OK novel. ( )

I'm not sure exactly what I expected from Goodnight, Nebraska, McNeal's debut novel, but it did deliver. In some ways it is another redemptive tale, this time of forgiving yourself, but in other ways it is a bleak, fatalistic novel where, really, in the end everyone has lost something. I do have a few minor quibbles with Goodnight, Nebraska, beyond the inclusion of too many parenthetic comments in the text.

First, in some ways the characters are masterfully drawn, in other ways.... not so much. McNeal examines the weak spots in his character's and that is what we see. Everyone comes across as fatally flawed. I can't help but think, even with all of our flaws, people do have strengths and often those strengths rise way above their flaws. It isn't all bad all the time. I also felt McNeal would introduce characters and then dump them, like Randall's mother and sister, like the coach and his sister, etc.

Second, I really think that a strong case could be made for this novel being closer to a set of short stories featuring many of the same characters. There was a bit too much jumping around and not all of it was beneficial to the story. While the first part of the book set in Utah held my rapt attention, then Randall moved to Nebraska and the story started to shift. The shift wasn't necessarily bad, it just wasn't quite as good as the first part. These shifts continue until the end, in which Goodnight, Nebraska found redemption, as far as my rating is concerned. Rating: 4; http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/
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YES. ( )

It was just a'ight for me, dawg.

Oh, but now I know that it's Tom, not Laura, who writes the characters with the goofy dialogue in their novels.

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I was a bit disappointed with "Goodnight Nebraska", having previously encountered Mr McNeal in his more recent work, "To Be Sung Underwater". "Goodnight, Nebraska" is a story about the sadness of living in a small town in rural America. I'm not averse to sadness in books - in fact I think it's highly desirable because I want my reading to reveal the real world to me . . . and that's essentially sad, isn't it? But there was something about this story that didn't quite work for me. Some parts of it were good, very good at times. But other bits seemed to be just taking up space and I wondered how they fitted in to the story as a whole. I assume there is actually more to this book than I was aware of, and although I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, it is the author's job to make his purpose apparent to almost all readers, even the less intelligent readers such as me. ( )