He's Gone by Deb Caletti
Publisher: Bantam
Publication Date: 14 May 2013
Genre: Literary Fiction / Mystery
My Copy: Library - paperback
The Sunday morning
starts like any other, aside from the slight hangover. Dani Keller wakes
up on her Seattle houseboat, a headache building behind her eyes from
the wine she drank at a party the night before. But on this particular
Sunday morning, she’s surprised to see that her husband, Ian, is not
home. As the hours pass, Dani fills her day with small things. But
still, Ian does not return. Irritation shifts to worry, worry slides
almost imperceptibly into panic. And then, like a relentless blackness,
the terrible realization hits Dani: He’s gone.
As the police work methodically through all the logical explanations—he’s hurt, he’s run off, he’s been killed—Dani searches frantically for a clue as to whether Ian is in fact dead or alive. And, slowly, she unpacks their relationship, holding each moment up to the light: from its intense, adulterous beginning, to the grandeur of their new love, to the difficulties of forever. She examines all the sins she can—and cannot—remember. As the days pass, Dani will plumb the depths of her conscience, turning over and revealing the darkest of her secrets in order to discover the hard truth—about herself, her husband, and their lives together.
As the police work methodically through all the logical explanations—he’s hurt, he’s run off, he’s been killed—Dani searches frantically for a clue as to whether Ian is in fact dead or alive. And, slowly, she unpacks their relationship, holding each moment up to the light: from its intense, adulterous beginning, to the grandeur of their new love, to the difficulties of forever. She examines all the sins she can—and cannot—remember. As the days pass, Dani will plumb the depths of her conscience, turning over and revealing the darkest of her secrets in order to discover the hard truth—about herself, her husband, and their lives together.
Review:
I had such high hopes for this book. It sounded interesting, and everyone raves about Deb Caletti. This was the first book by her that I have read, and I have to say I was disappointed. Most of the book takes place in Dani's head. There's not a whole not propelling the book except her memories of the past and her fuzzy ideas about the night Ian went missing. I didn't connect with any of the characters, and most of the side characters just made me angry. I admit to skimming the second half or so of the story. The only reason it gets two stars and that I bothered to skim the second half was that I was interested in finding out what happened to Ian, although it wasn't surprising.
