Long Gone Daddy - Hardcover

Hemphill, Helen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1932425381 ISBN 13: 9781932425383

Publisher: Front Street, Incorporated, 2006

Synopsis

When a young man's grandfather dies, he and his minister father travel to pick up the body, and learn to understand each other. Harlan Q is living and working in a funeral home, which he finds easier than living with his Bible-thumping minister father. When his grandfather dies, he has to convince his father, Harlan P, to pick up the corpse. With little money and a quickly ripening body, father and son must tolerate each other during a long drive to bury the old man. They pick up a Zen-minded actor bound for Hollywood, who helps them mend their relationship during a stop at the grandfather's bar, Long Gone Daddy's, in Las Vegas.

About this title

About the Author

Helen Hemphill is the author of Hattie's Carnton: Plantation Life in the Generation of the Civil War and was honored with a Frist Foundation Teacher Award. She holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College and has helped students publish in magazines. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-9–Harlan Q, 14, lives and works with the local funeral director and his wife because his evangelical preacher father, Harlan P, has evicted him for religious doubts. There he meets his grandfather, Harlan O, for the first time. The fact that the man is dead doesn't stop him from wanting to know more about his relative. The teen convinces his father to drive the body to Las Vegas to collect an inheritance, and thus the two have the opportunity to develop a relationship and learn something about the man who has been lost to them for 20 years. The premise is interesting, but not much happens as the two travel, have car troubles, take on an aspiring actor who is more interesting than either Harlan, and find themselves in a city that fascinates the younger Harlan as much as it horrifies the elder. The characters are not fully developed except for the former and some barely seem to have a face or voice, like his mother. As Harlan Q learns about his grandfather through the people who knew and loved him, he discovers a compassionate and intelligent man, but Harlan P never does accept him. Harlan Q knows a bit more about his father at story's end, but it's not clear what lessons are learned by either of them as they begin their ride home together.–Susan Oliver, Tampa-Hillsborough Public Library System, FL
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About this edition

• Publisher: Front Street, Incorporated
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1932425381
• ISBN 13: 9781932425383
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 176