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The Return
"The pioneer of a new post-Beatnik generation.” New York Herald Tribune
"Lee Olds is a thinking person’s writer. Here is a writer to watch." San Francisco Examiner
"The Return is a stunning and surprising novel, with great characters and a strong narrative drive." Ann Abrams
Sascha and her young daughter are on a ‘hippy’ road trip in their old VW camper van, before their return to Santa Barbara for a reconciliation with her violent and abusive artist husband, the girl’s father, following a separation. In a camp site off the beaten track they serendipitously meet Roberts, a charming hulk of a man who takes them under his wing and wins their confidence, despite his own troubled past. After spending some enchanting days in Roberts’ company exploring the idyllic wilds of California, the ever-anticipated and seemingly ever-forestalled return eventually comes to pass – yet only after the two women develop, in their own way, a strong bond with the stranger. But once in Santa Barbara will Sascha’s husband have changed his drunken, abusive ways and control his jealousy, and will the mother ever escape his wrath and find the complicated kind of freedom she discovered in the redwoods with Roberts?
"Lee Olds is a thinking person’s writer. Here is a writer to watch." San Francisco Examiner
"The Return is a stunning and surprising novel, with great characters and a strong narrative drive." Ann Abrams
Sascha and her young daughter are on a ‘hippy’ road trip in their old VW camper van, before their return to Santa Barbara for a reconciliation with her violent and abusive artist husband, the girl’s father, following a separation. In a camp site off the beaten track they serendipitously meet Roberts, a charming hulk of a man who takes them under his wing and wins their confidence, despite his own troubled past. After spending some enchanting days in Roberts’ company exploring the idyllic wilds of California, the ever-anticipated and seemingly ever-forestalled return eventually comes to pass – yet only after the two women develop, in their own way, a strong bond with the stranger. But once in Santa Barbara will Sascha’s husband have changed his drunken, abusive ways and control his jealousy, and will the mother ever escape his wrath and find the complicated kind of freedom she discovered in the redwoods with Roberts?
166 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 2013
26 people want to read
About the author
Lee Olds
13 books10 followersM.A, philosophy. Sports active, tennis, hiking, developing final world philosophy. Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin. Survival, risk. Writing fiction as life, regulated by what we call chance. Disseminating a life approach.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 13, 2014
I think what Olds does is pay witness to the marginal, even though as I write that it sounds kind of hollow. I mean he attends to those moments of estrangement that are felt when we truly encounter ourselves and try to act in a good and right manner on the basis of what we see. I think in this novel we see the tender side of Olds. But this is a writer who takes no prisoners, he demands that we pay witness to this world; ultimately I want to know why.
September 27, 2013
Lee Olds is a wordsmith second to none. This novel is perfectly crafted. Gripping and insightful, coarse and tender this is a novel that will stand the test of time. A true classic.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews