I discovered this book through Joe’s top 10 list of books for 2020. As I’m a fan of Goodman’s work, I was excited to read a novel length piece of his fiction.
A Passing Shower is the story of Yvonne, told through her not quite autobiographical novel/diary.
This novel is a lot like life. It’s chaotic. The narrator is unreliable. There are literary allusions. Some humor. Good things happen. More bad things happen.
I admit I was at times frustrated with this novel. I wanted Yvonne to write a nicer fiction for her family. I wanted to decipher the truth from the stuff she’d made up. However, despite, or because of this, I saw Yvonne and her family as real people, not made up characters, and I felt for them through every one of their multiple tragedies.
Goodman has a delightful voice that keeps you with the story as it moves around in time and even changes fictional authors. There is a lot of humor, which is good, because it makes the sadness of the tale bearable.
I award A Passing Shower…
Click here to get A Passing Shower for free.
Click here to read my review of Bruce Goodman’s memoir, Bits of a Boyhood.
Click here to read how the author killed me on his blog, and check out his other posts too.
Iseult Murphy 
You write better reviews than I do. Haha.
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I disagree.
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I disagree more.
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I disagree most.
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I disagree moster. Take that, superlative!
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Haha!
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Thank you, Iseult. Delighted you enjoyed and reviewed this novel! Sorry about any frustration! You are not alone – I once sent a copy to an agent who answered “I suspect this novel would totally piss me off”!! Then there was the NY publisher (the only one I’ve ever tried) who kept it on his desk rereading it for 8 weeks and phoned me 4 times. In the end he said, “I like it but I don’t know how to promote such a book!” Thank you for the promotion! I am deeply grateful indeed.
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Oh dear! Pity they didn’t take a chance on it. Thank you for sharing it with the world.
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Kudos to Goodman for making his characters appear as real people. Good review, Iseult!
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Thanks Priscilla
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I am definitely going to read this one now. I’d started a while back. I also am a fan of Goodman. Thanks for the link.
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Thanks Herb.
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This sounds really interesting, added to my TBR list.
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You should read it.
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