You Can't Go Home Again (Paperback)

~ (Author) "It was the hour of twilight on a soft spring day toward the end of April in the year of Our Lord 1929, and George..." (more)
Key Phrases: duh mont, kiefern trees, wounded faun, New York, Libya Hill, George Webber (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Novel by Thomas Wolfe, published posthumously in 1940 after heavy editing by Edward Aswell. This novel, like Wolfe's other works, is largely autobiographical, reflecting details of his life in the 1930s. As the sequel to The Web and the Rock (1939), You Can't Go Home Again continues the story of George Webber, a thoughtful author in search of meaning in his personal life and in American society. Leaving New York City, he is dismayed at the social decay he finds on his travels to England, Germany, and his small hometown in the Carolinas. Nonetheless, he is optimistic about the future of the United States. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

George Webber has written a successful novel about his family and hometown. When he returns to that town he is shaken by the force of the outrage and hatred that greets him. Family and friends feel naked and exposed by the truths they have seen in his book, and their fury drives him from his home. He begins a search for his own identity that takes him to New York and a hectic social whirl; to Paris with an uninhibited group of expatriates; to Berlin, lying cold and sinister under Hitler's shadow. At last Webber returns to America and rediscovers it with love, sorrow, and hope.

"If there stills lingers and doubt as to Wolfe's right to a place among the immortals of American letters, this work should dispel it."
--Cleveland News

"Wolfe wrote as one inspired. No one of his generation had his command of language, his passion, his energy."
--The New Yorker

"You Can't Go Home Again will stand apart from everything else that he wrote because this is the book of a man who had come to terms with himself, who has something profoundly important to say."
--New York Times Book Review

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Product Details

• Paperback: 720 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics (August 5, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060930055
• ISBN-13: 978-0060930059
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #70,513 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ingenius, Incisive, Intuitive with Incredible Clarity, September 27, 2003

By	Jon Linden (Warren, N.J. United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: You Can't Go Home Again (Hardcover)

Thomas Wolfe's book "You Can't Go Home Again" is undeniably an immortal American classic. What is truly impressive and unique about Wolfe's writing is not only the intuitive incisiveness with which he articulates human thought and emotion; but just as astonishing, is his ability to articulate these things with utter and precise clarity.

There is not one sentence in his book that does not make total sense upon first reading. If it seems not to, it is only because the reader has skipped a line. With a vocabulary that is vast, but which he uses with unique precision, Wolfe tells the story of George Webber, a writer, who is in essence, Thomas Wolfe, the writer. Wolfe ultimately sees himself as an artist that is an observer of human thought and action. But in addition, one that has an obligation to do what one can, to stamp out ugliness, violence, injustice, inhumanity, and so many other wrongs that rear their heads in society from time to time.

Yet, even with this extraordinary brilliance, clarity, and understanding of the human condition, like all great writers and great artists, he leaves the reader with a question. If clearly, it is his understanding of his personal duty, his personal philosophy to work to do what one can do, to end injustice, then why, is he, personally, always running away? As the book is a picture of one always on the move, always observing people, always changing venue, but wisely with great proficiency and efficacy, storing these experiences away as he seeks his understanding of the human condition; he is constantly yet on the move. And so, how does one work to stamp out injustice, if one is always running from the place he is at, and believes "He can't go home again?" This then becomes the challenge to the reader as well. And thus, the questions of the "meaning of life" are never fully answered. How really could they be?

For those who wish to see an example of one man try to find those answers, with the clearest articulation I have ever seen in any book, one should read Wolfe's book as soon as possible. It reads moderately quickly, due to Wolfe's amazing clarity. And it does articulate many of the answers to many of the questions that all thinking people ask themselves as they go through life.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars sublime and full of magic, October 5, 2000

By	Jeff Ross "rossanova" (Nashville, TN United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: You Can't Go Home Again (Hardcover)

I've been reading these other reviews and I've come to the conclusion that most of these folks just don't GET Wolfe. They keep talking about this being "wordy" and "drawn-out". Hello..Thomas Wolfe could write three pages about a man staring out of a window and have me in tears, contemplating the meaning of life. He's rarely about the story. He's always about the beauty of the moment. For sheer power of description and fearless romantic vision no one has come close to Thomas Wolfe.

No one moves me like he does.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review of You Can't Go Home Again, October 13, 2000

By	Douglas F. Voerding (Montrose, MN USA) - See all my reviews

Wolfe weaves, very deliberately, in and out of images and situations from his own lost generation in this, his last novel, largely autobiographical. He was the most lyrical writer of his time, this book no exception, and although at times it's obvious he struggled with structure, Wolfe gives the reader the unique ability to truly understand each of his characters as multi-dimensional and on numerous levels. There's a bit of George Weber in all of us, searching for something we know we've either lost or never found, times when we feel alone, and the world is so large. If you've ever read Fitzgerald, you will enjoy this novel, and even if you haven't, you should. It's a timeless classic, with a theme so prevaliant in literature and society even today, and stated so clearly in the title.