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Lonesome Lies Before Us
Yadin Park is a talented alt-country musician whose career has floundered—doomed first by his homely looks and lack of stage presence and then by a progressive hearing disorder. His girlfriend, Jeanette Matsuda, might have been a professional photographer but for a devastating heartbreak in her teens. Now Yadin works for Jeanette’s father’s carpet-laying company in California while Jeanette cleans rooms at a local resort.
When Yadin’s former lover and musical partner, the celebrated Mallory Wicks, comes back into his life, all their most private hopes and desires are exposed, their secret fantasies about love and success put to the test.
Drawn to the music of indie singer-songwriters like Will Johnson, who helped shape the lyrics in this book, Don Lee has written a novel that unforgettably captures America’s deepest yearnings. Beautifully sad and laced with dark humor, Lonesome Lies Before Us is a profound, heartfelt romance, a soulful and memorable song.
When Yadin’s former lover and musical partner, the celebrated Mallory Wicks, comes back into his life, all their most private hopes and desires are exposed, their secret fantasies about love and success put to the test.
Drawn to the music of indie singer-songwriters like Will Johnson, who helped shape the lyrics in this book, Don Lee has written a novel that unforgettably captures America’s deepest yearnings. Beautifully sad and laced with dark humor, Lonesome Lies Before Us is a profound, heartfelt romance, a soulful and memorable song.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published June 6, 2017
8 people are currently reading
739 people want to read
About the author
Don Lee
17 books83 followersDon Lee is the author most recently of the novel Lonesome Lies Before Us. He is also the author of the novel The Collective, which won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature from the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association; the novel Wrack and Ruin, which was a finalist for the Thurber Prize; the novel Country of Origin, which won an American Book Award, the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, and a Mixed Media Watch Image Award for Outstanding Fiction; and the story collection Yellow, which won the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Members Choice Award from the Asian American Writers' Workshop. All of his books have been published by W. W. Norton.
He has received an O. Henry Award and a Pushcart Prize, and his stories have been published in The Southern Review, The Kenyon Review, GQ, The North American Review, The Gettysburg Review, Manoa, American Short Fiction, Glimmer Train, Charlie Chan Is Dead 2, Screaming Monkeys, Narrative, and elsewhere. He has received fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the St. Botolph Club Foundation, and residencies from Yaddo and the Lannan Foundation. In 2007, he received the inaugural Fred R. Brown Literary Award for emerging novelists from the University of Pittsburgh's creative writing program.
From 1988 to 2007, he was the principal editor of the literary journal Ploughshares. He is currently a professor in Temple University's M.F.A. program in creative writing in Philadelphia. He is a third-generation Korean American.
He has received an O. Henry Award and a Pushcart Prize, and his stories have been published in The Southern Review, The Kenyon Review, GQ, The North American Review, The Gettysburg Review, Manoa, American Short Fiction, Glimmer Train, Charlie Chan Is Dead 2, Screaming Monkeys, Narrative, and elsewhere. He has received fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the St. Botolph Club Foundation, and residencies from Yaddo and the Lannan Foundation. In 2007, he received the inaugural Fred R. Brown Literary Award for emerging novelists from the University of Pittsburgh's creative writing program.
From 1988 to 2007, he was the principal editor of the literary journal Ploughshares. He is currently a professor in Temple University's M.F.A. program in creative writing in Philadelphia. He is a third-generation Korean American.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
May 31, 2017
Don Lee’s novels have always resonated with me and towards the end of his latest, I began to understand why. Lee is resolutely plebeian in his writing: he gives his characters, no matter how wealthy or learned, no place to hide from our judgments of them. The business of living is messy, he seems to say, though some might look like they have an easier time of it, it ain’t necessarily so.
Lee also isn’t snooty about genre: there is a touch of romance hidden within the complexities of the married lives he delivers in Lonesome. People aren’t settled, despite their legal status. The intensely personal and minutely calibrated nature of the characters Lee introduces, however, elevate his art above the ordinary. And reading his work is just fun.
One of the things that Lee does exceptionally well in all his books is give us an idea of what exactly people do in their jobs, and what makes each job an opportunity for creativity and excellence. While many authors might hint at hidden depths, say, in cleaning a celebrity’s suite in a five-star hotel or in laying wall-to-wall carpet in a decaying hovel, Lee takes the worker’s eye view and relishes in explanations of how it can be done elegantly. It’s interesting. Readers develop understandings and sympathies where before there were none. (The government should hire Lee to analyze labor equivalencies in the workplace. We would come out with a far flatter and more just wage structure than we have today.)
At heart, this novel is about the creative process and the winding path each person’s dreams take as their lives progress. Yadin was a musician ever since he can remember, writing songs, both lyrics and tunes, that people want to hear. He sang, too, but experienced such severe stage fright that it began to take a toll on his health. He had to quit touring, and his life narrowed to a pinpoint of casual work & sleep as he tried to cope with his illness. One day, chancing one day upon a few lines of spoken poetry, his capacity for song is awoken again.
Poetry and song: the parallels are many. Those readers who relish language will love Lee’s focus on the way words work to draw us in, to inspire and delight us. In addition, there is something terribly exciting and beautiful about capturing the process of creation. Moments of creative flow described on the page are exhilarating for what similarities they bear to one's own experience. We don’t tire reading of someone who has managed to cobble together something unique from scraps; conversely we yearn for more.
Yadin’s mind was busy with “a thread of melody noodling inside his head” as he lay carpet; he would stop to call his landline and leave a message of the tune so he wouldn’t forget. Later, a few words and phrases burbled up from his subconscious which he’d capture on a piece of masking tape with his Sharpie.
Life is complex, and Lee relishes that complexity, carefully unpicking the tangled threads that got us from happy days of infatuation to a limping marriage, paradoxically featuring both not enough sex and too many children. His characters are irredeemably flawed, all of them, though they are talented enough that others may look to them to lead the way. Their failures are heartbreaking, and are perhaps as much like us individually as any characters in any book.
If I have any criticism of this novel, it is Lee’s two strong female characters. Each is carefully drawn and multi-dimensional, Jeanette being Yadin’s long-time companion and the daughter of his boss. The slow reveal of her character’s history is fascinating in its surprises but one has the sense at the end that here is a woman struggling to free herself from a constricting web of her own making. I personally thought she was capable enough (at her age) to have made a more proactive choice than the one Lee chose for her. In the end, she was not an appealing partner for Yadin.
Mallory, the celebrity folksinger, is familiar to the extent that we feel we may have met her before—her type, certainly. Mallory wanted authenticity in her art and had to settle for less to get by, but she was always looking for that real experience again. She had most of what she needed most of the time, but she was aging out of the business of love songs. Lee may have made her harder, less sympathetic, and less vulnerable than strictly necessary. I bought it all until the end when I thought she would have (at her age) made a different choice.
This novel of sophisticated adult dilemmas gives us confused folks who make one choice as young adults and different choices in the fullness of years. Yadin was completely sure, in his later years, what he wanted. Lee did not tie his novel up neatly but showed us the messy lives of people making choices we don't like. If aspects of this novel had romance-genre undertones, the overtones were richer and deeper and far more complex.
Another GR reviewer made the terrific suggestion that this novel would make a great indie film, and he is completely right. In the hands of the right actors, this is a star-making vehicle. All that unrequited or misdirected love can play out as music.
An interview with Don Lee by Terry Hong on the Bookslut blog shows us how Lee agonizes over the publication process of novel-writing, a phenomenon which is examined more closely in this novel when Yadin writes a couple songs and then agonizes over their method of release.
Lee also isn’t snooty about genre: there is a touch of romance hidden within the complexities of the married lives he delivers in Lonesome. People aren’t settled, despite their legal status. The intensely personal and minutely calibrated nature of the characters Lee introduces, however, elevate his art above the ordinary. And reading his work is just fun.
One of the things that Lee does exceptionally well in all his books is give us an idea of what exactly people do in their jobs, and what makes each job an opportunity for creativity and excellence. While many authors might hint at hidden depths, say, in cleaning a celebrity’s suite in a five-star hotel or in laying wall-to-wall carpet in a decaying hovel, Lee takes the worker’s eye view and relishes in explanations of how it can be done elegantly. It’s interesting. Readers develop understandings and sympathies where before there were none. (The government should hire Lee to analyze labor equivalencies in the workplace. We would come out with a far flatter and more just wage structure than we have today.)
At heart, this novel is about the creative process and the winding path each person’s dreams take as their lives progress. Yadin was a musician ever since he can remember, writing songs, both lyrics and tunes, that people want to hear. He sang, too, but experienced such severe stage fright that it began to take a toll on his health. He had to quit touring, and his life narrowed to a pinpoint of casual work & sleep as he tried to cope with his illness. One day, chancing one day upon a few lines of spoken poetry, his capacity for song is awoken again.
Poetry and song: the parallels are many. Those readers who relish language will love Lee’s focus on the way words work to draw us in, to inspire and delight us. In addition, there is something terribly exciting and beautiful about capturing the process of creation. Moments of creative flow described on the page are exhilarating for what similarities they bear to one's own experience. We don’t tire reading of someone who has managed to cobble together something unique from scraps; conversely we yearn for more.
Yadin’s mind was busy with “a thread of melody noodling inside his head” as he lay carpet; he would stop to call his landline and leave a message of the tune so he wouldn’t forget. Later, a few words and phrases burbled up from his subconscious which he’d capture on a piece of masking tape with his Sharpie.
Life is complex, and Lee relishes that complexity, carefully unpicking the tangled threads that got us from happy days of infatuation to a limping marriage, paradoxically featuring both not enough sex and too many children. His characters are irredeemably flawed, all of them, though they are talented enough that others may look to them to lead the way. Their failures are heartbreaking, and are perhaps as much like us individually as any characters in any book.
If I have any criticism of this novel, it is Lee’s two strong female characters. Each is carefully drawn and multi-dimensional, Jeanette being Yadin’s long-time companion and the daughter of his boss. The slow reveal of her character’s history is fascinating in its surprises but one has the sense at the end that here is a woman struggling to free herself from a constricting web of her own making. I personally thought she was capable enough (at her age) to have made a more proactive choice than the one Lee chose for her. In the end, she was not an appealing partner for Yadin.
Mallory, the celebrity folksinger, is familiar to the extent that we feel we may have met her before—her type, certainly. Mallory wanted authenticity in her art and had to settle for less to get by, but she was always looking for that real experience again. She had most of what she needed most of the time, but she was aging out of the business of love songs. Lee may have made her harder, less sympathetic, and less vulnerable than strictly necessary. I bought it all until the end when I thought she would have (at her age) made a different choice.
This novel of sophisticated adult dilemmas gives us confused folks who make one choice as young adults and different choices in the fullness of years. Yadin was completely sure, in his later years, what he wanted. Lee did not tie his novel up neatly but showed us the messy lives of people making choices we don't like. If aspects of this novel had romance-genre undertones, the overtones were richer and deeper and far more complex.
Another GR reviewer made the terrific suggestion that this novel would make a great indie film, and he is completely right. In the hands of the right actors, this is a star-making vehicle. All that unrequited or misdirected love can play out as music.
An interview with Don Lee by Terry Hong on the Bookslut blog shows us how Lee agonizes over the publication process of novel-writing, a phenomenon which is examined more closely in this novel when Yadin writes a couple songs and then agonizes over their method of release.
December 28, 2017
3.5 stars. Really great “slice of life” kind of book and not one where characters can be classified as likeable or unlikeable which I think is the mark of a great slice of life book. They do questionable things but ultimately they’re just trying to figure shit out like the rest of us. Topics like creating music, our main character has Meniere’s, which influences his music career a lot, and there are main and side characters who are POC of an array of ethnicities. We also see the attitudes of people towards “older” people involved in music and in industries requiring a lot of physical strength (hotel housekeeping and management, carpeting) which I don’t see a lot in books that focus on the upper echelon that are published a lot nowadays - I’m looking at you, domestic thrillers. The writing is very matter of fact and I think more justice would have been done, had there been more “stop and appreciate” kind of moments rather than writing to solely drive things forward in the book which would have helped flesh the characters out a little more. Overall, really solid and enjoyed it a lot.
April 26, 2017
A gorgeous, solidly realized, and astonishing novel. Don Lee's masterpiece. Pick a passage: "People were often confounded by Yadin's singing voice, considering how soft-spoken and taciturn he was in conversation. It was a high baritone, big, commanding, splintered with husk and yearning. To unsuspecting listeners, it was a voice that belonged to a natural frontman, a heartbreaker, someone who ferried hidden vulnerabilities that drew women, even when they knew he wouldn't stay. It was a voice that belonged to someone better-looking." Or this one, also about the Yadin, who suffers from Meniere's disease: "Usually he had a minute or two before the spins would arrive, and he'd pull over if he was driving, or sit on the ground if he was walking, or lie down on his bed if he was in his apartment. Then the vertigo would engulf him, everything unspooling, pulsing, rupturing. It'd last anywhere between five minutes and several hours, and he'd be retching and heaving, and then afterward, drenched in sweat, he;d have to sleep for twelve hours straight, and he'd wake up the next morning feeling as if he'd been pummeled with tire irons." Every word is juste.
October 30, 2021
I loved Lee's first novel, and this too was a treat, which I listened to rather than read. It is a book about creative people and their struggles, about the creative process, about compromise and loss and, yes, loneliness. Yadin Park is a 40ish singer/songwriter in the Townes Van Zandt mold (you can tell from all his music references and knowledge that Lee is a big fan of the genre). He has a lot of talent, but suffers from stage fright and lacks a show biz personality, and as the story begins, he is out of the music business and working as a carpet layer in a fictional California town. Through the Unitarian Universalist church, he has begun a relationship with Jeanette, who has a few ghosts of her own that she needs to exorcise. Park is struggling with Meniere's disease and thinks he might have one good record left in him, which he works on privately.
Into their lives comes Mallory Wicks, a successful country singer and TV actress who turns out to be Yadin's former bandmate and lover, and things start getting turned upside down - althou they were never really right side up to begin with. Secretive Yadin fails to tell his girlfriend what is going on, and big trouble and/or big success seem to be on the horizon. There are some interesting secondary characters - Joe, who is Yadin's boss and Jeanette's dad, and a surprisingly down-to-earth pastor - and a subplot that gets into town government politics. Oddly enough the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins comes up several times - one of the characters wrote her dissertation or thesis about him. He was another "pure artist" type, and serves as a paralell to Yadin.
Lee provides us with a lot of detail about Yadin and Jeanette's jobs (she is a maid at a fancy hotel), as well as about making and selling music. There is a fair amount of lower middle class realism going on here, and a good amount of tension and drama as well. Nobody in this story has it made, everyone is struggling with something - including the very successful Wicks, with her multiple divorces and her passion for Yadin and his music.
(SPOILER ALERT) One can see the downbeat ending coming a mile off, and there is a suspenseful sequence in which Yadin runs into disaster after disaster while on his way to a meeting that could transform his existence. I felt frustrated for him in the end. Just like in the movie "Inside Llewyn Davis," Yadin equates compromise with selling out, and simply does not have what it takes to be a popular musician or a partner in domestic bliss. I was hoping Lee would give him, or at least his music, some sort of redemption in the end, but it was not to be.
Into their lives comes Mallory Wicks, a successful country singer and TV actress who turns out to be Yadin's former bandmate and lover, and things start getting turned upside down - althou they were never really right side up to begin with. Secretive Yadin fails to tell his girlfriend what is going on, and big trouble and/or big success seem to be on the horizon. There are some interesting secondary characters - Joe, who is Yadin's boss and Jeanette's dad, and a surprisingly down-to-earth pastor - and a subplot that gets into town government politics. Oddly enough the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins comes up several times - one of the characters wrote her dissertation or thesis about him. He was another "pure artist" type, and serves as a paralell to Yadin.
Lee provides us with a lot of detail about Yadin and Jeanette's jobs (she is a maid at a fancy hotel), as well as about making and selling music. There is a fair amount of lower middle class realism going on here, and a good amount of tension and drama as well. Nobody in this story has it made, everyone is struggling with something - including the very successful Wicks, with her multiple divorces and her passion for Yadin and his music.
(SPOILER ALERT) One can see the downbeat ending coming a mile off, and there is a suspenseful sequence in which Yadin runs into disaster after disaster while on his way to a meeting that could transform his existence. I felt frustrated for him in the end. Just like in the movie "Inside Llewyn Davis," Yadin equates compromise with selling out, and simply does not have what it takes to be a popular musician or a partner in domestic bliss. I was hoping Lee would give him, or at least his music, some sort of redemption in the end, but it was not to be.
April 14, 2017
This book found me at just the right moment. It's a contemplation of people between rocks and hard places who have to decide what their dreams are when faced with reality. Making a main character a musician just made me connect with it even more. It's sad and beautiful. I felt bursts of inspiration for my own projects while reading it, so I'm already indebted to the author for his creation. It also reminded me a lot of Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby. For all the failed or aspiring indie musicians out there who still have the creative urge even when faced with the drabness that life can be.
June 13, 2017
Despite talent, alt-country/Americana musician Yadin Park's musical career never took off due to his insecurities, lack of charisma and stage presence and then Meniere’s disease, a debilitating hearing disorder. Being a musician, an artist of any kind isn’t an easy profession. The music industry and the entertainment industry subsist mostly on the youth. It’s easy to age out of the music industry as it places a premium on youth and beauty and not always talent. Of course to maintain longevity one must possess talent. The entertainment industry can afford to be fickle as support then drop artists that don’t pull in money. How long does someone want to scrape by in hopes of quitting the day job? It’s infrequent that someone can do that. As author Don Lee stated at a recent book reading at Newtonville Books: “You have to have a certain amount of luxury and leisure to pursue those arts.” It’s true. While the starving artist sounds romantic, in reality it’s not comfortable or feasible for most people long-term.
It’s a powerful novel with phenomenal writing and quiet, intense characterizations. As a music critic and book critic, novels about musicians always appeal to me. I also adored Don Lee’s gorgeous novel The Collective. One of my favorite authors, Lee’s writing dazzles me.
complete review here: https://entertainmentrealm.com/2017/0...
It’s a powerful novel with phenomenal writing and quiet, intense characterizations. As a music critic and book critic, novels about musicians always appeal to me. I also adored Don Lee’s gorgeous novel The Collective. One of my favorite authors, Lee’s writing dazzles me.
complete review here: https://entertainmentrealm.com/2017/0...
March 9, 2017
Lee is a great storyteller but this little guy just didn't feel as tight as his other work. Its pacing makes the book palatable and pleasurable to read and Lee's innate warmth is a real gift. Ultimately, though, the novel's emotional joints feel stiff and just aren't limber enough to invest too deeply.
February 5, 2018
All the way through this book, I kept being reminded of Love Warps the Mind a Little by John Dufresne, which is surprising because I have never before thought of Don Lee and John Dufresne at the same time. Lonesome Lies Before Us isn't Oedipus Rex, it's Death of a Salesman, only not so dramatic. It's quiet and thoughtful and layered, and it's peopled with flawed and uncertain individuals who are doing their best and making corrections along the way, just as we all do as we stumble toward our better selves.
June 10, 2017
This book bottles up yearning and heartbreak into an engrossing story.
July 3, 2017
Beautifully done. He captures the lives of people on the edge, and their edgy relationships with those who are more outwardly successful. People keep saying (and who are these people anyhow?) that good fiction isn't being written anymore. Don Lee proves them wrong. Lots of well detailed background on the sad (and lonesome) life of the alternative country rocker, too.
May 2, 2017
I've been a fan of alt-country music since before it had that label, thanks to the Jayhawks and other bands of their ilk. When I saw the description for this novel ("A contemporary alt-country ballad of heartbreak, failure, love, and unquenchable yearning in novel form") on the Goodreads first-reads giveaway page, I had to enter. And I'm really glad I won. This is a superb novel. It tells the story of two underemployed, middle-aged people: Yadin, a failed former musician and songwriter who works for a carpet-laying company, and his uninspired and uninspiring girlfriend Jeanette, a former assistant records clerk for city hall who is currently working as a housekeeper at a hotel. These are the normal, everyday, blue-collar folks that one rarely encounters in novels (at least at the center of novels), and very rarely are they presented with such honesty, compassion, and insight with all their foibles and small triumphs. The novel details their current lives and through flashbacks shows us how they came to be who, what, and where they are today. The details and descriptions give such a clear picture that I could visualize every moment; this would make a great indie film - someone needs to grab those rights immediately. I loved the fact that each chapter had a title, and those titles were songs written by Yadin (each chapter title comes with a timing for the song - very clever). A very emotional and satisfying read.
June 16, 2017
A melancholic beast of a novel
Definitely recognisable as a Don Lee book, but this one has a tinge of sadness and regret to it and less humour. Still absolutely recommended though, and with any luck it will bring him the wider audience he deserves.
Definitely recognisable as a Don Lee book, but this one has a tinge of sadness and regret to it and less humour. Still absolutely recommended though, and with any luck it will bring him the wider audience he deserves.
June 6, 2017
full disclosure: i took a fiction writing class with don lee while he taught at emerson college. but i don't think i'm biased, more than anything i was feeling trepidatious about reading this. his class gave me a lot of anxiety that i think remains unresolved. i requested lonesome lies before us because i can't resist fiction written about music, even though i'm not musical at all, i really enjoy how people write about music. in any case, the actual reading of this novel is a pleasure. it's easy to be drawn into yadin's story. it's so easy to read this kind of writing, don lee knows his craft.
but sometimes reading stories like this i wonder, if i read the first 10% and the last 10% will i have missed anything? i'm not sure i would have. contemporary literary fiction often leaves me feeling like this. as if the world were in stasis and where we end up is where we began.
it's not that things don't happen. yadin is a washed out songwriter who has made a decent life for himself out of the ashes of his success. he's got a good job. he's got a girlfriend. he's managing his health. and he's writing music. good music he thinks. and sure he's racing against time to write all the songs he has down. his ménière's disease will take his hearing and with it his songs.
so when he reconnects with his past life, he hovers on the verge of success again, and he has choices to make. what does he really want? fame? fortune? acclaim? could it really be that easy to pick up his life as a celebrity again? doesn't he prefer his life now?
sometimes even if we know the answers we go through the motions of possibilities. but reality, truth is inescapable. yadin finds himself exactly where he needs to be. and if the title of his song, of his album seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy, so be it.
**lonesome lies before us will publish on june 6, 2017. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/w.w. norton & company in exchange for my honest review.
but sometimes reading stories like this i wonder, if i read the first 10% and the last 10% will i have missed anything? i'm not sure i would have. contemporary literary fiction often leaves me feeling like this. as if the world were in stasis and where we end up is where we began.
it's not that things don't happen. yadin is a washed out songwriter who has made a decent life for himself out of the ashes of his success. he's got a good job. he's got a girlfriend. he's managing his health. and he's writing music. good music he thinks. and sure he's racing against time to write all the songs he has down. his ménière's disease will take his hearing and with it his songs.
so when he reconnects with his past life, he hovers on the verge of success again, and he has choices to make. what does he really want? fame? fortune? acclaim? could it really be that easy to pick up his life as a celebrity again? doesn't he prefer his life now?
sometimes even if we know the answers we go through the motions of possibilities. but reality, truth is inescapable. yadin finds himself exactly where he needs to be. and if the title of his song, of his album seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy, so be it.
**lonesome lies before us will publish on june 6, 2017. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/w.w. norton & company in exchange for my honest review.
May 14, 2021
Yadin Park is a middle-aged carpet installer and musician, with a blip of a music career in his youth before he caved to stage fright. Recently diagnosed with Meniere’s disease, in his case entailing progressive hearing loss, he feels compelled to record one last album on his own. He needs to get these songs out of him before he’s cut off from the world.
He also endeavors to find more meaning in life, turning to poetry and buying a rosary. His girlfriend, Jeanette, a hotel housekeeper, also seeks to “resuscitate” herself from her “persistent low-grade funk,” joining a Unitarian Universalist church to find purpose.
I was moved to read about Yadin and Jeanette’s efforts to feel more. Typical portrayals of the working class show them turning to distractions—overeating, opioids, blaring TVs and video games—to feel less. Here, we’re privy to the quiet stirrings of these characters’ souls and emotional depth passersby wouldn’t presume. Yadin isn’t embarrassed to be seen as trying, nor by the smallness of his undertakings (sadly, Jeanette is).
The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins is held up by one character as a cautionary tale. He never published his poems during his lifetime out of humility, but, she says, he was rather “full of himself” in his avoidance of an audience and critics. What is Yadin doing keeping his beautiful music inside of him and shunning the spotlight? Art should be offered up as solace for the great lonesome inside all of us. To do otherwise would be, the character suggests, to throw his life away. A long-stifled artistic side also niggles at Jeanette. Slowly, both begin to open up and turn outward.
This book never quite grabbed me, but I was nonetheless impressed by its emotional richness as it moseyed along. Well written, profound, and genuine.
He also endeavors to find more meaning in life, turning to poetry and buying a rosary. His girlfriend, Jeanette, a hotel housekeeper, also seeks to “resuscitate” herself from her “persistent low-grade funk,” joining a Unitarian Universalist church to find purpose.
I was moved to read about Yadin and Jeanette’s efforts to feel more. Typical portrayals of the working class show them turning to distractions—overeating, opioids, blaring TVs and video games—to feel less. Here, we’re privy to the quiet stirrings of these characters’ souls and emotional depth passersby wouldn’t presume. Yadin isn’t embarrassed to be seen as trying, nor by the smallness of his undertakings (sadly, Jeanette is).
The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins is held up by one character as a cautionary tale. He never published his poems during his lifetime out of humility, but, she says, he was rather “full of himself” in his avoidance of an audience and critics. What is Yadin doing keeping his beautiful music inside of him and shunning the spotlight? Art should be offered up as solace for the great lonesome inside all of us. To do otherwise would be, the character suggests, to throw his life away. A long-stifled artistic side also niggles at Jeanette. Slowly, both begin to open up and turn outward.
This book never quite grabbed me, but I was nonetheless impressed by its emotional richness as it moseyed along. Well written, profound, and genuine.
March 7, 2018
I received this book from the Goodreads Firstreads giveaway program. Thank you author/publisher for the opportunity to read and review your newest novel!
3.5 stars.
Lonesome Lies Before Us by Don Lee follows Yadin and Jeanette. An around fortyish couple that has never completely fulfilled their dreams. Never married, and childless. Life has had other plans for them.
Yadin is an alt country musician. Never being able to get over his terrible stage fright and a disease called Meniere's that has affected his hearing. Financially he struggles. Yadin now works as a carpet installer.
Jeanette had a love for photography. She gave up education opportunities for a guy that she was falling in love with. Jeanette is now a resort housekeeper.
Yadin has an awakening in the story. He begins to write music again. An opportunity presents itself to him to make a different future. Can life change for the better?
Life. Not always easy. Just following the path that we are given. Will this couple stay together? Can life be any different without one another?
3.5 stars.
Lonesome Lies Before Us by Don Lee follows Yadin and Jeanette. An around fortyish couple that has never completely fulfilled their dreams. Never married, and childless. Life has had other plans for them.
Yadin is an alt country musician. Never being able to get over his terrible stage fright and a disease called Meniere's that has affected his hearing. Financially he struggles. Yadin now works as a carpet installer.
Jeanette had a love for photography. She gave up education opportunities for a guy that she was falling in love with. Jeanette is now a resort housekeeper.
Yadin has an awakening in the story. He begins to write music again. An opportunity presents itself to him to make a different future. Can life change for the better?
Life. Not always easy. Just following the path that we are given. Will this couple stay together? Can life be any different without one another?
August 3, 2017
This book's been pretty well hyped, and I really liked The Collective, but I doubt the plot as described would have made me snap it up so fast if it hadn't been about my favorite genre of music. There are alt-country lyrics and homages and references everywhere and probably a decent number of them sailed right over my head but whatever, it was very cool to see.
What makes it a good book regardless is how well Lee knows his characters and their backstories, how he turns the story of a couple months of their lives into the story of how they got there, and gives them a perfectly suited ending. He's obviously done his research on the whats and wheres of the story but dang, he knows his people, and clearly cares for them even when he's putting them through hell.
(Now I wish I could read Mallory's perspective on the story, not filtered through either main character - what were her intentions exactly?)
What makes it a good book regardless is how well Lee knows his characters and their backstories, how he turns the story of a couple months of their lives into the story of how they got there, and gives them a perfectly suited ending. He's obviously done his research on the whats and wheres of the story but dang, he knows his people, and clearly cares for them even when he's putting them through hell.
(Now I wish I could read Mallory's perspective on the story, not filtered through either main character - what were her intentions exactly?)
January 13, 2018
Beautifully written book about an alt country singer who wants to put out another album, but doesn't want to deal with everything that would go along with it. After a brush with fame when he was young, Yadin's life took a number of detours until he ended up as a carpet-layer in California. When inspiration hits him again, he wants to release another album, but on his own turns. His ex-girlfriend who ultimately became a singer/actress celebrity past comes into town. His meetings with her delve into the workings of the current music scene. Lee's novel also covers Yadin's relationship with his current girlfriend (the boss's daughter) Jeanette. Jeanette's past and the circumstances that have brought her to where she is are poignant as well. The intricate details of the everyday lives of these two people serve to remind us that there are many people leading humdrum lives today that have dreams lying unfulfilled inside of them....
June 8, 2017
Lonesome Lies Before Us has a lot going for it. The story idea is interesting, and I loved the way Lee ties in with the ideas of alt-country music, making the novel mirror a song. As a keen amateur musician myself, I could appreciate Yadin's struggles and understand his predicament. Like most creatives, he's trapped between the desire to pursue his dreams and the realisation that such a life isn't financially viable. I enjoyed reading Yadin and Jeanette's tale, yet I would have liked to connect with them on a deeper level. Throughout, I felt that my care for them, and how their stories would end, was peripheral. For me, this book hovers between 3.5 and 4 stars. I would recommend it for readers of light literary fiction who are also into music and looking for tales in that setting.
I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley.
I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley.
October 30, 2017
The story of a 50 year old country singer whose career never took off and now works laying carpet and his one-time aspiring photographer girl friend (the daughter of the owner of the carpet company) who now works in maid service at an upscale franchise resort in a small coastal town an hour or two from San Francisco.
This is a tale of lost souls and spiritual quests, but I always felt more distance from the characters than I cared for.
The best part of the book for me is the description of the pep talk/corporate control work setting at the resort. Go, room cleaners, go! Change those sheets; fluff those pillows.
This is a tale of lost souls and spiritual quests, but I always felt more distance from the characters than I cared for.
The best part of the book for me is the description of the pep talk/corporate control work setting at the resort. Go, room cleaners, go! Change those sheets; fluff those pillows.
July 28, 2017
I can't decide if I liek this or not. I certainly have thought about it a lot afterwards, so it does provoke thought.
I felt like it had so much going for it, a redemption story. But it failed ot deliver. The text was a tad ham handed, and told me exactly what the characters were thinking. And for characters so F'd up, they had a remarkable insight into their lives. It also telegraphed a lot of what would happen in the book.
but then it failed to deliver. I guess it fufilled it's name. It wasnt terrible by any means, just not awesome.
I felt like it had so much going for it, a redemption story. But it failed ot deliver. The text was a tad ham handed, and told me exactly what the characters were thinking. And for characters so F'd up, they had a remarkable insight into their lives. It also telegraphed a lot of what would happen in the book.
but then it failed to deliver. I guess it fufilled it's name. It wasnt terrible by any means, just not awesome.
October 7, 2017
Yadin was a gifted musician with a promising career cut short by his looks, his own actions, and an increasing hearing loss. Now he lays carpet as a career working for his girlfriend Jeanette's father. Then his ex-girlfriend and singing partner, Mallory, shows up in town staying at the hotel where Jeanette works as a maid. As each of them interacts they must face their pasts, their lost dreams, and their hard-pressed future.
I really enjoyed reading this book. It has well-written characters all potentially touching greatness before they drag themselves back down again.
I really enjoyed reading this book. It has well-written characters all potentially touching greatness before they drag themselves back down again.
July 3, 2017
I enjoy don Lee's style, I really do, and I think that if this had been Jeanette's story I would have been all in. I just didn't engage with Yadin at all. Still, I'd recommend to book groups since the themes of stagnation, being stuck in one place, as the result of circumstance, sketchy choices, and bad luck, and how hard it is to pull yourself out of that muck once you're in, would make for a good discussion.
August 3, 2017
I like the alt country music genre, and this book is a lot like an alt country song: sad, thoughtful, and real. The author included a lot of detail when describing the lives of the characters, with many paragraphs describing how to clean a hotel room, for example; but at times I felt like he went overboard with this. The detail is presented in very plain language, not in any kind of interesting style, and sometimes with no particular point, in my opinion.
August 6, 2017
Could not put this book down! I adore Don Lee's writing. I have and will continue to read anything he writes. I love the interconnectedness of his stories and how Rosarita Bay continues to be a main character. Despite spare writing, Lee's words can make my heart swell or drop. I felt sick at times empathizing with the utter despair his protagonist must face. I also felt my cheeks redden and my pulse quicken at times from the pain people are able to cause those they love.
September 1, 2017
The book started out slow, it was really interesting, some parts of the book caught my attention and I really enjoyed the book. Yadin, Mallory and Jeanette are amazing characters, I really like how Don Lee expresses the character's emotions.
September 3, 2017
A beautiful book about middle-age, choices, music and creativity, Gerard Manly Hopkins Poems and Ignatian spirituality. Mostly about how difficult life can be for working class folks in 2017. Look forward to hearing more from Don Lee!
May 19, 2018
Yadin Park, seeking inspiration, from the poetry of Hopkins or wherever else he can find it: “He tried to quiet his mind and invoke awe. He wanted to be shaken alive with God’s majesty, with the mystery and beauty of this world, with its infiniteness.”
December 28, 2018
Really interesting writing and story, though a bit of a downer ending. I was really interested in Yadin's story, less engrossed in Jeanette's background. This was my first Don Lee book, but I'll check out more. ~JH
August 21, 2021
I feel like I’ve lived two lives after reading this- Yadin’s and Jeanette’s. My heart is broken for Jeanette, and I rejoice for Yadin’s finding his way despite his enormous hardships. Up with Don Lee.
May 15, 2023
WOW! Why haven't more people read this really good book? Great themes around regret, and I found myself rooting for all the characters. Don Lee brought me into this quiet little world and I was sad when it was over.
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