Getting Right

by Gary D. Wilson

Suppose your more than mildly irritating leech of a sister calls you, as she usually does wanting money, only this time she says instead that she has cancer and in the course of the conversation challenges you to write the story of her life. You say, sure, you'll do that but you'll tell it the way you see it. The tale that emerges involves not only the dying sister, Connie, but brother Len as well. And it's also about "me," the sibling invited to narrate their shared story and whose interplay of memory and imagination raises the question of whether "the truth" of Connie's life - or of anyone's for that matter - can ever be known.

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 29, 2016

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Getting Right reads like a memoir until about two-thirds of the way through the novel. That's when you realize it should be creative non-fiction because you believed you've been getting a scintillating peek into the narrator's life while he deals with his no-good sister who is hilarious in a thank-god-I'm-not-related-to-her way and an older brother who is still the narrator's older brother no matter who's taking care of whom.

The narration separates "Getting Right" from other high-quality novels. Reading the tale feels like the narrator's just talking to you. Wilson obliterates the fourth wall as he lays out his sentences throughout the entire story as if the narrator is figuratively throwing up his hands while looking the reader in the eye.
*"Would you look at the bullshit I'm putting up with? I moved away from Crater, Kansas. I - 'What? Sure. I'll pay for it. Just tell me what it costs' - did something with my life and now I have to take care of these two who care less about me than they do about themselves - 'Huh? What happened to the money I gave you? It's gone!? Gone like you don't have it anymore gone. No, you don't have to spell it out for me. I understand.' For the love of ..."
*nowhere near actual dialogue*

Somehow, and I don't know how the narrator manages to do this - he's real at this point. We're fb friends - he engages his sense of humor throughout. Dry humor, to be sure, but after you've experienced all the quiet maelstrom contained within the pages of "Getting Right," you'll know these characters as if they were your family and you don't look forward to the holidays.

At the end, after you've read the last word on the final page - I believe it's "road" - ponder how well you understand the narrator's situation as if you grew up in the same funhouse.

[Len Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a universal story. Why? Because all of us are going to die someday. And many of us are going to experience the loss of a sibling. Our siblings are special. The ties that bind us are different, more complicated than those of our friends. There is a layer of obligation and history that can’t be avoided or ignored.

Gary Wilson in his novel “Getting Right” tells the story of three siblings, younger sister Connie, dying of lung cancer, older brother Len incapacitated by a stroke after decades of hard living and the narrator – the one who “escaped to Chicago” from the small Kansas town where they all grew up.

These are extraordinarily well-drawn characterizations of ordinary people. I don’t like that term, but it is true in the sense that none of these folks make the obit page except perhaps in Crater, Kansas. This is a novel that explores and conveys without flinching the scenes that play out every day in oncology wards and nursing homes and hospices.

There are no heroes or villains in this story. This unvarnished story never lags. It balances the unavoidable sadness and regret with an abundance of affection and humor. Highly recommended – for all ages.

[Frodo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable reading. The characters are clearly developed and made real the dynamics within a dysfunctional family during the process of death in the family. I don't know if this was biographical or autobiographical, but I would guess it may have some of those elements. The whole ordeal of making sense of family within the context of dying and relationships that have been stressed or poorly developed.

[Chelsea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved everything about GETTING RIGHT. It's about family dynamics in the most raw, real sense, and it pulled me in immediately. If you want a compelling read you won't forget in a hurry, you've found it. Can't wait for Gary's next book!

[Jenna Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! Such a great story.

[Angelle Barbazon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Complex, yet totally relatable, family dynamics take center stage in Getting Right by Gary D. Wilson. This is a great read, and I can't wait to see what this authors comes out with next!

[Rajiv Moté · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the privilege of taking Gary Wilson's fiction writing class at the University of Chicago, and it was a pleasure to read how he deploys the tools he teaches.

Getting Right is about three siblings, one of whom is writing this first-person reflective account of their lives, and two of their deaths to cancer. The frame of hospital visits, tough conversations, exacting medical detail, and family tension is a launching pad for some wry and dry observational humor and probings into the absurdity of life and family dynamics. And surrounding all of that is an exploration of our responsibilities when we have control of the narrative of a person's life-in-retrospect.

The style is of a raconteur in full control of a seemingly meandering plunge into the lives of his family. There are some incredible paragraph-long sentences that beg to be read aloud, and some scenes so vividly rendered, they'll attach to the reader's own experiences with nearly invisible seams. It's a book that rewards the kind of careful reading he taught us in class.