Literary Fiction · MelancholicA man looks back fifty years to a killing in his Illinois hometown and to a friend he failed
So Long, See You Tomorrow
An older man looks back on a killing in his hometown, and on a friend he let down
The story is set in Lincoln, Illinois, the author's hometown, and the main events occur in 1922. Tension between two neighboring families, the Smiths and the Wilsons, leads to a fatal incident. The narrator, an older man, tells it about fifty years later. He also recounts how, as a boy, he failed to support his school friend Cletus, the son of Clarence Smith, and that guilt frames the story.
More about this book
Who
An unnamed narrator, the neighboring Smith and Wilson families, and Cletus, his school friend.
World
Lincoln, Illinois, in 1922, told from about fifty years later.
What makes it different
It is based on fact and has been called autobiographical metafiction. Its first-edition jacket was designed by the author's daughter and inspired by Giacometti's sculpture Palace at 4 a.m., which the book discusses.
Feel
Short, quiet and sad. The paperback won the 1982 National Book Award in the paperback fiction category, and the book was a finalist for the 1981 Pulitzer Prize.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Further reading
- So Long, See You TomorrowWikipedia