Getting Out: A Novel (Hardcover)

by Gwendolen Gross (Author) "One / I didn't expect to love it so much, to come to need it, going out, the trees lit with green or bare as..." (more)
Key Phrases: bear bag, rain pants, tent fly, New York, Big Basin, Reed Scrum (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Hannah Blue feels trapped. Her Boston design agency job is unimaginative, her boyfriend wants to move in and her family is too needy. After a particularly demeaning encounter with her boss at the start of this creaky drama, Hannah happens upon her colleague Linda's entrancing vacation photographs and garners herself an invitation to a meeting of Linda's Adventurers' Club. So begins Hannah's obsession with the outdoors, the grueling hikes and punishing climbs providing a setting in which she is able to bond with new people while contemplating the direction her life is taking. Gross (author of the well-received Field Guide) is a competent writer, and Hannah's journey to self-discovery is in parts funny, touching and exhilarating. Boyfriend Ben, a museum curator, defies stereotype by being short (five foot six) and unafraid of commitment; Hannah's family members are equally unorthodox, though not fleshed out quite as well. As family problems mount her father has lupus, her brother and his wife are splitting up Hannah flees her increasingly chaotic life and goes on a solo expedition in the New Hampshire woods, which forces her to make some tough evaluations of her recent behavior and decide what it is she really wants. Her final decision has been obvious from the outset of the novel, which wouldn't be such a drawback if Gross's prose had more to offer than solid narrative, but the occasional attempts at stylistic flourishes ("sun spilled inside his lips") feel forced. Still, this is a capable performance, of particular interest to lovelorn hiking aficionados.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Gross' second novel opens with heroine Hannah Blue's first trip with a local outdoors group, the Adventurers' Club. She can barely keep up with the others in the group, and she's never been so sore, but as soon as it's over, she's dying to go again. Her boyfriend, Ben, doesn't understand why she's so drawn to the wilderness and, consequently, spends so much time away from him. Hannah's quirky family is a lot to handle as well: her brother, Ted, and his pregnant wife are getting divorced; her 21-year-old sister, Marla, might be getting married; and her father is once again claiming to have a chronic, and this time fatal, illness. Unable and unwilling to deal with her family, and concerned that Ben wants more than she can give, Hannah spends more and more time going on trips with the Adventurers' Club. Hannah must ultimately decide whether to pull away from her family and Ben or balance them with her new interests in this winning novel from the author of Field Guide (2001). Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.; 1st edition (June 11, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805068341
• ISBN-13: 978-0805068344
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,045,180 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Getting Out, August 4, 2002

By	Thea M. Ryan (South Dakota, United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Aptly named, Gwendolen Gross' second book has the same satisfying descriptions of nature as her previous book, Field Guide. The main character, Hannah, yearns to unzip and step out of the skin that is her life. Knowing how that feels, I give this book five stars. If you love the outdoors, you'll love Hannah's adventures.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Join the Adventure Club!, June 10, 2003

By	"kseboldt" (Cincinnati, OH United States) - See all my reviews

Just finished reading Getting Out, and I thought it was just great. Main character Hannah is trapped in her mundane design job and distracted by her dysfunctional family. She joins the Adventure Club on a whim and becomes part of a hodgepodge group of adventure seekers whom she never truly learns much about. However, she does learn a lot about herself. I found the characters easy to relate to and really enjoyed the conclusion to this fun read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Multi-layered Adventure, August 16, 2002

By	C. Yoder (New Jersey) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The day after finishing "Getting Out," I threw together some gorp and went canoeing with my 4-year-old son. It was just too much to sit in my backyard for yet one more day and let a fictive character have all the adventure. And Hannah Blue does have the adventures. What with bats and murky cave water and kissing in tents, there is plenty of occupation to keep Hannah at a distance from her troublesome family and from making any commitments to her adoring boyfriend. I loved Gross's descriptions and turns of phrase that make this book an adventure of language as well -- a characteristic that was also present in her first book, Field Guide. What made the book one I couldn't put down, though, were her truisms, sprinkled in like spring water, that reveal the real Hannah beneath the backpacking wonder. Her escapades, it seems, are keeping her from the deeper, more complicated adventure at hand: the work of relationships. How this drama plays itself out is what made it hard for me to put this book down.