You Can't Go Home Again

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1849026572 ISBN 13: 9781849026574

Publisher: Benediction Classics, 2010

This classic of American literature tells the story of George Webber, a rising novelist, who returns to his hometown only to face a wave of hatred and rejection from the inhabitants, who feel his latest work ridicules their way of life. George goes into exile, first in New York, then London and continental Europe, living life to the full but burdened by the belief that he can never return to his roots. This work, although published posthumously and heavily edited from Wolfe's surviving manuscripts, has done much to confirm his place as one of the leading American novelists of the 20th Century. This handsome new edition from Benediction Classics includes the full unabridged text of the published version. Visit Benediction Classics at www.thebestthathasbeensaid.com to read thousands of free classic books online, or buy them in elegant paperback and hardback editions at reasonable prices.

Review:

This novel was the last Thomas Wolfe finished before his untimely death at age 37. In its brilliance, we find more cause to wish he had lived longer. As with his other novels, You Can't Go Home Again is an extremely personal work, but in the character of George Webber, a writer, Wolfe sees and captures America and the world in an dramatic time in history. The time is the period just before the great stock market crash and it stretches through the Depression and into Germany during the rise of Nazis. And the writer of course is Wolfe, who takes us on a ride through America never seen before--one with sharp insight and breathtaking flair.

From the Back Cover:

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.