I'll Let You Go: A Novel (Hardcover)

by Bruce Wagner (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
A Victorianesque tale of Los Angeles's elite and waifish children await in Bruce Wagner's third novel, I'll Let You Go. A forlorn 12-year-old, "Tull" Trotter, distanced from his artist mother due to her drug addiction, is left to his own devices--along with his two privileged cousins, one of whom is grotesquely deformed, wearing hoods of his own design. Mainly set on the sprawling estate of Tull's grandfather (the 18th richest person in America), the children befriend an inner-city orphan (who is protected by a sharp but mentally disturbed homeless man) and embark on solving a mystery that ties these two disparate worlds together.

Ambitious in its design, Wagner's novel adeptly catalogs contemporary America's materialistic preoccupations and its pop culture, sometimes allowing litanies of prescription drugs or opulent goods to impart meaning. Wagner's prose can be moving or exacting ("One side of the newfound grandfather's face sank down a bit as if today it had decided to sleep in"), but too often alliteration almost inexcusably appears: "Twitching in troubled sleep, Pullman's was the only familiar face, but even the Dane was creepily confabulated, a dogpatch of ill-fitting body parts amid Tull's tule fog REM." If you are in the mood for a Dickensian cast of characters and L.A.'s two-dimensional gloss on the world, then I'll Let You Go is for you. --Michael Ferch

From Publishers Weekly
In previous novels, Wagner (I'm Losing You; Force Majeure) has made a reputation as a sharp-eyed registrar of Beverly Hills mores. His new novel attempts an Angelino Bleak House, describing the gulf that yawns between the ungodly rich and the ungainly poor. On his wedding night, eccentric Hollywood agent Marcus Wiener deserts his heiress bride, Katrina "Trinnie" Trotter, and apparently disappears from the face of the earth. Trinnie tells her son, Toulouse, his father is dead, but when Toulouse is 13 he finds out that isn't true. Unsurprisingly, the news comes from his nosy cousin, Lucy, who is digging around in family secrets attempting to write a detective novel. Although Toulouse and his cousins, Lucy and Edward, are children, they have the precocious manners of adults in contrast to their wealthy parents, who exhibit the immaturity of teenagers. Meanwhile, in a shack under a freeway overpass, Will'm, a large, crazy vagrant, is trying to protect 11-year-old Amaryllis, whose crack-smoking, abusive mother has been murdered. The mystery of Wiener's disappearance and the mystery of the murder of Amaryllis's mother connect the divergent worlds of ad hoc shacks and Bel-Air mansions. This time around, Wagner's observations of L.A.'s filthy rich are curiously torpid, probing little beyond their penchant for purchasing esoteric designer labels. He's better at trawling the nightmarish shelters and abandoned buildings of the street poor. In the end, Wagner's novel is less Dickens than a knockoff of Tom Wolfe and second-rate Wolfe at that but the fustian language and over-the-top melodrama could translate well to the silver screen. 6-city author tour. (Jan. 9)Forecast: L.A. readers will best appreciate this fiercely L.A.-centric novel, but the allure of the City of Angels and Wagner's ability to charm reviewers John Updike is his most famous champion should move a significant number of copies country-wide.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 576 pages
• Publisher: Villard; 1st edition (January 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375500022
• ISBN-13: 978-0375500022
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #673,530 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rich and different, March 6, 2002

By	Candace "thepageturner" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Plenty of books are described as "Dickensian", which usually indicates that they are teeming with characters and probe the seamy side of a particular world. Bruce Wagner understands what the Dickensian appellation actually means-to expose the ordinary reader to worlds so completely new that they might as well be on different planets. In "I'll Let You Go," the reader meets not only the desperate indigent, but also the out-of-sight rich. To most of us in the middle, either of these worlds might as well be on Mars.

Wagner's Pip, (or David, or Nicholas) is Tull, son of the daughter of the 18th richest man in America. He stays at his grandfather's fairy-tale estate with his drug addicted mother and two cousins. One of his cousins is hideously deformed but brilliant, and the other is an equally brilliant, funny girl who sees herself as a writer and makes things happen. By happenstance, they meet Amaryllis, a homeless girl who clicks with them. But before Amaryllis can be safely woven into their world, fate whisks her away on a nightmare journey.

One of the most appealing thing about this novel is that the children are treated equally. Tull and his cousins are not demonized because they are rich, nor is Amaryllis sainted because of her heartbreaking background. "I'll Let You Go" is full of quirky, interesting characters, surprising plot twists, and elegant prose. It is not a party-trick book, where the author shows off by demonstrating how many links he can make between Dickens' London and Tull's L.A. It is an affecting work with enough deep emotion, humor, and surprises to keep you hooked from start to finish.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Who's pretentious?, January 21, 2004

By	Katie Engelhardt (Ithaca, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I'll Let You Go: A Novel (Paperback)

First, let me say that this book can be read for the story, for that story is just short of fanciful and truly beyond interesting. But slow down; take in the language, the crafted sentences, and the wonderful puns. Take this book lightheartedly, please. I think that is what we are meant to do--Wagner tells us of much death and misfortune but his comical tone suggests that this is not meant to be a book to cry over. So, don't be pretentious and write this novel off because you wanted it to be serious or because you don't understand the puns. This is simply a wonderful satire of all socio-economic levels.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Captivating madness, May 31, 2002

By	Charlotte Vale-Allen (CT USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

For seven eighths of this book, I was astonished by Wagner's writing skill. His flawless evocation of the Dickensian novel is intercut with bits of modern dialogue that are shocking in their compellingly contemporary grounding. The characters are fully realized and sometimes alarmingly grotesque. Horrific things happen to the luckless, impoverished females in this book; descriptions of the horrors visited upon them are harrowing in their specifics. The author has great insight into the inner lives of children, both rich and poor; he knows of their secret dreams and fears and takes us with them on their journeys to freedom--both physical and psychological. His characters, particularly Topsy/Will'm and the baker Gilles, the grandfather Trotter, and the birth-defective, brilliant Edward and his impulsive sister Lucy, the orphaned and abused Amaryllis, are also Dickensian in their great passions and flaws. Sadly, about 75 pages from the end, the narrative wobbles badly when it moves into emails back and forth between the children, and letters between the adults. This contemporary segment, with little of the previous lavish language present, simply isn't as compelling as what came before. Fortunately, Wagner recovers to deliver an ending that is realistic in terms of the characters he's created. But those 50-60 pages near the end are overwrought and detract from an otherwise splendid accomplishment. That said, I recommend this book for its extraordinary vocabulary, its brand-name roster of designers and stars of every ilk, and for a gripping tale told in incredible style.