The Gone Dead

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An electrifying first novel from a riveting new voice in American fiction George Saunders A young woman returns to her childhood home in the American South and uncovers secrets about her father s life and deathBillie James s inheritance isn t much a little money and a shack in the Mississippi Delta The house once belonged to her father, a renowned black poet who died unexpectedly when Billie was four years old Though Billie was there when the accident happened, she has no memory of that day and she hasn t been back to the South since.Thirty years later, Billie returns, but her father s home is unnervingly secluded her only neighbors are the McGees, the family whose history has been entangled with hers since the days of slavery As Billie encounters the locals, she hears a strange rumor that she herself went missing on the day her father died As the mystery intensifies, she finds out that this forgotten piece of her past could put her in danger.Inventive, gritty, and openhearted, The Gone Dead is an astonishing debut novel about race, justice, and memory that lays bare the long concealed wounds of a family and a country. Download The Gone Dead – kino-fada.fr A debut novel of history and family in the Mississippi delta Billie, her father found dead in what was called an accident when she was four, returns to the Delta in what she hopes is a short visit Her mother recently gone as well, she wants to see, what is basically littlethan a shack and to visit her uncle, her father s much young brother She findsthan she expected and finds herself the target of those who do not want the truth of her father s death to be revealed.I m not a big f A debut novel of history and family in the Mississippi delta Billie, her father found dead in what was called an accident when she was four, returns to the Delta in what she hopes is a short visit Her mother recently gone as well, she wants to see, what is basically littlethan a shack and to visit her uncle, her father s much young brother She findsthan she expected and finds herself the target of those who do not want the truth of her father s death to be revealed.I m not a big fan of stories that use multiple viewpoints within, often feeling ...C mon now..The Gone Dead takes you by the hand and slow walks you through the uneven roads of the Mississippi Delta At first, you feel a distant beckoning and the weight of the humid air bogging down on you as you near the swampy creeks And then comes the rapid motion of that yank on your torso as you find yourself diving right in.Billie James has not been back for over thirty years She had left her past life in Mississippi and went on to live with her mother since she was four Like nomad C mon now..The Gone Dead takes you by the hand and slow walks you through the uneven roads of the Mississippi Delta At first, you feel a distant beckoning and the weight of the humid air bogging down on you as you near the swampy creeks And then comes the rapid motion of that yank on your torso as you find yourself diving right in.Billie James has not been back for over thirty years She had left her past life in Mississippi and went on to live with her mother since she was four Like nomads, they traveled from city to city trying to get a foothold from beyond the South After her mot...In 2002 when Billie inherits the house in which her father Clifton died 30 years before, she returns to Mississippi and discovers that his death had not been as straight forward as it appeared Clifton had been a well known black poet and was divorced from his white wife Pia Billie was 4 when her father died I enjoyed the dialogue and the characters, particularly Billie, her uncle Dee and her father s girlfriend Carlotta I also admired Billie s dogged determination to get to the truth It fel In 2002 when Billie inherits the house in which her father Clifton died 30 years before, she returns to Mississippi and discovers that his death had not been as straight forward as it appeared Clifton had been a well known black poet and was divorced from his white wife Pia Billie was 4 when her father died I enjoyed the dialogue and the characters, particularly Billie, her uncle Dee and her father s girlfriend Carlotta I also admired Billie s dogged determination to get to the tru...3.5 stars.I thought this started out strong with an intriguing hook When Billie travels to her birthplace in rural Mississippi, where she s inherited her grandmother s house, she learns that the night her father died, she herself was reported missing, a time that she has no recollection of at all Can you imagine learning such a thing and how you d react Thequestions she asks, theshe needs to find out People are getting upset with her, blacks and whites both, and she might actuall 3.5 stars.I thought this started out strong with an intriguing hook When Billie travels to her birthplace in rural Mississippi, where she s inherited her grandmother s house, she learns that the night her father died, she herself was reported missing, a time that she has no recollection of at all Can you imagine learning such a thing and how you d react Thequestions she asks, theshe needs to find out People are getting upset with her, blacks and whites both, and she might actually b...I spent one long, hot summer in the Mississippi Delta back in the mid Eighties My Boston accent and northern roots made it impossible for me to blend in, and the fact that it was less than twenty years after the assassination of Martin Luther King was completely lost on me at the time I was young and idealistic, and I couldn t see or understand the ugliness where I lived or where I visited to that point in my life While I met many lovely people and became enad with their Southern hospital I spent one long, hot summer in the Mississippi Delta back in the mid Eighties My Boston accent and northern roots made it impossible for me to blend in, and the fact that it was less than twenty years after the assassination of Martin Luther King was completely lost on me at the time I was young and idealistic, and I couldn t see or understand the ugliness where I lived or where I visited to that point in my life While I met many lovely people and became enad with their Southern hospitality, their gorgeous accents, the strong sense of family, and the beyond delicious food, I also saw and heard things that bring me goosebumps to this day A sense of foreboding was my constant companion that summer That sense of foreboding is this book The mystery feels like a jumping off point to get to the root of very serious issues The characterizatio...The Southern mystery with a strong sense of place is not a new genre, but it is a mostly white one It s wonderful to see Chanelle Benz join the field with THE GONE DEAD, which feels like it belongs with other Mississippi set modern work from writers like Jesmyn Ward and Kiese Laymon Most would probably classify this as a literary crime novel, it has a slow pace and no big payoff, but once you get past the first few chapters it s quite addictive.Billie James had an unusual childhood, taken fr The Southern mystery with a strong sense of place is not a new genre, but it is a mostly white one It s wonderful to see Chanelle Benz join the field with THE GONE DEAD, which feels like it belongs with other Mississippi set modern work from writers like Jesmyn Ward and Kiese Laymon Most would probably classify this as a literary crime novel, it has a slow pace and no big payoff, but once you get past the first few chapters it s quite addictive.Billie James had an unusual childhood, taken from place to place by her white mother Her black father was a poet who died when Billie was a toddler, after her parents had already split up After her mother s death, Billie finds herself the newest owner of her father s old house in Mississippi She decides to take a break from her life in Philadelphia to move in and get to kn...Read the whole thing in a day because I couldn t put it down This is a literary mystery set in Mississippi about a woman who returns to her father s hometown to find out the truth about his death Officially it was ruled an accid...Just ok I felt there were too many extraneous characters and the plot was not very original 2.5 Just ok I felt there were too many extraneous characters and the plot was not very original 2.5 Billie James returns to the Mississippi Delta after a thirty year absence After her mother s recent death, she s inherited her father s old home that has set vacant for so long it s littlethan a shack All that Billie knows is that when she was four years old her father Cliff was found dead in his front yard The police claim Cliff was intoxicated and died from a fall In 1970 s Mississippi, that was as far as the investigation into a black man s death would go.Billie has taken a shor Billie James returns to the Mississippi Delta after a thirty year absence After her mother s recent death, she s inherited her father s old home that has set vacant for so long it s littlethan a shack All that Billie knows is that when she was four years old her father Cliff was found dead in his front yard The police claim Cliff was intoxicated and died from a fall In 1970 s Mississippi, that was as far as the investigation into a black man s death would go.Billie has taken a short leave from work in Philadelphia to try to fix up the old house and reconnect with her past, especially her father s family When she meets Jerry Hopsen, a man who knew her father, the conversation eventually turns to Cliff s death and Jerry mentions Billie s disappearance that night.This news come as a complete surprise to Billie, who had no idea she was with her father on the night he died, let alone that she was missing for a time How long exactly was she missing Where was she and who was ...Full review to follow.If Jesmyn Ward and Gillian Flynn came together on a novel, it would surely look like this.In Chanelle Benz s debut novel, The Gone Dead, one biracial woman s return to the Mississippi Delta threatens to unearth secrets of her father s life and death which have long since been buried by a community wounded by racism As the novel progresses, Benz proves just how little we ve come in the way of siding with solidarity over inequality, and no one learns this lessonthan our poor protagonist, Bi If Jesmyn Ward and Gillian Flynn came together on a novel, it would surely look like this.In Chanelle Benz s debut novel, The Gone Dead, one biracial woman s return to the Mississippi Delta threatens to unearth secrets of her father s life and death which have long since been buried by a community wounded by racism As the novel progresses, Benz proves just how little we ve come in the way of siding with solidarity over inequality, and no one learns this lessonthan our poor protagonist, Billie James, who can t...Chanelle Benz is a literary acrobat Her writing style can be blunt or flowery The prose flowed beautifully and this book was perfectly paced, quick to read, easy to understand, while still playing with words and colloquialism Knowing Benz from her short fiction, I had no idea for about half the book which way things were going to go But then it got predictable The final half of the book, the reader knows what happened, can easily guess what is going to happen, but I believe this is the poin Chanelle Benz is a literary acrobat Her writing style can be blunt or flowery The prose flowed beautifully and this book was perfectly paced, quick to read, easy to understand, while still playing with words and colloquialism Knowing Benz from her short fiction, I had no idea for about half the book which way things were going to go But then it got predictable The final half of the book, the reader knows what happened, can easily guess what is going to happen, but I believe this is the point of the book Benz is discussing racism in the deep south It is something predictable that hasn t changed much for so many years The payoff of the book is not the event or discovery of the event, but something a bitdeeper seated, a new reali...Disclosure I received this book for free from GoodreadsDnf in the middle of p 28, after trying 3 different times to get through this book It s bloody awful Literally from the 1st words I was rearranging these so called sentences paragraphs so they might make some type of sense There s also random extraneous info thrown in all over the place, a complete lack of style To further muddy the waters, the pronoun usage is sloppy undelineated to the point of having Disclosure I received this book for free from GoodreadsDnf in the middle of p 28, after trying 3 different times to get through this book It s bloody awful Literally from the 1st words I was rearranging these so called sentences paragraphs so they might make some type of sense There s also random extraneous info thrown in all over the place, a complete lack of style To further muddy the waters, the pronoun usage is sloppy undelineated to the point of having no clear reference to one character or another For example, reading an entire paragraph wherein there is no way to know when the, he, or, him, in the character s th...This novel is a mix of a mystery crime novel, with the protagonist trying to solve the mystery of what happened to her father 30 years ago, and an exploration of race in the deep south, with its abiding racism 30 years ago, with lingering effects into the present It s a little slow moving, as Billie comes to terms with various issues First there are family members she hasn t seen in ages, like uncles, cousins and so on There are white people who knew her and her family so many years ago, who This novel is a mix of a mystery crime novel, with the protagonist trying to solve the mystery of what happened to her father 30 years ago, and an exploration of race in the deep south, with its abiding racism 30 years ago, with lingering effects into the present It s a little slow moving, as Billie comes to terms with various issues First there are family members she hasn t seen in ages, like uncles, cousins and so on There are white people who knew her and her family so many years ago, who don t want her around for one reason or another There are black people who are sure that there is a racist lurking in every white man s heart, and try to talk her into moving back north There is a biographer who is trying to get his hands on the truth of her father s poetry as well as history One thing I did not enjoy is the auth...This book was a disappointment I was expecting a mystery with some focus on serious issues, but there is no real mystery, just people not wanting to discuss the past and confront racial injustice.After an absence of three decades, Billie James returns to the Mississippi Delta She has inherited the house where her father Clifton, a well known black poet, died in 1972, 30 years earlier During her time in Glendale, she finds out that some people suspect Clifton s death may not have been the resu This book was a disappointment I was expecting a mystery with some focus on serious issues, but there is no real mystery, just people not wanting to discuss the past and confront racial injustice.After an absence of three decades, Billie James returns to the Mississippi Delta She has inherited the house where her father Clifton, a well known black poet, died in 1972, 30 years earlier During her time in Glendale, she finds out that some people suspect Clifton s death may not have been the result of an accidental fall as determined by the police She decides to stay and try to learn the truth, though there are people who keep warning her not to ask too many questions As she persists, she finds herself in increasing danger.The novel focuses on Billie s perspective, but the viewpoints of eight others are interspersed The most interesting one is that of Avalon, an old juke joint frequented by C...

The Gone Dead
  • English
  • 08 June 2017
  • Hardcover
  • 295 pages
  • 0062490699
  • Chanelle Benz
  • The Gone Dead