Gone For Good [Paperback]

Mark Childress (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf (1997)
• ASIN: B000NXKGZI
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Mark Childress is the author of seven novels: GEORGIA BOTTOMS (coming from Little, Brown in February 2011), ONE MISSISSIPPI, GONE FOR GOOD, CRAZY IN ALABAMA, TENDER, V FOR VICTOR, and A WORLD MADE OF FIRE.

Born in Monroeville, Alabama - the same town Harper Lee wrote about in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD - Childress is one of three sons of Roy and Mary Helen Childress. Roy was a salesman for Ralston Purina, so the family moved a lot growing up: Ohio, Indiana, Mississippi, and Louisiana were some of the stops along the way.

Childress attended Clinton (Miss.) High School and the University of Alabama, where he studied fiction writing under Barry Hannah and Carole Johnson. He worked as a staff writer for the Birmingham (Ala.) News, and was Features Editor of Southern Living magazine and National Editor of The Atlanta Journal and Constitution before becoming a full-time novelist.

His articles and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Times of London, San Francisco Chronicle, Saturday Review, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, Travel and Leisure, and other national and international publications.

"Tender," a Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selection, was named to several Ten Best of 1990 lists, and appeared on many national bestseller lists. "Crazy in Alabama," a featured selection of the Literary Guild, has been published in eleven languages and appeared on many bestseller lists and Ten Best of 1993 lists. "Crazy" was named The (London) Spectator's "Book of the Year" for 1993 and a New York Times "Notable Book of the Year," and was on the Spiegel bestseller list in Germany for 10 months.

"One Mississippi" was a BookSense Notable Book of the Year, nominated for SIBA Book of the Year,and appeared on the "hot summer book" lists of Good Morning America, People, Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, O: the Oprah Magazine, and the New York Public Library. The paperback edition is now in its seventh printing.

Childress has also written three picture books for children, "Joshua and Bigtooth," in 1992, "Joshua and the Big Bad Blue Crabs," 1996 (both from Little, Brown), and "Henry Bobbity Is Missing And It Is All Billy Bobbity's Fault," (Crane Hill Publishers, 1996).

He wrote the screenplay of the Columbia Pictures film "Crazy in Alabama," directed by Antonio Banderas, and starring Melanie Griffith, an official selection of the Venice and San Sebastian film festivals in 1999.

Childress is now working on his eighth novel and a film project. He lives in Key West, Florida.

(Author photo by Brett Hall)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent magical story, June 29, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Gone for Good (Ballantine Reader's Circle) (Paperback)

Gone for Good combines the elements of fantasy and fiction in this thrilling novel about a rock star who crash lands on an uncharted island and is made part of a mysterious community, from which he is not permitted to leave. The license Childress takes with his real characters makes this among the most unusual, and most satisfying books I have read in a long time. It is different, but in a good way from most of the best selling garbage put out there. If you are looking for the next John Grisham book, don't buy this book, but if you are looking for something that challenges conventions without the pretensions of many unique authors, put it in your shopping cart NOW. Despite the fantastic elements to the story, Childress keeps the story grounded in his kooky reality because the characters are above all, very human.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable easy read, January 4, 2009

By 

Reads Thrillers (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gone for Good (Ballantine Reader's Circle) (Paperback)

A fantasy novel that stretches your suspension of disbelief; a rock star that can fly, become invisible, swing through the trees like an ape and an old man that can make things rise into the air at will, including an airplane.

On this magical Island, Ben "Superman" Willis slowly discovered famous people that he knew had died years before, such as Jimmy Hoffa that barbecued chicken for guests. Can Ben ever escape and get back to his family or does he want to after reading that his wife has married his hippy manager.

I wondered how Ben got his pilot's license since he made multiple mistakes and got lost when he was flying from El Paso to his next concert in Phoenix. The writing was good and I liked Ben Jr. and wanted him to find his daddy that disappeared years before. His only clue was a poorly made Polaroid picture, found in a bottle floating thousands of miles away, that showed an Island with twin peaks.

It was an enjoyable easy read when you don't have a thriller close by.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Stretch on Your Suspension of Disbelief, January 3, 2000

By 

Joel Bittle - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gone for Good (Ballantine Reader's Circle) (Paperback)

Mark Childress has a way of writing that makes you believe that some of his fantastic events can actually happen. He writes so matter-of-factly that we as readers say OK, so the head in the tupperware container is talking or OK, so Marilyn Monroe is alive on an island. But what drew me to this book, the ideas of celebrities alive somewhere remote, is not what glued me to it. The heart of the story is what pulls us apart as families - everything that gets in the way of "reaching" our family, so much so that one needs to be invisible to the rest of the world to be visible to his son or wife. I loved reading this book.

I also read this on the beach in Costa Rica, so I identified with the theme of paradise.