Customer Reviews

Wide Blue Yonder: A Novel

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Telling a cohesive story from the narrative perspective of multiple characters is one of the toughest tricks in fiction. One voice usually outshines the others. Wide Blue Yonder is the glorious exception that proves the rule. All four voices are not only distinctive and wonderful but they balance and inform each other as well, spanning the spectrum from a young girl's teenage ennui to a con man's deepening madness. That Thompson's prose is crisp and often startlingly inventive is icing on a cake that is already deep and rich and completely satisfying.

It's been a long time since I enjoyed reading a novel as much as I have enjoyed reading Wide Blue Yonder. The novel is well-written and funny and contains wonderful characters. The story takes place in Springfield Illinois in the hot, hot summer of 1999. Josie, a disaffected 17 year old lives with her divorced mother and spends the summer working at Taco Bell, avoiding her father, and stalking a gorgeous young policeman who wandered into her life one day. Her mother, Elaine, who tries so hard to be happy, is also trying to help her ex-husband's Uncle Harvey, who refers to himself as the Local Forecast (he's a bit obsessed with the weather channel). As Harvey keeps track of the weather heating up, things are heating up in Springfield. Josie's pursuit of her obsession takes her down a dangerous path and Elaine's pursuit of salvation for Harvey threatens to take him down another dangerous path. This story is told with much clever humor, with Josie's cynical observations on Springfield life being perhaps the most amusing. I really enjoyed this novel and highly recommend it.

According to seventeen-year-old Josie, Springfield is one of those places that "used to be important but were now only good for being state capitals." With great characters (flawed and all), amazing prose, and using weather as a metaphor, Jean Thompson offers up a troubled story. This is a book that is driven by its appealing characters -- and not by the plot. The heat and storms of summer 1999 run parallel with the characters' unheaval and ultimate transformation. But the great prose is not enough to warrant a five star rating -- the plot is weak at best and the ending just plain silly. That said, her characters are awesome: Frank, Teeny, Yoo Hoo, Officer Crook -- I could not get enough. Also, her keen observations made for hilarious reading (I especially got a kick out of Abe Lincoln turned father figure to young Josie).
If you are a softie for great writing, dialogue, and good character development, do not miss this book. I look forward to Jean Thompson's next book and will read "Who Do You Love" in the meantime.

There's no doubt that Thompson is skilled at her craft. Her plotlines are strong and her characters unique yet recognizable.

I love her blunt style, the way she fashions things without pretense or overwriting.

That said, this novel lost me from time to time when the point of view began to shift and the writing style changed and changed again to keep that stormy pace. I really did not want to read pages and pages of screwed up text, no matter how "accurate" that is, or how well it gives us insight into a minor character.

As for the major characters, they are well etched and set in constant motion. I liked Josie. I liked the way she moved about the world in her own teenage way. But this never seemed like Josie's book, and I never quite figured out whose book it was.

In the end, I found the novel to be a bit like the storm described within its pages, a force that picks up characters and throws them about, a storm sometimes tame and confusing, but a storm sometimes fierce and strong and quickly cutting.

This is the story of a teenage girl who seemeingly has nothing on her horizon but trouble. Her uncle believes that he is the Weather Channel's "Local Forecast". Unknown to them both is that a raging loner from Los Angeles is heading toward their hometown of Springfield.

This is a beautifully written, dark and suspenseful novel. Thompson's writing is crisp, realistic, and she does an excellent job of capturing on paper what life is like in the heartland. I highly recommend this novel. I, for one, will be looking for more from Jean Thompson.

Thompson is a fantastic writer, but I have to say I was into the characters sometimes and at other times not so much. Sometimes I felt too much in a character's head, like there wasn't enough for me to figure out on my own. Other times I felt too distant, like I needed more to care. That, and the conclusion of the story seemed to come from nowhere (this was intentional, as one of the motif's in the book is the weather, how random and powerful an approaching storm can be-but I still didn't like it). But her depiction of small-town life is great, the characters are original, and the writing is superb.

While I love Jean Thompson's short stories ... being able to sink my teeth into this delicious hunk of a novel was even more satisfying. And frankly ... sad or dark endings have become trite at this point in literary evolution. What a relief to finish a novel without wanting to weep.

With an adventurous teen paired up with a doddering elderly uncle, "Wide Blue Yonder" takes normal life onto a roller-coaster ride full of daring and danger. Very much alike in their stubborn & feisty personalities, Josie and her Uncle Harvey are both exceedingly uncomfortable around the other members of the family. Following a few disastrous events, they land together in a situation that is hilariously played out by Josie's ability to rise to the occasion.

Jean Thompson does a great job in creating these two; I especially enjoy that a character as young as Josie possesses such a bold personality and that old Harvey is not quite as out to lunch as others assume. Elaine, Josie's mother, is a rather bland character serving to connect these two but it is Rolando, the wild card from California, who ultimately binds them together and catapults the story to its frenzied conclusion.

Like some of the other readers, I must admit not caring much for Rolando -- the harsh nature of his character is a disturbing and discordant note in "Wide Blue Yonder." Thankfully, Thompson has also created a wonderful stout and non-English speaking maid who eclipses Rolando's ugliness of spirit with her own trust in life. Through her pained love affair, Josie may well represent the heart of the novel, but it is in this wonderful character of steel and grace, unencumbered by words, that Thompson embodies the soul of her novel.

So while the summer sun is still shining, I think you'll find "Wide Blue Yonder" a satisfying read.

I love this book. exciting, different, wacko (some of them) characters. liked josie the best. this is my favourite book of all time. i recommend it. what more can i say? i am hooked.

I liked these characters -- Josie, Elaine and Harvey --a lot at first. They were quirky enough to be interesting and I liked the way Thompson worked the plot around them. Then she brought in Rolando, a crazy mixed up Hispanic. I knew something bad was going to happen and I didn't like it. I think Thompson wanted to write about the first three people and their lives, but couldn't figure out how to make the novel stay entertaining and come out right. She set these three characters in motion, then realized she didn't have a clue as to what would happen in the end, so she added a "bad guy" for excitement and a big conclusion. I didn't like how easily everyone's problems were solved including the bad guy's. The ending was too neat a package with everyone all lovey-dovey.