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The Way to Somewhere [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Angie Day (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)


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Book Description

February 26, 2002
Tough, street-smart, and mouthy, Taylor Jessup has always been the kind of girl who knows exactly how life should be. But it seems the world around her won't cooperate -- she keeps getting involved with the wrong friends, the wrong older man, even the wrong Mr. Right. Her relationship with her family is downright dysfunctional -- while her mother is a holdover from the 1950s, her father embraces the go-go 1970s with abandon. So Taylor, left to her own devices, determines her life's road map -- a plan that will get her out of her house and out of Houston. A plan that will get her somewhere.

"The Way to Somewhere" traces Taylor's odyssey as she moves from teenager to woman, with equal parts awkwardness, conflict, and resolve. All the while, Taylor struggles to shape reality into her dreams of the forever after. When a complex romantic entanglement leads to a fascination with furniture restoration, Taylor seems to have found the precise balance of science and logic that she desperately seeks. Yet somehow, her experiences continue to be more surprising and disastrous than smoothly aligned, until eventually all of these wrong turns set her life further on its own true course.

Resonant and moving, funny and wise, "The Way to Somewhere" charts Taylor's growth as she flings herself headlong into sex, love, relationships, and renewal. In the end, Taylor's happiness hinges on learning not only to accept but to embrace those elements of her life that she had once tossed aside in search of better things.

With the quick wit of Tom Perrotta's "Bad Haircut" and the emotional timbre of Wally Lamb's "She's Come Undone," Angie Day's "The Way to Somewhere" is an exceptional exploration ofthat fragile bridge between adolescence and adulthood, and what shores us up -- or breaks us apart.


Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Angie Day's debut novel, The Way to Somewhere, ought not to be any good at all. Do we really need another bildungsroman about a precociously spunky young girl? It turns out we do. The narrator's voice makes or breaks a coming-of-age novel, and Taylor Jessup's is funny, wise, knowing, and utterly believable. That's a lot to ask from a preteen Texan tomboy, but Taylor's astuteness is never overwritten or pretentious: her family's junky Houston apartment "was like a garage sale you lived in all the time," and a neighbor wears "shoes so high that just watching her walk was suspenseful." The other thing this novel really has going for it is its unhurried plotting. Unlike so many other post-Bridget Jones novels of young womanhood, Day doesn't give us heavy foreshadowing of how Taylor will end up. We genuinely don't know where she's headed. Taylor bumps along from mistake to mistake to occasional success in a manner that looks a lot like life, only funnier. --Claire Dederer

From Publishers Weekly

A precocious young girl from Houston takes a circuitous path to young womanhood in Day's first novel, a coming-of-age yarn that marks the debut of a sharp, concise and funny writer. Taylor Jessup is the engaging narrator, a self-effacing, attractive loner from a down-and-out family that gets torn apart when her father, a plumber who's been living in the closet for years, leaves her mother to take to the road as a truck driver. The revelation about his sexual orientation proves devastating to Taylor's mother, who resorts to alcohol to deal with his departure. But Taylor's brother, J.J., a freshman at Texas A&M, is more resilient, and when he visits with his handsome college buddy, Luther, to check up on Taylor, Taylor falls hard for Luther. Luther is friendly but not smitten, and the rudderless Taylor rejects the possibility of college, heading off for brief sojourns to New Orleans and Mexico before she settles into working as an apprentice for an older carpenter who restores furniture. Fate cuts into this stable interlude when her father dies, and soon after, she bumps into Luther, now a medical student, who spirits her off to New York after a brief whirlwind romance. Luther's busy life as a resident sours the affair, leaving Taylor to face a series of difficult decisions as their love fades. The story line stays close to the coming-of-age formula in the early going, but Day is a smooth, down-to-earth writer who packs plenty of trenchant observations and insights into her short scenes. A freelance producer for MTV, she has all the right stuff for a parallel career as a novelist.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


Product Details

  • Hardcover: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster (February 26, 2002)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0743223322
  • ISBN-13: 978-0743223324
  • Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,137,274 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

 

Customer Reviews

22 Reviews
5 star:
 (17)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (22 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars colorful characters, inspired dialogue, February 13, 2002
By 
Peter Bell (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Way to Somewhere (Hardcover)
This is a charming read - I finished and had to run for some Flannery O'Conner, Mark Twain, and Stephen Wilson because echoes of their voices lodged in my head. I'm sorry to leave these characters behind - from the iron-willed Taylor to the cromulent Tio Pepe, these people live with you until you finish the book....
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars I wish Taylor were my neighbor!, February 19, 2002
By 
Katie Hobson (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Way to Somewhere (Hardcover)
For anyone who tends to get obsessed with the destination and forget the (much more fun, and much more important) journey: clear your Palm, grab a beer, flop on the sofa, and kick back with "The Way to Somewhere." You'll start rooting for Taylor as soon as she steals that ice cream truck, and you'll wish you could give her advice as she deals with her family, dates a few wrong men and finally figures out what's what. Then again, you never do really figure out what's what. See? You get some good philosophy too. Read it.
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9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Angie Day puts words to situations I could never explain..., March 5, 2002
By 
"mandylev" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Way to Somewhere (Hardcover)
Angie Day promises to be an author we'll hear more from. I personally would love to continue to hear about Taylor- The Way to Somewhere's main character. Taylor Jessup grows up with friends we all knew weren't good for us but we needed and saviors like Sarah Anne Hoecker, that made us feel whole no matter what was happening in our lives. Haven't we all had a Luther? A dream that dries up on us far sooner than we planned? And then we have to decide if we give up on other dreams that got entangled in the one that didn't pan out... Once I started reading this book, I had a very hard time putting it down. I was caught up in the story and even more taken with Taylor's insights. Ms. Day puts words to situations that I know I have been through but just wasn't sure how to explain. I hope to see a sequel- rarely do I get interested enough in a character that I hope for a second book about her just to see how she turns out. Taylor is worth wondering about long after you close the cover and finish this new author's first novel.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
When Mr. Candesa agreed to hire me, he thought I was a twelve- year-old boy. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
violet woman, baby roots
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Sarah Anne, New York, Central Park, Professor Romano, Angie Day, New Orleans, San Miguel, Sunny Acres, Camptown Races, Death Threat, River Oaks, Taylor Jessup, Charlie Simmons, Christmas Day, Complete Guide, Priscilla Banks, Restoring Antique Furniture, Taylor Simone, Leonard Reynolds, Mount Taylor, New Year's Day, West Village
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