Good Friday

by Tony Wolk

Joan Matcham has just discovered that she's pregnant by a man who died ninety years Abraham Lincoln. His brief sojourn to the Illinois of 1955 ended, he is returned to his own time and place, leaving Joan to deal with the consequences of their night together. Even as friendship, impending motherhood, and a new love revive Joan, she is haunted by recurring visions of the last week of Lincoln's life. Good Friday , the sequel to Abraham A Novel Life , is the second of Wolk's novels published by Ooligan Press, the teaching press at Portland State University. A remarkable work, Good Friday is sure to leave readers eagerly anticipating the final installment of Wolk's Lincoln trilogy.

270 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2007

Reviews

[Lisa Hein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good Friday is the second of Tony Wolk’s Out of Time series, which tells the alternate history of a time-traveling Abraham Lincoln and the people affected by his journey through time. The book picks up right after the end of the previous novel, Abraham Lincoln, a Novel Life, but is this time told mostly from the perspective of Joan Matcham, Abraham Lincoln’s lover that he met in the previous book while visiting Evanston, Illinois, in the 1950s. Joan has not only discovered that she is now pregnant with Lincoln’s child but is also dealing with unprompted time slips into a most distressing time of Lincoln’s life—the days leading up to his assassination by John Wilkes Booth. I read this title through its newly released ebook version, and it was quick, entertaining read. My biggest hang-up with Good Friday is how readily everyone around Joan believed her story, and I also would have preferred a bit more investigation into the mechanics of the time slips between Joan and Lincoln. As a whole, however, the novel does a good job of building the tension up to its climactic moment, that fateful night at Ford’s Theatre.

[Pj Zettle · Rating 5 out of 5]

At once a mesmerizing tale of fantasy, mystery, and alternate history, Good Friday is a fun read that keeps you interested in a number of ways. The story proposes an alternate history where Abraham Lincoln, essentially, is a time traveler, and he has impregnated a woman living 100 years after his own "death." This, however, is only scratching the surface of what this story has to offer. Through dialogue that contemplates literary history (Shakespeare, Russian Lit, Cather), archival work, and our relationships with traditions of the past, Good Friday is a compact meditation on a multitude of philosophical ideas. Alternate history always runs the risk of being campy or absurd; whereas in this novel, the alternative history components merely provide the engine for a deeper philosophical investigation. This is aided in large part by Wolk's tight prose and minimal backdrop for the novel, in that we always stay grounded by our main characters. I highly recommend this book to not only those who are interested in American history or alternative history or Lincoln, specifically, but anyone who simply is looking for a good read.

[KR · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this to be a fun and fluffy read. I thought the idea of Lincoln time traveling was interesting, but I couldn't buy into the romance part of the story. Maybe it's just my perception of what Lincoln was like, but I have a hard time imagining that he would be the type of guy to have a one night fling with a woman and fall in love with her. It just doesn't really sound like something Honest Abe would do.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I did extremely early editing on this book, I haven't read the final version yet!