What do you think?
Rate this book
Go with Me
The Vermont hill country is the stark, vivid setting for this gripping and entertaining story of bold determination. The local villain, Blackway, is making life hellish for Lillian, a young woman from parts elsewhere. Her boyfriend has fled the state in fear, and local law enforcement can do nothing to protect her. She resolves, however, to stand her ground, and to fight back. A pair of unlikely allies � Lester, a crafty old-timer, and Nate, a powerful but naive youth � join her cause, understanding that there is no point in taking up the challenge unless you’re willing to “go through.� In this modern-day drama, a kind of Greek chorus � wry, witty, digressive; obsessively, amusingly reminiscent; skeptical, opinionated, and not always entirely sober � enriches the telling of this unforgettable tale as the reader follows the threesome’s progress on their dangerous, suspenseful quest.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published January 15, 2008
82 people are currently reading
1,054 people want to read
About the author
Castle Freeman Jr.
15Ìýbooks41ÌýfollowersCastle Freeman Jr. is an American novelist and writer who lives in Vermont.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 326 reviews
June 15, 2018
Great Read. Great dialogue, humor, witty, compact beautiful writing, to the point, easy read. Enjoyed this one! It made me think of Cormac McCarthy, that's why I picked this one up in London. But it doesn't have the gloomy views of McCarthy, however beautiful, this one makes you smile at every page, although some scenes are gloomy, the humor and wit wins all through the book. It's hopeful, it's the wild and small town space of Vermont, I really liked the character of the book. Great how the title of the book, Go with me, gets more than one meaning. Loved this book. It's about Lillian, a young woman who refuses to back away from a local villain, Blackway, who makes her life difficult. A local policeman advises her to go to a weird and witty bunch of men headed by 'Whizzer', assembled at 'the mill'for help and she teams up with Lester, a craft old-timer and Nate, tall and strong but not so smart it seems, to go face Blackway, in the wilderness of Vermont, meeting with weird individuals in strange situations and all the while in the background commented by Whizzer and his band of men. I picked this book up quite by chance and loved it! Hope this author publishes more work, this book is truly recommended from my side.
September 23, 2021
i'm not quite sure how to review this. on the one hand, it is a very slight book that occasionally has slices of terse profundity: "gun's only good when it's the only gun." on the other hand, the whole greek chorus conceit comes across more like what i imagine those sex and the city broads sound like when they get together and talk about shoes and boys or whatever that show is about. its very gossipy and nearly estrogen-y for a bunch of backwoods boys. but i enjoyed the book - it's a good study break. although it's mind-boggling that not one, but two men have had to go through life with the first name "castle". goodness.
not as good as , but similar, in a way.
not as good as , but similar, in a way.
April 4, 2013
I very seldom go into a book blindly. What that means is I try to do my homework before reading anything. I like to know who the author is; check to see if there is anything else in their oeuvre that has made any buzz, things like that. For the most part, I think I’ve been able to find some truly great gems this way, not to mention the good fortune of staying away from stinkers. (TWILIGHT I am still miffed at how you duped me.)
Anyway, I was in my favorite used bookstore the other day perusing the shelves when GO WITH ME caught my eye. I was instantly attracted to its cover: blood red images of an old barn and walkway with thick overgrowth on all sides. I looked to see who the author was: Castle Freeman, Jr. Never heard of him. It’s probably a pseudonym, I thought. So I started flipping through the pages. It was sparsely written; short chapters. Then I looked at the cover some more and in the lower left-hand corner, Charles Bock compared this book to the works of Cormac McCarthy and urged Richard Price to read this book. Intereeeeesttttiiiinnnnggg.
I flipped to the front pages to see what other reviewers said about the book: wry, primal, epic, impossible to put down, taut, filled with corny irony and shrewd wisdom, an elegant little thriller, a masterpiece of black comedy. And then I came across what the Kirkus Reviews had to say about the book: “If all novels were this good, Americans would read more.� That was it; I bought the novel.
When I started reading it, the blurb was right: I didn’t want to put it down. The story held me captive, not like an invited guest; rather, I was its hostage. Every word and sentence and paragraph soon reshaped itself and the concept of reading this book vanished…it was like I had heard these stories before, from some old-timer on a park bench as he spit black tobacco from a toothless mouth.
The story itself is quite simple: a woman (Lillian) is wronged by a bad dude (Blackway); the sheriff won’t help her, she’s on her own; enter the two most unlikely candidates for the job, Les and Nate the Great. The three of them embark on a journey across locales of Vermont that could be anywhere: an out-of-the-way hotel where indiscretions of the flesh are a norm; a bar meant not for joviality but to render one drunk enough to forgot about the meaningless life they live; an abandoned logging camp that now only has a lone school bus as the only surviving structure. The villain, Blackway is more than just a villain; he is “what organized crime would be, if organized crime was in the area.�
And then there are the added bonuses of the novel: a Shakespearean chorus of old men that contemplate life and the future of their small town, who add comedic moments in this dark and bleak tale; the setting itself: a thick and green world of tress and wild grasses that have never allowed men to tame it; there are conspiracies of life, ghosts, and the true reasons as to why the sheriff would not help poor Lillian. There are underlying messages of chivalry and courage; and there is the contemplation of time and what it can do to an area. There is the concept of change, and if change is even possible.
Ultimately, this is the type of story one searches for and is only lucky to find once in a great while. I will definitely be searching for more of Castle Freeman’s books.
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Best line in book: “Gun’s only good when it’s the only gun.�
Anyway, I was in my favorite used bookstore the other day perusing the shelves when GO WITH ME caught my eye. I was instantly attracted to its cover: blood red images of an old barn and walkway with thick overgrowth on all sides. I looked to see who the author was: Castle Freeman, Jr. Never heard of him. It’s probably a pseudonym, I thought. So I started flipping through the pages. It was sparsely written; short chapters. Then I looked at the cover some more and in the lower left-hand corner, Charles Bock compared this book to the works of Cormac McCarthy and urged Richard Price to read this book. Intereeeeesttttiiiinnnnggg.
I flipped to the front pages to see what other reviewers said about the book: wry, primal, epic, impossible to put down, taut, filled with corny irony and shrewd wisdom, an elegant little thriller, a masterpiece of black comedy. And then I came across what the Kirkus Reviews had to say about the book: “If all novels were this good, Americans would read more.� That was it; I bought the novel.
When I started reading it, the blurb was right: I didn’t want to put it down. The story held me captive, not like an invited guest; rather, I was its hostage. Every word and sentence and paragraph soon reshaped itself and the concept of reading this book vanished…it was like I had heard these stories before, from some old-timer on a park bench as he spit black tobacco from a toothless mouth.
The story itself is quite simple: a woman (Lillian) is wronged by a bad dude (Blackway); the sheriff won’t help her, she’s on her own; enter the two most unlikely candidates for the job, Les and Nate the Great. The three of them embark on a journey across locales of Vermont that could be anywhere: an out-of-the-way hotel where indiscretions of the flesh are a norm; a bar meant not for joviality but to render one drunk enough to forgot about the meaningless life they live; an abandoned logging camp that now only has a lone school bus as the only surviving structure. The villain, Blackway is more than just a villain; he is “what organized crime would be, if organized crime was in the area.�
And then there are the added bonuses of the novel: a Shakespearean chorus of old men that contemplate life and the future of their small town, who add comedic moments in this dark and bleak tale; the setting itself: a thick and green world of tress and wild grasses that have never allowed men to tame it; there are conspiracies of life, ghosts, and the true reasons as to why the sheriff would not help poor Lillian. There are underlying messages of chivalry and courage; and there is the contemplation of time and what it can do to an area. There is the concept of change, and if change is even possible.
Ultimately, this is the type of story one searches for and is only lucky to find once in a great while. I will definitely be searching for more of Castle Freeman’s books.
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Best line in book: “Gun’s only good when it’s the only gun.�
October 2, 2016
Finished this slim, superb novel around 11pm last night.
I read it a couple of years back and I believe I might have reviewed it.
At any rate, when I started reading this early Friday morning I didn't recognize the story for the first 20 pages.
I can't understand how I could have forgotten reading a book this exciting.
This is what I'd call a "Modern Day Eastern" as opposed to a "Modern Day Western".
It takes place in the mountains of rural Vermont - lumberman country.
As they've entered the 21st century all the long-time residents have known and taken for granted their entire lives -mills, stores, schoolhouses, jobs - has vanished.
The men who live there are all employed by lumber companies if they are employed at all.
A very sinister, very bad man has been tormenting and taunting a "newcomer"- a young, lovely, self sufficient woman. He has been stalking her. He's killed her cat and left it on her back porch steps.
He's damaged her car, smashing out windows.
She goes to the sheriff for help.
The law can't help her, he tells her. They can't arrest someone for what a potential victim thinks he intends to do.
The sheriff suggests she go to the old mill on the outskirts of town and see an older gentleman named "Whizzer".
The mill turns out be a former factory where chairs were manufactured. It's a place out of time, something from a hundred years ago.
It's Whizzer's home now.
Everyday a group of men gather there - beer drinking, back-roads philosophers telling jokes, opining on the current state of affairs in America, in Vermont, and mostly talking about the past.
Whizzer is the de facto leader of this group.
"This feeling that Whizzer and the rest of them are all sitting inside a space ship," Conrad said. "A rocket ship. They're in there, and the ship is traveling. It's moving. It's going so fast. It's going at light speed, you know? And so, the men who are on it don't get old, do they? That's what Einstein said. Isn't it? They don't change. Time doesn't pass for them. Time stretches. It stretches, or it shrinks. Or something. They're out of time. You know?"
When the young woman appears before these men it's Whizzer who makes the decision to help her.
He enlists two men he hires to do odd jobs around the mill: an old man named Lester Speed and his apprentice, a huge, strong young man called Nate The Great.
The three set off to find the villain who's staying way up in the mountains in a notorious place called The Lost Towns ... some lifelong residents believe this place to be haunted. Along the way they encounter assorted violent, dangerous hard cases.
Every other chapter is devoted to expanding the backstory on the villain and the girl by way of the Greek chorus of the duffers sitting around at Whizzer's mill, drinking beer and pontificating.
This slim volume is a terrific read. It is at times hilarious, action-packed and filled with an overpowering sense of dread and suspense.
I've driven through Vermont often -many times on the rural highways that cut through the mountains. The back country can be an especially eerie place to drive through.
On these rural routes you will occasionally drive past mysterious cinder block buildings sitting a couple of yards off the highway with cars and motorcycles parked outside and you can only wonder at what mischief could be at work there.
The Fort was not the kind of bar where a good Mormon or a good Muslim could get a glass of water. It was not the kind of bar where you stopped for a drink on your way home from work. It was the kind of bar where you stopped for many drinks on your way to work, until soon enough they fired you and you could spend the whole day at the Fort. In converting the building from a garage to a bar... the owner hadn't given a lot of thought to charm. He had walled over the three bay doors using glass blocks at a height of six feet. These were the only thing in the building answering to windows, and each of them held an electric beer sign. You couldn't see into the Fort, and you couldn't see out - but in either case why would you want to?
I was thoroughly engrossed in this book for 2 days. Maybe it was because I'm a little familiar with how forlorn Vermont can be between the bigger towns and cities but I think mostly I was staggered by the poetic writing in what was basically an old fashioned action novel.
I can't recommend this one highly enough.
August 31, 2024
Go With Me
A small Vermont logging town, a woman asks the Sheriff to do something about a man that goes by Blackway, who is stalking her.
The Sheriff tells her to look up some guy and see if he will help
She goes to this guy’s work where two other guys volunteer to help her with Blackway
From here it gets weird.
The dialogue is authentic, I could see/hear every scene as it went down
Felt like a movie
Very gritty and escalated quickly
But I feel unsatisfied—like, nothing really happened one way or the other really. I mean, it does come to a resolution but nothing super memorable or unexpected. I don’t know. I was entertained but I wasn’t blown away here.
A small Vermont logging town, a woman asks the Sheriff to do something about a man that goes by Blackway, who is stalking her.
The Sheriff tells her to look up some guy and see if he will help
She goes to this guy’s work where two other guys volunteer to help her with Blackway
From here it gets weird.
The dialogue is authentic, I could see/hear every scene as it went down
Felt like a movie
Very gritty and escalated quickly
But I feel unsatisfied—like, nothing really happened one way or the other really. I mean, it does come to a resolution but nothing super memorable or unexpected. I don’t know. I was entertained but I wasn’t blown away here.
June 17, 2019
1 Star.
Finally! It took all my strength (and ocd tendencies) not to abandon this book. It was so incredibly slow. I was bored out of my mind. I didn't enjoy the style of writing, none of the characters were even the slightest bit interesting. I just didn't like anything about this one, I actually dreaded picking it up every time. It took me forever to get through this little 160 page book. Blah!
Finally! It took all my strength (and ocd tendencies) not to abandon this book. It was so incredibly slow. I was bored out of my mind. I didn't enjoy the style of writing, none of the characters were even the slightest bit interesting. I just didn't like anything about this one, I actually dreaded picking it up every time. It took me forever to get through this little 160 page book. Blah!
April 27, 2009
This slim volume is a timeless classic. It is almost entirely conversation, though occasionally the author slips in a descriptive phrase to focus our eye. We listen while a bunch of old men sit around a ruined chair factory in rural Vermont with a case of beer. A couple of other people search for, and find, the town's local bad boy, providing the novel's only action scenes. Nothing quite like this around, and if there were, this would still be one of the very best. Good any time of the year, this one bears rereading. While the setting is Vermont, it could just as easily have been Arkansas. The sentiments and the characters are as universal as the day is long.
August 31, 2021
For a neat (and non-"spoilered") OUTLINE I can't recommend Still's review highly enough.
(p. 11) 'Whizzer's accident, now ten years ago, had taken things from him, and it had given him things. The things taken were in the past; they were the past itself. The others continued. The accident had given Whizzer a new way of getting around, a new income, a new job. It had given him a new name. During his long recovery, when he was learning to use the new electric cart or wheelchair in which he was invited to spend the rest of his life, he and the men who idled about the mill, the beer passing among them, would take turns trying the machine out - ahead, back, port, starboard, half speed, full speed. They called the chair the WHIZZER , and eventually the name of the conveyance attached itself to the conveyed.'
(14) 'Another trophy in Whizzer's office was his own: a great horned owl, which glared its angry glass eyes from a shelf behind the door. It had turned up dead in the mill yard one morning long ago, and Whizzer, then a high school kid, had determined to stuff it. (...) The glass eyes he mail-ordered from Chicago. They were the most satisfactory part of the exhibition - or the least unsatisfactory. Apart from the eyes, Whizzer's owl hadn't held up well. It looked like it ought, in the first place, to have been given a decent burial. It had developed a drunken lean to one side, and over the years mice had moved into the interior and nestled there. When they frolicked, the stuffed owl could sometimes be seen faintly to jerk or twitch, as if in life. Some days, indeed, Whizzer's owl got around the premises more than Whizzer.'
(16) 'Somebody drove into the yard.
"Who's this?" asked Whizzer.
Coop got to his feet and went to the window. He looked out.
"Lady in a little car," said Coop.
"Young?" Whizzer asked.
Coop bent to the window.
"I wouldn't call it young," he said. "It's a 'ninety-two, 'ninety-three. A little Escort."
"The lady," said Whizzer.
Coop looked again.
"Young enough," he said.'
(27-8) 'Coop went to the coffee pot. "Mouth on her, too" he said. "Did you hear her? Fuck this, fuck that. I thought I was back in the navy."
"I know it," said D.B. "One thing, though. Girls that talk like that? They put out."
"How would you know?" Coop asked him. "You never knew a girl that talked like that before."
"He never knew a girl that put out before, either," said Whizzer.
"Don't you mind about what girls I knew," said D.B.
"Same ones I did, it looks like," said Coop.
(31-2) 'The door opened a foot and Fitzgerald peered out. He looked like hell: no shave, skin gray, eyes red, clothes slept-in, breath like an empty bottle in which a mouse had died.'
(63) ' "Mind you," said Lester, "I like a good fight myself. But it's a young fellows' game, ain't it. Fighting? Like my wife and me, when we were young. God, we fought all the time. Just married: we'd fight about anything. I mean fight, too: shouting, screaming, throwing things - all day and all night. Then when we got old, it seemed like we simmered down. Don't fight anywhere near as much anymore."
"(...)" said Lillian.
"Course," Lester went on, "that might be partly because she moved out on me." '
(73) 'The beard was black at the sides and gray down the middle and made the man look like he was in the act of eating a SKUNK headfirst.'
(113) ' "Like you say, 'into the wilderness'?" said Coop. "That ain't wilderness. The Towns ain't wilderness. The Towns ain't wilderness like you got in Maine, Canada, out West."
"Well," said Whizzer, "but this ain't out West. Here, if The towns ain't wilderness, they'll do until the real thing comes along."
(155) ' "He's like the village criminal," said Betsy. "He's what we've got up here instead of organized crime." '
(p. 11) 'Whizzer's accident, now ten years ago, had taken things from him, and it had given him things. The things taken were in the past; they were the past itself. The others continued. The accident had given Whizzer a new way of getting around, a new income, a new job. It had given him a new name. During his long recovery, when he was learning to use the new electric cart or wheelchair in which he was invited to spend the rest of his life, he and the men who idled about the mill, the beer passing among them, would take turns trying the machine out - ahead, back, port, starboard, half speed, full speed. They called the chair the WHIZZER , and eventually the name of the conveyance attached itself to the conveyed.'
(14) 'Another trophy in Whizzer's office was his own: a great horned owl, which glared its angry glass eyes from a shelf behind the door. It had turned up dead in the mill yard one morning long ago, and Whizzer, then a high school kid, had determined to stuff it. (...) The glass eyes he mail-ordered from Chicago. They were the most satisfactory part of the exhibition - or the least unsatisfactory. Apart from the eyes, Whizzer's owl hadn't held up well. It looked like it ought, in the first place, to have been given a decent burial. It had developed a drunken lean to one side, and over the years mice had moved into the interior and nestled there. When they frolicked, the stuffed owl could sometimes be seen faintly to jerk or twitch, as if in life. Some days, indeed, Whizzer's owl got around the premises more than Whizzer.'
(16) 'Somebody drove into the yard.
"Who's this?" asked Whizzer.
Coop got to his feet and went to the window. He looked out.
"Lady in a little car," said Coop.
"Young?" Whizzer asked.
Coop bent to the window.
"I wouldn't call it young," he said. "It's a 'ninety-two, 'ninety-three. A little Escort."
"The lady," said Whizzer.
Coop looked again.
"Young enough," he said.'
(27-8) 'Coop went to the coffee pot. "Mouth on her, too" he said. "Did you hear her? Fuck this, fuck that. I thought I was back in the navy."
"I know it," said D.B. "One thing, though. Girls that talk like that? They put out."
"How would you know?" Coop asked him. "You never knew a girl that talked like that before."
"He never knew a girl that put out before, either," said Whizzer.
"Don't you mind about what girls I knew," said D.B.
"Same ones I did, it looks like," said Coop.
(31-2) 'The door opened a foot and Fitzgerald peered out. He looked like hell: no shave, skin gray, eyes red, clothes slept-in, breath like an empty bottle in which a mouse had died.'
(63) ' "Mind you," said Lester, "I like a good fight myself. But it's a young fellows' game, ain't it. Fighting? Like my wife and me, when we were young. God, we fought all the time. Just married: we'd fight about anything. I mean fight, too: shouting, screaming, throwing things - all day and all night. Then when we got old, it seemed like we simmered down. Don't fight anywhere near as much anymore."
"(...)" said Lillian.
"Course," Lester went on, "that might be partly because she moved out on me." '
(73) 'The beard was black at the sides and gray down the middle and made the man look like he was in the act of eating a SKUNK headfirst.'
(113) ' "Like you say, 'into the wilderness'?" said Coop. "That ain't wilderness. The Towns ain't wilderness. The Towns ain't wilderness like you got in Maine, Canada, out West."
"Well," said Whizzer, "but this ain't out West. Here, if The towns ain't wilderness, they'll do until the real thing comes along."
(155) ' "He's like the village criminal," said Betsy. "He's what we've got up here instead of organized crime." '
March 21, 2017
When the local psychopath, Blackway, of a small and remote Vermont town takes it into his head to persecute small-time drug dealer Kevin and Kevin's girl Lillian, Kevin runs for the hills -- well, Florida. But Lillian's made of sterner stuff, and decides to stick around: why should she run when she's done nothing wrong?
Blackway's sadistic killing of her cat changes Lillian's mind enough that she takes her troubles to Sheriff Wingate, who explains to her that there's nothing he can do under law until Blackway turns one of his physical threats into reality. At the same time, Wingate tells Lillian she might go consult the legless old logger Whizzer as to her next course of action.
Whizzer, whose main activity these days is chewing the fat and the neck of a beer bottle with idlers of a similar vintage and inclination, instructs two of his acolytes, the young simpleton giant Nate the Great and the elderly trickster Lester, to help Lillian sort Blackway out. Terminally, if need be.
This is a fine slice of rural noir whose telling owes more than I imagine Freeman would willingly admit to the style of the great Ed McBain (whose passing a few years back is still mourned in my small part of the cosmos).
The Kirkus review quote on the back of my edition describes the book as "A small masterpiece" and adds that "If all novels were this good, Americans would read more." While I can understand the reviewer's sentiment -- this is indeed a good, well written and eminently readable novel -- I can't actually endorse it entirely.
Why not? Well, one part of my minor dissent concerns the McBain-esque conversations that, during some earlier parts of the book, turn up with formulaic regularity: We have a chapter following the activities of Lillian, Les and Nate, followed by another during which Whizzer and the other curmudgeons natter wittily but aimlessly, then back to Lillian, Les and Nate, then back to Whizzer and his chums, then . . . It all seems pretty rote, and very soon the Whizzer & Co. conversations, despite their undoubted wit, start to seem more like padding than fun.
My other reservation concerns the strand following the quest of Lillian, Les and Nate to locate Blackway. There's a slight feeling about it of what my old pal John Clute dubbed the plot-coupon story. He was talking in terms of fantasy ("First you must pick up the dragonstone of Doomville to open the Great Black Gate of the Superspliffers, therein you will find the thaumaturge of Gombat who will tell the secret route to Nombaspule where awaits the Rune of Sploot, which you will need if ever you are to contemplate the Cleavage of Naborn . . ."); in this novel there seem to be too many scenes in which Lillian, Les and Nate are conversing with some associate of Gateway's only to be instructed, if they want to find the man, to go talk to another associate of Gateway's . . .
Merely by mentioning these quibbles I'm magnifying them out of all proportion. If you enjoyed Zev Berman's 2003 movie Briar Patch (vt Plain Dirty), with Dominique Swain, chances are you'll adore this novel.
Go With Me is about 160 pages long -- about as long as many novels were back in the 1970s and 1980s. According to the gratuitous backmatter (I very rarely read such "added-content" crap because it normally annoys me so much with its risible self-importance, but for once I'm glad I did), various critics got uppity about Go With Me because it was "too short." In reality, it does everything it needs to do very well within its extent, and it could actually, I think, have been pruned a little. It's depressing when novels are criticized for having insufficient bloat.
So: mixed feelings, but mainly favorable ones, on the part of this reader. I'll be looking out for more of Freeman's work.
Blackway's sadistic killing of her cat changes Lillian's mind enough that she takes her troubles to Sheriff Wingate, who explains to her that there's nothing he can do under law until Blackway turns one of his physical threats into reality. At the same time, Wingate tells Lillian she might go consult the legless old logger Whizzer as to her next course of action.
Whizzer, whose main activity these days is chewing the fat and the neck of a beer bottle with idlers of a similar vintage and inclination, instructs two of his acolytes, the young simpleton giant Nate the Great and the elderly trickster Lester, to help Lillian sort Blackway out. Terminally, if need be.
This is a fine slice of rural noir whose telling owes more than I imagine Freeman would willingly admit to the style of the great Ed McBain (whose passing a few years back is still mourned in my small part of the cosmos).
The Kirkus review quote on the back of my edition describes the book as "A small masterpiece" and adds that "If all novels were this good, Americans would read more." While I can understand the reviewer's sentiment -- this is indeed a good, well written and eminently readable novel -- I can't actually endorse it entirely.
Why not? Well, one part of my minor dissent concerns the McBain-esque conversations that, during some earlier parts of the book, turn up with formulaic regularity: We have a chapter following the activities of Lillian, Les and Nate, followed by another during which Whizzer and the other curmudgeons natter wittily but aimlessly, then back to Lillian, Les and Nate, then back to Whizzer and his chums, then . . . It all seems pretty rote, and very soon the Whizzer & Co. conversations, despite their undoubted wit, start to seem more like padding than fun.
My other reservation concerns the strand following the quest of Lillian, Les and Nate to locate Blackway. There's a slight feeling about it of what my old pal John Clute dubbed the plot-coupon story. He was talking in terms of fantasy ("First you must pick up the dragonstone of Doomville to open the Great Black Gate of the Superspliffers, therein you will find the thaumaturge of Gombat who will tell the secret route to Nombaspule where awaits the Rune of Sploot, which you will need if ever you are to contemplate the Cleavage of Naborn . . ."); in this novel there seem to be too many scenes in which Lillian, Les and Nate are conversing with some associate of Gateway's only to be instructed, if they want to find the man, to go talk to another associate of Gateway's . . .
Merely by mentioning these quibbles I'm magnifying them out of all proportion. If you enjoyed Zev Berman's 2003 movie Briar Patch (vt Plain Dirty), with Dominique Swain, chances are you'll adore this novel.
Go With Me is about 160 pages long -- about as long as many novels were back in the 1970s and 1980s. According to the gratuitous backmatter (I very rarely read such "added-content" crap because it normally annoys me so much with its risible self-importance, but for once I'm glad I did), various critics got uppity about Go With Me because it was "too short." In reality, it does everything it needs to do very well within its extent, and it could actually, I think, have been pruned a little. It's depressing when novels are criticized for having insufficient bloat.
So: mixed feelings, but mainly favorable ones, on the part of this reader. I'll be looking out for more of Freeman's work.
February 21, 2008
As a theater major in college, I spent plenty of time reading scripts and dialog, much of it not very good. That being said, Castle Freeman does an amazing job of building a novel around almost nothing but conversation as succinct as any David Mammet play. Strange, opaque and rich, this back-woods story of bro-mance (and I use that term with respect)and chivalry does it's job of glimpsing truth through sips of cheap American beer. An east coast Twin Peaks, less from the soap opera and more from the sports page... if the sports page was extremely well written and smart. A quick reading novella that makes you want to read it twice as the first time your driven to follow the story to the end, and the second enjoy Freeman's smart, memorable dialog.
June 22, 2009
After I finished this book, I read the Amazon reviews and found some extremely strong opinions on both sides. I haven't looked at the goodreads reviews yet and am interested in seeing whether that's also the case here. I gave this book 5 stars because it was, I think, perfect for what it set out to be. One of the 1-star Amazon reviewers described the writing as sophomoric, and several commented on the tedium of the dialogue. I responded entirely differently. Short punchy sentences told this story beautifully, and the conversations at the mill cracked me up; their interspersion with the "action" sections worked so well. The ending--sort of a postscript after the climax and dénouement--was exactly right. I think this book exemplifies the assessment "a little gem."
November 28, 2018
Way to repetitive. It became so bad I ended up skim reading a few pages here and there due to the slow and continuous drabble of the characters. There were no solid foundations or development of the characters so the reader is left feeling no connection at all. For a read that actually strongly suggests violence and brute force, nothing of the sort occurred in the novel so it fell flat instantly. It was a real disappointment!
April 21, 2017
Seit den Analysen zur letzten US-Wahl steht der Typ des Hinterwäldlers dauerhaft im Mittelpunkt des Öffentlichen Interesses. Vermont oder West Virginia, bisher eher Ziel von Wanderurlauben, sehen Beobachter aus dem Ausland nun auch als Lebensraum des echten amerikanischen Machos mit unverrückbarem Weltbild. In so ein Biotop in den Bergen Vermonts ist Lillian geraten. Sie stammt nicht von hier, kann also bei Problemen über keine Hausmacht von kräftigen Brüdern oder Tanzstunden-Partnern verfügen. Lillian fühlt sich von Blackway verfolgt und bedroht. Sie hat nur dummerweise keine Zeugen dafür, dass es Blackway war, der ihr Auto demoliert und ihre Katze getötet hat. Und Leuten von außerhalb kann man sowieso nicht glauben. Als Lillian Hilfe beim Sheriff sucht, wächst beim Leser die Ahnung, dass Lillian so gar keine Vorstellung davon hat, wie hier in den Bergen Konflikte gelöst werden. Der schickt sie nämlich in die Stuhlfabrik und zu Alonzo, der nach einem Unfall im Rollstuhl sitzt. Der Lösungsweg des regionalen Männer-Netzwerkes ist ebenso einfach wie brachial. Wer weit ab vom Schuss lebt, muss sich nur zu helfen wissen. Auf dem Weg zur Lösung sind sprachlich simple Dialoge zu verfolgen, die ihre Komik u. a. daraus entwickeln, dass sie von der Henne aufs Ei kommen und eher von Einheimischen begriffen werden. Die Zusammenarbeit einiger Hinterwäldler-Helden und ein denkbarer Bezug zur Denkzettelwahl in den USA konnte mich in dem sehr kurzen Text amüsieren �
3 1/2 von 5 Punkten
3 1/2 von 5 Punkten
February 27, 2014
A quick and entertaining read, but very much a middle-of-the-shelf kind of book. The book's best strengths for me were in the visual descriptions of the small New England towns and the natural landscape, which become as vibrant a presence as any character. Unfortunately, I also found the characters to be about as vibrant as the background. I enjoy minimalist writing like Hemingway or Cormac McCarthy (to whom Mr. Freeman has been compared in other reviews), but this book did not create the same sense of depth and texture. I found the characters in Go With Me to be rather flat and generic, and the plot itself loped along like a dog trying to find a place to lay down. When it finally did, the climax was rather anti-climactic.
In short, I don't mind the time I took to read this book, but I have a hard time imagining I would ever have the burning desire to read it again.
In short, I don't mind the time I took to read this book, but I have a hard time imagining I would ever have the burning desire to read it again.
August 28, 2019
Hard to say what made it so entertaining, I just couldn't put it down.
Just re-read it, have upgraded to 5 stars, it is the way a novel should be written!
Just re-read it, have upgraded to 5 stars, it is the way a novel should be written!
July 1, 2022
This is a little gem of a book. I love Castle Freeman’s writing and this is among his best.
It’s a very simple premise: in rural Vermont, a young woman goes to see the local Sheriff because she is being stalked and threatened by Blackway, a local thug who scares almost everyone. The Sheriff is unable to act without evidence, but advises her to ask some locals for help. Eventually the young and huge Nate The Great and the old, limping but wily Les agree to go with her to “see� Blackway. That’s it, really. Much of the book is the three of them visiting places and asking � in various ways � where Blackway is, and the tension builds as they move toward a confrontation. Intercut with this are conversations between the locals who didn’t go with her. And, as is remarked several times, “Blackway might have picked on the wrong girl this time, it looks like.�
It may sound a bit ordinary but it’s nothing of the sort. Freeman writes beautifully. His evocation of the hills of Vermont and life there is quite brilliant; it is delicate, subtle and almost enveloping in its atmosphere, and includes little gems like this, of a tough bar for drunks: “It was not the kind of bar where you stopped for a drink on your way home from work. It was the kind of bar where you stopped for many drinks on your way to work...�
The dialogue is simply wonderful. The Vermonters often don’t use many words, but say a great deal with them. It is wholly believable and a joy to read.
I can’t recommend this highly enough. I was engrossed, thrilled and delighted by it.
It’s a very simple premise: in rural Vermont, a young woman goes to see the local Sheriff because she is being stalked and threatened by Blackway, a local thug who scares almost everyone. The Sheriff is unable to act without evidence, but advises her to ask some locals for help. Eventually the young and huge Nate The Great and the old, limping but wily Les agree to go with her to “see� Blackway. That’s it, really. Much of the book is the three of them visiting places and asking � in various ways � where Blackway is, and the tension builds as they move toward a confrontation. Intercut with this are conversations between the locals who didn’t go with her. And, as is remarked several times, “Blackway might have picked on the wrong girl this time, it looks like.�
It may sound a bit ordinary but it’s nothing of the sort. Freeman writes beautifully. His evocation of the hills of Vermont and life there is quite brilliant; it is delicate, subtle and almost enveloping in its atmosphere, and includes little gems like this, of a tough bar for drunks: “It was not the kind of bar where you stopped for a drink on your way home from work. It was the kind of bar where you stopped for many drinks on your way to work...�
The dialogue is simply wonderful. The Vermonters often don’t use many words, but say a great deal with them. It is wholly believable and a joy to read.
I can’t recommend this highly enough. I was engrossed, thrilled and delighted by it.
December 25, 2019
Très très bon, vraiment ! Du petit lait, ou plutôt, parce que c'est quand même assez corsé, un petit café bien serré, dosé juste ce qu'il faut, sans amertume en arrière-goût, confortant bien que ténébreux. On n'est pas loin du 5 étoiles. Et j'aime beaucoup le titre à la lecture des dernières pages.:)
August 14, 2017
Very put-downable. Took me much longer to read than it should have given its very short length.
Still, the story wasn't awful even though it wasn't the most engaging and the author does write the best Vermonters I have ever read, which is a pretty amusing to me since he's a flatlander. But he's got woodchuck speak down pat and that's a win in my book.
Still, the story wasn't awful even though it wasn't the most engaging and the author does write the best Vermonters I have ever read, which is a pretty amusing to me since he's a flatlander. But he's got woodchuck speak down pat and that's a win in my book.
May 21, 2023
Eine sehr beruhigende Abendlektüre. Die Sprache ist an einigen Stellen zwar schlicht, aber fängt das ländliche Umfeld in Vermont gut ein. Der Plot ist angemessen für den Buchumfang. Die Figuren bleiben eindimensional aber auch liebenswert. Alles in allem ein tolles Buch zum Abschalten.
October 22, 2011
This book should be mandatory reading for any wannabe writer. Don't get depressed. Perk up. Ignore those rejection letters. There is hope. If this bundle of twaddle can be published, everything stands a chance of being published, even something you've written. No matter how bad it may be, no matter how scathing the editor's criticisms, save it -- you never know. It may be your ticket to literary stardom.
There are these guys who hang out day-in and day-out in a broken down lumber mill drinking beer and reminiscing. Fifty pages into this book I realize it must have been at one time a Muppet skit -- a rejected one. Bert and Ernie are tracking down the Cookie Monster to defend Miss Piggy's virtue, while the old geezers sitting in the balcony and drinking beer critique Bert and Ernie's adventures in the Vermont mountains. One gets the feeling that the only true crisis in the Vermont mountains is when you run out of beer. When you look at it that way, this is a fun read provided you make some allowances -- the Muppets are smarter than these Yahoos. Remember that; it will save you a lot of pain.
Real people aren't like this; we never would have survived, certainly would never have conquered nature. But wait a minute . . . some archaeologists and anthropologists claim we are descendants of a common ancestor named Lucy. If they literally mean a single Lucy, then this explains a lot: Too much inbreeding.
It's one redeeming value? It's short. Thank god.
There are these guys who hang out day-in and day-out in a broken down lumber mill drinking beer and reminiscing. Fifty pages into this book I realize it must have been at one time a Muppet skit -- a rejected one. Bert and Ernie are tracking down the Cookie Monster to defend Miss Piggy's virtue, while the old geezers sitting in the balcony and drinking beer critique Bert and Ernie's adventures in the Vermont mountains. One gets the feeling that the only true crisis in the Vermont mountains is when you run out of beer. When you look at it that way, this is a fun read provided you make some allowances -- the Muppets are smarter than these Yahoos. Remember that; it will save you a lot of pain.
Real people aren't like this; we never would have survived, certainly would never have conquered nature. But wait a minute . . . some archaeologists and anthropologists claim we are descendants of a common ancestor named Lucy. If they literally mean a single Lucy, then this explains a lot: Too much inbreeding.
It's one redeeming value? It's short. Thank god.
May 7, 2018
A comparatively short and somewhat quirky novel which will certainly not be to everyone's taste. I rather enjoyed it.
A young woman, getting grief from the local baddy and given the brush-off by the sheriff, enlists the help of two somewhat unlikely companions, Big Nate and Lester.
All of the narrative and action take place on one day, hence being a somewhat short book. The author uses the device of switching between the three companions as they go hunting for the bad guy, and the group of elderly, beer-swilling men up at the old sawmill where the woman went to find help.
The protracted discussions between the men, with Whizzer, the disabled ex-lumberjack as their leader, will doubtless drive some readers to distraction with its humour based often on misunderstanding. To that end, a lot of it is repetitive.
In my humble opinion, it is worth sticking with it to the end - and I have a very low tolerance with anything which isn't gripping me, so that is high praise indeed.
A young woman, getting grief from the local baddy and given the brush-off by the sheriff, enlists the help of two somewhat unlikely companions, Big Nate and Lester.
All of the narrative and action take place on one day, hence being a somewhat short book. The author uses the device of switching between the three companions as they go hunting for the bad guy, and the group of elderly, beer-swilling men up at the old sawmill where the woman went to find help.
The protracted discussions between the men, with Whizzer, the disabled ex-lumberjack as their leader, will doubtless drive some readers to distraction with its humour based often on misunderstanding. To that end, a lot of it is repetitive.
In my humble opinion, it is worth sticking with it to the end - and I have a very low tolerance with anything which isn't gripping me, so that is high praise indeed.
August 20, 2008
So at first I wasn't so sure about this book. I felt like the language used by the characters didn't quite match what I thought was the tone of the book, and that the plot of the book was too interrupted by chatter.
Then, about 40 or so pages in to this very short book, I read the back cover, which explained to me that this was actually a sort of greek drama set in the Vermont back woods, complete with chorus. Aha! The chatter makes much more sense.
Thinking about it in terms of what it reflects of modern American morality and sensibility made it a bit more meaningful to me, but it still didn't work quite as well for me as it did for my husband, who thought it was well-nigh perfect in pitch and tone and pacing.
Then, about 40 or so pages in to this very short book, I read the back cover, which explained to me that this was actually a sort of greek drama set in the Vermont back woods, complete with chorus. Aha! The chatter makes much more sense.
Thinking about it in terms of what it reflects of modern American morality and sensibility made it a bit more meaningful to me, but it still didn't work quite as well for me as it did for my husband, who thought it was well-nigh perfect in pitch and tone and pacing.
April 9, 2024
This book was okay. I felt like I knew what was gonna happen the second I opened the book and I was right so It wasn't really fun and different. The dialogue is good in a way that it sounds like real-person dialogue, not like a writer sat there for 5 minutes making the perfect sentence. If you've never met a whole bunch of middle-aged layabouts and enjoyed their presence you won't enjoy this book very much. The romance isn't fleshed out at all but is sweet and expected at the end. I think the only reason it doesn't annoy me too much is that it's short. There are no twists but a cool scene at The Fort that probably was my favorite. I liked Nate and Lester but the rest of the older guys felt like yes-men, in a way, and had no personality. It felt like you could've condensed the five characters shooting the shit into two and it wouldn't have felt any different. A nice quick read if you're bored.
January 11, 2018
Quand j'avais vu le film adapté de ce roman, je m'étais dit que le livre serait sûrement meilleur par la profondeur des personnages et tout... ce ne fut pas le cas. Le livre n'est pas moins bon, ni meilleur, c'était une adaptation très fidèle, d'une histoire simple, mais divertissante dans laquelle un trio particulier se voit «obligé» de prendre la justice en main. Thriller/policier assez lent, mais avec un rythme qui nous tiens accroché malgré tout. Une belle représentation de petits villages de bûcherons, comme on en voit tellement au Québec, dans le Maine et dans ce cas-ci, au Vermont, qui tombe en décrépitude dans notre monde moderne. Pas un chef-d'oeuvre, mais un livre qui m'a beaucoup plu et que j'ai dévoré.
April 4, 2017
Wäre das Buch nicht so dünn gewesen, ich hätte es vermutlich nicht beendet.
Ich kann anerkennen, dass der Stil bei uns originell war, auch wenn mich das Repetitive daran sehr ermüdet hat.
Und ganz allgemein stoßen mich Bücher, in denen so selbstverständlich zur Selbstjustiz gegriffen wird, eher ab.
Ich kann anerkennen, dass der Stil bei uns originell war, auch wenn mich das Repetitive daran sehr ermüdet hat.
Und ganz allgemein stoßen mich Bücher, in denen so selbstverständlich zur Selbstjustiz gegriffen wird, eher ab.
November 20, 2019
I enjoyed this little book quite a bit. Its 160 pages read like a short season of the TV show Fargo, except set in Vermont. Strange but likeable characters, back-woods (or plains) justice, snippets of violence, but delivered with an “awe shucks� attitude. In fact, if it had been written in the past three years or so, I’d have thought it was a Fargo knock off, but since it was published in 2008, I am free to like it for what it is—an original.
May 8, 2021
Liest sich wie ein Film!
March 3, 2022
Wie ein früher Film der Coen Brüder
December 6, 2023
Simple, gritty, compelling, and 100% not what I was expecting based on the photo of the author on the sleeve
October 3, 2022
Kurzweilig, witzig und spannender Roman mitten in der amerikanischen Landbevölkerung, reduziert auf knackig knappe Dialoge, die es aber in sich haben!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 326 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.