Go with Me: A Novel

"Chivalry isn't dead; it has just retreated to the backwoods of Vermont. Far beyond the range of leaf-peepers, quaint B & Bs and wealthy liberals lie millions of acres of dark forest, the kind of rich soil that chivalric romance has grown in for centuries. James Fenimore Cooper first saw the possibilities of moving the knights errant of medieval Europe to New England's woods, and now Castle Freeman Jr. performs an equally radical transplant with Go With Me, his oddly witty tale of a damsel in distress." Ron Charles Remember Daryl, Daryl and their brother, Daryl of the old television series with Bob Newhart? Quadruple their force and you have the setting for a small group of townsmen who gather every day at the old chair mill. They discuss, they foretell and they are the old Greek wise men. Throughout this novel, they speak and reminisce and give each other advice. Whizzer is the leader of the group. He was a logger until one of the trees got him, and now as a paraplegic, his job is to keep this group together, with and without beer, on a daily basis. Lillian, a young woman with long brown hair to her ass, as we are constantly reminded, comes to this group one day. She has been harassed by Blackway, the area's mafia bad guy. He sent her boyfriend scurrying out of town, broke her car window and then killed her beloved cat. She went to the local Sheriff Wingate who told her he there wasn't anything he could do to help her. He advised she leave town, she said no. A 'pistol' he thought, she was. He sent her on to Whizzer for help. Whizzer looked for volunteers and Nate the Great, "a tall, long-boned, heavy-wristed kid: not a scholar, not a talker. Smarter than a horse, not smarter than a tractor." The other is Lester, an old man with a heavy limp. "Was he seventy?" Lillian wonders. "Was he eighty?" These three started out to find Blackway and to do what, exactly? A small suspenseful novel, filled with humor, a smile on almost every page, but yet, a novel that has grace and charm and so well written. A profound novel filled with the wit of the Vermont old timer. No flatlanders allowed here. Highly, Highly Recommended. prisrob 07-06-08 Go With Me: A Novel Judgment Hill: A Novel (Hardscrabble Books)

This book is my first exposure to this writer. Despite its brevity, the story, although dark, is delightful with wonderful, totally believable characters and priceless dialogue. There is a sort of Greek chorus of elderly men, sitting around a stove, who continue to comment on the heroine's efforts with her two volunteers to get rid of the villain. They are wonderful. Both my wife and I laughed out loud as we each read the novel. It would give heart to any geezer who picked it up. The plot is believable, most of the characters are charming and every community has in its bosom at least one villain with his followers similar to the one in this volume. I recommend it. It also makes a great gift to anyone who enjoys top level writing.

Go With Me is a little like a modern western, lean and angular. This slight novel features great characters and a fast-moving plot intertwined with wandering musings of the local townsfolk, through which you learn the history of the town and the characters. I won't repeat the story line here, just advise you to get this book and lose yourself for a few hours. P.S. Robert Duvall, who played Gus McCrae in "Lonesome Dove" would make a great Lester in this movie version of this story.

I avidly follow book news, and I couldn't help but notice that there's been an avalanche of stellar reviews for "Go With Me" by Castle Freeman, Jr. I just had to see what all the fuss was about, so I bought the book and soon found myself lost inside a classic tale about a damsel in distress, the villain that threatens her, and the men who rescue her. I don't think I can add much to the ongoing praise, other than to say that I wholeheartedly agree. This is one exceptionally fine backwoods thriller--a work with an abundance of humor and a lyrical sense of place that takes your breath away! If you want to examine a novel in which there appears to be absolutely no extraneous words, action, or character, this is the one. The pacing and dialogue are near-perfect, and the characters are so real they easily make your own world seem artificial by comparison. To open this book is to fall right in and become part of another world. Possibly the only unique comment I can add is to help explain the purpose of one of the minor characters, a man named Conrad. He appears as just one of a handful of men who form the "Greek chorus" out at Wizzer's place. But at the end, Conrad jumps out at you inexplicably when he gets his own unique chapter--a chapter that is quiet unlike much that has come before. At first this seemed odd, especially in a novel where there are no unnecessary words. The careful reader has to ask himself: Why give Conrad his own chapter? What's the author trying to say with this short diversion? All it took to find the answer was to go back and reread all of Conrad's dialogue. In a book that is only 160 pages long, that's actually easy. So, if you want to do that yourself, be my guest. If you don't, read on. Nothing I say gives away the plot; it only sheds light on one of the underlying thematic messages. Conrad plays the role of the outsider. He plays our part, for we are outsiders, too. Whenever the guys at Wizzer's get to talking, Conrad is always the one who's a little bit confused. He's the one asking the questions. If the book didn't have Conrad, there wouldn't be so much explaining going on and we, the reader, wouldn't know essential back-story. Conrad is not a native Vermont backwoodsman. He didn't spend his life living around the other men in the story. Conrad is married to Betsy, Wizzer's younger sister by more than half a generation. His wife says that their house used to be the town's schoolhouse. Conrad's amazed to learn how everything around the town used to be something else. Everything's seemed to have changed but Wizzer's--his place is almost exactly as it's been for generations. The men get to talking about what might someday become of Wizzer's place--the one place that hasn't changed. They wisecrack that they could turn it into a museum, pick it up and drop it down in the middle of Sturbridge Village, along with the whole lot of them. They could charge admission and "let the tourists look at us." It is Conrad who breaks

What a little gem. Summary, no spoilers. This is the story of a young woman, who refuses to back down and leave after the town bully torments her, and runs off her boyfriend. She seeks the help of the sheriff, who directs her to a colorful group of locals from this small Vermont town. They send her off with two of their own - a wily old man, and a big strapping young guy who works with him. The action alternates between the girl and the 2 men seeking out the villain, and the small group that had sent them off. The latter group serves as the Greek chorus, and their dialogue is funny, profound, and clever. It's a neat trick. I highly recommend this novel. It's short, but there's not a wasted word. It feels like a much bigger book. It was very suspenseful, and I was tense and nervous as I got near the end. When I turned the last page I felt satisfied. Highly recommended.