away observations. He can really write, like a man who means it."—San Francisco Chronicle