Synopses & Reviews
Seven years ago, Penny assisted in the suicide of her mortally wounded lover. Now, as she fights her own debilitating illness, she is haunted by her past and has entered a stasis in which she is incapable of emotional or sexual intimacy. As a way to break down the defenses she has built up in her safe Chicago life, she sets out on a cross-country bike tour. It is on this trip that she meets Ndele, a beautiful, mysterious black man who challenges her to confront her ghosts and decide whether to put her past behind her and live or succumb to the terrible uncertainties that plague even her dreams.
Review
"A long, Americanized gloss on Beckett....Brilliant, funny and sometimes harrowing." The New York Times Book Review
Review
"[U]ltimately this novel, with its heartland highway vistas and constant motion, could not be more American....Penny's narrative by turns lyrical, pissed off and longing is a triumph." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Readers will empathize with the heroine in this well-crafted tale of grief, introspection, and courage." Kathleen Hughes, Booklist
Review
"Vibrant, original, and keenly interesting at every level. Penny is Huck Finn after grad school, on her bike instead of the raft, but still traveling in search of liberation. Her coolly intelligent voice, the acute observation of the landscape through which she travels, and her pitiless detailing of the routine struggles of a diabetic are each perfect in their ways. This is a first-rate novel." Scott Turow, author of Reversible Errors
Review
"Extraordinary work. McManus's precise treatment of physical love and chronic illness are simple and powerful." Anchee Min, author of Red Azalea
Review
"The admirably edgy energy that runs through John McManus's five previous books is a kind of signature. But in Going to the Sun there seems to be a special urgency about his writing that powerfully portrays the consciousness of his diabetic central character, Penny Culligan; it's an urgency capable of conveying not only her cross-country flight but the very spikes and plunges of sugar in her blood. It's an urgency that is finally a measure of the deep compassion in this intense novel." Stuart Dybek, author of I Sailed with Magellan
Review
"McManus's unusual psychodrama may not be flawless, but it is engaging and challenging, and has a gripping conclusion somewhat reminiscent of the infamous sled ride in Ethan Frome." Library Journal
Synopsis
Seven years ago, Penny's boyfriend was savagely attacked by a bear, setting off a chain of tragic events. Now, fighting a debilitating illness and haunted by her past, she finds herself incapable of emotional or sexual intimacy. As a way to break down the defenses she has built up in her safe Chicago life, she sets out on a cross-country bike tour. On this trip she meets Ndele, a beautiful, mysterious black man who challenges her to confront her ghosts and decide whether to put her past behind her and live or succumb to the terrible uncertainties that plague even her dreams.
About the Author
James McManus is the author of three previous novels, a collection of stories; and a collection of poems, for which he has received fellowships from the Shifting and Guggenheim foundations, and twice from the National Endowment for the Arts.
His work has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The Paris Review, Salmagundi, and in The Best American Poetry anthologies of 1991 and 1994. He teaches at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.