So Far Gone

A Novel

By: Jess Walter

Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

FINALIST FOR THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE

LONGLISTED FOR THE MARK TWAIN AMERICAN VOICE IN LITERATURE AWARD

"A warm, funny, loving novel. . . . It's an American original."—Ann Patchett, New York Times bestselling author of Tom Lake

"Searing and sublime … Walter is a slyly adept social critic, and has clearly invested his protagonist with all of the outrage and heartbreak he himself feels about the dark course our world has taken ... What gets us all through … are novels like this one.” Leigh Haber, Los Angeles Times.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Ruins—and in the propulsive spirit of Charles Portis’ True Grit—comes a hilarious, empathetic, and brilliantly provocative adventure through life in modern America, about a reclusive journalist forced back into the world to rescue his kidnapped grandchildren.

Rhys Kinnick has gone off the grid. At Thanksgiving a few years back, a fed-up Rhys punched his conspiracy-theorist son-in-law in the mouth, chucked his smartphone out a car window and fled for a cabin in the woods, with no one around except a pack of hungry raccoons.

Now Kinnick’s old life is about to land right back on his crumbling doorstep. Can this failed husband and father, a man with no internet and a car that barely runs, reemerge into a broken world to track down his missing daughter and save his sweet, precocious grandchildren from the members of a dangerous militia?

With the help of his caustic ex-girlfriend, a bipolar retired detective, and his only friend (who happens to be furious with him), Kinnick heads off on a wild journey through cultural lunacy and the rubble of a life he thought he’d left behind. So Far Gone is a rollicking, razor-sharp, and moving road trip through a fractured nation, from a writer who has been called “a genius of the modern American moment” (Philadelphia Inquirer).

Masterful characters; gripping story.

I started taking notes to remember the word choice and descriptions. The first were “long sad cultural slide” and “$600 pop tart of modern science” I’ve read each of Jess’s books and “So Far Gone” was just as meaningful as the others—in a totally different way. He writes like an artist paints and naturally infuses humor at times you don’t think can be funny. Jess Walter is a regional and national treasure. (I live in his hometown) And this book is fantastic and will be enjoyed by fans of every genre. It’s about broken and repaired family in a broken and hopefully reparable country.

A Great Book for Our Time

Finally, a book from a major author that doesn't pull any punches in illustrating the absurdity of our nation's current divisions. It's told with a bit of humor and some hope, but it doesn't shy away from irreconcilable differences either. It suggests that despite the wackadoodle opinions held by half the populace, we're all family and we're all in this together. I liked it enough to buy the hardcover edition to add to my library.

a microcosm of our country today.

interesting and diverse characters melded into an imaginative and sometimes harrowing tale. A few incidents beyond belief but overall a thought providing tale.

Sobering.

I love how clearly the author pictured the inflammatory damage of extremism. It gives bullies a home.

WOW!

Amazing book. Could not stop listening..Literally, started it this morning and just listened to the last bit. I think the only people who would not be glad they added this book to their library, would be the percent of the population who think the rightward, fundamentalist shift happening here in the US as well as other parts of the world is a good thing. Otherwise, this is so well done. Even though I am obviously not part of the group who are glad that the inmates are now running the asylum, it was great that, although, that is a huge part of this book, it is not overdone if that makes sense. I mean it is such an easy target and although this story is hugely impacted by it, it isn’t done in a cheap way if that makes sense. I mean, it’s that group who seems to enjoy punching down isn’t it? The author made the point brilliantly.
Unlike me in this review, he doesn’t make cheap shots but holds up a mirror to show how it can have profound effects on individual lives.