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The Missing
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 even broader, with the fate of a stolen child looming throughout.
Sam Simoneaux's troopship docked in France just as World War I came to an end. Still, what he saw of the devastation there sent him back to New Orleans eager for a normal life and a job as a floorwalker in the city's biggest department store, and to start anew with his wife years after losing a son to illness. But when a little girl disappears from the store on his shift, he loses his job and soon joins her parents working on a steamboat plying the Mississippi and providing musical entertainment en route. Sam comes to suspect that on the downriver journey someone had seen this magical child and arranged to steal her away, and this quest leads him not only into this raucous new life on the river and in the towns along its banks but also on a journey deep into the Arkansas wilderness. Here he begins to piece together what had happened to the girl--a discovery that endangers everyone involved and sheds new light on the massacre of his own family decades before.
Tim Gautreaux brings to vivid life the exotic world of steamboats and shifting currents and rough crowds, of the music of the twenties, of a nation lurching away from war into an uneasy peace at a time when civilization was only beginning to penetrate a hinterlands in which law was often an unknown force. "The Missing" is the story of a man fighting to redeem himself, of parents coping with horrific loss with only a whisper of hope to sustain them, of others for whom kidnapping is either only a job or a dream come true. The suspense--and the complicated web of violence that eventually links Sam to complete strangers--is relentless, urgently engaging and, ultimately, profoundly moving, the finest demonstration yet of Gautreaux's understanding of landscape, history, human travail, and hope.
Sam Simoneaux's troopship docked in France just as World War I came to an end. Still, what he saw of the devastation there sent him back to New Orleans eager for a normal life and a job as a floorwalker in the city's biggest department store, and to start anew with his wife years after losing a son to illness. But when a little girl disappears from the store on his shift, he loses his job and soon joins her parents working on a steamboat plying the Mississippi and providing musical entertainment en route. Sam comes to suspect that on the downriver journey someone had seen this magical child and arranged to steal her away, and this quest leads him not only into this raucous new life on the river and in the towns along its banks but also on a journey deep into the Arkansas wilderness. Here he begins to piece together what had happened to the girl--a discovery that endangers everyone involved and sheds new light on the massacre of his own family decades before.
Tim Gautreaux brings to vivid life the exotic world of steamboats and shifting currents and rough crowds, of the music of the twenties, of a nation lurching away from war into an uneasy peace at a time when civilization was only beginning to penetrate a hinterlands in which law was often an unknown force. "The Missing" is the story of a man fighting to redeem himself, of parents coping with horrific loss with only a whisper of hope to sustain them, of others for whom kidnapping is either only a job or a dream come true. The suspense--and the complicated web of violence that eventually links Sam to complete strangers--is relentless, urgently engaging and, ultimately, profoundly moving, the finest demonstration yet of Gautreaux's understanding of landscape, history, human travail, and hope.
Audio Cassette
First published January 1, 2009
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About the author
Tim Gautreaux
27 books198 followersTimothy Martin Gautreaux (born 1947 in Morgan City, Louisiana) is a novelist and short story writer who lives in Hammond, Louisiana, where he is Writer in Residence at Southeastern Louisiana University.
His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Best American Short Stories, Atlantic, Harper's, and GQ. His novel The Next Step in the Dance won the 1999 SEBA Book Award. His novel The Clearing won the 1999 Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance SIBA Book Award and the 2003 Mid-South Independent Booksellers Association Award. He also won the 2005 John Dos Passos Prize.
Gautreaux also authored Same Place, Same Things and Welding with Children—collections of short stories. His 2009 novel The Missing was described as his "best yet" by New Orleans Times-Picayune book editor Susan Larson in a featured article.
Gautreaux notes that his family’s blue-collar background has been a significant influence on his writing. His father was a tugboat captain, and his grandfather was a steamboat engineer. Given those influences, he says, “I pride myself in writing a ‘broad-spectrum’ fiction, fiction that appeals to both intellectuals and blue-collar types. Many times I’ve heard stories of people who don’t read short stories, or people who have technical jobs, who like my fiction.”
In addition, Gautreaux has made clear that he is not interested in being classified as a "Southern writer," preferring instead to say that he is a "writer who happens to live in the South." He is much more comfortable embracing his Roman Catholicism, saying, "I've always been a Roman Catholic, since baptism, since birth."
His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Best American Short Stories, Atlantic, Harper's, and GQ. His novel The Next Step in the Dance won the 1999 SEBA Book Award. His novel The Clearing won the 1999 Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance SIBA Book Award and the 2003 Mid-South Independent Booksellers Association Award. He also won the 2005 John Dos Passos Prize.
Gautreaux also authored Same Place, Same Things and Welding with Children—collections of short stories. His 2009 novel The Missing was described as his "best yet" by New Orleans Times-Picayune book editor Susan Larson in a featured article.
Gautreaux notes that his family’s blue-collar background has been a significant influence on his writing. His father was a tugboat captain, and his grandfather was a steamboat engineer. Given those influences, he says, “I pride myself in writing a ‘broad-spectrum’ fiction, fiction that appeals to both intellectuals and blue-collar types. Many times I’ve heard stories of people who don’t read short stories, or people who have technical jobs, who like my fiction.”
In addition, Gautreaux has made clear that he is not interested in being classified as a "Southern writer," preferring instead to say that he is a "writer who happens to live in the South." He is much more comfortable embracing his Roman Catholicism, saying, "I've always been a Roman Catholic, since baptism, since birth."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 319 reviews
July 16, 2019
Reading, or rather listening to THE MISSING, was an incredible journey through emotions, and it was one of those novels that kept me reading both for the story and the characters. For me this was the first novel by Tim Gautreaux who turns out to be the Master of writing that absolutely appeals to me. Now I am adding Gautreaux to the Authors I will follow.
July 6, 2019
4.5 stars
"There were people missing in his life like big holes cut out of the night sky, and Sam felt powerless to do anything about it. He was only one person in a planet full of incomplete seekers…"
I was first introduced to the writing of Tim Gautreaux after reading The Clearing. I became an instant fan. Gautreaux is a wonderful storyteller with vivid descriptions of the south and excellent characterizations. In fact, no matter how many characters you may meet up with in the pages of his books, it is very easy to call to mind each one, whether you spend many chapters with this person or just a few brief pages.
In this particular story, Sam Simoneaux shines as an exemplary human being, though certainly not without his share of flaws. From the very beginning, when we meet him in Europe in the aftermath of World War I, it is quite evident that Sam is a compassionate person that will grieve for his mistakes and do his best to make amends. Really, what more can one do? He was raised by a wise man, his Uncle Claude. "His uncle had taught him that what he did in life, good or bad, could seldom be undone."
Sam is haunted by his past – a past that has left him aching for loved ones and the need for answers. When a little girl named Lily goes missing during his watch at a department store, Sam feels an instant connection to her and will do anything in his power to reunite her with her family. Leaving his ever-so-patient wife behind, Sam decides to board a steamboat with Lily’s parents, Elsie and Ted Wellers, and her teenaged brother, August. As third mate on the boat, Sam hopes to collect some leads as to the girl’s whereabouts as he travels up and down the Mississippi River. His journey is filled with the syncopated rhythms of jazz music, a diverse group of passengers ranging from church groups to the rowdiest of folks toting an assorted array of weapons in their pockets, the steam and muck of the swamps and the danger of the backwoods wilderness. There is no telling who you might run into on board the riverboat or on shore.
"The people were wrinkled, sunburned, generally thin, coal stained, thick voiced, and bent, a hard-used population with limps, eye patches, bad breath, casts in the eye, crooked teeth or none, missing fingers."
This story moves at a rapid pace and there is a sense of urgency around every bend in the river as Sam attempts to unravel the mystery of Lily’s disappearance as well as the much older puzzle of his own personal tragedy. You’ll come across some of the most vicious, unscrupulous folks ever and be grateful to never have to meet such people beyond the pages of this novel! Names like the Skadlocks and the Cloats will create havoc with your head the next time you find yourself traipsing through the wilderness. Mostly though, you will find yourself drawn more and more to Sam and hoping that he can not only find the missing Lily, but also make peace with himself and his past. What would you do when faced with the opportunity for revenge? Is this the answer that will repair all the hurt and make peace within your heart?
"It occurred to him that maybe he should have learned along the way that something like vengeance did matter. But of what use was it? Setting old scores right?... His uncle had told him many times that revenge didn’t help anybody and that the punishment for being a son of a bitch was being one."
"There were people missing in his life like big holes cut out of the night sky, and Sam felt powerless to do anything about it. He was only one person in a planet full of incomplete seekers…"
I was first introduced to the writing of Tim Gautreaux after reading The Clearing. I became an instant fan. Gautreaux is a wonderful storyteller with vivid descriptions of the south and excellent characterizations. In fact, no matter how many characters you may meet up with in the pages of his books, it is very easy to call to mind each one, whether you spend many chapters with this person or just a few brief pages.
In this particular story, Sam Simoneaux shines as an exemplary human being, though certainly not without his share of flaws. From the very beginning, when we meet him in Europe in the aftermath of World War I, it is quite evident that Sam is a compassionate person that will grieve for his mistakes and do his best to make amends. Really, what more can one do? He was raised by a wise man, his Uncle Claude. "His uncle had taught him that what he did in life, good or bad, could seldom be undone."
Sam is haunted by his past – a past that has left him aching for loved ones and the need for answers. When a little girl named Lily goes missing during his watch at a department store, Sam feels an instant connection to her and will do anything in his power to reunite her with her family. Leaving his ever-so-patient wife behind, Sam decides to board a steamboat with Lily’s parents, Elsie and Ted Wellers, and her teenaged brother, August. As third mate on the boat, Sam hopes to collect some leads as to the girl’s whereabouts as he travels up and down the Mississippi River. His journey is filled with the syncopated rhythms of jazz music, a diverse group of passengers ranging from church groups to the rowdiest of folks toting an assorted array of weapons in their pockets, the steam and muck of the swamps and the danger of the backwoods wilderness. There is no telling who you might run into on board the riverboat or on shore.
"The people were wrinkled, sunburned, generally thin, coal stained, thick voiced, and bent, a hard-used population with limps, eye patches, bad breath, casts in the eye, crooked teeth or none, missing fingers."
This story moves at a rapid pace and there is a sense of urgency around every bend in the river as Sam attempts to unravel the mystery of Lily’s disappearance as well as the much older puzzle of his own personal tragedy. You’ll come across some of the most vicious, unscrupulous folks ever and be grateful to never have to meet such people beyond the pages of this novel! Names like the Skadlocks and the Cloats will create havoc with your head the next time you find yourself traipsing through the wilderness. Mostly though, you will find yourself drawn more and more to Sam and hoping that he can not only find the missing Lily, but also make peace with himself and his past. What would you do when faced with the opportunity for revenge? Is this the answer that will repair all the hurt and make peace within your heart?
"It occurred to him that maybe he should have learned along the way that something like vengeance did matter. But of what use was it? Setting old scores right?... His uncle had told him many times that revenge didn’t help anybody and that the punishment for being a son of a bitch was being one."
May 29, 2019
I am tempted to just give this book 5 stars and leave the reviews to those who have done a superior job in their own reviews. Novels don't get much better than this.
I have walked with Sam Simoneaux through France at the end of WWI. As a floorwalker in a large department store in New Orleans where he fails to prevent a kidnapping of a 3 year old girl. I have ridden a steamboat up and down the Mississippi River, on horseback and muleback and foot through the wilds of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas. I've made friends and enemies, all of them memorable and one of a kind. I've seen kindness and cruelty from the most unlikely of characters. I learned that money doesn't make you a good person, and the lack of it doesn't make you a bad one. And from the very first page, I fell in love with Sam.
The plot weaves and dances, twists and turns, leaves you gasping for breath, then picks you up just when you thought it was all over and carries you on. The Cloats and the Skadlocks were the villains here, absolutely unredeemable, but, as Uncle Claude always said, "Being a son of a bitch is its own punishment".
There were many good people in these pages too: Stationmaster Morris Hightower, sending help in the form of telegrams. Constable Soner, giving advice that was not heeded, then helping anyway. Uncle Claude, Vessy, and a special shout out to Linda, Sam's wife, who gets my vote for the most understanding wife ever. Justice is meted out to everyone in the end, in different ways, and the story is brought full circle. The only little thing I still wonder about is Ralph and Vessy and that pawnshop. But I think the author wanted to leave that resolution to the reader's imagination.
Well, I see that my plan to give this just 5 stars with no review has gone by the wayside. There are too many good things to say about this novel to say nothing at all, and I haven't even scratched the surface. Straight to my favorites shelf, and please, please, Mr. Gautreaux, please be working on another novel.
I have walked with Sam Simoneaux through France at the end of WWI. As a floorwalker in a large department store in New Orleans where he fails to prevent a kidnapping of a 3 year old girl. I have ridden a steamboat up and down the Mississippi River, on horseback and muleback and foot through the wilds of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas. I've made friends and enemies, all of them memorable and one of a kind. I've seen kindness and cruelty from the most unlikely of characters. I learned that money doesn't make you a good person, and the lack of it doesn't make you a bad one. And from the very first page, I fell in love with Sam.
The plot weaves and dances, twists and turns, leaves you gasping for breath, then picks you up just when you thought it was all over and carries you on. The Cloats and the Skadlocks were the villains here, absolutely unredeemable, but, as Uncle Claude always said, "Being a son of a bitch is its own punishment".
There were many good people in these pages too: Stationmaster Morris Hightower, sending help in the form of telegrams. Constable Soner, giving advice that was not heeded, then helping anyway. Uncle Claude, Vessy, and a special shout out to Linda, Sam's wife, who gets my vote for the most understanding wife ever. Justice is meted out to everyone in the end, in different ways, and the story is brought full circle. The only little thing I still wonder about is Ralph and Vessy and that pawnshop. But I think the author wanted to leave that resolution to the reader's imagination.
Well, I see that my plan to give this just 5 stars with no review has gone by the wayside. There are too many good things to say about this novel to say nothing at all, and I haven't even scratched the surface. Straight to my favorites shelf, and please, please, Mr. Gautreaux, please be working on another novel.
June 11, 2019
Things in life have a way of coming full circle, one way or another. Aptly titled, the missing here refers to family, memories, and more. There will be dealings with the nefarious Skadlock family, who are lethal enough to be given a good lettin' alone by the law. Not to be outdone, the Cloat clan's brutality is legend. Time is spent on a steamboat that travels from town to town on the Mississippi River providing music and dancing. Original story and fascinating characters. Can't wait to read more from this author.
September 28, 2017
Sam Simoneaux is the floor-walker at a major retailer in New Orleans when a little girl is stolen from her parents. His failure to prevent the theft costs him his job and embroils him in the lives of the girl and her family. His search for Lily brings him face-to-face with all the forms loss can take in a life and reconnects him with a loss of his own that needs answers.
There is a flavor to this novel that is uniquely Southern. You can feel the rock of the Mississippi River, see the small towns that line her shores, catch the stench of the backwaters in which the least civilized of the people live, and feel the pull of family that is forged in blood. Characters that make minor appearances come on scene with so much wisdom and carrying such harrowing stories of their own that not one of them feels superfluous or unnecessary.
Along with confronting loss, Simoneaux must also confront revenge, the need for it and the uselessness of it.
It occurred to him that maybe he should have learned along the way that something like revenge did matter. But what use was it? Settling old scores right? Paying back a son of a bitch? He wasn’t trained to think that way. His uncle had told him many times that revenge didn’t help anybody and that the punishment for being a son of a bitch was being one.
All of which does not keep the heart and soul from screaming for some immediate and visible justice to be inflicted on someone who has himself inflicted a wound that cannot and will not ever heal. When we bleed do we not think the blood of our assailant would perhaps be the only way to ease the pain?
He felt sick for her, but terrible for himself as well, for the thin shoulder he cupped in his right hand might have been his own sister’s or brother’s, and then he was crushed by a deeper understanding of what he had lost back before he knew what loss was. He didn’t know such a feeling could come so late…
What makes Sam such a remarkable character for me is how much he cares, how willing he is to accept not only his own culpability but responsibility that should probably fall onto other shoulders. He is wise, with a sharp mind, but he acts from his heart; his heart always wins out. He is, in a word, unforgettable.
This book was recommended to me by my Goodreads friend, Kirk Smith. I wish I could tell him now how much I enjoyed it and how grateful I am for being introduced to this author, but Kirk was recently killed in an accident, so I will have to miss that opportunity to share this with him. It seems appropriate that this book would be about loss. I’m pretty sure the world is missing a very good man in Kirk Smith and that countless lives are diminished by his absence.
There is a flavor to this novel that is uniquely Southern. You can feel the rock of the Mississippi River, see the small towns that line her shores, catch the stench of the backwaters in which the least civilized of the people live, and feel the pull of family that is forged in blood. Characters that make minor appearances come on scene with so much wisdom and carrying such harrowing stories of their own that not one of them feels superfluous or unnecessary.
Along with confronting loss, Simoneaux must also confront revenge, the need for it and the uselessness of it.
It occurred to him that maybe he should have learned along the way that something like revenge did matter. But what use was it? Settling old scores right? Paying back a son of a bitch? He wasn’t trained to think that way. His uncle had told him many times that revenge didn’t help anybody and that the punishment for being a son of a bitch was being one.
All of which does not keep the heart and soul from screaming for some immediate and visible justice to be inflicted on someone who has himself inflicted a wound that cannot and will not ever heal. When we bleed do we not think the blood of our assailant would perhaps be the only way to ease the pain?
He felt sick for her, but terrible for himself as well, for the thin shoulder he cupped in his right hand might have been his own sister’s or brother’s, and then he was crushed by a deeper understanding of what he had lost back before he knew what loss was. He didn’t know such a feeling could come so late…
What makes Sam such a remarkable character for me is how much he cares, how willing he is to accept not only his own culpability but responsibility that should probably fall onto other shoulders. He is wise, with a sharp mind, but he acts from his heart; his heart always wins out. He is, in a word, unforgettable.
This book was recommended to me by my Goodreads friend, Kirk Smith. I wish I could tell him now how much I enjoyed it and how grateful I am for being introduced to this author, but Kirk was recently killed in an accident, so I will have to miss that opportunity to share this with him. It seems appropriate that this book would be about loss. I’m pretty sure the world is missing a very good man in Kirk Smith and that countless lives are diminished by his absence.
June 16, 2019
Sam Simonesux’s brief stay in France during the Great War - leaving his home in Louisiana- with the U.S. army, had instilled in him the understanding that “the world presents unsolvable tragedies at every turn”.
Sam’s assigned job - first and only time in the Army sounded horrific: removal of unexploded bombs, artillery shells, grenades, and bullets.
Having just watched the mini series - Chernobyl- my awareness and sensitivities were heightened about Sam’s job. Poisonous gas filled munitions were a problem after WWI - accidental detonation of even very old explosives happened, sometimes with fatal results.
So - Sam’s short time in France left a disturbing taste in my mouth - as it certainly did for Sam in 1918.
But nothing prepared me for all many more stories about to come.
“There were people missing in his life like big holes cut out of the night sky, and Sam felt powerless to do anything about it”.
Sam...received the name, *Lucky*, from a little French girl, “Amelie Melancon”, in the war.
She told Sam he was lucky, “for getting here the day of the Armistice”. ( the day that WWI ends). Amelie wasn’t so lucky.
During an explosion, her village was blown up and her parents died.
Sam was devastated when his lieutenant told him there were many orphans wandering about. Sam had to leave Amelie. Other than helping her bandage a bad wound...’Lucky’ had to leave her. His troop was moving on. I missed that little girl. I worried about her- about Sam- about Sam’s wife -
I worried about several characters in this novel because I quickly loved many of them.
After the war Sam returned home to his wife, Linda. He was soon fired from his job as a floorwalker because he couldn’t find a missing little girl in the department store where he worked.
The parents of the missing girl, ( Lily), Ted and Elsie Wellers, hired a private policeman to investigate Lillys disappearance... but they didn’t think he really cared about Lily. Sam did!!
Sam and Linda - who were in their early 20’s, lost a little 2 year old boy to a fever.
And now that Sam had no job - Linda was trying to pay their bills with her needlework. She badly needed Sam to get a job!
I couldn’t help but hurt for Sam. He was having some bad - ‘kid karma’. A missing girl, a wounded orphan girl, and the death of his toddler son were some heavy tragedies to be so closely associated with.
And there was more: Sam’s own parents and siblings were murdered by outlaws. Sam was the only survival in his immediate family: orphaned as a six month old baby.
Loss followed Sam his entire life.
Sam’s uncle raised him. His uncle was worried that one day Sam might retaliate against the gang that murdered his parents - so the uncle wisely guided and advised him of the negative repercussions that would be.
This novel is PACKED FILLED WITH GRIPPING STORYTELLING!!!
Shhh... and I worried about everyone!!!
Elsie and Ted Wellers ( excursion boat musicians), instigated the hiring of Sam to come work on a steamboat - (“The Ambassador”), join them and help find their daughter Lily at the same time.
The captain of ‘The Ambassador’, needed a third mate. One of the duties was to walk around a dance floor and show some authority. He asked Sam if he thought he could do that.
Elsie said: “He’s the floorwalker I told you about”. [I was scared for Sam- fearful of the unfair injustice and judgements he’d carry on his back forever]...
The captain’s expression darkened. “You’re the one who couldn’t stop those people”.
“That’s me, all right. Suddenly Sam seemed to have a new identity: “the man to blame”.
However, the captain, Adam Stewart hired Sam anyway....
gave him the job of watching over the dance floor and roaming the decks looking for signs of troubles from fights to fires ( a little piano playing too)...
Sam had to remind himself that his main purpose for getting hired was to help find Lily.
Sam’s wife Linda was not happy about a job that would keep him away from home and seem suspicious about his motives...but she said goodbye to him.
Sam told Linda he could explore each town on the boat route, and ask questions about the stolen girl. Plus - he was now earning a paycheck.
While on the steamboat, the pilot, Ralph Brandy would lean out the wheelhouse window holding a megaphone yelling at Sam to hustle the customers on board.
Sam began to enjoy paddling the people on board. He got lost in their excitement. People looked forward to the steamy cloud of music and fun.
The jazz band kept the crowd happy. People on the boat - whiskey drinkers - could ‘dance’ their booties off. Sam observed that a dance steamer felt safe getting drunk on the boat because there is no proper law on board… Everyone was drinking.
The steam whistle blew a warning if a ferry boat cut it’s engines too close to their boat. Spilled drinks and rude remarks was nothing compared to a midnight collision spilling hundreds of people into the deep river.
As I was reading this novel I was beginning to see that our protagonist, poor Sam, was an easy target…
“the man to blame”...
I was on the edge wondering if Sam would eventually explode from so much ‘blame’.
“The world’s got no shortage of cutthroats”.
We will meet them in time!!!
Sam was the type of man who didn’t want to see bad things happen to other people -that had happened to him. He was naturally a gentle compassionate man.
Vessy was an memorable character, who worked on the steamboat. She was a 27-year-old independent Kentucky mountain girl.
She might have stayed forever in Kentucky had her mother not served under-cooked pork roast one evening-
Killing the entire family with food poisoning except for her.
Vessy - considered herself a plain-Jane. She wished to get married more than anything. She dated one guy for a while, but he dropped her thinking she was bad luck.
I was always happy when Vessy was in scenes. I worried for her too.
Louisiana swamps -filthy pollution - old snorting men - acne scarred men- fat men -red face men- bald men - runaways-
sweaty-sour smelling men...horse trainers.. a mule ride into the woods..violence... kidnapping... murders...
Author Tim Gautreaux gave us a kaleidoscope story of life in the Deep South In The 1920’s -
Marvelous descriptions and atmosphere feelings.
The title of this novel is fitting. It’s not just a whodunit story ( who took the missing girl) ... but it’s rich in family history -character driven - dealing with loss - and struggling against daunting times.
It’s a remarkable combination of fierce and tender...
...a journey down the river ...
...a journey about revenge and the human heart.
Many thanks to Connie, Diane, and Sara.
Their reviews inspired me - moved me to read it sooner rather than later. So glad I did!
It didn’t take long to see that Tim Gautreaux’s is a storytelling pro.
I love good storytelling- and Gautreaux’s sure got the knack for it.
I’d love to take a steamboat ride now myself! What a fun vacation it could be!!!
But.... I won’t be drinking more than tea!
Sam’s assigned job - first and only time in the Army sounded horrific: removal of unexploded bombs, artillery shells, grenades, and bullets.
Having just watched the mini series - Chernobyl- my awareness and sensitivities were heightened about Sam’s job. Poisonous gas filled munitions were a problem after WWI - accidental detonation of even very old explosives happened, sometimes with fatal results.
So - Sam’s short time in France left a disturbing taste in my mouth - as it certainly did for Sam in 1918.
But nothing prepared me for all many more stories about to come.
“There were people missing in his life like big holes cut out of the night sky, and Sam felt powerless to do anything about it”.
Sam...received the name, *Lucky*, from a little French girl, “Amelie Melancon”, in the war.
She told Sam he was lucky, “for getting here the day of the Armistice”. ( the day that WWI ends). Amelie wasn’t so lucky.
During an explosion, her village was blown up and her parents died.
Sam was devastated when his lieutenant told him there were many orphans wandering about. Sam had to leave Amelie. Other than helping her bandage a bad wound...’Lucky’ had to leave her. His troop was moving on. I missed that little girl. I worried about her- about Sam- about Sam’s wife -
I worried about several characters in this novel because I quickly loved many of them.
After the war Sam returned home to his wife, Linda. He was soon fired from his job as a floorwalker because he couldn’t find a missing little girl in the department store where he worked.
The parents of the missing girl, ( Lily), Ted and Elsie Wellers, hired a private policeman to investigate Lillys disappearance... but they didn’t think he really cared about Lily. Sam did!!
Sam and Linda - who were in their early 20’s, lost a little 2 year old boy to a fever.
And now that Sam had no job - Linda was trying to pay their bills with her needlework. She badly needed Sam to get a job!
I couldn’t help but hurt for Sam. He was having some bad - ‘kid karma’. A missing girl, a wounded orphan girl, and the death of his toddler son were some heavy tragedies to be so closely associated with.
And there was more: Sam’s own parents and siblings were murdered by outlaws. Sam was the only survival in his immediate family: orphaned as a six month old baby.
Loss followed Sam his entire life.
Sam’s uncle raised him. His uncle was worried that one day Sam might retaliate against the gang that murdered his parents - so the uncle wisely guided and advised him of the negative repercussions that would be.
This novel is PACKED FILLED WITH GRIPPING STORYTELLING!!!
Shhh... and I worried about everyone!!!
Elsie and Ted Wellers ( excursion boat musicians), instigated the hiring of Sam to come work on a steamboat - (“The Ambassador”), join them and help find their daughter Lily at the same time.
The captain of ‘The Ambassador’, needed a third mate. One of the duties was to walk around a dance floor and show some authority. He asked Sam if he thought he could do that.
Elsie said: “He’s the floorwalker I told you about”. [I was scared for Sam- fearful of the unfair injustice and judgements he’d carry on his back forever]...
The captain’s expression darkened. “You’re the one who couldn’t stop those people”.
“That’s me, all right. Suddenly Sam seemed to have a new identity: “the man to blame”.
However, the captain, Adam Stewart hired Sam anyway....
gave him the job of watching over the dance floor and roaming the decks looking for signs of troubles from fights to fires ( a little piano playing too)...
Sam had to remind himself that his main purpose for getting hired was to help find Lily.
Sam’s wife Linda was not happy about a job that would keep him away from home and seem suspicious about his motives...but she said goodbye to him.
Sam told Linda he could explore each town on the boat route, and ask questions about the stolen girl. Plus - he was now earning a paycheck.
While on the steamboat, the pilot, Ralph Brandy would lean out the wheelhouse window holding a megaphone yelling at Sam to hustle the customers on board.
Sam began to enjoy paddling the people on board. He got lost in their excitement. People looked forward to the steamy cloud of music and fun.
The jazz band kept the crowd happy. People on the boat - whiskey drinkers - could ‘dance’ their booties off. Sam observed that a dance steamer felt safe getting drunk on the boat because there is no proper law on board… Everyone was drinking.
The steam whistle blew a warning if a ferry boat cut it’s engines too close to their boat. Spilled drinks and rude remarks was nothing compared to a midnight collision spilling hundreds of people into the deep river.
As I was reading this novel I was beginning to see that our protagonist, poor Sam, was an easy target…
“the man to blame”...
I was on the edge wondering if Sam would eventually explode from so much ‘blame’.
“The world’s got no shortage of cutthroats”.
We will meet them in time!!!
Sam was the type of man who didn’t want to see bad things happen to other people -that had happened to him. He was naturally a gentle compassionate man.
Vessy was an memorable character, who worked on the steamboat. She was a 27-year-old independent Kentucky mountain girl.
She might have stayed forever in Kentucky had her mother not served under-cooked pork roast one evening-
Killing the entire family with food poisoning except for her.
Vessy - considered herself a plain-Jane. She wished to get married more than anything. She dated one guy for a while, but he dropped her thinking she was bad luck.
I was always happy when Vessy was in scenes. I worried for her too.
Louisiana swamps -filthy pollution - old snorting men - acne scarred men- fat men -red face men- bald men - runaways-
sweaty-sour smelling men...horse trainers.. a mule ride into the woods..violence... kidnapping... murders...
Author Tim Gautreaux gave us a kaleidoscope story of life in the Deep South In The 1920’s -
Marvelous descriptions and atmosphere feelings.
The title of this novel is fitting. It’s not just a whodunit story ( who took the missing girl) ... but it’s rich in family history -character driven - dealing with loss - and struggling against daunting times.
It’s a remarkable combination of fierce and tender...
...a journey down the river ...
...a journey about revenge and the human heart.
Many thanks to Connie, Diane, and Sara.
Their reviews inspired me - moved me to read it sooner rather than later. So glad I did!
It didn’t take long to see that Tim Gautreaux’s is a storytelling pro.
I love good storytelling- and Gautreaux’s sure got the knack for it.
I’d love to take a steamboat ride now myself! What a fun vacation it could be!!!
But.... I won’t be drinking more than tea!
January 7, 2023
This is the second novel that I have read from Tim Gautreaux, the other being The Clearing. The two have a number of similarities, partly from both being set in 1920s Louisiana.
It seems to me that this book has a theme about the long-term consequences of violence. Sam Simoneaux is born in a remote Cajun community and as a baby survives a massacre in which his parents and siblings are killed. Sam is brought up by an aunt and uncle. Around twenty years later he is a member of the AEF heading to France in 1918. His ship actually arrives on Armistice Day, but his unit is send to the former front line and ordered to dispose of unexploded ordnance. Several of his comrades are killed in this dangerous job, and Sam realises that the number of UXBs in France is so immense that it will be decades before the task can be completed.
The novel then moves to Prohibition-era USA, and Sam has a job as Chief Floorwalker in a New Orleans department store, responsible for security. The novel’s central event occurs when a little girl is abducted from the store during Sam’s shift. The child’s parents work as musicians on a Mississippi River steamboat. Feeling responsible, Sam takes a job on the boat, with the task of keeping order at the dances the boat offers to riverside communities. He has the idea that in travelling up and down the river, he can gather clues about the girl’s disappearance. However in doing so, he also starts to find clues about who murdered his own family a quarter-century previously.
One of the features of modern societies is the idea that the state has responsibility for the safety of its citizens, and only the state has the authority to apply sanctions against lawbreakers. In pre-modern societies, there was little or no central law enforcement, and individuals were, for the most part, responsible for their own safety and for personally applying sanctions against offenders. Often this was achieved through extended family groups, clans, tribes etc, who operated under the principle of “an eye for an eye”. Gautreaux portrays the Deep South of the 1920s as a society in transition between these two modes. There is law enforcement, but it is decentralised, with sheriffs having jurisdiction only over their local area. Moreover that system sits alongside remnants of the older one, where clans living deep in the backwoods still live by the blood feud and the principle of revenge. In Simoneaux’s world, men are still expected to act in accordance with the old code.
Suspicion of outsiders is another local trait that comes out strongly in this novel. Wherever Sam is seeking information, people want to know who he is. If he doesn’t have at least a local contact, then “I don’t know you, bud” is all the response he gets.
Gautreaux clearly has a great affection for the jazz music of the era, with the songs of the period being lovingly described. He creates a great atmosphere to the narrative of the boat’s journey up and down the river, from the enthusiastic but well-mannered dancers from the better-off communities to the near-riots that occur when the boat stops at industrial settlements and the dance-hall is full of roughnecks.
This novel isn’t one you would describe as “action-packed”, but there’s plenty of tension in the decisions that Sam is faced with, and in how he reacts to the information he gathers. He doesn’t always make the right choices, but you’ll find yourself willing him to do so. A top-class novel.
It seems to me that this book has a theme about the long-term consequences of violence. Sam Simoneaux is born in a remote Cajun community and as a baby survives a massacre in which his parents and siblings are killed. Sam is brought up by an aunt and uncle. Around twenty years later he is a member of the AEF heading to France in 1918. His ship actually arrives on Armistice Day, but his unit is send to the former front line and ordered to dispose of unexploded ordnance. Several of his comrades are killed in this dangerous job, and Sam realises that the number of UXBs in France is so immense that it will be decades before the task can be completed.
The novel then moves to Prohibition-era USA, and Sam has a job as Chief Floorwalker in a New Orleans department store, responsible for security. The novel’s central event occurs when a little girl is abducted from the store during Sam’s shift. The child’s parents work as musicians on a Mississippi River steamboat. Feeling responsible, Sam takes a job on the boat, with the task of keeping order at the dances the boat offers to riverside communities. He has the idea that in travelling up and down the river, he can gather clues about the girl’s disappearance. However in doing so, he also starts to find clues about who murdered his own family a quarter-century previously.
One of the features of modern societies is the idea that the state has responsibility for the safety of its citizens, and only the state has the authority to apply sanctions against lawbreakers. In pre-modern societies, there was little or no central law enforcement, and individuals were, for the most part, responsible for their own safety and for personally applying sanctions against offenders. Often this was achieved through extended family groups, clans, tribes etc, who operated under the principle of “an eye for an eye”. Gautreaux portrays the Deep South of the 1920s as a society in transition between these two modes. There is law enforcement, but it is decentralised, with sheriffs having jurisdiction only over their local area. Moreover that system sits alongside remnants of the older one, where clans living deep in the backwoods still live by the blood feud and the principle of revenge. In Simoneaux’s world, men are still expected to act in accordance with the old code.
Suspicion of outsiders is another local trait that comes out strongly in this novel. Wherever Sam is seeking information, people want to know who he is. If he doesn’t have at least a local contact, then “I don’t know you, bud” is all the response he gets.
Gautreaux clearly has a great affection for the jazz music of the era, with the songs of the period being lovingly described. He creates a great atmosphere to the narrative of the boat’s journey up and down the river, from the enthusiastic but well-mannered dancers from the better-off communities to the near-riots that occur when the boat stops at industrial settlements and the dance-hall is full of roughnecks.
This novel isn’t one you would describe as “action-packed”, but there’s plenty of tension in the decisions that Sam is faced with, and in how he reacts to the information he gathers. He doesn’t always make the right choices, but you’ll find yourself willing him to do so. A top-class novel.
February 16, 2018
Sam Simoneaux is a lucky duck and a good guy. As a baby, he was the lone person to survive a family tragedy, made it through World War I unscathed, and remained healthy while illness took the lives of loved ones around him. But as in the case of others who fare well despite next to zero effort on their parts, he has a little bit of a hero complex. He might go to more extremes than you or me to prove his worth.
In New Orleans (in sites you may recognize from A Confederacy of Dunces but set decades earlier), Sam is working as a department store security guard. It's an easy job looking out for shop lifters - lucky Sam. When a little girl is snatched from a dressing room, however, he feels a terrible sense of guilt. His employers blame him for not stopping the abduction, and the parents do too. They are entertainers on one of the big paddle wheel boats that cruise up and down the Mississippi, and with the boat's departure coming up, they cannot fathom how they will track down their child.
Sam - whose family, peers, and loved ones are "missing" from his own lucky existence - takes the disappearance to heart and goes on a quest of sorts to find the little girl.
I should mention here that Gautreaux is a fantastically lyrical writer, and the sense of family anguish, the colors and smells of the riverboat life, and the mud of Louisiana swamps and marshes are rendered brilliantly. There is action and suspense here, but the character study of Sam Simoneaux is excellent. Gautreaux, a Louisiana native, is a riverboat buff, and he imparts into his books (including The Clearing) little details about life on these boats - how they shudder when switching gears, how a dance floor cannot tolerate simultaneous stomping to the music for fear of collapse, and more.
The riverboats were, in effect, traveling dance halls loaded with musicians, partyers, and the patient crew who had to clean up after them - and occasionally toss patrons overboard.
While the crux of the story is about where little Lily has gone and whether Sam will bring her home to her parents, it is also about life on the Mississippi River in the early 1900s, the sense of clan a family holds, and whether choosing revenge is worth the price.
As a New Orleanian and swamp rat, I can vouch - it does not get any more real than this. There is nothing about Louisiana that is missing here. Five stars.
In New Orleans (in sites you may recognize from A Confederacy of Dunces but set decades earlier), Sam is working as a department store security guard. It's an easy job looking out for shop lifters - lucky Sam. When a little girl is snatched from a dressing room, however, he feels a terrible sense of guilt. His employers blame him for not stopping the abduction, and the parents do too. They are entertainers on one of the big paddle wheel boats that cruise up and down the Mississippi, and with the boat's departure coming up, they cannot fathom how they will track down their child.
Sam - whose family, peers, and loved ones are "missing" from his own lucky existence - takes the disappearance to heart and goes on a quest of sorts to find the little girl.
I should mention here that Gautreaux is a fantastically lyrical writer, and the sense of family anguish, the colors and smells of the riverboat life, and the mud of Louisiana swamps and marshes are rendered brilliantly. There is action and suspense here, but the character study of Sam Simoneaux is excellent. Gautreaux, a Louisiana native, is a riverboat buff, and he imparts into his books (including The Clearing) little details about life on these boats - how they shudder when switching gears, how a dance floor cannot tolerate simultaneous stomping to the music for fear of collapse, and more.
The riverboats were, in effect, traveling dance halls loaded with musicians, partyers, and the patient crew who had to clean up after them - and occasionally toss patrons overboard.
While the crux of the story is about where little Lily has gone and whether Sam will bring her home to her parents, it is also about life on the Mississippi River in the early 1900s, the sense of clan a family holds, and whether choosing revenge is worth the price.
As a New Orleanian and swamp rat, I can vouch - it does not get any more real than this. There is nothing about Louisiana that is missing here. Five stars.
October 28, 2011
This is a lyrical, beautifully-written book that explores the themes of family, compassion, revenge and forgiveness. Sam Simoneaux journeys with the U.S. Army from his native Louisiana to war-torn France, arriving on November 11, 1918, the day that World War I ends. Although he sees no combat, his experience there leaves an indelible mark that will follow him the rest of his life.
Returning to the U.S., Sam attempts to make a life for himself and his young wife by working as a floorwalker at a large department store. But when a little girl is kidnapped from the store on his watch, Sam is fired. He blames himself for failing to take action that could have saved the child and sets out on a mission to find her. He takes a job on the third-rate riverboat where the little girl's parents are employed, believing that whoever took the child initially spotted her on the boat.
Sam has other even more personal demons. When he was six months old his parents and siblings were murdered by a gang of backwoods outlaws seeking revenge for a perceived slight inflicted by Sam's father on a member of the outlaw family. Sam was raised by his uncle who counseled him against seeking revenge, assuring him that the high road was the better choice. But as Sam searches for the missing girl, he also begins to think more carefully about all of the things missing from his own life in the wake of the attack twenty-seven years earlier, and wonders if he should not attempt to do something about it, even at this late date.
Sam's journey takes him into a backwoods world where little has changed for generations and where the civilization of the Twentieth century is only just beginning to penetrate. Tim Gautreaux has recreated this world brilliantly and in the process provides the reader not only with a compelling plot but also with a glimpse into a time and place that few will have ever imagined.
Returning to the U.S., Sam attempts to make a life for himself and his young wife by working as a floorwalker at a large department store. But when a little girl is kidnapped from the store on his watch, Sam is fired. He blames himself for failing to take action that could have saved the child and sets out on a mission to find her. He takes a job on the third-rate riverboat where the little girl's parents are employed, believing that whoever took the child initially spotted her on the boat.
Sam has other even more personal demons. When he was six months old his parents and siblings were murdered by a gang of backwoods outlaws seeking revenge for a perceived slight inflicted by Sam's father on a member of the outlaw family. Sam was raised by his uncle who counseled him against seeking revenge, assuring him that the high road was the better choice. But as Sam searches for the missing girl, he also begins to think more carefully about all of the things missing from his own life in the wake of the attack twenty-seven years earlier, and wonders if he should not attempt to do something about it, even at this late date.
Sam's journey takes him into a backwoods world where little has changed for generations and where the civilization of the Twentieth century is only just beginning to penetrate. Tim Gautreaux has recreated this world brilliantly and in the process provides the reader not only with a compelling plot but also with a glimpse into a time and place that few will have ever imagined.
July 6, 2019
Fais do do. Put on your dancing shoes, bring a fiddle or seat yourself at the piano bench, drink some moonshine and keep one eye open for the bad guys. Or, if you prefer kick back and watch the sunny south lands slip on by on your riverboat cruise. Each page of this glorious read was so vivid and alive with descriptions you’re right there with the characters for live action. Just imagine being on a horse the colour of an old mattress that rears up when spooked by the water moccasins as you traverse the swamps. It’s all here. Sam is such a wonderfully realized character. He sticks around in your thoughts as the book comes to a close. Loved this story and the lessons it shares in working through loss and finding a way back home.
June 9, 2019
4+ stars - In ‘The Missing’ by Tim Gautreaux, the main plot element revolves around a three-year-old girl, Lily Weller, who disappears from Krine’s department store, where our main character, Sam Simoneaux, is the head floorwalker. One of Mr. Krine’s rules is that the doors of the store must be locked within fifteen minutes of a child’s disappearance. Lily’s parents, Ted and Elsie Weller hold Sam responsible because he didn’t follow this rule. Mr. Krine fires Sam.
Although Gautreaux takes Lily’s disappearance as the linchpin of his novel, there is so much more in his story that relates to parts of his character’s lives that go missing. To start with, Sam’s own beginnings in the world are almost like a mythological tale. Raised by his Uncle Claude, Sam rises from the ashes of a tragedy that befalls his parents and siblings. Here is a clearly important part of Sam’s life that goes missing when he is only six months old. Sam’s first child, a son, dies from the fever at age two. Sam truly grieves for this son. He finds it difficult to grieve for the parents and siblings he never knew but as he gets older, he begins to recognize his deep and prevalent losses.
Gautreaux writes, “There were people missing in his life like big holes cut out of the night sky, and Sam felt powerless to do anything about it. He was only one person in a planet full of incomplete seekers, and now the Wellers had joined him.”
What Gautreaux does best is to create descriptive visuals, of characters in a few sentences, as well as of a detailed 1920’s southern setting. Sam takes a job on ‘The Ambassador,’ a huge steamboat plying the Mississippi. He’ll send money back to his wife, Linda, in New Orleans and help the Wellers look for Lily. The Wellers are entertainers and only a couple of months before her disappearance, they had added Lily to their act. Ted says the crowd was wild for Lily’s singing and dancing. I imagine a blonde Shirley Temple. Sam’s job is to help keep order amongst the rowdy crowds that board to dance and party (he will also sometimes play piano for the day crowd). As they board, Sam collects knives, guns, blackjacks. If too many of them start the Texas Tommy or a two-step, Sam is warned he’ll have to space the dancers out to keep the deck floor from falling in from the pounding of all those feet. He also has to go around and be sure all cigarettes are smashed out, as the steamboat is just a huge pile of lumber that can go up in flames in a heartbeat. Whether Sam is traveling by steamboat, train, or mule, Gautreaux plants our feet firmly in the soil of the setting and our hands deep in fur, soot, or hauling up miscreants from drunken misadventures.
Gautreaux dialogs with southern idioms, sayings, and dialect that feels authentic, all while throwing in a little wit. There are huge life lessons to be learned through Sam’s odyssey. Some of the characters that he will meet are bone and marrow-deep evil. How Sam deals with them and thoughts of revenge make a fascinating tale. How Sam befriends and helps Lily’s older brother, August, is one of my favorite parts of the story. Gautreaux shows how trying to help or teach a young person something vitally important brings on introspection. This novel is wonderful on so many levels; a beautiful gem. The ending terrifically poignant, bittersweet.
Texas Tommy Dance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-EA_...
Although Gautreaux takes Lily’s disappearance as the linchpin of his novel, there is so much more in his story that relates to parts of his character’s lives that go missing. To start with, Sam’s own beginnings in the world are almost like a mythological tale. Raised by his Uncle Claude, Sam rises from the ashes of a tragedy that befalls his parents and siblings. Here is a clearly important part of Sam’s life that goes missing when he is only six months old. Sam’s first child, a son, dies from the fever at age two. Sam truly grieves for this son. He finds it difficult to grieve for the parents and siblings he never knew but as he gets older, he begins to recognize his deep and prevalent losses.
Gautreaux writes, “There were people missing in his life like big holes cut out of the night sky, and Sam felt powerless to do anything about it. He was only one person in a planet full of incomplete seekers, and now the Wellers had joined him.”
What Gautreaux does best is to create descriptive visuals, of characters in a few sentences, as well as of a detailed 1920’s southern setting. Sam takes a job on ‘The Ambassador,’ a huge steamboat plying the Mississippi. He’ll send money back to his wife, Linda, in New Orleans and help the Wellers look for Lily. The Wellers are entertainers and only a couple of months before her disappearance, they had added Lily to their act. Ted says the crowd was wild for Lily’s singing and dancing. I imagine a blonde Shirley Temple. Sam’s job is to help keep order amongst the rowdy crowds that board to dance and party (he will also sometimes play piano for the day crowd). As they board, Sam collects knives, guns, blackjacks. If too many of them start the Texas Tommy or a two-step, Sam is warned he’ll have to space the dancers out to keep the deck floor from falling in from the pounding of all those feet. He also has to go around and be sure all cigarettes are smashed out, as the steamboat is just a huge pile of lumber that can go up in flames in a heartbeat. Whether Sam is traveling by steamboat, train, or mule, Gautreaux plants our feet firmly in the soil of the setting and our hands deep in fur, soot, or hauling up miscreants from drunken misadventures.
Gautreaux dialogs with southern idioms, sayings, and dialect that feels authentic, all while throwing in a little wit. There are huge life lessons to be learned through Sam’s odyssey. Some of the characters that he will meet are bone and marrow-deep evil. How Sam deals with them and thoughts of revenge make a fascinating tale. How Sam befriends and helps Lily’s older brother, August, is one of my favorite parts of the story. Gautreaux shows how trying to help or teach a young person something vitally important brings on introspection. This novel is wonderful on so many levels; a beautiful gem. The ending terrifically poignant, bittersweet.
Texas Tommy Dance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-EA_...
June 8, 2019
Sam Simoneaux is haunted by the missing--his parents and siblings who were slaughtered in vengeance, his son who succumbed to an illness, and the dead soldiers and civilians in a small French town in the Great War. When he returns to Louisiana after cleaning up unexploded grenades in France, he takes a job as a security floorwalker in a large department store. A young girl is kidnapped while her parents shopped. He's knocked unconscious by the criminals, and they escape with the girl.
The missing girl's parents are musicians on a Mississippi River steamboat so Sam figures that the kidnappers saw her on the boat. He gets a job on the riverboat where he spends time looking for the kidnappers, keeping the unruly crowds in line, and playing the piano. Sam also gets information about the men who shot his family when he was a baby. Tracking down these lowlifes is not for the faint of heart. Sam has to make decisions about what is morally right, and be comfortable living with his conscience. He's a generous, caring man that took more than his share of the blame for the disappearance of the little girl.
There is a strong sense of place in this book. The battlefields of France, littered with unexploded shells and grenades, open the book with its message about the missing. Sam later goes into some dismal swamps where he meets people who make a living brewing moonshine with their tough canines guarding the stills. He gets help from some watchful folks who give him tips on locating the little girl. The humidity of the lower river area almost drifts up from the pages of the book.
The author involves all the senses in his descriptions--the smells of the swamp and warm bodies, the crack of a fist, the grit of coal dust in the air, fighting a fire, the terror of an attack dog, and the sound of jazz. It's the 1920s, and the young people love to dance to the jazz played by the black musicians. Some of the older people are not as accepting so the white musicians play more traditional music when they're aboard the steamboat. There's no recreation in the small towns along the Mississippi except drinking and playing cards, so a riverboat cruise is a welcome diversion. I enjoyed this compelling story about revenge, justice, and living with the empty spots in our hearts that belong to the missing.
The missing girl's parents are musicians on a Mississippi River steamboat so Sam figures that the kidnappers saw her on the boat. He gets a job on the riverboat where he spends time looking for the kidnappers, keeping the unruly crowds in line, and playing the piano. Sam also gets information about the men who shot his family when he was a baby. Tracking down these lowlifes is not for the faint of heart. Sam has to make decisions about what is morally right, and be comfortable living with his conscience. He's a generous, caring man that took more than his share of the blame for the disappearance of the little girl.
There is a strong sense of place in this book. The battlefields of France, littered with unexploded shells and grenades, open the book with its message about the missing. Sam later goes into some dismal swamps where he meets people who make a living brewing moonshine with their tough canines guarding the stills. He gets help from some watchful folks who give him tips on locating the little girl. The humidity of the lower river area almost drifts up from the pages of the book.
The author involves all the senses in his descriptions--the smells of the swamp and warm bodies, the crack of a fist, the grit of coal dust in the air, fighting a fire, the terror of an attack dog, and the sound of jazz. It's the 1920s, and the young people love to dance to the jazz played by the black musicians. Some of the older people are not as accepting so the white musicians play more traditional music when they're aboard the steamboat. There's no recreation in the small towns along the Mississippi except drinking and playing cards, so a riverboat cruise is a welcome diversion. I enjoyed this compelling story about revenge, justice, and living with the empty spots in our hearts that belong to the missing.
October 13, 2015
I don't read enough southern lit to proclaim this with any sort of authority but I'm going to say it anyway: this guy is one of the most powerful voices in the genre (and maybe even THE most powerful voice).
The writing here just incredible. This is the story of a WW1 vet home from the war who is fired from his department store security job after a young girl is abducted on his watch. He goes on to look for her via his new job working on a steamboat and the story chronicles his journey.
The stuff about the steamboats was just awesome. I knew very little about steamboats and how they worked, etc but Gautreaux paints a really vivid picture that is both entertaining and educational. He himself is fan of steamboats and his enthusiasm really comes through in the writing.
The characters in the book are fascinating as are the different passengers who embark from very different southern towns. One day it's a church group from a nice small town and the next it's a group of roughnecks from some mining camp. The main characters works security and deals with a lot of colorful troublemakers, both on and off the boat is his search for the missing girl.
I can't say enough about this guy. If you have not read any of his books, check him out!
The writing here just incredible. This is the story of a WW1 vet home from the war who is fired from his department store security job after a young girl is abducted on his watch. He goes on to look for her via his new job working on a steamboat and the story chronicles his journey.
The stuff about the steamboats was just awesome. I knew very little about steamboats and how they worked, etc but Gautreaux paints a really vivid picture that is both entertaining and educational. He himself is fan of steamboats and his enthusiasm really comes through in the writing.
The characters in the book are fascinating as are the different passengers who embark from very different southern towns. One day it's a church group from a nice small town and the next it's a group of roughnecks from some mining camp. The main characters works security and deals with a lot of colorful troublemakers, both on and off the boat is his search for the missing girl.
I can't say enough about this guy. If you have not read any of his books, check him out!
June 14, 2019
4.5 stars.
“There were people missing in his life like big holes cut out of the night sky, and Sam felt powerless to do anything about it. He was only one person in a planet full of incomplete seekers . . .”
This book is overflowing with places and people and plot that will appeal to anyone who appreciates the best in Southern literature. Another outstanding, multi-layered masterpiece from Tim Gautreaux. I consider this novel less “gothic” than his earlier book, ‘The Clearing,’ but in both novels he casts a spell over the reader with his love and knowledge of the Deep South, his superior writing, and his ability to step back from the page and let his characters shine.
Sam “Lucky” Simoneaux is haunted by the missing pieces in his life - his decimated family, a kidnapped child, an orphan girl from the Argonne. He shoulders burdens that are not his due. But along the way, Sam teaches us that vengeance is not a solution. It merely forces a hand that might well steal our soul.
This is a plot-centric novel, and I don’t intend to spoil the journey for future readers with too many details. But Sam and his wife Linda, the steam-powered excursion boat named Ambassador, the French mule called Gasser/Garde Ça, a Kentucky girl named Vessy, and the nasty Skadlocks and Cloats took me on one helluva 400-page journey. There are so many random acts of kindness in these pages that despite the villainy, you close the book feeling hopeful. And satisfied.
If you like Southern Lit and haven’t yet read Tim Gautreaux, I strongly encourage you to experience his writing. He’ll take you through some hardscrabble country and introduce you to some people you never EVER want to meet and some you’ll want to invite for a sip of ‘shine on the porch. I promise he’ll take you on a journey you won’t forget, you.
“There were people missing in his life like big holes cut out of the night sky, and Sam felt powerless to do anything about it. He was only one person in a planet full of incomplete seekers . . .”
This book is overflowing with places and people and plot that will appeal to anyone who appreciates the best in Southern literature. Another outstanding, multi-layered masterpiece from Tim Gautreaux. I consider this novel less “gothic” than his earlier book, ‘The Clearing,’ but in both novels he casts a spell over the reader with his love and knowledge of the Deep South, his superior writing, and his ability to step back from the page and let his characters shine.
Sam “Lucky” Simoneaux is haunted by the missing pieces in his life - his decimated family, a kidnapped child, an orphan girl from the Argonne. He shoulders burdens that are not his due. But along the way, Sam teaches us that vengeance is not a solution. It merely forces a hand that might well steal our soul.
This is a plot-centric novel, and I don’t intend to spoil the journey for future readers with too many details. But Sam and his wife Linda, the steam-powered excursion boat named Ambassador, the French mule called Gasser/Garde Ça, a Kentucky girl named Vessy, and the nasty Skadlocks and Cloats took me on one helluva 400-page journey. There are so many random acts of kindness in these pages that despite the villainy, you close the book feeling hopeful. And satisfied.
If you like Southern Lit and haven’t yet read Tim Gautreaux, I strongly encourage you to experience his writing. He’ll take you through some hardscrabble country and introduce you to some people you never EVER want to meet and some you’ll want to invite for a sip of ‘shine on the porch. I promise he’ll take you on a journey you won’t forget, you.
February 5, 2016
Every now and then I just need me some good old story, and Gautreaux delivers another one for me, absolutely pitch perfect, entertaining, dramatic, slightly twisted and peculiar. He’s quickly rising up my list of all time favorites. To be fully satisfied with a novel, I need to not only be entertained but come away enriched, and The Missing did it for me with its account of a WWI vet who returns to his native New Orleans with a new bride. The fun starts immediately, and he’s off on a quest to absolve his guilt over allowing a little girl to be kidnapped while not quite delivering on his duties as store walker. Gautreaux knows about steam engines, and this time we get a first-hand account of the steamboats that ruled the Mississippi and tributaries about the time the roaring 20’s and jazz were catching fire. There’s a lot to learn in this book, delivered with gusto and hilarity by the people and their dialogue. I’m a Midwesterner whose family has occupied the Mississippi and Ohio, so I enjoyed the visitation of many river towns that still exist, yet 100 years earlier when some were industrial and rough and peopled by roustabouts and rough, poor hill people. The accounts of these folk boarding The Ambassador for long-awaited and rare “entertainment” often involved the collection of hardware (knives, clubs, guns) before boarding. Yet this failed to prevent inevitable fistfights and general mayhem, once the smuggled home-stilled potions took effect. The protagonist, part musician, bouncer and overall utility man, endures these nightly. The characters evoked by Gautreaux are so finely honed, and authentic, that I must believe they are drawn from his personal experience. I imagine Gautreaux, the kindly gentleman storyteller, on a porch telling his stories with a N’orleans twang, a a twinkle in his eye, and perhaps an amber libation of his own. (my own personal friend and literary hero?).
But I neglect the plot – sinuous, steady and finishing strong. Gautreaux never fails to start powerfully, build time in the middle, and deliver a punchy finale. No gimmicks here, just plain old story: Sam Simoneaux (a “coon-ass”) searches high a low along the Mississippi and Ohio for the missing girl. This takes him back in a woods so deep and dark that he is often lost, yet he finds his demented animalistic targets (humans who make the rest of the animal kingdom look far superior, here’s the real characters from Deliverance in much sharper detail). Sam’s driven by guilt, but also by a fatalism from his own youth, where he escaped the massacre which demolished his entire family when he was a tender 6 months of age. He was rescued and raised by a kindly Uncle who’s advice to avoid the urge for revenge is the moral compass that likely saves Sam later in life. I won’t spoil the plot, it’s a page-turner and a sheer delight. Gautreaux must have had great ancestors, because he always has sage-like uncles, old men, mothers, sisters and family whose past is never far from his mind. Below are some snippets that gave me joy, but you can find them randomly by opening this tale.
(p 55) a mere paragraph, fully loaded, here’s the rare privileged woman from town, wife of the banker: “Willa Stanton White, a forty-year-old daughter of a wealthy lumber family from Gipson County, spent much of her time reading and rereading a leatherbound and gilt collection of Sir Walter Scott novels her husband had bought her and practicing Franz von Suppe transcriptions on the piano. Willa was an only child who had been spoiled beyond all measure and who’d allowed herself to be chosen by a man bent on honoring that tradition. For a small-town woman she owned brave sexual appetites and was an encouraging partner for Acy, though at times he seemed too tired to meet her demands. She had few close friends in town, though she knew many citizens at a hand-waving distance. Favoring expensive clothes designed to seem modest, she was not a stupid woman, but isolated and logic-deprived, raised on illusions and no work whatsoever.”
(p 135) here’s a taste of what “those” backcountry people were like, as warned by the sheriff: “..forty, fifty mile from here’s a bunch by the name of Cloat. They’re worse than worst. He spat next to his boot. My daddy used to tell me they thought ridin’ horseback two hundred miles to kill somebody was like goin’ to the state fair. They just lived to get angy. I hadn’t thought about ‘em in years, but if you wanted to find a murderin’ bunch from around this part of the world, I’d start with them Cloats. “How do people find them?” Smiley gave him a long, baleful look. “People don’t.”
(p 251) Sam tries to talk his young companion from following his bloodlust: “…Sam tried to remember what he’d felt like at fifteen, when he’d already made up his mind to leave his uncle’s farm. Nothing would have changed his mind from the one thing it had focused on. He suspected such single-mindedness was both the best and the worst thing about youth.”
(p 338) the author has a knowledge of history of godforsaken places that amazes me, here Sam is driving deep into the wood: “… he drove across for two miles, dodging manure cakes and listing, bony animals, coming to another gate that led to a levee ramp. On top, he expected to see the Mississippi, but it had meandered off many years before and there was only willow-haunted flatland that seemed to go east for miles. He guessed that this had been a landing a hundred years before, for remnants of a a cypress dock remained, pilings marching out to nowhere, to history. He tried to picture the grand steamers that stopped here fifty years before with their mural-covered paddle boxes and stained-glass clearstories, millionaire planters gesturing from the upper decks toward the worlds they owned, a time that seemed as inconsequential as smoke in light of the nothing that remained. It was only money, he thought, and that never lasts.”
(p 342/343) here’s my favorite part, as Sam is approaching his big decision about whether to pursue his ancient enemies, as he spends the evening with an old-timer who knows a bit about life: “I’d like to ride out and meet some of ‘em.” A little laugh came out of the darkness as Soner reached down for his drink. “I think ‘meet’ is too nice a word, son.” “I figured they’d be a bad bunch.” “The family has fallen off considerably in the past twenty years. When your family experienced their unfortunate meeting they were in their heyday. Usually, a meeting with a Cloat entailed a straight razor across the throat or a .45 slug in the back of one’s cranium. If you were a man. Women dealth with other initial penetrations. The Cloats aren’t your ordinary bad seed murderers. Even on a cold day they stink like whoresex. They violated their animals. If they kill someone in their camp, they’ll feed his carcass to their hogs. But nowadays, well, I hear less and less about them as the years go on. But still there’s not a lawman in a hundred miles who would go in to find them. They came into this part of the world in the 1830s …”
(p 344) later, that evening, into his cups, the old friend recounts unimaginable horrors: “…they were standing in my backyard wearing muddy dusters when I rode up, flies in their beards around their toothless siles. They made my wife and boy watch as they tied me to a pecan tree, arms and legs, me sitting on the ground hugging that trunk. They owned a big stinking dog, a Rottweiler with a diseased face, and they turned him loose on me.” Soner stopped here and cleared his throat. “That devil tore at my neck and ate the flesh off my back until the bones came to the surface, and right before I died they pulled him off me and orde away. I imagine they figured it was better vengeance to leave me alive than to put me out of my suffering. It was my boy who cut me free and helped me crawl into the house. My wife had lost her mind. Absolutely. This is the short version, let me tell you. The very shortest.”
But I neglect the plot – sinuous, steady and finishing strong. Gautreaux never fails to start powerfully, build time in the middle, and deliver a punchy finale. No gimmicks here, just plain old story: Sam Simoneaux (a “coon-ass”) searches high a low along the Mississippi and Ohio for the missing girl. This takes him back in a woods so deep and dark that he is often lost, yet he finds his demented animalistic targets (humans who make the rest of the animal kingdom look far superior, here’s the real characters from Deliverance in much sharper detail). Sam’s driven by guilt, but also by a fatalism from his own youth, where he escaped the massacre which demolished his entire family when he was a tender 6 months of age. He was rescued and raised by a kindly Uncle who’s advice to avoid the urge for revenge is the moral compass that likely saves Sam later in life. I won’t spoil the plot, it’s a page-turner and a sheer delight. Gautreaux must have had great ancestors, because he always has sage-like uncles, old men, mothers, sisters and family whose past is never far from his mind. Below are some snippets that gave me joy, but you can find them randomly by opening this tale.
(p 55) a mere paragraph, fully loaded, here’s the rare privileged woman from town, wife of the banker: “Willa Stanton White, a forty-year-old daughter of a wealthy lumber family from Gipson County, spent much of her time reading and rereading a leatherbound and gilt collection of Sir Walter Scott novels her husband had bought her and practicing Franz von Suppe transcriptions on the piano. Willa was an only child who had been spoiled beyond all measure and who’d allowed herself to be chosen by a man bent on honoring that tradition. For a small-town woman she owned brave sexual appetites and was an encouraging partner for Acy, though at times he seemed too tired to meet her demands. She had few close friends in town, though she knew many citizens at a hand-waving distance. Favoring expensive clothes designed to seem modest, she was not a stupid woman, but isolated and logic-deprived, raised on illusions and no work whatsoever.”
(p 135) here’s a taste of what “those” backcountry people were like, as warned by the sheriff: “..forty, fifty mile from here’s a bunch by the name of Cloat. They’re worse than worst. He spat next to his boot. My daddy used to tell me they thought ridin’ horseback two hundred miles to kill somebody was like goin’ to the state fair. They just lived to get angy. I hadn’t thought about ‘em in years, but if you wanted to find a murderin’ bunch from around this part of the world, I’d start with them Cloats. “How do people find them?” Smiley gave him a long, baleful look. “People don’t.”
(p 251) Sam tries to talk his young companion from following his bloodlust: “…Sam tried to remember what he’d felt like at fifteen, when he’d already made up his mind to leave his uncle’s farm. Nothing would have changed his mind from the one thing it had focused on. He suspected such single-mindedness was both the best and the worst thing about youth.”
(p 338) the author has a knowledge of history of godforsaken places that amazes me, here Sam is driving deep into the wood: “… he drove across for two miles, dodging manure cakes and listing, bony animals, coming to another gate that led to a levee ramp. On top, he expected to see the Mississippi, but it had meandered off many years before and there was only willow-haunted flatland that seemed to go east for miles. He guessed that this had been a landing a hundred years before, for remnants of a a cypress dock remained, pilings marching out to nowhere, to history. He tried to picture the grand steamers that stopped here fifty years before with their mural-covered paddle boxes and stained-glass clearstories, millionaire planters gesturing from the upper decks toward the worlds they owned, a time that seemed as inconsequential as smoke in light of the nothing that remained. It was only money, he thought, and that never lasts.”
(p 342/343) here’s my favorite part, as Sam is approaching his big decision about whether to pursue his ancient enemies, as he spends the evening with an old-timer who knows a bit about life: “I’d like to ride out and meet some of ‘em.” A little laugh came out of the darkness as Soner reached down for his drink. “I think ‘meet’ is too nice a word, son.” “I figured they’d be a bad bunch.” “The family has fallen off considerably in the past twenty years. When your family experienced their unfortunate meeting they were in their heyday. Usually, a meeting with a Cloat entailed a straight razor across the throat or a .45 slug in the back of one’s cranium. If you were a man. Women dealth with other initial penetrations. The Cloats aren’t your ordinary bad seed murderers. Even on a cold day they stink like whoresex. They violated their animals. If they kill someone in their camp, they’ll feed his carcass to their hogs. But nowadays, well, I hear less and less about them as the years go on. But still there’s not a lawman in a hundred miles who would go in to find them. They came into this part of the world in the 1830s …”
(p 344) later, that evening, into his cups, the old friend recounts unimaginable horrors: “…they were standing in my backyard wearing muddy dusters when I rode up, flies in their beards around their toothless siles. They made my wife and boy watch as they tied me to a pecan tree, arms and legs, me sitting on the ground hugging that trunk. They owned a big stinking dog, a Rottweiler with a diseased face, and they turned him loose on me.” Soner stopped here and cleared his throat. “That devil tore at my neck and ate the flesh off my back until the bones came to the surface, and right before I died they pulled him off me and orde away. I imagine they figured it was better vengeance to leave me alive than to put me out of my suffering. It was my boy who cut me free and helped me crawl into the house. My wife had lost her mind. Absolutely. This is the short version, let me tell you. The very shortest.”
June 4, 2019
Others have said it better than I in reviews. So I'll just give a short reaction. 4.5 stars in story telling ability and 5 stars for the historical and reality onus of running a tour ship on the Mississippi- jazz music and dance included.
It is his masterpiece. The only reason I could not give it 5 stars was that at times I felt (like in real life) it left me hanging for a hook of embedding to the original characters. Yes, Sam was always there but I felt it was far more his story than the long diverted pivotal focus of years on Lily and her progress and transitions. Not a bad thing to be duo positioned. Not at all! But in a strange way it rather began to alienate me from Sam himself. And yet at the same time it brought his own conscience and feelings of ambivalence within all his risky decisions (and some that were nearly reversals) to the max.
And yet too, every character in this novel was deeply drawn and real. Especially Lily's parents who had her stolen from them. August too.
It's certainly a 5 star in the culture and the time period grasp. Maybe 6 stars in that exact focus of the law being so relative to location and the practical situations of sustaining in this river bottom America.
The language itself is sinuous. Not an easy read and took me some time. But superior and totally "fitting".
It is his masterpiece. The only reason I could not give it 5 stars was that at times I felt (like in real life) it left me hanging for a hook of embedding to the original characters. Yes, Sam was always there but I felt it was far more his story than the long diverted pivotal focus of years on Lily and her progress and transitions. Not a bad thing to be duo positioned. Not at all! But in a strange way it rather began to alienate me from Sam himself. And yet at the same time it brought his own conscience and feelings of ambivalence within all his risky decisions (and some that were nearly reversals) to the max.
And yet too, every character in this novel was deeply drawn and real. Especially Lily's parents who had her stolen from them. August too.
It's certainly a 5 star in the culture and the time period grasp. Maybe 6 stars in that exact focus of the law being so relative to location and the practical situations of sustaining in this river bottom America.
The language itself is sinuous. Not an easy read and took me some time. But superior and totally "fitting".
March 26, 2025
The Missing is a blend of historical fiction and literary mystery. The storyline follows Sam Simoneaux, a man haunted by his past. After surviving a massacre that claimed his family when he was an infant, Sam returns from the Great War determined to live a quiet, peaceful life. Working as a floorwalker in a New Orleans department store, his quiet new life is shaken when a three-year-old girl is kidnapped on his watch. Feeling responsible, Sam embarks on a journey up the Mississippi River on a steamboat to find her.
Gautreaux's prose evokes the sights, sounds, and smells of 1920s river life. His colorful description of the steamboat world, with its jazz musicians, con men, and diverse travelers, feels authentic. Sam is a character who is easy to like – his decency and determination make him a compelling protagonist. Themes include redemption, loss, and moral responsibility. It explores vengeance, forgiveness, and what it means to heal from trauma. While the pacing occasionally slows, the emotional payoff is worth it.
Gautreaux's prose evokes the sights, sounds, and smells of 1920s river life. His colorful description of the steamboat world, with its jazz musicians, con men, and diverse travelers, feels authentic. Sam is a character who is easy to like – his decency and determination make him a compelling protagonist. Themes include redemption, loss, and moral responsibility. It explores vengeance, forgiveness, and what it means to heal from trauma. While the pacing occasionally slows, the emotional payoff is worth it.
July 5, 2019
Like the river it takes place on, Tim Gautreaux's second novel meanders relentlessly to its preordained destination. It is alternately as light and entertaining as the Mississippi riverboat that is its setting and as dark and threatening as the search for a kidnapped child that drives the story onward. This story gets my highest recommendation.
February 14, 2024
I was lucky enough to purchase a beautiful first edition from a remainder shop at a very low price a few years ago. If I had known how brilliant this novel was, I would have been honored to fork out for the full price!
A mesmerizing read and one of the most stimulating I've read in the last ten years. Not only a fascinating and superbly constructed story that captures period and place so expertly but written with total mastery of the English language.
A joy to read for the exciting scope of adventure combined with the verbal luxuriance of a unique storyteller.
Now a lifelong Tim Gautreaux fan, I'm savoring all his pre and post "The Missing" novels and short stories.
A mesmerizing read and one of the most stimulating I've read in the last ten years. Not only a fascinating and superbly constructed story that captures period and place so expertly but written with total mastery of the English language.
A joy to read for the exciting scope of adventure combined with the verbal luxuriance of a unique storyteller.
Now a lifelong Tim Gautreaux fan, I'm savoring all his pre and post "The Missing" novels and short stories.
June 18, 2019
Protagonist crush ✔️
Author crush ✔️
Plot junkie fix ✔️
Yup, 5 easy stars.
Great pick Diane B!
Author crush ✔️
Plot junkie fix ✔️
Yup, 5 easy stars.
Great pick Diane B!
February 7, 2010
True Confessions: I am only halfway through this book but I am totally smitten. This Gautreaux chap writes with such strength and beauty -- well, words cannot convey the wonder of this book unless they are the words of The Missing itself. The plot centers around a kidnapped child whose parents work on a Riverboat as entertainers. Their daughter Lily was abducted in a New Orleans department store where Sam Simoneaux was a floor walker. He almost foils the villains in the act but is knocked unconscious. He is full of anguish and also jobless due to the rancor of his employer, he takes a job as a mate on the riverboat, The Ambassador and begins to trace how this crime took place. Meanwhile the scene shifts to Lily's new home and then to the depths of a Louisiana swamp, back onto the river while colorful characters fade in and out of the scenery.
I don't know the ending so cannot spoil it and don't want to waste more adjectives in praising this novel: I just want to get back on the sofa and read it.
I don't know the ending so cannot spoil it and don't want to waste more adjectives in praising this novel: I just want to get back on the sofa and read it.
April 18, 2012
I found this in my Grandpa's apartment after he passed away. It had a bookmark in it about a third of the way through. I don't think he ever finished it. I had taken several books out of his apartment and really, really needed to love at least one of them. The first one I started was terrible so I had to step back from this idea for a while. Then I picked up this book, and it was just fabulous. FABULOUS. I couldn't put it down.
The book is very much about family and the connections between family members--the family you are born into, the family you choose, the family that gets chosen for you by circumstances. I can't imagine that there was a better book than this to find in my Grandpa's collection. I can't wait to read more by Tim Gautreaux and I am grateful to my Grandpa for introducing one more author to me, nearly four months after he passed away.
The book is very much about family and the connections between family members--the family you are born into, the family you choose, the family that gets chosen for you by circumstances. I can't imagine that there was a better book than this to find in my Grandpa's collection. I can't wait to read more by Tim Gautreaux and I am grateful to my Grandpa for introducing one more author to me, nearly four months after he passed away.
August 2, 2016
Tim Gautreaux is an excellent author. The Clearing may still be his best novel, but this one is also very good. What is so noticeable is how the story prevails, nothing gets in the way of the plot. I sometimes enjoy author's theatrics in other novels, but Gautreaux's ability to stay in the background is the mark of a truly great novelist. Good story, great author!
May 30, 2024
"Desaparecidos" de Tim Gautreaux es un libro que engancha desde el principio. Ambientado en los evocadores escenarios de Nueva Orleans y el río Mississippi, la novela sigue a Sam Simoneaux, un hombre atormentado por la culpa, las heridas de la guerra y los fantasmas de su violento pasado. La historia se desarrolla con Sam involucrado en la desaparición de una niña, llevándolo a un mundo de violencia en plena Ley Seca.
La trama es rica en detalles y emociones, explorando temas de clase social y los dilemas morales de su protagonista. También hay un pequeño apunte sobre el racismo.
Gautreaux captura la atmósfera del gótico sureño con una prosa evocadora que sumerge al lector en la época y los lugares descritos, ese Nueva Orleans de los años 20 donde los sheriff y policías preferían mantenerse al margen en demasiadas ocasiones antes que enfrentarse a determinadas situaciones.
Aunque pueda parecer lo contrario por la sinopsis, "Desaparecidos" no es solo un misterio por resolver, sino un profundo drama humano que revela las imperfecciones de su protagonista, haciéndolo más real y accesible.
Una novela recomendada para quienes buscan historias que atrapan desde la primera página. Sí es verdad, como he leído en otra reseña, que a mitad del libro el ritmo decae un poco, pero la resolución es preciosa.
La trama es rica en detalles y emociones, explorando temas de clase social y los dilemas morales de su protagonista. También hay un pequeño apunte sobre el racismo.
Gautreaux captura la atmósfera del gótico sureño con una prosa evocadora que sumerge al lector en la época y los lugares descritos, ese Nueva Orleans de los años 20 donde los sheriff y policías preferían mantenerse al margen en demasiadas ocasiones antes que enfrentarse a determinadas situaciones.
Aunque pueda parecer lo contrario por la sinopsis, "Desaparecidos" no es solo un misterio por resolver, sino un profundo drama humano que revela las imperfecciones de su protagonista, haciéndolo más real y accesible.
Una novela recomendada para quienes buscan historias que atrapan desde la primera página. Sí es verdad, como he leído en otra reseña, que a mitad del libro el ritmo decae un poco, pero la resolución es preciosa.
May 22, 2009
3 1/2 stars. It falls shy of higher because of some pacing and structure hiccups. It was as if Gautreaux couldn't decide between writing a taut thriller or ponderous literary fiction. I would have pushed him toward the former and redlined some of the expository steamboat section that dragged down the narrative. In addition, some of his characters' actions and key plot points didn't ring true to me, starting with Sam's firing as the floorwalker after Lily was kidnapped. And it seems that no matter how broke Sam is, how pregnant his wife or dim his employment prospects, he manages to find the cash and the time to pursue Lily and her kidnappers.
YET- and it's a big yet, Gautreaux is a master of time, place and character. The heat of the Louisiana swamps is a sticky, heavy weight on your skin, the stench of sweat, shit, vomit, and swill after a wild night on the steamboat crawls up your nose, the shell-shocked orphan standing alone in a destroyed French village haunts your dreams. A wonderfully original story and a page-turner despite the hiccups.
YET- and it's a big yet, Gautreaux is a master of time, place and character. The heat of the Louisiana swamps is a sticky, heavy weight on your skin, the stench of sweat, shit, vomit, and swill after a wild night on the steamboat crawls up your nose, the shell-shocked orphan standing alone in a destroyed French village haunts your dreams. A wonderfully original story and a page-turner despite the hiccups.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 5, 2009
REVIEW OF TIM GAUTREAUX NOVEL, THE MISSING
Several weeks ago, I went blog surfing and ended up on a marvelous site called "Dew on the Kudzu" where the blogmaster was celebrating the discovery of a wonderful novel entitled "The Missing" by Tim Gautreaux. I read one paragraph of the review and knew I wanted to read this novel and immediately ordered it for my Kindle. Well, kind hearts, you must read this book! I not only read it....I reread it! Please read it and come back to this blog and talk about it!
THE MISSING by Tim Gautreaux
New York: Knopf Double Publishing Group
$25.95 – 384 pages – 2009
“The finest American novel in a long, long time.”
-Annie Proulx
This is a novel that seems to vibrate in your hands. It is filled with sounds, smells and the bittersweet beauty of a vanquished time - the Mississippi on a moonlit night as the Ambassador, an aging four-decker steamboat, churns slowly downstream occasionally shattering the night with its strident whistle.The heart of the ship contains a vast Texas dance floor where over one thousand dancers can alternately sway and swing to blues and jazz. It is the golden age of riverboats (circa 1920’s), a time when crowds stood expectantly on the docks of a hundred towns along the Mississippi, waiting for a grand old steamer that would sweep them from their dull lives into a night filled with music and laughter. But, I’m getting ahead of the story. First, we must bring our hero home from the threats of a deserted (but heavily mined) battlefield in France and a fateful meeting with a frightened child whose face haunts his dreams.
Gautreaux's protagonist, "Lucky" Sam Simonaux, returned from WWI to his wife and his personal dream job - the floorwalker in Krines, a gigantic New Orleans department store; a place where he has learned to moves with grace and efficiency through each of the four floors, watching for shoplifters, drunks and trouble. He does his job well; life is good and the future is bright until… the day a three-year-old child, Lily Weller, is kidnapped from Krines. Despite the fact that Sam is injured in his attempt to stop the kidnappers, he is held responsible by his employer and is fired. In truth, Sam
broods about his failure to save Lily, and decides to launch his own search – a decision that leads him to leave his wife in New Orleans and seek employment on the Ambassador where the child’s parents, Ted and Elsie Weller, are employed as musicians. Sam’s logic is that Lily was stolen by someone who saw her performing with her parents (the three-year-old has been taught to dance and sing) on the old steamboat at one of the river towns. That turns out to be a vast area that runs from Louisiana to Ohio.
For almost six months, Sam fails to find a trace of Lily; however, in the meantime, he becomes an accomplished pianist and learns to love the Ambassador’s special blend of funky jazz and blues. Then, abruptly, a series of random events (including an observant ticket clerk) leads Sam to Lily’s abductors – a wealthy, childless couple, Willa and Acy White who had employed a degenerate family of outlaws, the Skadlocks, to steal Lily. In the months following the kidnapping, the Whites have attempted to create another identity for the child.They shower Lily with presents, rename her “Madeline” and strive to convince her that her parents are dead. As the months pass, Lily’s memory of her parents begins to fade, and she begins to change, acquiring the opinions and prejudices of her “new parents.”
Eventually, Sam Simonaux finds himself forced to make a decision that has tragic results.Ted, Lily’s father becomes impatient with Sam’s cautious investigation of the Skadlocks and ventures into the wilderness where the outlaws live. It is a trip that costs him his life. Eventually, Sam finds his way to the home of Lily’s abductors. However, upon secretly witnessing their wealth, he begins to feel that Lily has advantages and a future that her natural parents could never provide. Instead of confronting her abductors and reclaiming the child, Sam decides to returns to the Ambassador and tells the grieving mother that his lead to Lily had turned out to be a wild goose chase. It is only after Sam’s return to New Orleans that he confesses the truth to his wife; she forces him to tell Lily’s mother the truth. Both Elsie and her son, August, are outraged and demand that Sam help them get Lily back.
Finally, Sam, now repentant of his mistake, takes Lily’s brother, August, and makes a desperate journey to confront the Whites. Ironically, in the meanwhile, the Skadlocks have stolen Lily again, confident that the Whites cannot report the second kidnapping without revealing their part in the initial abduction. Their intention is to sell Lily to the Whites again! In the ensuing events, Sam finally rescues Lily and returns her to her mother, but it is a belated reunion. Within a few months, Elsie Weller will die in an influenza epidemic. It also becomes evident that the lapse of time (almost a year) has done Lily considerable harm.
At this point, The Missing undergoes an astonishing change. Tim Gautreaux does not bring his novel to a conclusion, but adds a second plot that expands and enriches the original. Throughout the search for Lily Weller, Sam Simonaux has frequently behaved in a perplexing manner. His ambiguous attitude toward parent/child relationships acquires significance when Sam reveals a secret and undertakes yet another journey.
When Sam Simonaux was six months old, his entire family was murdered by a savage band of outlaws. Sam escaped only because his father threw him into an old stove just before a virtual hurricane of bullets destroyed the house and killed his parents and his brothers and sister. His Uncle Claude found Sam in the stove the following day and raised him. For all of his life, “Lucky Sam” had felt a strange detachment about his family’s fate. However, with the death of Lily’s parents, he feels an impulse to confront his own tragedy. Now, he returns to talk to his Uncle Claude and learn the truth about his family’s massacre; he will then go to confront the murderers, the Cloats: a family so bestial, their crimes are legendary.
Although the journey to reclaim Lily, (who has much in common with the face that has always haunted Lucky Sam’s dreams), is tense and suspenseful, Sam’s final journey is riveting. It is not only a journey for justice – it is also an odyssey of self-discovery. When this last confrontation is over, Sam will return to claim the only object his father left him – a violin. He will also claim his adopted daughter, Lily, and he will devote the rest of his life striving to restore the gift of music that he knows is within her.
Several weeks ago, I went blog surfing and ended up on a marvelous site called "Dew on the Kudzu" where the blogmaster was celebrating the discovery of a wonderful novel entitled "The Missing" by Tim Gautreaux. I read one paragraph of the review and knew I wanted to read this novel and immediately ordered it for my Kindle. Well, kind hearts, you must read this book! I not only read it....I reread it! Please read it and come back to this blog and talk about it!
THE MISSING by Tim Gautreaux
New York: Knopf Double Publishing Group
$25.95 – 384 pages – 2009
“The finest American novel in a long, long time.”
-Annie Proulx
This is a novel that seems to vibrate in your hands. It is filled with sounds, smells and the bittersweet beauty of a vanquished time - the Mississippi on a moonlit night as the Ambassador, an aging four-decker steamboat, churns slowly downstream occasionally shattering the night with its strident whistle.The heart of the ship contains a vast Texas dance floor where over one thousand dancers can alternately sway and swing to blues and jazz. It is the golden age of riverboats (circa 1920’s), a time when crowds stood expectantly on the docks of a hundred towns along the Mississippi, waiting for a grand old steamer that would sweep them from their dull lives into a night filled with music and laughter. But, I’m getting ahead of the story. First, we must bring our hero home from the threats of a deserted (but heavily mined) battlefield in France and a fateful meeting with a frightened child whose face haunts his dreams.
Gautreaux's protagonist, "Lucky" Sam Simonaux, returned from WWI to his wife and his personal dream job - the floorwalker in Krines, a gigantic New Orleans department store; a place where he has learned to moves with grace and efficiency through each of the four floors, watching for shoplifters, drunks and trouble. He does his job well; life is good and the future is bright until… the day a three-year-old child, Lily Weller, is kidnapped from Krines. Despite the fact that Sam is injured in his attempt to stop the kidnappers, he is held responsible by his employer and is fired. In truth, Sam
broods about his failure to save Lily, and decides to launch his own search – a decision that leads him to leave his wife in New Orleans and seek employment on the Ambassador where the child’s parents, Ted and Elsie Weller, are employed as musicians. Sam’s logic is that Lily was stolen by someone who saw her performing with her parents (the three-year-old has been taught to dance and sing) on the old steamboat at one of the river towns. That turns out to be a vast area that runs from Louisiana to Ohio.
For almost six months, Sam fails to find a trace of Lily; however, in the meantime, he becomes an accomplished pianist and learns to love the Ambassador’s special blend of funky jazz and blues. Then, abruptly, a series of random events (including an observant ticket clerk) leads Sam to Lily’s abductors – a wealthy, childless couple, Willa and Acy White who had employed a degenerate family of outlaws, the Skadlocks, to steal Lily. In the months following the kidnapping, the Whites have attempted to create another identity for the child.They shower Lily with presents, rename her “Madeline” and strive to convince her that her parents are dead. As the months pass, Lily’s memory of her parents begins to fade, and she begins to change, acquiring the opinions and prejudices of her “new parents.”
Eventually, Sam Simonaux finds himself forced to make a decision that has tragic results.Ted, Lily’s father becomes impatient with Sam’s cautious investigation of the Skadlocks and ventures into the wilderness where the outlaws live. It is a trip that costs him his life. Eventually, Sam finds his way to the home of Lily’s abductors. However, upon secretly witnessing their wealth, he begins to feel that Lily has advantages and a future that her natural parents could never provide. Instead of confronting her abductors and reclaiming the child, Sam decides to returns to the Ambassador and tells the grieving mother that his lead to Lily had turned out to be a wild goose chase. It is only after Sam’s return to New Orleans that he confesses the truth to his wife; she forces him to tell Lily’s mother the truth. Both Elsie and her son, August, are outraged and demand that Sam help them get Lily back.
Finally, Sam, now repentant of his mistake, takes Lily’s brother, August, and makes a desperate journey to confront the Whites. Ironically, in the meanwhile, the Skadlocks have stolen Lily again, confident that the Whites cannot report the second kidnapping without revealing their part in the initial abduction. Their intention is to sell Lily to the Whites again! In the ensuing events, Sam finally rescues Lily and returns her to her mother, but it is a belated reunion. Within a few months, Elsie Weller will die in an influenza epidemic. It also becomes evident that the lapse of time (almost a year) has done Lily considerable harm.
At this point, The Missing undergoes an astonishing change. Tim Gautreaux does not bring his novel to a conclusion, but adds a second plot that expands and enriches the original. Throughout the search for Lily Weller, Sam Simonaux has frequently behaved in a perplexing manner. His ambiguous attitude toward parent/child relationships acquires significance when Sam reveals a secret and undertakes yet another journey.
When Sam Simonaux was six months old, his entire family was murdered by a savage band of outlaws. Sam escaped only because his father threw him into an old stove just before a virtual hurricane of bullets destroyed the house and killed his parents and his brothers and sister. His Uncle Claude found Sam in the stove the following day and raised him. For all of his life, “Lucky Sam” had felt a strange detachment about his family’s fate. However, with the death of Lily’s parents, he feels an impulse to confront his own tragedy. Now, he returns to talk to his Uncle Claude and learn the truth about his family’s massacre; he will then go to confront the murderers, the Cloats: a family so bestial, their crimes are legendary.
Although the journey to reclaim Lily, (who has much in common with the face that has always haunted Lucky Sam’s dreams), is tense and suspenseful, Sam’s final journey is riveting. It is not only a journey for justice – it is also an odyssey of self-discovery. When this last confrontation is over, Sam will return to claim the only object his father left him – a violin. He will also claim his adopted daughter, Lily, and he will devote the rest of his life striving to restore the gift of music that he knows is within her.
June 19, 2020
Setting: Louisiana, USA; 1920s:
Having previously enjoyed 'The Clearing' by this author, this was another great read.
Sam Simoneaux is a floorwalker in a New Orleans department store when a 3-year-old girl is kidnapped from the store on his watch - losing his job and feeling quite a degree of responsibility for the parents' loss, Sam leaves home to hunt for the missing girl. The parents are entertainers on Mississippi paddle-steamers and their daughter was a talented and precocious singer as part of their act. Suspecting that the girl had been targeted for her talent, Sam, a pianist himself, joins the parents on their steamer to make enquiries at the various towns they stop at along the river. During his time on the boat, Sam has plenty of opportunity for reflection on his past, from his experiences in France at the end of World War One to his family history - he being the only survivor as a baby of a revenge killing perpetrated on his family. Sam becomes attached to the girl's family and their teenage son, who is also a talented musician, but after a sequence of tragedies makes a decision that he will come to regret.....
Yet again, the author's writing is wonderfully lyrical and the descriptions of a past world, and one that I had never even heard of before (i.e. the regular sailings of paddle-steamers up and down the Deep South river networks, taking people on short dance cruises on the river), were absolutely engrossing. I would totally recommend this book (and 'The Clearing') to anyone wanting to read something that bit different about The Deep South and the era. The author has written one other novel and a collection of short stories which I would love to get hold of on the basis of what I have already read by him but sadly our library has nothing of his in their catalogue - more fool them! - 9/10.
Having previously enjoyed 'The Clearing' by this author, this was another great read.
Sam Simoneaux is a floorwalker in a New Orleans department store when a 3-year-old girl is kidnapped from the store on his watch - losing his job and feeling quite a degree of responsibility for the parents' loss, Sam leaves home to hunt for the missing girl. The parents are entertainers on Mississippi paddle-steamers and their daughter was a talented and precocious singer as part of their act. Suspecting that the girl had been targeted for her talent, Sam, a pianist himself, joins the parents on their steamer to make enquiries at the various towns they stop at along the river. During his time on the boat, Sam has plenty of opportunity for reflection on his past, from his experiences in France at the end of World War One to his family history - he being the only survivor as a baby of a revenge killing perpetrated on his family. Sam becomes attached to the girl's family and their teenage son, who is also a talented musician, but after a sequence of tragedies makes a decision that he will come to regret.....
Yet again, the author's writing is wonderfully lyrical and the descriptions of a past world, and one that I had never even heard of before (i.e. the regular sailings of paddle-steamers up and down the Deep South river networks, taking people on short dance cruises on the river), were absolutely engrossing. I would totally recommend this book (and 'The Clearing') to anyone wanting to read something that bit different about The Deep South and the era. The author has written one other novel and a collection of short stories which I would love to get hold of on the basis of what I have already read by him but sadly our library has nothing of his in their catalogue - more fool them! - 9/10.
December 16, 2021
Sam "Lucky" Simoneaux has only been recently been released from the U.S. Army after returning from WWI. His life epitomizes his nickname since the war ended the moment he debarked from the transport ship into France. Upon his return to the United States, he marries and is employed for two years as a floorwalker with a New Orleans department store. However, while on duty one day, a 3-year-old is abducted within the store from her family. Accused by the owner of not following protocol in securing the store, Sam is fired but is promised re-employment if he finds the girl. Determined to find the girl, he obtains employment on a riverboat, which provides excursions with gambling, music and dance up the Mississippi River. Sam hopes that this venue might enable him to better search for the girl and return her to her grieving parents.
Although this novel is essentially about Sam's life on a riverboat while searching for the girl, it also provides an opportunity for Sam to reconcile the fact that he was orphaned as a baby when his entire family was murdered by a mountain clan. Should he seek revenge or let the event go?
The two threads were seamlessly intertwined without problem. The author clearly portrays life on the river with the fellow employees on the riverboat, characters that Sam meets, and the towns visited. The story captured my attention as I accompanied Sam up and down the river as the paddle wheel beating the water.
After I read this book a second time, I continue to consider to marvel at the epic-like read of this book even if it is only 375 pages long. I believe that this book will be considered a classic one day.
Although this novel is essentially about Sam's life on a riverboat while searching for the girl, it also provides an opportunity for Sam to reconcile the fact that he was orphaned as a baby when his entire family was murdered by a mountain clan. Should he seek revenge or let the event go?
The two threads were seamlessly intertwined without problem. The author clearly portrays life on the river with the fellow employees on the riverboat, characters that Sam meets, and the towns visited. The story captured my attention as I accompanied Sam up and down the river as the paddle wheel beating the water.
After I read this book a second time, I continue to consider to marvel at the epic-like read of this book even if it is only 375 pages long. I believe that this book will be considered a classic one day.
September 12, 2013
This is a great book. I ran into a copy by accident and was astonished I hadn't heard of it before. "The Missing" is a big, sprawling, capital S-Southern novel with more Faulknerian tropes than you could shake a stick at (outlaws in ruined plantations houses, family honor and vengeance, a secondary character named Hightower). But this all works without feeling weighted down by cliche. Maybe because at its root, this is a novel with a mystery (well, two really) at is core. You find yourself pushed along by a page-turning plot through a early 19th century atlas of evocative locations both real (New Orleans of the 1920s, Post WWI France, Greenville, MS, Eastern Kentucky) and richly imagined hamlets along the route of a Dance Hall steamboat (upon and around which much of the novel's action takes place).
Gautreaux is a writer's writer. Sections of this novel are so lushly written that you can find yourself dawdling over details and even as the story gallops on to the end*.
Really great stuff. And HBO, this would make a superb mini-series
*Minor complaint-- things wrap up a little too neatly for my tastes. To say more would likely constitute a spoiler. This may not bother you at all.
Gautreaux is a writer's writer. Sections of this novel are so lushly written that you can find yourself dawdling over details and even as the story gallops on to the end*.
Really great stuff. And HBO, this would make a superb mini-series
*Minor complaint-- things wrap up a little too neatly for my tastes. To say more would likely constitute a spoiler. This may not bother you at all.
November 20, 2015
Revenge, justice and family. These are the key words that describe this powerful and wonderful book. It is a historical novel in the sense that it takes me to a place with which I have little connection. Having grown up in the northwest and living “out west”, I sometimes find it difficult to identify with and understand the south. I did spend several months during the mid-1960s in the south at a time of strife and violence and often felt like a “stranger in a strange land”. Tim Gautreaux describes the 1920s vividly when horses, trains and the riverboat were still the main means of transportation, the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic was still having a major impact on families and of course, the department store with floorwalkers and exceptional service. I have read a number of books that could be classified as southern. Most have been exceptional, and The Missing is one of the best.
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