Genesis Road

by Susan O'Dell Underwood

Glenna Daniels faces a midlife cul-de-sac. She bears a recent miscarriage and third divorce the way her Appalachian parents taught her to cope with tragedy—in stoic secrecy. She quits her social work position in Knoxville and runs away from home at the age of thirty-six, heading west with childhood friend, Carey, a gay professor in Atlanta. During their years in school, Glenna protected him from bullies. Now Carey is her savvy guide as she tries to heal her fractured life. Through the wilds of America Glenna grapples with the past and reconciles a way back home.

342 pages, Unknown Binding

Published June 21, 2022

About the author

Susan Underwood earned her MFA in creative writing from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and her Ph.D. in English from Florida State University. She has been teaching at Carson-Newman University since 1990, where she is professor of English and director of the creative writing program. She won the 2004 Tennessee Arts Commission literary grant.

Reviews

[Ruth Garcia-Corrales · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genesis Road by Susan O’Dell Underwood is the story of Glenna growing up in a dysfunctional family with an alcoholic and abusive father. Her story is told while traveling with a friend crossing America from Tennessee to Texas, Arizona, Nevada, California on and on. They camp in national and historic parks and lived the history of their path trying to connect to their wounds and looking for healing. The topics the stories revels are strong from homosexuality, to abortion, miscarriage, divorce, and abuse, the author those a great job describing it. The importance of having a friend who will listen without judgement is key in the process.

[Bruce Overby · Rating 4 out of 5]

When an author commands words and imagery like a fine poet, and that author delivers a sweeping narrative of a broken life reconsidered, and that life is reconsidered over the course of a journey from Tennessee to the West Coast and back, the result just might be a delightful book like Susan O'Dell Underwood's Genesis Road. I once had a writing teacher, a noted novelist, who spoke of "messing up" a novel as a way of more deeply engaging the reader. O'Dell Underwood, who is in fact a fine poet, establishes the emotion and intensity of this story early on with just that kind of messiness. The story's protagonist, Glenna, the thrice-married daughter of an abusive father, approaches midlife in a monumental struggle to conceive a child, a messy life that is, in those early pages, a literal trial by fire. The story ricochets back and forth in time through Glenna's childhood, failed marriages, torched homes, and a prison sentence for her father, a messy reading experience that beautifully portrays a messy life. When Glenna reconnects with her childhood friend, Carey, a gay man in conservative Tennessee who has recently lost his partner to an untimely death, O'Dell Underwood's talent as a wordsmith reaches new heights on the page. As the two travel across the country, the author's flowing, and dare I say, poetic descriptions of the nation's natural and historical wonders carry the reader along like a cool breeze through a mountain forest. Genesis Road is an intimate view of Glenna's internal struggle to come to terms with both her vulnerability and her culpability in the complicated life portrayed in such a searing fashion in the novel's early pages—a struggle made all the more real through her deep, but at times fragile relationship with Carey, her childhood friend.

By now you may be asking, Okay, so where's that fifth star, Overby? To which I'll respond, I did think the book, a dense 331 pages, could have been streamlined. I would never comment on what, exactly, could have been cut, it's just that I'm a very slow reader, so my patience can, at times, be stretched more readily than most.

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was wonderful! The main character suffers many tragedies in her life, and the most recent is her father dying in the burning of her home. She takes a cross country trip with her best friend, Carey, and as they go across the land, she sees revelations in the land that remind her of her life and help her come to terms with her past. In the end, it is a great story for all the characters, as they learn so much about themselves.

[Sharon Bazant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genesis Road is both an adventurous and emotional journey. The main character, Glenna, is facing a mid-life crisis of loss and personal tragedy. Her Appalachian roots have taught her to be stoic, keeping all of her problems bottled up. A quintessential American road trip with her gay best friend opens her eyes and her heart. Both the characters and the landscape come alive as the reader rides along on Glenna's journey. I look forward to more from this author.

[Lane Willson · Rating 5 out of 5]

You start where you start, but from there all bets are off.

Glenna Daniels, the Cocke County, Tennessee Ulysses of Susan O’Dell Underwood’s novel Genesis Road, traverses the wilds already crossed in her life while trying to figure out her next direction. In an odd Thelma and Louise, Hope/Crosby, Batman/Robin kind of adventure where whoever is driving gets to be Batman or Louise, Glenna makes this journey with her life-long friend Carey. He too is a survivor of Newport, Tennessee and has found a place for himself in the world as a gay man in Atlanta.

Here is where you have to read the book so I don’t have to worry about spoiler alerts.

Glenna’s crossroads are a unique recipe of childhood trauma, her own past mistakes, we’re talking bunches of past mistakes, a few which seem like mortal wounds, seasoned with self-pity, regret, and fear. These flavors always appear at the right time, subtly yet powerfully bring out the stories flavor.

It’s wonderful when a book moves you on one level or another, and Genesis Road created an emotional mixture I’d never tasted before. At times it made me not want to keep going. As Glenna makes the turn towards home in her 8,000 mile adventure she begins to dread and fear that point when her decisions can be postponed no longer. Feeling and sharing her fear, I also began to dread that, like all tales well told, this one too would come to an end. Glenna, being the protagonist of a wonderfully written novel had to go on. I’m glad I kept going with her.

Thomas Wolfe said, “You can’t go home again,” but he was wrong. You can go home again, especially if it is the place where you start where you start again.

[Sarah Spaulding Avento · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved that I could hear Susan's voice so clearly through this novel. The familiar scenery kept me gripped even though I couldn't relate to some of the finer points of the story. I think Susan really captures the story of womanhood, Appalachia, and coming-of-age at any age. The reckoning of this book is powerful and written with the most delicious hint of Susan's background as a poet. My only reservations/critiques are the acute level of self awareness that the narrator (Glenna) has. She reflects on people, herself, and Appalachia not casually or as a revelation, but as someone who has been critiquing and considering these topics for a very long time at a very high level and is finally giving her dissertation, so to speak. Sometimes her voice felt a bit too pedantic and removed me from the narrative. Additionally, I felt much of the action of the book was rushed and hurried over. I wouldn't have minded spending more time in all of these magical scenes with these characters really getting a grip on what it means to take a physical and personal journey.

[Michael Cody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a wonderful book! Susan O'Dell Underwood's Genesis Road is a travel novel, a buddies-on-the-road novel, a fictional visit to real and beautiful U.S. landscapes from Tennessee to the west coast and back, a rich exploration of longstanding friendship and dysfunctional family and the pathways and highways to healing. Glenna is the first-person narrator, and her travel-buddy is Carey, her best friend from way back. Both of them have experienced devastating loss, and they hit the road to recover their stability and rediscover their friendship. Readers not only drive across the U.S. with Glenna and Carey, but as the landscape rushes by and days and nights pass, they also dive into Glenna's past to probe (with her and often with Carey) the many places of hurt. Along the way, we are treated to a tour of parks and tales of modern tent-camping life. The passages about Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens are especially stunning and, in themselves, worth the ride there and back!

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this heartfelt novel, Susan O'Dell Underwood takes us on a cross-country trip filled in equal measure with grief and joy, the larger scope of American history intersecting with the personal histories of Glenna and her best friend from high school, a gay man named Carey. Questions of loyalty and the meaning of home will leave you thinking about these characters—about their loves and losses, and the deep friendship between them—long after their journey across these pages is over.

[Kyndall Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a wonderful story about love, grief, and what it means to be wherever you call home. Throughout this book, it is impossible to forget that Susan O’Dell Underwood is a beautifully talented and thoughtful poet. Her words drove me to both tears and laughter, as I learned alongside Glenna Daniels what it means to reflect (sometimes painfully) on our uniquely individual life experiences, as well as our collective experiences through the lenses of landscape and shared history Absolute 10/10!!!

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me a month because I loved it so much, savoring every word. I did not want it to end. I recognized nearly every place because I too, once took an epic journey across the US to many of these same exact destinations.
A genuine East Tennessee voice. True and heartfelt. The best. All quotes are dictated in the updates section. I had to make them as I read along, because I borrowed this book.

[GiGi Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Susan wrote a novel that reads like poetry. Her writing style is simply beautiful. My copy has so many highlighted passages. I wanted to preserve every lovely word.

[Jeanne Roberson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was impressed with this book. I thought it was so beautifully written and did a wonderful job of exploring trauma and it's impact on our relationships.