Come Again No More

by Jack Todd

From the award-winning author of the acclaimed Sun Going Down comes an intimate portrait of a marriage and a family struggling to survive turbulent times that echo our own. THE PAINT FAMILY built an American empire on the legendary strength of their character, their wit, and their resolve, but the foreclosures, bank failures, and joblessness of the Great Depression may bring their world down around them. The family’s foundation is further weakened by a rift running through two generations, scarred over by stubbornness and pain. Come Again No More is a uniquely American story about a family navigating a changing world and the tough choices it presents. The indomitable family patriarch, Eli, owns everything as far as the eye can see, but there is an emptiness in his heart. After a dramatic accident leaves him struggling for life, he must reckon with the decisions he made that separated him from the daughter he loved most. A chance for redemption presents itself in his granddaughter Emaline. Eli has faced his own mortality many times, but his pride seems to have a death grip on him. Emaline marries Jake, a womanizing prizefighter who promises to help her realize her dream of making a life on a farm. But Jake’s inner demons and nature itself conspire against Emaline’s fierce determination to make their marriage work. Life sends Emaline many joys when she least expects them, but ultimately, she must make tough decisions about holding on and letting go. Based on the author’s family letters and diaries, Come Again No More is a bittersweet novel, a moving and vivid portrayal of a family’s triumphs and tragedies paralleling the glories and shameful underbelly of a nation struggling through the Great Depression.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Westerns

356 pages, Hardcover

First published September 7, 2010

Reviews

[Brian Wilde · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed Jack Todd’s first book in the trilogy so much I immediately bought and read the second one. The Paint family comes to life again. Jack is a gifted writer. He deserves so much more credit than ever will come to him, but I suppose in the Twitter age that this can be said of many. I won’t forget the Paint family and though many will think this has quite a reach when I read Todd I feel as if I could be reading of the Joads. Beautiful writing through and through.

[Marie Carmean · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second in a series of books based loosely on Jack Todd's family, this one did not have the punch of the first, Sun Going Down. I would still give it 3 1/2 stars if I could, because Todd's writing is wonderful, and there were times when I could not put the book down. I had a couple of problems: too many times sexual acts were mentioned with a bit too much detail in this one and though I know that seems to be common in many modern books, I find it unnecessary to the story line to be that concise about it, even though I do understand the type of characters being depicted when that occurred would have truly spoken and acted in that way; and my lack of interest in boxing made it hard to read the chapters about Jake McCloskey, even though it set up what was going to happen later in the book. I felt badly for Emaline over and over, both in Sun Going Down and in Come Again No More...truly one woman should never have to go through as much as she did! I did not think the depth of the complexity of feelings toward her Grandfather Eli were addressed enough. She hated him, and then years later she forgave him because of Juanita, but human emotions are deeper than that. I think she would have struggled more with her decision to forgive. The book had an awesome ending, bringing the two books back full circle to the mustangs. I'm glad I read it, but I hope the third book will hold more of what I loved about the first one.

[Bamboozlepig · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF'd at the halfway point. Beautiful writing, but the plot was scattered. It first focused on Eli, them Emaline, and a lot of it felt rushed. Might've made more sense if I'd been able to read the first book in the trilogy, but my library did a massive purge of its book collection and dumped the first and last book in the series. It really bums me out because it seems like all that's left at the library to read is cliched chicklit, thrillers, mysteries, James Patterson and James Patterson wannabes, Jodi Picoult and Jodi Picoult wannabes, post-apocalyptic crap, and Danielle Steele.

But that rant is neither here nor there, I guess.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a second in a series about the Paint family, who were big ranchers. It was beautifully written but a bit confusing because it starts with the grandfather and then moves to the granddaughter Emaline. I think if I had read the first book, it would have been clearer and would have given it a 4.

[Vera Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

They were three miles west of town when the sun broke through. The wind tore the clouds to rags, the sun lit the rags on fire and in fiery trails they streamed across the sky that opened like a bruised and tender heart. Opening sentences of Come Again No More

In that opening, Jack Todd paints a beautiful picture of the open skies of Wyoming, but I like this passage a few sentences later, where the author gives us a capsule of the time when people are taking road trips, as well as the setting.

Now and again they caught up to battered jalopies tiptoeing along the road on tires that were tall and thin and bald as a buzzard, the drivers gritting their teeth as they held on to the wide steering wheels, fighting to keep an ancient Model T or a battered Studebaker form skidding into the barrow pit.

Now I know that the times are tough, and since the Model T is already ancient, I assume the 1930's have arrived with the Great Depression. By the colloquialism 'bald as a buzzard,' I'm tipped off that this is the Western United States. Automobiles and road trips are important in this book, particularly since people wandered from state to state seeking relief from unrelenting hardship.

Todd portrays two worlds--ranching and gangster-ridden boxing--and there is no doubt when you leave one for the other. Not only the character's speech, but the narrative reflects the rhythm and usage of its world.

On the ranch:" Ezra Paint crawled out of his bunk while it was still darker than a stack of black cats."

In Jake, the prize fighter's world: "..his knuckles had been broken so often that his hands looked like a bowl full of walnuts."

The use of "telling details" eludes lesser writers (I will admit that it is the bane of my existence), and sets Jack Todd apart as a masterful teller of tales.

Come Again No More is the second in a trilogy about the ranching family, the Paints. Since I missed the first one, and devoured this one, I yearn to read the entire set, starting with Sun Going Down, and the third when it appears.

On his website, Todd explains that while he based the tales on stories from his parents and grandparents' experience, he fictionalized the events in order to reflect a broader view of the experience of those years.  He tips his hat to the master, John Steinbeck, whose The Grapes of Wrath is the go-to novel for understanding life during the hard years of the depression.

Jack Todd doesn't live in the American West, because he left the United States to avoid being drafted for the war in Vietnam. He is now a sportswriter in Canada. I am glad that I didn't read the fine print about his personal choices before I read the novel. Whatever you think of his iconoclastic journalism or his surrender of his American passport, his writing about the West shines.

Original review at A Traveler's Library.com

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an engaging book with many interesting characters and a layered plot. The ending was weak and completely disconnected from the rest of the novel, however.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

ARC received through the Goodreads First Reads program.

hen I read the first chapter of this book, I thought I'd made a mistake in requesting it. Based on the first couple of paragraphs, I thought there was no way I'd be able to connect with the characters Eli or Emaline, and I wasn't sure about the writing style. I was SO WRONG. Starting with the second chapter, I was completely hooked.

Jack Todd has written a novel with a very strong sense of place, even if there aren't lengthy descriptive passages about the setting. I was able to clearly picture all of the scenes in Nebraska and Wyoming. Todd grew up in those states, and it shows.

The opening of the novel has Eli Paint arriving late for his daughter Velma's funeral. He has a brief interaction with two of his grandchildren, most notably Emaline. Emaline hasn't forgiven him for his treatment of her mother, and she is rather terse with him. On his way back to his ranch, the 8T8, he has a car accident that brings him closer to his housekeeper, Juanita. Juanita becomes the thread that connects Eli to Emaline later in the novel.

We then leave Eli for a good long while. Most of the book follows Emaline and her marriage to Jake McCloskey, a former prizefighter who doesn't seem cut out for either marriage or farming. They struggle to make a go of their Nebraska farm during the Great Depression. Life in the Dust Bowl is hard, and most of the book has a melancholy air. Todd captures the tedium of everyday life, in addition to Emaline's small joys. Jake is a really interesting character, and remains a puzzle throughout the novel. Why does he want to be married at all? Does he actually want to change, and can't, or does he simply not see the effect his actions have on others (or does he not care)?

I really don't want to give too much away, but it's hard. Todd is a good storyteller, and I really enjoyed this book. I have learned that it's part of a trilogy--I'll have to pick up the first book, and keep an eye out for the third's release.

[Caitlin (ScarrletReader)]

http://scarrletreader.blogspot.com/

First of all I’m going to say that Come Again No More is a book I would usually never pick up myself. I usually only read YA books because that’s what I enjoy, though I’d like to thanks GoodReads because I won this ARC from them.

With that said Come Again No More wasn’t really my cup of tea, though I did find that reading the story helped me understand a lot about the years of the Great Depression. This book features Eli Paint and his family and their struggles through this tough time in live and how they come together to help each other. It’s a story of gain and loss, discovering and losing, love and hate, family and friends. It shows just how hard people had to fight to make a living back then. People were poor, going broke and had to struggle to made a living. It’s a very touch story.

Though, something in this book that made me skip over some passages was the cussing and language used. I can understand people cussing when they are angry but there were times where I couldn’t even imagine hearing someone talking like that.

This book is the second in the Paint Family series, but I didn’t read the first one and it was easy to follow along the plotline of the story. The book was kind of slow for me at some points but there were exciting parts too. I’m positive that a person of great interest of the time era the book took place and a person who loves to read a story about a good family orientated book with really enjoy the the Paint’s story.

[tiasreads · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book through the Goodreads First Reads Giveaway. Before I started it, I read the first in the series, Sun Going Down. It was an excellent book and I was instantly hooked on the Paint family story. The beginning of Come Again No More did not disappoint, continuing the saga in fine fashion. The problems began about a third of the way in, when the Jake character was introduced. The reader could tell right off that he was 'bad news'. Unfortunately, the author felt the need to repeatedly drive this point into the reader's head by using excessive lewd talk and foul language. Twice, Mr. Todd used words so revolting to describe a certain part of the female anatomy that if I had had the chance, I would have slapped him. I understand that most people curse, I do it myself when pushed too far, but this was way overboard and totally unnecessary. The reader was perfectly capable of understanding how low Jake and his friends were without that kind of assault. I had to skip sections of the narrative and missed parts of the story. Just about the time I was going to give it up, the language smoothed out and I was able to finish what was a fine story. I'm looking forward to a third book to finish out the Paint saga- I just hope Mr. Todd can return to the form of the first book and not resort to the cheap writer's tactic of using trashy talk to convey his character's personality instead of quality writing.

[Heidi Britton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh.....I think the description on the jacket is a bit misleading as it suggest a kind of emotional conflict between the family patriarch, Eli Paint, and his granddaughter and main character, Emaline. Although the novel seems to be headed in that direction for the first portion, it suddenly veers off into the story of Emaline's struggles with her idiot husband during the Great Depression/Dust Bowl. And that's a shame because I believe I would have enjoyed the novel much more had it stayed with the Eli/Emaline story.

Emaline falls in love and marries a boxer, Jake, and they struggle to hold on to their small farm through the Great Depression/Dust Bowl. When Jake is initially introduced in the book, he's an interesting enough character - an aging boxer who's just about at the end of his career and has been all used up by everyone around him. He seems a complex character with potential at the beginning, but 3 chapters later he's nothing more than an idiot with no depth at all. This is where the book lost me. Jake's only purpose in the book seemed to be to do stupid on such a level that our poor heroine had something to worry with. It was cartoonish. I lost all interest in the heroine at this point as well.

I did enjoy the ending, but then it had little to do with the rest of the book which felt like a Hallmark movie - little emotional drama for 3/4 of the story and a quick, neat, mushy wrap up. Just not my kind of book.

[Tania · Rating 4 out of 5]

"you always think you're going to have more time than you do, then it slips away and you're left holding nothing at all"that was the line that drew me in. My favorite thing about this book is how Jack Todd has done a great job at giving descriptions, it was easy to understand each charter's actions,how the were feeling and best of all, with every word that was written it gave me a great picture (in my head) of what was happening. Come again no more is realistic with its story telling, the relationships between each character, how a family deals with situations, love and forgiveness. this book has book completely touched my heart. I loved it

[Janice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. The first two-thirds were great -- I was hooked from the first page. The characters and story were believable and gritty. The depression-era tale was rich with historical detail that were pertinent to the tale. I found, however, the story began to unravel once the journey out of Wyoming began, and the protagonist's final decision to leave her lout of a husband (who became more and more of a caricature) was anticlimactic. The end also just seemed to come out of nowhere -- and wasn't particularly relevant to the story as a whole.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second book of the Paint Family series, the first being "Sun Going Down." This book starts with the Depression and the the hardships endured by those in the plains states during the horrible drought that took place during those years. Eli Paint is wealthy with a huge ranch in Montana, but many of his children and grandchildren are struggling to survive. Both these novels were inspired by the author's family history. A pretty good read, but I don't know if I would read a third one.

[John Boylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked it. This is the second book of Jack Todd's
that I have read with the first being SUN GOING DOWN. I think
he's a good writer. I like that his main characters are women;
the setting is filled with the political, economic, social events
of the times and mostly that the books are about people who work.
He has a singular style which helps the whole book flow as one and
I appreciate the length of the sentences.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

this continuation of the Paint Trilogy, still gripping but splinters off into other less wholesome areas for me such as more graphic sexual violence. I know it is reality but fiction for me is an escape from that reality, not something I want to fill my leisure time dwelling on. I might not have read this book if I had not read the first book in the trilogy, "Sun Going Down" and wanted to follow the unfolding of the Paint clan lives.

[Lori Stabile · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jack Todd's novel Come Again No More was simply beautiful. This book speaks of love, family, and forgiveness. Reading this novel you feel like you are right there in the moment with each one of the characters. It was the first novel that i won in the Goodreads First Read contest and what a memorable one it was.

[Bonnigene Cloud]

This is the wonderful story of Emaline and her family. Emaline and her family struggle, live and love between 1933 and 1940. The changes in their lives help to determine who each family member is including Ezra, Emaline's grandfather. After losing her mother, Emaline begins to develop a relationship with her grandfather and the rest of her extended family.

[Randine · Rating 3 out of 5]

i enjoyed it because it's got the gritty ranch thing going with a female lead who is made of titanium steel, who makes mistakes and then learns from them. But I don't feel compelled to read the other books in the trilogy.

[Lois · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continuing story of the Paint family. Based on some letters written by relatives-Todd weaves a realistic story of the hardship suffered and triumphs of his relatives who settled in the West in the formative years.
A good read and well written.

[Dee]

***I won this as part of a goodreads first reads giveaway. Review to follow when the book arrives***

[Colleen]

Looking forward to reading this book which I won from the Goodreads contests! Thank-you.

[Mary couch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read. This is the sequel to Sun Going Down. There is going to be a third book. I enjoyed this book very much, but it isn't as good as the first one!

[Virginia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was a great book, I enjoyed it.

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jack Todd, congratulations on a spectacular series...I loved the story of Eli/Ezra..wow!! Just Wow

[Margie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saga about American family during the Dust Bowl and the depression. I enjoyed this book and plan to read his book Sun Going Down.

[Sandie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm looking forward to reading the 3rd book in this series. It's good to read a "western" occasionally and this book does not disappoint.

[Raymond Brassard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent follow to Sun Also Rising. Looking forward to the last of the trilogy.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 2 in a three part series, enjoying it very much.