Customer Reviews

Where the Road Goes

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This novel kept me up until the wee hours. It was wonderful..... Written as a series of diary entries and letters to and from Tig (Antigone) as she walks cross-country taking an environmental survey. Her letters are to and from her husband, Marz; her two daughters, Justice and Solidarity; her grandson, and her granddaughter.

I really enjoy epistolary novels, and was in awe of the way Joanne Greenberg was able to find such an authentic and distinctive *voice* and writing style for each character. Tig's wisdom and her ability to smooth things over/negotiate/arbitrate/give advice was apparent in her letters, although she was not a totally sympathetic character. She has always been an activist and sometimes, as a younger woman, put her causes before her commitment to her daughters and her marriage.

Through these letters, we see family interaction in a unique way. It is not always a good picture, but I think it is honest and explores many issues faced (or not faced) by families today.

Tough going in places, this book is not one I will forget.

Joanne Greenberg is one of the finest fiction writers ever, and this new novel is one of her best! Told entirely through letters, the story fascinates, educates, entertains, saddens, surprises, and enchants its reader. The personality of each character radiates from each letter, gently but persuasively (one daughter begins, "Dear Mother", while the other writes, "Moms....") Differing relationships, are, too, reflected as the main character Tig writes openly, carefully, warmly, defensively, lovingly, and sometimes humorously. The characters are totally real, the plot is compelling, and the style is excellent. At the end of the story, I felt that I had come to know and care deeply about all of the family, and almost as if I, too, had been a part of an exciting, tiring, and frustrating walk across America. A truly delightful book!

Though I haven't read any of Greenberg's other books, you can be sure I will look them up after finishing _Where the Road Goes_. This is the most powerful epistolary novel I've read in a long time, and the suspense was breath-taking (don't peek--this is one book that will consistently surprise you if you let it). Greenberg tackles a number of hot-button issues in a thoughtful, heartfelt, and complicated novel that keeps ratcheting up the stakes.

A marriage and family described and shared through the letters to and from Tig to her 3 generation, becoming four, family. Her own journal entries deepen the layers of events which happen to her on her odyssey and the changes in her family in the year she is 'on the road.' A very important book for all who are or have been activists. Joanne's message 'speaks to my condition'--a subdued Quaker line of approval and is relevant for Canadian readers, too. Her books continue to amaze in their diverse subject matter.

Joanne Greenberg's latest novel is the most insightful and sensitive story of domestic violence I have read. The title refers to the storyteller's experiences crossing the country on The Walk, but also to life's wandering path. Written as a series of letters to and from the 62 year old woman on her cross country trip, one gains insight into how each member of a family deals with each other and with the shared experience of domestic violence. This book is written without the sensationalism and maudlin overtones often coloring this all too common family problem, and it is a much stronger, more poignant, tale because of these omissions. Greenberg is able to write about the changing relationships within one family with kindness, neither blaming nor painting a picture of people always knowing the "one right thing" to do in a new and difficult situation. This is one of the finest novels I have read-a must read!

"Where the Road Goes" renders an up close and personal examination of the Warriner family via an epistolary novel. I have always enjoyed this method (see "A Woman of Independent Means" by Elizabeth Forsythe) of letters or diaries being the narrative device. When well done, the reader has a unique intimacy with the narrator. When not so well done, the reader gets a galloping case of claustrophobia. Ms. Greenberg does well with her material and produces a highly readable book.

Antigone ("Tig"), the head of the clan, is a former activist who is taking a year off to walk across America from California to Cape Cod with an environmentalist group, maybe to get in touch with her past. Her correspondents are husband Marz, daughters Justice and Solidarity (right there, I had doubts about heroine Tig, who would burden her children with such names!), and grandchildren Ben and Hope. Tig and Marz, highly intelligent, have had marital problems in the past mostly because of Tig's high-minded activism. The daughters are polar opposites, Justice is a rigid conformist; Solidarity has drifted through life with few goals. The grandchildren, both teenagers are well drawn; Ben comes off as a wise child; Hope is achingly innocent, stubborn and idealistic. When Hope falls in love with a Native American boy who is about as stable as an earthquake, a tragedy is in the making.

While the story was interesting, I was continually irritated by the passivity of the characters. I became more and more sympathetic with Justice, mother of Hope and Ben, who was frantically trying to head off a maelstrom while the rest of the family counseled patience and love. Why on earth Tig did not abandon her march to help put out fires on the home front makes her seem grotesquely selfish. Marz's platitudes and reasoning are at best ineffectual, at worst down right stupid. The Warriner's solution to an 800-lb. gorilla in the living room was to pretend he wasn't there.

The story is strong enough to make the reader care, but not necessarily like the main characters. This would be a good book club selection because everyone will have strong opinions that should make for a good rousing discussion.
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer