Going All the Way [Paperback]

Dan Wakefield (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 22, 1997

"... a passionate and tormented novel about the summer of 1954 as it transpired in the lives of two young Korean War veterans returning to their Indianapolis homes.... it is possible that the current publishing season will produce no book more urgently felt." —New York Times Book Review, August 9, 1970

"A brilliant book." —John Ciardi

"Wonderful, sad and funny; a scathing portrait of middle America through the eyes of a new fictional character who will inevitably be compared to Portnoy and Holden Caulfield." —Gay Talese

Noted author Dan Wakefield's most famous novel seethes with pent-up frustration and confusion and nearly every episode bubbles with hilarity. This novel of the 1950s so perfectly captures its time and place that it transcends the specific and becomes universal—a true classic of American literature. Now a major motion picture.

(1970)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This is another title being reissued as a movie tie-in. The plot of this odd coming-of-age story follows army buddies Sonny Burns and Gunner Casselman, who return to their small hometown to find that life there is the pits. LJ's reviewer found the book flawed but noted that "the vacuous milieu and grubby, banal conversations are reproduced with fidelity, and the novel is depressingly believable" (LJ 7/70).
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

... a passionate and tormented novel about the summer of 1954 as it transpired in the lives of two young Korean War veterans returning to their Indianapolis homes.... it is possible that the current publishing season will produce no book more urgently felt.New York Times Book Review

(New York Times Book Review )

"... a passionate and tormented novel about the summer of 1954 as it transpired in the lives of two young Korean War veterans returning to their Indianapolis homes...." —New York Times Book Review

(New York Times Book Review )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Indiana University Press (April 22, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0253210909
• ISBN-13: 978-0253210906
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #302,386 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Growing Up In America, December 2, 2004

By 

Dana Carpender (Bloomington, IN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Going All the Way (Paperback)

I first read Going All the Way in a lit class called "Growing Up In America" at prep school, in 1974. The book was only a few years old then, and it was assigned along with other fine works like The Sound and the Fury, Member of the Wedding, Red Sky at Morning, and The Car Thief. Going All the Way was my favorite, and remains one of my favorites today. I've reread it many times, and have greatly enjoyed reading the whole thing aloud to two different receptive audiences-of-one.

Going All the Way is funny, wise, and true. As a girl of 16, it also taught me a great deal about men, and particularly about the visceral fear most men have of women -- the degree to which they feel we have the power to define them. It is a book that entertains, educates, and enlightens, all at the same time. It doesn't get a whole lot better than that.

I went to a book signing when this edition came out, so I could meet Dan Wakefield, and tell him how much this book has meant to me. I was also very pleased with the movie, which came out literally decades after the book -- while it did, of necessity, pare the story down to the essentials, it portrayed the heart and soul of the story and the characters truly.

Don't miss Going All The Way. It may not be The Great American Novel, but it's certainly *A* Great American Novel.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dan Wakefield CAN handle the truth!, April 18, 2000

By 

DMacKBlack (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Going All the Way (Paperback)

This is one of the most pitilessly honest and funniest books you'll ever read about early adulthood -- late high school, college and just after. The sexual preoccupation. The social striving. The uncertainty about one's future. Along the way, Mr. Wakefield captures a time and a place (Indiana, early 1950s) perfectly. You could draw a straight line connecting the art of J.D. Salinger, Dan Wakefield and Nick Hornby. Thank you, Mr. Wakefield!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Captures turning points, August 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Going All the Way (Paperback)

This novel captures the underlying unease that two young men face when they return home from the Army in the early '50's. It sketches their growing perception of all the boxes and groups that they were in before they left, like the jocks, what today would called nerds, and the sorority girls.

As they go through their first summer of freedom they begin to realize that the old home town has gotten too small and confining for them, and that it is time to go see what's over the hill. They begin to realize that they do have many choices, and the freedom to pursue them, and they try to sort out what some of them are.

Along the way there are some pretty accurate and painful descriptions of the social and sexual hangups of your average Midwestern male at mid-century.

Good stuff.