Goodbye Lemon

by Adam Davies

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Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Family, Dark, Drama, Book Club

Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Adam Davies was born in Louisville, KY. He is the author of three novels: The Frog King, soon to be a major motion picture starring Joseph Godron-Levitt, with a script by Bret Easton Ellis; Goodbye Lemon, a family drama; and Mine All Mine, which was purchased for film with the author to write the screenplay. Adam's non-fiction has appeared in the New York Times and he has made many appearances on radio and television programs, including NPR and the A&E Channel's Breakfast with the Arts. His books are in print around the world in places such as Europe, Thailand, Russian, and Australia. He lives in Savannah, Georgia.

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

I loved Davies' The Frog King when I was in high school, likely because I aspired to his vocabulary and apparently had extremely low standards for writing styles. I read a few pages of it again recently and was quite confused as to why I had forced my friends and family to read such a crap book.

Now I'm also confused as to why I requested Davies' next book, Goodbye Lemon from the library. And why I read 114 pages of it before giving up. Short chapters with trite titles, endless adjectives, and an overreaching vocabulary this book shares with Davies' first effort. He tries to make richly detailed scenes with lists so boring I skip over them. Describing his parents' billiards room, made over by the narrator's father's home health care nurse: "There is a batallion of scented lotions, swabs, a pincushion hosting a single pin, some prehensile rubber apparatus, inflatable balls of various sizes, a walkie-talkie with a red light glowing perched above the cot, multicolored sponges, a bucket, coffee-sized canister of something called Thick-It, a logspill of straws, a minifridge, a bungee cord, an electric device that looks like a princess phone, and lots of medications in orange cylinders." And there's more where that came from.

It's part of my new year's resolution to put down books that aren't worth my time, so this crap is the first in my "couldn-t-finish" shelf. Hopefully I'll choose better in the future and keep this shelf short.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, what a find.
I read "Mine, All Mine" by Davies and liked it enough to pick up another book by him. "Mine, All Mine" was a high-priced rent-a-cop with super senses' delightful romp through a world of art theft. It did not leave me prepared for "Goodbye Lemon" as a follow-up.
Davies is the kind if author that makes me embarrassed of all the nothing I've accomplished. Reading his books is like listening to Van Halen and thinking "Why didn't I ever learn to wail on the guitar?" remember that book you read when you were 13 and it made you feel that one way about that important thing? This book brought back that feeling to me at 30.
Seven pages in, I thought: "Can he keep this up for an entire book? And if he can, can I handle it?"
The answers: yes and barely, respectively.
I think this is a book for boys. It touches on too many male-oriented themes and issues (including a favorite of mine TAPOB: The Amazing Power Of Brotherhood) for it to really click with a girl. Or maybe not, that's opinion, only.
Ladies, if you do read this, keep your tear-mopping handkerchiefs at the ready.
Everyone, boy or girl, bring your dictionary. Davies seems to have a real love for language and occasionally likes to show off.

[Abigail Hillinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is gut-wrenching. No other clichee can describe it as accurately.

If I gave anything away about this book, I'll give it all away because it connects beautifully at the end.

The gist? A man (Jack) returns home to his long-estranged family because his social-worker girlfriend (Hahva) forces him to. Why? Because Jack's alcoholic/abusive father has locked-in syndrome, a form of paralysis that leads him unable to do anything but blink his eyes...and that's just barely. And then there's Jack's mother, a cold WASP, and one of Jack's brothers, a man stuck in deep alcoholism. And of course, there's Dexter, aka Lemon, the little brother who died tragically when Jack was five...and nobody in the family will talk about it.

A predictable plot-line, one assumes, but Davies takes a one-dimensional theme of estranged/dsyfunctional family and makes it heartfelt and sincere.

It's not a book to pick up and read at any random page... it takes a cover to cover dedication. And there are moments where it's rough for the reader. But again, worth it. Very much worth it.

[Nathan Auten · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was so much darker than I expected - but I feel as though it didn’t transfer into the conclusion too well. It felt like the twist happened too close to the wrap up of the book, although I did like how it ended things off with where the main character is. I just wish I could’ve seen him interact with his family more towards the end of the book. Overall something very different from what I normally read, and glad I picked it up!

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goodbye Lemon is one of those edgy, contemporary novels. Think of it like a really depressed American Nick Hornsby novel (About A Boy). The main character, Jack Tennant, is called home when his father suffers a drinking related stroke. After the death of his brother when Jack was five his family fell apart, he and his brother blame his father for being drunk and not watching him, his mother has become a control freak and his father, has managed to stay perpetually drunk. Now the brother has descended into the same kind of drunkenness and has decided that the answer to their problems is for the two of them to kill their father.

Not surprisingly, Jack is affected by the craziness, starts drinking, drives his girlfriend away, loses the (not-so-great) job he has and in general falls apart. Don't worry, the end of the novel, is redemptive and he rebuilds his life in new and surprising ways.

I actually really liked this novel. If he would have ended up a drunk in the gutter it actually would have been a more interesting novel but I do like a bit of hope at the end of my literature.

[Marsha · Rating 4 out of 5]

“All happy families are alike but an unhappy family is unhappy after its own fashion.” – “Anna Karenina”, Count Leo Tolstoy.

Adam Davies outlines in unflinching fashion the unhappiness of the Tennant family: Adair, the coldly emotionally repressed matriarch; Pressman, the alcoholic older brother, by turns bafflingly kind and ruthlessly vicious; Jack, wrongfully dismissed after being falsely accused of molesting a student; and Guilford Tennant, the savage patriarch reduced to a shadow of himself by “locked-in” syndrome, a condition that makes him incapable of movement except for one blinking eye. None of these characters are likeable but the story of their mutual bitterness, all centered around the mysterious death of Dexter the lost Tennant son makes for fascinating reading.

We are brought into searing contact with the pervasive and poisonous nature of guilt and the trickiness of memory. It’s like a car crash—grotesque and sickening beyond belief yet you can’t look away from it.

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best work of fiction I have read in a long time. Captivating language along with an magnetic and compassionate story-line make this book just fantastic. The characters were raw, extremely real, and overflowing with exposed emotion. Tells the story of a man going home for the first time in 15 years with his girlfriend and re-discovering himself in the midst of a family crisis. Wonderful author.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like the author tried to hard to be clever and quirky, and it didn’t quite land. The book was overly verbose - I mean, I like a challenge, but phrases like “Quickly I pour us some fortifactory coffee and made some unexemplary motions of self-preening, preparing myself for maternal contact” can be tiring to slog through (that wasn’t the worst one, either). Started out fine, but then it really started to drag when the protagonist went through a self-pitying decline, and the ending seemed really rushed. Also, the brothers talked about when their father died, they would get all the inheritance, but did they forget that their mother was still alive and kicking? Silly little detail, but things like that detracted from the story.

[Juli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This hooked me from the beginning, and not many books do that these days. It was unusual, but not outright odd. I had to look up some vocabulary words (adumbrate?) and sometimes I had to read a sentence a few times to get it, but I didn't resent that. There was a character whose description never quite clicked for me, but I didn't mind because I wasn't going to like her anyway.

A book about family, distorted memory, and revelations that more more than I expected from the blurb on the back cover. And thank goodness for impulse buys at used book stores (and an assignment to read a "book with a yellow cover"), because otherwise I never would have heard of this.

[Anna Keesey-Faúndez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, gang. Get out your tissues and your dictionaries: as is tradition with a Davies novel.

While The Frog King and Mine All Mine are both pretty good in their own right, Goodbye Lemon stands out from this crowd of three.

Fair warning though: this book is an emotionally taxing read. It’s good! Very good. Buuut maybe don’t read it while struggling with major depression or family-related trauma. Or alcoholism. To each their own, of course, but this book is heavy. I’m glad I saved it all these years to read. My twenty-year-old self wouldn’t have been ready or had the appreciation I find myself having for Goodbye Lemon now.

Now that we have our dictionaries, let’s settle in! Goodbye Lemon is a love letter to a loss of innocence and the people who are left behind after a death. It deals very heavily with themes of grief, guilt, and blame. You, the reader, are not really here for a “good time;” there be no light-hearted fun here. Goodbye Lemon is painfully, heart-breakingly realistic, and it is not ashamed of that fact. Which is one of the reasons it’s so good. In some ways, this book felt like a memoir in its presentation and honesty.

And, just like his other novels, Davies likes to center in on one very-messed-up person and poke and prod them to see how they react and what they say. But his characters are just that: people. And that’s especially clear in Goodbye Lemon.

While mystery is a part of the story, it’s not the point. I figured pretty early on what the “big reveal” would be, but that guess didn’t take away from the story. In fact, I think it made me more curious. I wanted to know how Jack—the main character—got there; I wanted to follow his journey, his thoughts, and his actions. I wanted to see how his relationships would change. Would he sink? Or would he swim?

Overall, yes, Goodbye Lemon is absolutely worth a read. I finished it on a rainy evening while sitting quietly with my spouse, which was a good way to end this somber story with a ray of hope in its final pages.

[Jennifer Randolph · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought that the story itself was very touching. There is a whole spectrum of emotions that are carried through every segment of the book. While I agree that the author does have an iron grasp of the English language, sometimes it was just too much. Too many descriptives detracted from the main point of the story, often making me just scan through a paragraph or two just to get to the point. But overall, I liked the book.

[Anita Aleksejevna · Rating 4 out of 5]

very recommendable for people who love analysing others and enjoy psychological topics. super emotional and detailing in father-son-relationship. i personally also liked the shortness of most of the chapters.
not too long, not too short.
had a very good read!!

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

I know I read it. I don't remember much.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Die ersten 2/3 waren deprimierend und ich war nach 100 Seiten kurz davor, das Buch abzubrechen. Am Ende war ich froh, es nicht getan zu haben. Bis zum Schluss zu lesen hat sich wirklich gelohnt!

[Susu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eine komplexe Familiengeschichte - ie Belastung durch hartnäckiges Schweigen, Rückblick in die Vergangenheit und ein versöhnlich gestricktes Ende

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This author sure loves his descriptions lol. I will admit that at first i wasnt 100 positive as to the purpose of this book and sometimes i got bogged down by the writing style a bit. But it was an enjoyable read at the end. A book that teaches about loss and the importance of family.

[gardienne_du_feu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jack Tennant ist Anfang dreißig und blickt auf ein Leben zurück, das im wesentlichen aus einer Aneinanderreihung von Misserfolgen besteht (die er größtenteils aber nicht selbst verschuldet hat). Eigentlich hatte er sich geschworen, nie wieder nach Hause zurückzukehren, aber auf Drängen seiner Freundin Hahva hin tut er es doch, als sein Vater einen schweren Schlaganfall erleidet und zwar aus dem Koma wieder erwacht, sich aber weder bewegen noch verständlich machen kann.

Die Rückkehr nach Maryland katapultiert Jack zurück in die Vergangenheit, und das mit einer Wucht, die ihn ziemlich aus der Bahn wirft. Seine Mutter ist noch genauso zwanghaft ordentlich, sein Bruder Press immer noch ein versoffener Loser, und auch daran, dass niemand je über Dexter spricht, den Mittleren der drei Söhne, der als Kind im See ertrunken ist. Der einzige Beweis, dass es Dex überhaupt gegeben hat, ist einer seiner orangefarbenen Flipflops, den Jack wie einen Schatz hütet. Heimlich, versteht sich. Nicht einmal Hahva weiß davon - aber die weiß auch nicht, dass Jack ursprünglich einmal zwei Brüder hatte.

Mit all der Heimlichtuerei muss endlich Schluss sein und er muss sein Leben auf die Reihe kriegen, findet Jack. Dazu trinkt er erst einmal gemeinsam mit seinem Bruder jede Menge Schnaps und tut auch einige andere mehr oder weniger bescheuerte Dinge, die nicht unbedingt hilfreich sind bei der Auseinandersetzung mit seiner Familie und ihren Geheimnissen, bis ihm klar wird, worauf es ihm eigentlich wirklich ankommt.

Der Prolog macht neugierig auf das Buch. Jack beschreibt seinen Bruder, ganz so, als könne er sich detailliert an ihn erinnern, nur um ein paar Zeilen später zu schreiben, vielleicht sei er ja auch ganz anders gewesen und traurig festzustellen, dass er kaum noch etwas weiß über seinen Bruder. Die Macht der Erinnerungen, aber auch deren Unzuverlässigkeit oder ihr gänzliches Fehlen sind ein Hauptthema des Buches, in dessen Mittelpunkt der tragische Verlust eines Kindes steht, den keiner der Familienmitglieder je aufgearbeitet hat.

Leider gefiel mir das Ganze lange nicht so gut wie erhofft. Die Ansätze der Geschichte versprachen viel, aber die Charaktere waren mir zu stark überzeichnet, die Gags zu grell und auch mit der Sprache wurde ich nicht so recht warm (letzteres kann aber auch gut an der Übersetzung gelegen haben). Etwas weniger Alkoholkonsum oder Kneipengerangel hätten sicher auch nicht geschadet. Es fällt mir schwer, in Worte zu fassen, was genau mich gestört hat, aber irgendwie war das Gesamtbild des Buches für mich nicht stimmig. Vielleicht lag es daran, dass Jack auf mich eher wie ein verquerer Teenager wirkte als wie ein Mann Mitte 30.

Schade eigentlich, denn Potential hätte der Plot durchaus gehabt (und wurde auch immerhin zu einem überzeugenden Ende gebracht).

[Chris Horne · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good, surprising at times and able to stir a few feelings thanks to sharing a little too much in common with the narrator, Jackson Tennant. Initially, I was turned off by the plot description (guy goes home for the first time in 15 years, crap happens) because it felt a little overdone, but I'd just finished Davies' latest book, Mine All Mine, and liked it. So I trusted the author and it paid off.

There's a lot going on between the Tennants and it starts with Jack's relationship with his father, Col. Guilford Tennant, who Jack blames for the death of his slightly older brother Dexter and his ruined dreams to be a concert pianist. His memories of Dex are fuzzy, shifting, almost assuredly wrong, and that drives him nuts. His oldest brother, Pressman, has lived at home well into his late-30s, done little more than drink. His mother is a control freak. And his girlfriend, Hahva, doesn't know about any of this but insists he go be with his family after his father has a stroke that leaves him paralyzed but otherwise completely conscious and aware.

Compared to Mine All Mine, this was a hard book to read. The humor was in shorter supply, though it worked when it was there, keeping this from being a melancholic mess. The story felt real even when you wanted to slap Jack upside the head. I read the last 100 pages in a single-sitting blur, which says something itself.

I'd recommend it.

[Davy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second book from buddy and former creative writing professor Adam Davies. Had no idea it existed until Amazon.com helpfully recommended it to me. Being on a nonfiction kick at the time, I put it off for a month or so, until I ran into Adam one night while working at Borders. Hadn't seen him in 4 years, hadn't heard from him in 3. Thought he was living in CA or NY. NY was right, but his girlfriend attends the UGA law school and he visits frequently. We made a date for the holidays...and I decided to read the new book post-haste.

It is perhaps even more autobiographical than Frog King...half of it takes place in an unnamed Athens, GA (5-Star Day, J & J, The Manhattan...all get mentions), and half in Baltimore, where he grew up. Story: Young man tries to mend ties and come to terms with a family that was destroyed by the drowning of a 6 year-old brother and son...and the subsequent alcoholism. There's more to it than that...the father is very sick, Jack's relationship with his girlfriend is in peril...but the highlight, I think, is the portrayal of the relationship between Jack and his brother, Press. More dazzling wordplay, Adam-style, doesn't hurt.

[Yvonne O'Connor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack Tennant goes home to a father who has ha a stroke with his girlfriend, Havha. Slowly, we learn of the brother who drowned when he was very young and the mystery of how it happens unravels. Jack had spent his whole life believing Dex drowned because his father was drunk and not watching. In reality, his father only started to drink afterwards. His other brother, Pressman, was annoyed by Dex and left the house and the mom was drinking and wasn't watching. Dex went to find Press and the father exhausted himself trying to find him in the water. In the end, Jack turns his dysfunctional life around and mends the old wounds.

There are so many twists and turns to this plot you would think I would have gotten lost and hated the book. Instead, with each unbelievable addition, I became more and more intrigued. I never saw the truth about Dex's death coming. I loved that. Jack was far from perfect, but could use his own imperfection to find redemption for himself and also to allow him to men his strained relationship with his father. All the characters were real, human, relatable and interesting.

[Xavier Guillaume · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book opened up the world of Lock-jaw Syndrome to me that I've never heard of, thus it was all rather remarkable. Not as funny as Mine All Mine or Frog King, but it definitely had its moments. Especially the father cruising around crashing into things on a pursuit to 'suicide?' Absolutely hilarious! The story was really well written though, and I loved it nonetheless.

If you want to read a story with a similar theme, there is another book called The Buttefly and the Diving Bell, it's actually a memoir or a man who lived with Lockjaw Syndrome. It's not exactly as light-humored, but it's equally as enlightening, maybe a bit more due to its serious nature.

[starfy · Rating 2 out of 5]

while the story of the seriously dysfunctional tennant family is an entertaining, easy read, i can't help but feel like the author tried too hard. his word choice and metaphors seemed to be trying desperately to make literature out of a work of light fiction. aside from my beef with the author's vocabulary choices, i did enjoy this book - it made me laugh a few times, it made me roll my eyes at some of the more absurd plot twists, and it even made a few insightful statements that resonated with me.

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is really more of a 3.5 (I'm trying to resist inflationary grading but a 3 is too low imo). At first I thought the book was going to be all cliche: a guy has never been home for 15 years in order to avoid his incredibly dysfunctional family, but his girlfriend convinces him to return home after his father suffers a major stroke and is unable to move or speak. He has always blamed his father for the death of his brother Dexter (this is not a spoiler since the first pages reveal how Dexter died). Most of the characters interested me and I liked how the conflict was resolved. A good read.

[J.T.]

I picked this book up at a thrift-store in Georgia out of desperation (I'd finished the book I bought with me and still had a few days left of my visit), based solely on the comparisons to other authors I like on the back cover blurb (Nick Hornby, Dave Eggers).

The comparisons are actually pretty accurate, and I ended up really enjoying this book. It didn't grab me at first, but once I'd gotten about halfway in I was hooked. I ended up reading the last third or so in one sitting despite desperately needing to get sleep (my kids wake up early).

[Valerie Streit · Rating 4 out of 5]

The protagonist in this novel and Adam Davies' previous novel, The Frog King, are eerily similar. He paints a wonderfully full picture of a man you can't really embrace because of his indulgent self pitying -- but at the same time, he dares you to accept this not-so-stellar protagonist -- which in turn, tends to make the reader feel guilty about the hypocrisy of their initial judgement. Also, if you need to step up your vocab without memorizing a dictionary - check him out.

[Kristie · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading "The Frog King" randomly a couple of years ago, I had waited anxiously for another book by Davies....until I forgot about it. This week, I stumbled across his latest book and was excited to read it.

The book matches a light read (chick-lit that a boy would like, similar to Hornsby) with a heavy topic (death of a brother that almost ruins a family) in a humorous, vocabularific (yes, that's a word) style.

Good read.

[Sherri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book up in a clearance bin in North Conway. What a great story. The main character (Jack) now grown up returns home because his father is ill. The relationship between Jack and his father is strained and he has strong feelings of contempt for his father. When Jack was 5 years old he lost a brother to a drowning accident which he blames his father for. The ending reveals how as young children we see only what we think we see and not what really was.

[Breonna Brownlee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a good story, but very hard to read at times because of how it is written. The author likes to use $5 words for what seems like no reason at all. The conversations between the family seems so unrealistic. It's not hard to understand, even though I wanted to keep a dictionary on hand, it's just unnecessary. Despite all of that, the story was good enough to keep me interested. Very in line with Jonathan Tropper type of story.

[Gianna Mosser · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like the tone this narrator manages to strike when it comes to family and personal despair. With that said, this book is all in one person's head. And it can be a little draining to experience the neurosis full on, even with the comic relief. I think the front end of the novel sets us up for one experience and then the resolution at the end of the novel seems to cute to have come from the depth of the first. half.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

At this point I'll be anxious to read whatever Adam Davies publishes next. This book was different than the Frog King but did have that same pathetic-and-troubled-yet-somehow-lovable main character type, and I found myself routing for him even when he didn't deserve it. I love a book that can turn you on your head like that.