From the beloved, New York Times bestselling author of Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress comes a hilarious, timely, and big-hearted new novel about rebuilding life in the face of disaster.
Forty-five-year-old Donna Koczynski is an ex-punk rocker, a recovering alcoholic, and the mother of two teenagers whose suburban existence detonates when she comes home early from a sales conference in Las Vegas to the surprise of a lifetime. As her world implodes, she sets off on an epic road trip to reclaim everything she believes she's sacrificed since her wild youth: Great friendship, passionate love, and her art. But as she careens across the U.S. from Detroit to New York to Memphis to Nashville, nothing turns out as she imagines. Ultimately, she finds herself resurrected on the other side of the globe, on a remote island embroiled in a crisis far bigger than her own.
Irresistibly funny, whip-smart, and surprisingly moving, Donna Has Left the Building spins an unforgettable tale about what it means to be brave—and to truly love—in a tumultuous world.
Susan Jane Gilman’s new novel, “Donna Has Left the Building” will be published in June 2019. She is also the bestselling author of three nonfiction books “Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress,” “Undress me in the Temple of Heaven,” and “Kiss My Tiara," as well as the novel, "The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street." She's provided commentary for National Public Radio. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan, and has written for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and Ms. magazine, among others. Her fiction and essays have received several literary awards.
Susan Jane Gilman is a funny writer—hilarious, belly-laugh-inducing, causing one to cough and gasp in joy—who writes real, complicated characters, complete with pain and delusions. And the reason they are so deeply funny is that Gilman is self-aware enough to know and show their flaws better than they know them.
I knew this after reading her last novel, The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street, but when I realized how contemporary and domestic this new story was (about a wife and mother and crackling with cultural references to rock bands I’ve never listened to), I geared myself up for easy sarcasm. But no! Like Lillian Dunkle, the Russian Jewish star of Ice Cream Queen, titular protagonist Donna Koczynski may inhabit a particular era (in this case, one when trendiness reigns), but she is rooted in her own crazy psychology, which includes equal parts compassion, open-minded curiosity, lunatic-level denial, and crazed she-wolf rage.
My most successful published work to date is a monologue from a play called Darleen Dances. It is so widely performed that it has been blacklisted by various auditioning institutions. It is popular with young actresses because it is funny and they get to dance for the duration of the monologue. After watching a few young actors mutilate the piece, I finally wrote “Notes to Actors” in the copy of the play that I sell online. In these notes, I tell them “not to try to be funny or cute.” Instead, play the truth—which happens to be agonizing—of what the character is facing and doing. I promise them it will make the piece funnier.
If I could, I would give this note to all the writers who create slick, sarcastic, self-congratulatory (to the writers, who identify with them) women characters. And for an example of what I mean by “writing the truth,” I would send them to Susan Jane Gilman’s books.
Donna Koczynski is a wife, mother, former punk rocker, present seller of kitchen ware, who, self-admittedly “exhilarated by [her] own audacity,” suffers from perpetual insatiability, and finds herself on an unknown pilgrimage after blindly running away from home.
The first few chapters are fantastically funny. But this big (400-page) commercial novel is so much more than laughs. With the skill of the best literary writers, the rage of the Greeks and contemporary feminists, combined with Lucille Ball-like pratfalls and plot twists, all in a twenty-first century tableau, Gilman’s Donna organically spirals down a very dark rabbit hole and out the other side of the earth, bobbing in a sea of love. I was constantly surprised, never knowing where the story was going. Screwy as many of the relationships are, they feel real. In an era where, as one of her characters observes, “Soon people won’t be able to tell what’s real or fake at all anymore,” Susan Jane Gilman is the real deal: a writer functioning on all cylinders. And so is Donna Koczynski.
*** I received an Advanced Reading Copy from the publisher, Grand Central Publishing. The book launches in June 2019. *** A Note I'm not interested in recounting plots in my reviews, but I think it may be important to mention that, despite its protagonist being a fairly comfortable white woman, this book does the great service of bringing the desperate immigrant experience home for people who are not running for their lives: what it's like to flee, with no idea where you're going or how you are going to survive. And the way Gilman conveys this--managing to make you feel the experience as a person who is probably not in these straits and also managing to relate the true current experience of so many people who are--is rather genius. *** 6/18/19 Update I went to hear Susan Jane Gilman read at B&N last night, and wow! I'm a reading purist and always prefer the firsthand reading experience to the popular audiobooks option, but Gilman, who recorded her own audiobook, is as good as it gets. So for my audiophile friends, I suspect that version of the book is out-of-the-ballpark good.
Audiobook….read by Susan Jane Gilman …..15 hours and 41 minutes
Donna Koczynski ….. Donna Koczynski …. Donna Koczynski …. …. what a character!!! Personally — I loved her!!! Not every reader will even like her.
But…. Man …. ….anything - I mean ‘anything’ I write about this story — will just be words — trying to ‘explain’ this book would almost be as cuckoo as this WONDERFUL dark comedy novel itself: cuckoo- (awesome) thought-provoking - a sad undercurrent- but mostly …. It’s a very contemporary-mushuga-entertaining story.
Go in blind if willing … it’s just such a kick!!! Honestly — I ‘wasn’t’ offended at all (but remember I grew up in Berkeley, California)
It’s all about Donna Koczynski….. …. her predicaments… and her reaction to having discovered that her husband Joey (after twenty-six years of marriage) was into BDSM …. a secret obsession— and a dominatrix that was in (surprise-surprise) Donna and Joey’s bedroom. “Honey, I’m home”…. ha… only to find Joey dressed in a girlie maid outfit. The prostitute (NOT prostitute Joey says) > DOMINATRIX …. and no- he didn’t have sex with her. He just needed to satisfy his needs- his obsession- and needed a little punishment.
Donna was more than happy to punish Joey with a spatula.
My god — this book is FUNNY — witty - smart - clever …. wise — and shall I say again: VERY ENTERTAINING!!!
Yes..it’s very sad to learn that Donna had her first alcoholic drink at age 8. That her father gave her that first drink … Yes … it’s sad that both her parents died young — That she and her brother were emancipated…. But/and… I haven’t laughed this hard in a long time. The adventures The dialogue The gritty perceptiveness The hilarity (god awful truth) about JUICY COUTURE …pink clothing … with the word ‘Juicy’ on the back of the butt — worn by girls as young as thirteen. Sex in Manhattan… etc. It’s messy - crude - lots of profanity (that honesty got my own juices cheerleading and protesting my own suppressed outrage) My juices were flowing too … Emotions on high gear at times… ….And not about anything in particular…. other than: ….the world is changed since covid ….too many people I care about are dealing with crappy hardships - and loss ….everyone seems so disconnected… …. so, sure, nothing in particular— but this book got me going in the best of ways. It reaches down deep into thoughts we didn’t expect to think about ….
The satire is brilliant!!!
I had read Susan Jane Gilman years ago. “Undress Me In The Temple of Heaven” …. a terrific memoir. And I read a few chapters ( sample) of “The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street” …. I had always planned to read the entire book … Maybe I will now …. 🍧
But for starters … THIS BOOK WAS GREAT … 🎸 🚗💕 A fantastic audiobook….
I had forgotten how talented Susan Jane Gilman was. She’s very talented!!!
Read **Betsy Robinson’s** review…. It inspired me to download this library audiobook — it might you. Betsy articulates ‘spot on’ about why this book is so good….
Brilliant comic writing!!!
Loved it!!
Highly recommended….. …..to those who don’t get offended by a little crudeness in their prose.
Well balanced, this book brings humor, challenge, relationships and family in the form of a well paced story. It launches with a bang when Donna comes home early from a sales conference to find her husband dressed as a French maid while an unknown Dominatrix hovers over him. Formerly a Punk Rocker, her journey reinvigorates her past life. Her friends run the gamut, the journey's filled with surprises and the author's sense of humor filters throughout it. Tragic at times, its engaging and evocative and a must read for mothers, former musicians and anyone seeking a great story.
I mean... It was okay, written well enough, but... okay, imagine if you're watching a normal tv show. It's a slice of life dramedy, reality-based sort of story. And then in the last few minutes, a meteor hits and destroys everything. It's not quite that drastic, but the last third of the book is a completely different setting with an entirely different plot. It really felt like the author just said "that stuff is boring, I want to write about this stuff now." Or maybe the story had just backed itself into a corner and the only solution was to just blow everything up. Either way, the last third of the book (while still well written) was such a jarring disconnect from everything else, the book sort of collapsed in on itself.
Wow. Just as I thought I was coming to appreciate this honest, messy, uncomfortable portrait of a woman in a screwed up life, it took a turn toward global consciousness raising and totally lost me. It felt so grafted on, so "how can I make this more than a novel about a woman dealing with her individual life?" that I quit. So maybe it's not a fair review, but I can't bring myself to finish it.
Parts are well-written, parts are funny, parts are thought-provoking, but the whole was uneven, trying to serve too many masters and send too many messages.
Like Uncle Albert and Bert from the OG Mary Poppins, I love to laugh. And oh my, has it been a long time since a book has tickled my funny bone so relentlessly. In DONNA HAS LEFT THE BUILDING, what may appear to be a typical “wife comes home early to find husband in compromising situation” story is anything but. I cannot stress this enough: In no shape, way, or form have you read anything like this treasure trove of hilarity. Granted, Donna didn't find it terribly amusing, but that’s the awesomeness of fiction, right?
As I laughed my face off while reading on the couch, in bed, and three public waiting rooms, Donna’s journey began to delve into emotional territory. During Donna’s impromptu cross-country road trip, she had to confront the past she remembered with rose-tinted glasses and non-spoiler alert: things didn’t go according to her haphazard plans. Like, at all. Not even a tiny bit. And just when I wasn’t sure if Donna would be able to get out of her own way, the plot took a major turn when she wound up on a remote island where the vibe was anything but jovial. I’ve gotta say it felt a little jarring, on the verge of being two separate books smushed together. Yes, there were hints earlier on regarding what Donna would be sucked into, but the sudden change of tone could’ve been smoother. Not that it was bad, but Donna’s voice started off like jazz hands and then became subdued as the final quarter came to pass. Reflective, perhaps, and there’s nothing like an actual crisis to have one reflect on their previous behaviour.
If you love books that flip expected tropes and crank them up to 11, while snickering as wildly unpredictable characters take you for a ride, DONNA HAS LEFT THE BUILDING is the book for you! Big thanks to HBG Canada for an ARC!
I could not get enough of Donna Koczynski. I loved her personality. She was edgy and vulnerable at the same time. I can see why she decided to take off running, but I won't tell you why as to not spoil the surprise. The entire time, I felt I was right alongside Donna on her adventures both in America and overseas. This novel is both humorous and heartwarming, as well as cringe-worthy at times. There's a big part that is relevant to current events, even though it takes place in 2015. Susan uses dialogue and description in such a way that she makes Donna's story jump off the pages of this book. Fair warning, some parts of this novel are racy and if you are listening to an audio version, be sure that kids are not around.
I really enjoyed this novel and I hope Susan doesn't wait five more years to produce another one.
Donna is a failed punk rocker, a recovering alcoholic, and a mother of two teens. When she comes home early from a Las Vegas marketing conference (she's a "culinary ambassador" for Privileged Kitchen--think Pampered Chef), she gets the shock of her life when she discovers her husband getting his freak show on. As their relationship problems escalate, Donna takes off on a frenzied road trip to find relationships from the past but where she ends up and how she finds herself again is totally unexpected for both her and the reader.
I admit this took me a good 40-50 pages to get into, but despite getting annoyed at Donna for making dumb choices along the way, I found it compelling. I also liked that the characters were not from the same cookie-cutters, and while the ending was a bit untidy, it was ultimately satisfying.
Readers who like stories of married women doing drastic things to rediscover themselves, such as Gayle Forman's LEAVE ME, will enjoy this. Fans of authors who write about women's issues with a bit of humor such as Jennifer Weiner, Claire Cook, Emma Straub, and Allison Winn Scotch may also want to give this a try.
Thanks to Hachette/Grand Central for the advance reading copy.
I was sober, yet still, somehow, on an epic bender.
As her friend/college roommate/former TV psychic Brenda/Madame LaShonda Peyroux says at one point, Donna has a "way of saying awful things that just makes them sound really, really funny." Much to Gilman's credit, that's exactly true. There are definitely poignant moments, too (they come mainly when Donna's thinking about her two teenagers: "How could I blame my daughter? Apple: tree." and "I should've figured things out. I should've known more."), but mainly Donna's first-person chronicling of her odyssey/"epic bender" from Privileged Kitchen saleswoman in Michigan to Lady Chop-Chop of the Kitchen Chorus on the isle of Lesvos (with a lot of tawdry stops in between) is just funny, with reflections on the succession of ludicrous predicaments she finds herself in such as this: "I was loath to reharness myself in any sort of bra or underpants, but one can stand naked and shivering in a bathroom stall at Walmart for only so long." She is not a heroine who usually makes good decisions, but for all her faults she most often is a likable, carnal, earthy, sympathetic character caught in a series of sort of midlife crisis-related shitstorms, no matter how avoidable some of them are. Gilman has a definite knack for dialog; the only time it seems to fail her is when she's feeding lines to Zack "the Zakkolater" Phelps, but then again awkwardness, drunkenness, deception, and bad politics are such a part of his character that making him sound like a douche was probably deliberate.
First line: "The morning of my forty-fifth birthday, I woke up to a cop knocking on my windshield."
I really wanted to like this book way more than I actually did. Donna was a hot mess but that was the whole concept for the book. Plus, I did not mind that she was so scatter brained. This was the charm about her as well as it showed that she was relatable and human.
What did not work for me were everyone else. I could not find any connection towards any of them. Thus they just faded into the mobpit. Which, Donna is a star in her own right but she actually benefits from others to help with her story. Therefore, when the other characters are not that intriguing it is up to the main character to lead the story or for the storyline to be really great.
My reading experience of this book was part reading/skimming. Plus I was waiting for all of the laughs to come. Sadly this book did not do anything for me. Yet, it might for someone else.
Donna Has Left the Building is a gritty, honest, bawdy novel that takes us into the life of Donna Koczynski, a middle-aged, married, recovering alcoholic, mother of two who embarks on a spontaneous, somewhat destructive road trip after returning home early from a conference to find her husband in a compromising position with a dominatrix.
The prose is witty and perceptive. The characters are unhappy, confused, and disappointed. And the plot is a reflective, brash, reality check about marriage, friendship, family, first loves, missed opportunities, regrets, mistakes, poor choices, bad decisions, and what’s truly important.
Overall, Donna Has Left the Building is a rollicking, bold, candid tale by Gilman that delves into all the messiness of life and highlights just how quickly life can spin out of control. It’s not for everyone though, as some readers would definitely find it a little too offensive and crude.
I received this advanced readers copy from a Goodreads giveaway; thank you.
This is Donna’s middle-age crisis story that made me smile (a little) and cringe (a lot). It explores the topics of how do you make your teenage dreams come true at 45?, why didn’t they come true? Why did we choose to settle? When did our life become so ordinary? when we were so extraordinary and that we could do anything we set our minds to (we thought). How could we let that happen? Of course, in the narrative of this novel, Donna being on the verge of a breakdown already at the start of the book, it gives way to unexpected situations and events. Donna has to go through the 7 stages of grief to let her old dreams to rest and find herself and her way again. For me it was an OK read; a little depressing perhaps.
Hemingway said it best about old dreams : “We can’t ever go back to old things or try and get the “old kick” out of something or find things the way we remembered them. We have them as we remember them and they are fine and wonderful and we have to go on and have other things because the old things are nowhere except in our minds now.” The British said it best about mid-life crisis : “ Keep calm and carry on”.
The humor here was super obvious, kind of mediocre sitcom funny. The hijinks are excessively wacky. This one is more suburban mom cliche than ex-punkrocker.
Funny, a whirlwind, contains universal truths, poignant. Growing older is complicated, parenting is complicated, life is complicated. I appreciated the multi-dimensional characters. And I enjoy Gilman's ability for the characters to recognize humor or absurdity in the midst of their serious situations.
Donna has what appears to be a normal middle class life. She lives in the suburbs, has a husband and two kids and a "work-from-home" sales job in true Tupperware fashion. Then, while attending a convention for her company, she saves a man's life and it sends her dashing back home where life quickly spirals out of control. There were parts of the first part of the book between Donna and her husband where I was laughing out loud, and I'm pretty sure the whole second part of the book was intended to do the same thing - as Donna has a meltdown that sees her visit her psychic roommate and friend from college in NYC, then chase down her high school sweetheart in Tennessee. But it was so insane and over-the-top that instead of feeling funny, it just felt exhausting. And just as Donna has reached her lowest point, she gets a call from her daughter and ends up in Greece. The last part of the book was redeeming and a reminder that there are so many people out there with absolutely nothing, but I still didn't feel like it could overcome an prescription drug fueled bender of a road trip during a big chunk of the book. If the book was less over the top all the time, and had the funny moments mixed with reality of the third part I think it would have felt more enjoyable and less like an onslaught to me.
I am sorry to the author Susan Jane Gilman, but I did not really like or enjoy this book and I did not find it "riotous and tender" as O. The Oprah Magazine did or "epic" as the New York Post did. "From "The Female David Sedaris" (Seattle Post-Intelligencer), A Hilarious, Heartrending Novel About A Woman Who Refuses To Become Invisible In Our Big, Broken, Beautiful World." No, I definitely did NOT find this novel to be hilarious. It was possibly heartrending. The protagonist Donna Koczynski certainly is NOT interested in being invisible and this is certainly a big, broken world. However, while there is some beauty normally to be found in the world, there is little, if any, beauty to be found in this book. Most of the events in this book, while indeed possible and not entirely farfetched, had me cringing, shaking my head, and/or questioning their plausibility. I am personally unfamiliar with David Sedaris; but, according to the Internet, he is a humorist. One of his quotes is "I've always been very upfront about the way I write, and I've always used the tools humorists use, such as exaggeration." While I am unsure that Ms. Gilman is a humorist, she does employ exaggeration!
This book seemed to have several different parts to it – it read in three different sections. That being said, it also was a long read, and a little difficult to piece the three very different sections together. I really felt for Donna in the beginning, could sympathize with her frustrations, but the second section threw me off. Between just up and leaving her family and really seeming to throw most common sense out of the window, she came off as quite selfish and a little immature as well. The third section I did like and I appreciated the context of the refugee situation (and went on to Google a few of the organizations to see how to get involved) but it didn’t seem to tie the whole novel together, instead, it felt like a whole different book I was reading. And the ending had me scratching my head that after all the time we spend together, all the bad decisions and road trips, led us to an ending that I wasn’t even quite sure what had happened. I really did want to like Donna Has Left the Building, but overall I just left a little confused. 2.5 stars I received a review copy
Donna's story is played out in three acts -- Act One Sees Betrayal, Questioning and Anger; Act Two Finds her on a Road Trip to/from Hell; Act Three takes a Grecian Turn.
Her story has more downs than ups as Donna consistently shows her ability to make bad choices, chasing dreams and people that no longer exist -- including herself.
There's an all-but throw-away scene early in the second act where Donna remembers drunkenly challenging a former friend with the question, "What would you be willing to die for?" It's being faced with the answer to this question that sets Donna on a truer path back to herself and a sense of perspective on life.
Once on the road, Gilman seems to channel her inner Hunter S. Thompson. Donna's drug fueled time on the road has plenty of gonzo-style shades to it. Gilman keeps in control of both her characters and her writing, though, making Donna and her story memorable in a fine way.
A forty-something, ex-punk-rocker-turned-suburbanite mom's midlife crisis takes her on a road trip that eventually morphs into a commentary on the Syrian refugee crisis. This book was too long and too full; it tried to do too much. The Greece section should have been developed as a book of its own. Don't let the cover fool you. If you want a novel version of Rikki and the Flash, this isn't it. Not only did I not feel invested in Donna's characters, but I was disgusted by the hypocrisy of her family, especially Ashley who needed a sharp slap up the back of her head. I might have given the book a 3.5, even a 4, if not for the annoying Ashley section (who uses Jesus in every single sentence as an expletive?!) and the author's thinly veiled moral agenda.
Had I rated and reviewed this book while reading the first half, I would have given it 5 stars. The second half simply did not 'go with' the first and I did not enjoy it at all. First half - laugh out loud funny; second half - just wanted to be done with it. First half - an unexpected pleasure; second half - venue for political statement or humanitarian action volunteers. Whaaaa?
This book was a bit too scattered for me in terms of storylines and character development. I didn’t find myself turning e pages eager to read more. I was a little dissatisfied with this book.
Very funny yet poignant story regarding one woman’s mid life crisis, secrets in a family, relationships, and finding oneself. Donna is a recovering alcoholic who discovers a secret about her husband, which she finds she can’t handle. The story is about her running away from her problems. Eventually she ends up in Greece and gets involved with the refugee problem going on at the time. Her relationship with her son and daughter are also explored. Good novel but the ending is confusing and leaves you hanging.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was hilarious, emotional, frustrating, and I sure as hell understand what it's like to be in your 40s, have something happen you never saw coming, and want to jump ship. But I also loved the redemption arc at the end for Donna and her daughter, when they both finally opened their eyes and saw just how big--and insane--the world truly is and just how small their problems were.
I admit this book took me a bit to get into as I get annoyed with characters who make really dumb decisions but then it sucked me in because I had to see where it was going. I was really amazed by the author’s ability to create so many almost impossibly ridiculous circumstances the character could possibly be involved in but she somehow managed to make it all flow from one thing to another. It certainly made for a raucous pace. No slow parts here.
So let me preface by saying I was getting into this it was exciting, funny, a roller coaster building up to something great - then it just 180’d and completely fell apart. I found this book exhausting to power through but in a Zendaya in Euphoria kind of way (which now I understand is similar to the life of an addict). Donna goes through it but I feel like she never finished a storyline (husband, son, clairvoyant, ex bf, alcoholism, refugee crisis etc) which in their own right were pretty good ideas. By the last part I was just confused like how did we get here and when will this be over. Too long of a read for ideas that were all over and characters that I just honestly didn’t care or connect to (heavy eye rolling on parts with her daughter in Greece). It could have been really good if she focused on like 3 of those ideas vs. tackling all.