Heaven's My Destination: A Novel [Paperback]

Thornton Wilder (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 16, 2003

Drawing on such unique sources as the author's unpublished letters, business records, and obscure family recollections, Tappan Wilder's Afterword adds a special dimension to the reissue of this hilarious tale about goodness in a fallen world.

Meet George Marvin Brush -- Don Quixote come to Main Street in the Great Depression, and one of Thornton Wilder's most memorable characters. George Brush, a traveling textbook salesman, is a fervent religious convert who is determined to lead a good life. With sad and sometimes hilarious consequences, his travels take him through smoking cars, bawdy houses, banks, and campgrounds from Texas to Illinois -- and into the soul of America itself.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

One of America's most acclaimed and beloved writers, Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) was a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner for his acclaimed novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and his full-length dramas Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth. Wilder's numerous other honors include the Gold Medal for Fiction of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the National Book Committee's Medal for Literature.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (September 16, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060088893
• ISBN-13: 978-0060088897
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #985,138 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) is an accomplished novelist and playwright whose works, exploring the connection between the commonplace and cosmic dimensions of human experience, continue to be read and produced around the world. His Bridge of San Luis Rey, one of seven novels, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1928, as did two of his four full-length dramas, Our Town (1938) and The Skin of Our Teeth (1943). Wilder's Matchmaker was adapted as the musical Hello, Dolly! He also enjoyed enormous success with many other forms of the written and spoken word, among them teaching, acting, opera, and film. His screenplay for Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943) remains a classic psychological thriller to this day. Wilder's many honors include the Gold Medal for Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the National Book Committee's Medal for Literature.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid, quietly funny, September 18, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Heaven's My Destination (Paperback)

I was finished with this book before I really knew that I'd started it. It has a light, easy flow and a gentle sense of humor. It features George Brush, who is profoundly religious and tries his best to live up to the standards he sets for himself. What makes the story worth reading is that you always want to see what he is going to say next; despite his odd way of looking at the world, at heart George truly wants to help people and live a life of love and goodness. He speaks out against injustice and wrongdoing and is quick to defend his own traditionalist views. The fact that so many people are so quick to judge and misunderstand him, and that the people who do understand him benefit from knowing him, seems to be what the book is trying to get across. No matter how crazy or misguided he seems, he is a better person than the average Joe who never takes the time to think about his impact on the world.

There is a very subtle ironic humor pervading this book; it is impossible to miss, but Wilder never makes a clown out of his protagonist. Instead one is left with the feeling that George really does make the world a better place, though he has an eccentric way of accomplishing this goal. What I had thought was going to be a stinging kind of satire about an evangelical young man ended up being a wistful satire more about the people who judge such a man than about the man himself.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars George Brush, American, September 16, 2005

By 

Bomojaz (South Central PA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heaven's My Destination: A Novel (Paperback)

George Brush, a traveling book salesman, is the American version of the Protestant saint: opinionated, narrowminded, selfless, literal-minded, priggish, and brave, Brush is the truly good man whom no one can stomach or ignore. Wilder's writing is strong, and his portrayal of Brush is very comical. The scene of his religious conversion in college, which is instantaneous after listening to a woman evangelist, who also happens to be a drug addict, is marvelous. Likewise his "marriage of convenience" (for him).

It's a fun book, though there are serious undertones throughout. George gets depressed and thinks the whole world is crazy except for him and wonders why God is "so slow in changing the world." Finally, Brush is not very smart, not very passionate, but he IS good, and perhaps, Wilder suggests, that's enough. One of Wilder's best novels.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love it!, January 29, 2011

By 

Sam Torode - See all my reviews

This review is from: Heaven's My Destination: A Novel (Paperback)

This book is a forgotten classic... as a comedy of the Great Depression, it stands alongside Chaplin's "Modern Times."

I own the first edition, as it was out of print for many years before this paperback came out. This book was the main literary influence for my own novel, The Dirty Parts of the Bible: A Novel.

By the way: George Brush ... George Bush? Strangely ironic.