Customer Reviews

Heaven's My Destination: A Novel

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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.

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.

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.

Say there, young man: Are you feeling Unfit for Society? Battling with Depression? Socially persecuted because of your ideals? Well, take heart because you are not alone! George Brush has walked down that lonely path in life himself.

Both as playwright and novelist, Thornton Wilder captures the essence of human nature--revealing its hesitant yearnings and poignant humiliations in the daily struggle for recognition in an indifferent world. Despite the almost humorous cover illustration (Bard Pbx) and occasional outbursts of wit, this story is more pathetic than comic. George Brush is a young man sure of salvation in the next world, but woefully ill-equipped to cope in this one. Fiercely determined to live a righteous life of voluntary poverty during the Depression, he manages to antagonize or frustrate most of his non-business contacts. Haunted by an unfortunate romantic incident in his recent past, he feels obligated to make reparations, yet pursues various female acquaintances with overzealous devotion.

George
is considered a success only by his employers, since he proves a competent traveling salesman for his textbooks company. So what is it about this unusal young man which turns normal folks off at first encounter? Is it his relentless religious discussions, his strict rules of self conduct, or his odd manner of viewing his own role in society? Somehow he just does not fit in with mainstram America of the 30's. His road travels are a series of bizarre circumstances and gross misunderstandings which result in brushes with the police and judges--even though he is honest to a fault. People can't figure out his motives, for it is difficult to put into practice the theories of Ghandhi in the "modern" mercenary world. The country was simply not ready to welcome this sincere but persistent young man as a regular member, even though he longed for his own hearth. Can a brutally honest fellow find happiness with the girl of his dreams in rugged, disillusioned America?

I found the style disjointd, with many loose threads instead of a clearly woven plot; this made the book hard for me to wade through. But the courtroom scene was a delightful section, cleverly plotted with witty remarks--Wilder in top comic form. How can poor George find justice in our plebian nation and personal happiness at home?

Terrific service! Book Heaven's My Destination by Thornton Wilder arrived promptly, well packaged and in condition described. I highly recommended this dealer.

This is a story of one man finding himself amidst what he percieves as a world of coruption. It centers on a man that is compleatly absorbed by his religion but it is not nessasarly just a book about religion, though I believe many christians would enjoy this book for its christian flavor. As I am not what many would call a formal "Christian" I still believe that it has both power and meaning for those not of that faith. Heaven's My Destination is a story which one man's faith is tested. His beliefs are questioned and I believe that that story, no matter what it is he believes in, is something that all of us share at one time or another.