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We Agreed to Meet Just Here
Fiction. Winner of the 2007 AWP Award for the Novel. Robert Eversz, Judge. "WE AGREED TO MEET JUST HERE is a lyrical mystery about disappearance, told in precise and luminous prose. A young lifeguard in an Austin suburb vanishes one night while returning from a screening of The Third Man. A doctor, ill with cancer, goes missing from his home, and is later seen, bearded and ragged, wandering the aisles of a grocery store. A car is stolen, the unseen consequences tragic. One child is given up to adoption, another is lost up a tree. The absences are so keenly felt, in the drifting lucidity of the author's sentences, that every reappearance reads like a small miracle"--Robert Eversz.
164 pages, Hardcover
First published February 2, 2009
4 people are currently reading
599 people want to read
About the author
Scott Blackwood
4 books38 followersScott Blackwood is the author of three books of fiction, including the forthcoming novel SEE HOW SMALL (Little Brown and Company and HarperCollins U.K. 2015). Blackwood was a 2011 Whiting Writers' Award recipient and his first novel, WE AGREED TO MEET JUST HERE, set in the Deep Eddy Neighborhood of Austin, Texas, won the AWP Prize for the Novel, Texas Institute of Letters Award for best work of fiction, and was a finalist for the PEN USA Award. His first book was the award-winning story collection, IN THE SHADOW OF OUR HOUSE, published in 2001.
His other two books of narrative nonfiction—produced by musician Jack White and featured on NPR's Weekend Edition, Sound Opinions, and Charlie Rose—tell the curious tale of the rise and fall of the first wildly successful "Race music" label, Paramount Records, whose early recordings of Ma Rainey, Ethel Waters, Louis Armstrong, Alberta Hunter, Fletcher Henderson, Son House, Skip James, and Charley Patton accidentally changed the face of American music and culture.
Blackwood, a long time resident of Austin, Texas, currently lives in Chicago and teaches in the MFA Creative Writing Program at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. More information can be found about his books and background at www.Scottblackwood.com
His other two books of narrative nonfiction—produced by musician Jack White and featured on NPR's Weekend Edition, Sound Opinions, and Charlie Rose—tell the curious tale of the rise and fall of the first wildly successful "Race music" label, Paramount Records, whose early recordings of Ma Rainey, Ethel Waters, Louis Armstrong, Alberta Hunter, Fletcher Henderson, Son House, Skip James, and Charley Patton accidentally changed the face of American music and culture.
Blackwood, a long time resident of Austin, Texas, currently lives in Chicago and teaches in the MFA Creative Writing Program at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. More information can be found about his books and background at www.Scottblackwood.com
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
January 10, 2018
This was a very lyrical story about the people in a neighborhood in Austin near Deep Eddy pool around 2000. It was...beautiful and thought provoking...but to be honest, I'm still not exactly sure what was going on.
April 9, 2009
Great novel, with gorgeous scenery and some truly fabulous sentences. I read whole passages aloud and felt lifted by the language.
But I hear Blackwood is a questionable character . . . word on the street is that his past is bespeckled with inordinate malfeasances. Enjoy the book -- the book is a must! -- but hide your car keys when Blackwood comes to your house. You never know what a guy like that might do.
But I hear Blackwood is a questionable character . . . word on the street is that his past is bespeckled with inordinate malfeasances. Enjoy the book -- the book is a must! -- but hide your car keys when Blackwood comes to your house. You never know what a guy like that might do.
August 17, 2010
This novel, Blackwood's first, won the 2007 AWP Award for the Novel and was published in 2009. We Agreed to Meet Just Here is short at only 164 pages, but there is much more going on than you might expect from such a slim novel.
The novel primarily it deals with two disappearances in an Austin, Texas neighborhood: a young, beautiful lifeguard, and a sick, dying old man who happened to be the doctor who was the first to arrive on the scene of the Jonestown mass suicide. (If you've read Blackwood's collection, In the Shadow of Our House, you'll recognize not only the suburb, but many of the same characters, including Odie, the Jonestown doctor.) The story is relatively simple, in that it follows various characters from the neighborhood around and shows how they are all connected and how they collectively, and separately, deal with these disappearances.
That said, the way Blackwood chooses to structure the novel--with sections of plural narration spread throughout, the collective "we" of the neighborhood, like a Greek Chorus, as well as both disappeared characters getting a chance to narrate their own short sections--the story becomes far more complicated. This isn't a criticism of Blackwood; on the contrary, it's a compliment. By structuring the novel this way, readers are forced to examine more closely the way each of these characters are (dis)connected. On top of all that, Odie has conversations with an imaginary Jim Jones (it sounds a bit silly, but trust me, it's not), the plural "we" narrator imagines scenes, memories, and thoughts of characters "they" can't know, and there are a couple of extended (several page long) dream-like sequences.
While all of that may sound complicated, and to a certain extent it is, the novel is so well crafted that what initially seems complicated becomes, as you continue reading, just another, deeper layer of meaning.
I've said this a lot in my reviews lately, but this is yet another novel that could certainly bear rereading.
The novel primarily it deals with two disappearances in an Austin, Texas neighborhood: a young, beautiful lifeguard, and a sick, dying old man who happened to be the doctor who was the first to arrive on the scene of the Jonestown mass suicide. (If you've read Blackwood's collection, In the Shadow of Our House, you'll recognize not only the suburb, but many of the same characters, including Odie, the Jonestown doctor.) The story is relatively simple, in that it follows various characters from the neighborhood around and shows how they are all connected and how they collectively, and separately, deal with these disappearances.
That said, the way Blackwood chooses to structure the novel--with sections of plural narration spread throughout, the collective "we" of the neighborhood, like a Greek Chorus, as well as both disappeared characters getting a chance to narrate their own short sections--the story becomes far more complicated. This isn't a criticism of Blackwood; on the contrary, it's a compliment. By structuring the novel this way, readers are forced to examine more closely the way each of these characters are (dis)connected. On top of all that, Odie has conversations with an imaginary Jim Jones (it sounds a bit silly, but trust me, it's not), the plural "we" narrator imagines scenes, memories, and thoughts of characters "they" can't know, and there are a couple of extended (several page long) dream-like sequences.
While all of that may sound complicated, and to a certain extent it is, the novel is so well crafted that what initially seems complicated becomes, as you continue reading, just another, deeper layer of meaning.
I've said this a lot in my reviews lately, but this is yet another novel that could certainly bear rereading.
September 2, 2017
I kept with this book because I didn't have another audiobook to switch to. I found it hard to follow and aimless, and even worse, boring. Thankfully, it was short.
May 20, 2009
I agree with other reviewers who absolutely loved the language in this book. Some passages read like poetry, and evoke such clear imagery that you can fix the scene clearly in your mind. I found some characters very compelling - others not so much - and the story was interesting, but scattered. If I could break down the rating, I'd give it a 5 for language, 4 for characters, and 3 for story. I'm wondering if this book needed another round of editing to illuminate some of the connections between characters? If that's what this book is about - connections - then I think that part could have used a bit more work.
July 7, 2014
I wanted to like this book because set in Austin (loved recognizing the different neighborhoods and landmarks), is on a lot of "must read" lists, and is beautifully written. I even read it while laying on the grass in Zilker, for maximum Austin-ness. But this book just didn't hold my attention and I ended up spending most of it confused. The book follows several different people in Austin as they deal with various life stressors (troubled marriages, missing woman, etc.) I just didn't feel very invested in any of the characters. The language is beautiful, but feels more like a poem than a novel and ultimately lost me.
November 20, 2011
This past summer I had the privilege of learning from Scott Blackwood while working with the Masters Creative Writing program at Roosevelt. Having just finished reading this, I can honestly say that Scott is not only a great teacher and all around fun, interesting, and smart guy, but he is a phenomenal writer. It's no wonder he just won the Whiting Writer's Award for this book, as well as winning the AWP Award Series in the Novel. The book is sad and true, and shows the ways in which our lives ever so slightly entangle with those around us.
October 10, 2020
I will admit I'm not a big fan of lyrical descriptions of large breasted teen-aged girls and their romantic dalliances with middle-aged men, but if I'm going to read one, I'd prefer the author to use the first person singular. Blackwood's insistence on using "we" in discussing an inappropriate obsession with the young lifeguard ups the ick factor and really brings out the Woody Allen.
On the flip side, I was intrigued by the conversations with the late Jim Jones.
In the end though, my loan expired, and I just found I wasn't interested enough to renew it.
On the flip side, I was intrigued by the conversations with the late Jim Jones.
In the end though, my loan expired, and I just found I wasn't interested enough to renew it.
January 18, 2016
This is an ambitious book and yet a slim volume, at only 164 pages. What I loved most about it is Blackwood's strength and use of prose and poetry in combination to tell these shards of a town's loss. The ongoing threads of the two missing characters, a lifeguard and an old man, kept me riveted, and although there are some edits I might have suggested, still this is a worthy read. It echoes so much of the disjointedness of our world today: who are your neighbors? How well do we know anybody?
July 3, 2009
The language! The emotional resonance that language creates! This is a beautiful book. My only complaint was that I loved it so much, felt so connected to the characters, I did not want it to end so soon.
December 9, 2014
I saw Blackwood read at the 2009 AWP conference in Chicago and it was by far the best reading of the conference - this novel is moody, mysterious, and above all evocative of summertime suburbia. Made me think of my home of Tulsa.
April 27, 2015
Love his lyrical phrasing and his descriptions of Austin, but I can't figure out where he is going most of the time. Is it possible to get lost within the story even when paying attention???? Wonderful little novel!
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March 23, 2009If this wasn't set in Austin, I think I'd have given up on it. The characters don't interest me. I'm sure it's very well written. Just not my cup of tea.
August 28, 2012
Most beautiful piece of full length fiction I've ever read
June 20, 2014
I'm going to have to read this one again. It was a little confusing. I need to be more focused next time I read it.
May 10, 2016
It's a bit quirky, the narrative fragmented and folding back on itself, but the writing is gorgeous, and the characters fully developed and sensitively rendered.
June 8, 2014
A student's father wrote this novel, and it was not at all what I expected. Very intriguing.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews