Long Time Gone [Paperback]

Richard Sanford (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 452 pages
• Publisher: Xlibris Corp (March 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401029779
• ISBN-13: 978-1401029777
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,423,109 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Normal people shaping extraordinary times, May 30, 2011

By 

Ahmad J. Aaf - See all my reviews

This review is from: Long Time Gone (Paperback)

In this masterfully woven tale of discovery and loss, Cal, a familiar young loner, sets out in search of a childhood friend gone `off the grid' during a time of turbulent social transformations. His quest takes him through the vast expanses of a racially charged United States in the 1970's. Leaving his hometown and the weighty humidity of the Mississippi River Valley his trail forces him to dive deep into the underground world of draft dodgers and radical activists. Cal takes readers on a path through the dizzying brightness of Florida's beaches and musty college crash pads of Boston where the young and naïve are trying to make sense of a changing world, often with cruel and harsh outcomes.

For younger readers, this story illuminates a specific time and captures the great awakening of American awareness and political engagement, its best intentions and unfortunate consequences. The sheer suspense and certainty of being part of a defining moment in history carries the reader through an emotional roller coaster. I was left asking myself `How did we get from there to here?' `Has consumerism vanquished our demands for justice?' `Where is the fire?' I recommend this book for anyone interested in gaining a more nuanced understanding of an exceptional era in U.S. culture and history.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A resonant novel of the Sixties, June 17, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Long Time Gone (Paperback)

Cal is a young man born during that indeterminate span of years between the last Depression-era babies and the first boomers. Adopted, seeking a moral compass, Cal abides by the small southern river town values of his best friends father--until the familys younger son leaves home and the father sends Cal to bring the youth back. Ive been riding along with Cal as his journey takes him to Daytona Beach, Boston, Chicago, and points west, sharing in his confusion as his perspective alters.

Long Time Gone is evocative and nuanced, moody and delicately lyrical. Partly paean to the varied land- and weather-scape, partly road trip a la Kesey or Kerouac, partly history lesson, partly mind trip, the protagonists growing awareness of what drives his friends, acquaintances, countrymen, lovers, and eventually, himself, resonates with me.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The one novel to read this year!, June 13, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Long Time Gone (Paperback)

This book should be designated a national treasure! It is the best novel of the sixties I have ever read. The characters are so real, their beliefs and cause so moving, that I am reminded once again why that time changed all of us. Mr. Sanford knows what's he's doing - the written word is truly his calling. Fortunately, true passion in fiction is not dead. I will cherish Long Time Gone always!