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E allora siamo andati via
Questo romanzo è lo strano frutto della più antica e persistente attrazione americana, quella per la strada, il viaggio, il deserto. C’è una famiglia che si sposta dal Texas al Michigan, portando con sé la bara dell’ultimo nato e cercando, lungo il cammino, di barattare gli oggetti di cui la macchina è stipata. Ci sono gli esterni che sceglierebbe David Lynch dovendo girare, oggi, Furore: statali polverose, villaggi fantasma, case abbandonate con le porte che sbattono, sinistre, nel vento. E ci sono due bambini, che con pochissime parole raccontano, alternandosi, una storia in apparenza elementare. Ma subito le strofe di questa filastrocca metallica e stridente ci trasportano in un paesaggio allucinato, che non sappiamo più se sia l’America profonda, la Terra dei Morti o un qualche terrificante stadio intermedio fra i due. E solo a libro chiuso, e a occhi finalmente riaperti, capiremo dove ci abbia portato questa fuga a due voci vischiosa, selvaggia e tutt’altro che innocente. E allora siamo andati via, apparso negli Stati Uniti nel 2000, è il primo romanzo di Michael Kimball.
- GenresFictionLiterary Fiction
134 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
2 people are currently reading
185 people want to read
About the author
Michael Kimball
49 books40 followersMichael Kimball's third novel, DEAR EVERYBODY, will be published in the UK, US, and Canada this year. His first two novels, THE WAY THE FAMILY GOT AWAY (2000) and HOW MUCH OF US THERE WAS (2005), have both been translated into many languages.
He is also responsible for the art project Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story (on a postcard) and the documentary film, I Will Smash You.
He is also responsible for the art project Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story (on a postcard) and the documentary film, I Will Smash You.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
January 10, 2021
È Furore di Steinbeck fuso con Mentre morivo di Faulkner. Detto così sembra una roba impossibile e meravigliosa, e in effetti mi è piaciuto molto. È il racconto di una famiglia che si mette in viaggio, dal Texas al Michigan, vissuto attraverso le impressioni dei due bambini. Al tempo stesso è un percorso interiore, l’elaborazione di un lutto. Tappa dopo tappa sono costretti a vendere quello che hanno, pure un po’ di quello che sono, per andare avanti.
December 9, 2008
Considering the fact I've given this three stars this is a book I think most people will either love or loathe. And I think that's why it ended up with three stars. Kimball's brief, unusual novel alternates narration by two extremely young characters: the family's surviving son and his barely school-age sister. And that is the book's weakness. It is a gimic - maybe that's a bit harsh - but after a bit I would have given anything for a bit of adult conversation.
January 30, 2013
I'll be honest: I didn't get the conceit of two narrators until I was just glancing at the blurb on the back of the book. By then, I had about 50 pages left (of 150). That being said, I didn't notice an appreciable difference between the voices of the two characters until I was aware that there, in fact, were two characters. What Kimball does so well-- that really weighty, emotionally salient prose-- wasn't yet developed in this novel. And no different place in the entirety of the road trip con dead baby felt any different than those before. I didn't even know that they started in Texas until, once again, I read the back. Still looking forward to Dear Everybody as the last of his books I haven't read yet, but this one was disappointing.
March 4, 2008
This book is bleak and lovely, heartbreakingly so. Alternating chapters, told in the POV of the girl and boy (siblings) and their ways of seeing the world from one place to the next. Working towards getting to places, and yet staying away--that's life for them; it's life and death here for them everyday. The prose here is stunning and so spot-on. It reminded me of Faulkner, in an As-I-Lay-Dying kind of way. It's truly excellent. This guy is brilliant.
December 18, 2024
En un incio me pareció interesante la propuesta de una narración hecha por niños pequeños. Este detalle hace la historia más cruda, pues presenta la degradación de la familia a través de la inocencia de los pequeños.
El punto negativo está en que resulta cansada esta narración, a veces ni siquiera se entiende o se repiten ideas una y otra vez. Entiendo que así se expresan los niños pequeños, sin embargo, una historia debería ser entendible. Coincido con otra reseña en que hubiera sido útil alguna narración adulta.
El punto negativo está en que resulta cansada esta narración, a veces ni siquiera se entiende o se repiten ideas una y otra vez. Entiendo que así se expresan los niños pequeños, sin embargo, una historia debería ser entendible. Coincido con otra reseña en que hubiera sido útil alguna narración adulta.
October 7, 2017
I got just a short ways into this book and soon realized this was way too odd for me! There are too many good books out there that need reading.
August 29, 2018
I'm saying nothing apart from: you will love it or loathe it.
September 18, 2019
I like the gimmick, but felt pretty exhausted by it by the end of the book.
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April 22, 2021Un libro dove "ce se capisce e nun ce se capisce" (semicit.)
February 5, 2018
Recensione completa sul mio blog: https://ofbooksandmenblogdilibri.word...
Struggente. Mentre leggi questo libro non puoi fare a meno di pensare che storie del genere sono accadute realmente e che vite e famiglie si sono spezzate a questo stesso modo durante la grande depressione. Il cuore ti si spezza ascoltando le ingenue voci di questi due bambini per i quali non puoi evitare di provare apprensione e tenerezza. Li vedi percorrere una via terribile e non puoi fare nulla per loro. Come vedere un pulcino distratto che senza nemmeno rendersene conto attraversa un'autostrada a cinque corsie, e per ogni macchina che schiva sai che la prossima potrebbe essere fatale. La storia trova forza anche se raccontata in maniera infantile (si ha un punto di vista più obbiettivo è reale col fratello grande mentre le descrizioni della sorellina passano dalla realtà alla fantasia in un vortice confuso) e riesce a spezzarti il cuore.
Parla di famiglia, di elaborazione del lutto, di perdita e di speranza.
Struggente. Mentre leggi questo libro non puoi fare a meno di pensare che storie del genere sono accadute realmente e che vite e famiglie si sono spezzate a questo stesso modo durante la grande depressione. Il cuore ti si spezza ascoltando le ingenue voci di questi due bambini per i quali non puoi evitare di provare apprensione e tenerezza. Li vedi percorrere una via terribile e non puoi fare nulla per loro. Come vedere un pulcino distratto che senza nemmeno rendersene conto attraversa un'autostrada a cinque corsie, e per ogni macchina che schiva sai che la prossima potrebbe essere fatale. La storia trova forza anche se raccontata in maniera infantile (si ha un punto di vista più obbiettivo è reale col fratello grande mentre le descrizioni della sorellina passano dalla realtà alla fantasia in un vortice confuso) e riesce a spezzarti il cuore.
Parla di famiglia, di elaborazione del lutto, di perdita e di speranza.
February 2, 2011
Critics loved this book. For example, Angus Wolfe Murray from ‘The Scotsman’ said: "Occasionally a novel by a new writer will cause critics to choke with excitement. This is one."
For me, though, the style got in the way of the story which is too bad because the story was kind of sad.
A family (mother, father, boy and girl) set off in their car from Mineola, Texas to Gaylord. They have all their worldly possessions in that car, including the body of the infant they lost to yellow fever. As they travel they sell/exchange their things in exchange for gas. They are going to Bompa’s house (one can assume this is a grandparent).
What makes this story odd (and I guess critics would say amazing) is that the story’s narrators are the two remaining children, both of them very young.
“My brother’s fever wouldn’t leave him or our house,” the little boy says.
His sister says: “The sun-color got too bright and too inside and under my little brother’s skin until it burned his insides out inside his crib.”
What follows is a strange narration which flips between the brother and sister as their parents navigate their way from town to town in an effort to escape their grief.
I think your enjoyment of the novel will depend on your willingness to fall into the strange rhythm of their language.
For me, it just didn’t work. And I hate it when a book makes me feel as though I didn’t get it. Like - if I was smarter this would make sense and I could jump on the bandwagon with all the smart critics…one of whom actually said “you can’t read if you can’t read this book.”
I can read the words, thanks. They just didn’t move me.
For me, though, the style got in the way of the story which is too bad because the story was kind of sad.
A family (mother, father, boy and girl) set off in their car from Mineola, Texas to Gaylord. They have all their worldly possessions in that car, including the body of the infant they lost to yellow fever. As they travel they sell/exchange their things in exchange for gas. They are going to Bompa’s house (one can assume this is a grandparent).
What makes this story odd (and I guess critics would say amazing) is that the story’s narrators are the two remaining children, both of them very young.
“My brother’s fever wouldn’t leave him or our house,” the little boy says.
His sister says: “The sun-color got too bright and too inside and under my little brother’s skin until it burned his insides out inside his crib.”
What follows is a strange narration which flips between the brother and sister as their parents navigate their way from town to town in an effort to escape their grief.
I think your enjoyment of the novel will depend on your willingness to fall into the strange rhythm of their language.
For me, it just didn’t work. And I hate it when a book makes me feel as though I didn’t get it. Like - if I was smarter this would make sense and I could jump on the bandwagon with all the smart critics…one of whom actually said “you can’t read if you can’t read this book.”
I can read the words, thanks. They just didn’t move me.
October 3, 2011
This one left me feeling a bit weird - which I'm sure was Kimball's intention. Hard to live up to the high standards of his 'Dear Everybody' which I adored. And this one didn't - but I'll let him off as he wrote this one first.
The two child's voices grated a bit after a while - but that probably says more about my feelings about children than about the writing. But it was certainly powerful to read the events entirely through their perspectives.
Very uncomfortable, disturbing and downright shocking at times. A brutal take on what children witness when their parents, and thereby their worlds, start to fall apart.
The two child's voices grated a bit after a while - but that probably says more about my feelings about children than about the writing. But it was certainly powerful to read the events entirely through their perspectives.
Very uncomfortable, disturbing and downright shocking at times. A brutal take on what children witness when their parents, and thereby their worlds, start to fall apart.
April 25, 2009
My favorite of Kimball's ongoing mission to bring the reader to his or her knees. I screwed up when I wrote a piece about Kimball and said this book belied his love of Faulkner's writing. What I meant was this one shows the most influence of said writer. Very moving and believable documentation of a family's disintegration through the eyes of two children.
January 20, 2009
Can't stop thinking about what I just finished. The book is about movement and the diffrent thoughts from two children. Can I say more? Yes. But I won't because The Way The Family Got Away is something special, something magical-a force all its own.
September 27, 2015
Using the children as the primary narrators may have worked much better if their POVs weren't so similar.
July 21, 2013
Can't do it. Horrible.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews