Wide Blue Yonder

This is the story of a teenage girl who seemeingly has nothing on her horizon but trouble. Her uncle believes that he is the Weather Channel's "Local Forecast". Unknown to them both is that a raging loner from Los Angeles is heading toward their hometown of Springfield. This is a beautifully written, dark and suspenseful novel. Thompson's writing is crisp, realistic, and she does an excellent job of capturing on paper what life is like in the heartland. I highly recommend this novel. I, for one, will be looking for more from Jean Thompson.

I love this book. exciting, different, wacko (some of them) characters. liked josie the best. this is my favourite book of all time. i recommend it. what more can i say? i am hooked.

While I love Jean Thompson's short stories ... being able to sink my teeth into this delicious hunk of a novel was even more satisfying. And frankly ... sad or dark endings have become trite at this point in literary evolution. What a relief to finish a novel without wanting to weep.

It's been a long time since I enjoyed reading a novel as much as I have enjoyed reading Wide Blue Yonder. The novel is well-written and funny and contains wonderful characters. The story takes place in Springfield Illinois in the hot, hot summer of 1999. Josie, a disaffected 17 year old lives with her divorced mother and spends the summer working at Taco Bell, avoiding her father, and stalking a gorgeous young policeman who wandered into her life one day. Her mother, Elaine, who tries so hard to be happy, is also trying to help her ex-husband's Uncle Harvey, who refers to himself as the Local Forecast (he's a bit obsessed with the weather channel). As Harvey keeps track of the weather heating up, things are heating up in Springfield. Josie's pursuit of her obsession takes her down a dangerous path and Elaine's pursuit of salvation for Harvey threatens to take him down another dangerous path. This story is told with much clever humor, with Josie's cynical observations on Springfield life being perhaps the most amusing. I really enjoyed this novel and highly recommend it.

Telling a cohesive story from the narrative perspective of multiple characters is one of the toughest tricks in fiction. One voice usually outshines the others. Wide Blue Yonder is the glorious exception that proves the rule. All four voices are not only distinctive and wonderful but they balance and inform each other as well, spanning the spectrum from a young girl's teenage ennui to a con man's deepening madness. That Thompson's prose is crisp and often startlingly inventive is icing on a cake that is already deep and rich and completely satisfying.