Reviewer: Annie McDonnell
Summary:
A big, rich, life-affirming debut that explores the most perplexing questions of existence: purpose, the pain of loneliness, the desire for happiness, and the price we pay as we search for fulfillment.
In the Before, humankind is created with a hole in its heart, the designers not realizing their mistake—if it was a mistake—until too late.
Elliot Chance is just a boy, and knows nothing of this. All he knows is that he doesn’t feel at home in this world, and his desire for escape becomes more urgent as he grows into adulthood, where the turbulence of life seems to offer no cure for the emptiness. Desperate and lost, he stumbles upon a support group on the edge of Manhattan. There he meets two other drifting souls—Sasha, a young woman who leaves coded messages in the copy she writes for advertising campaigns, and Bannor, whose detailed depictions of the future make Elliot think he may have actually been there. With these two unlikely allies, Elliot launches into the business of life, determined to be happy in spite of himself.
Yet the hole in the heart is not so easily filled.
Profound yet playful, Before You Go is a beautiful, imaginative journey into the ache and wonder of being human, and the quest for a meaningful life.
Review:
So Many New Releases Today, but Tommy Butler has released “Before You Go”!!
A novel that has truly resonated with me and touched me beyond measure! I truly believe I was led to this book! I invited Tommy to The Write Review months ago, because I believed this book had to be shared with my Book Club and my desire to read it was so strong. Sadly, the interview didn’t transpire, due to my illness. But, I needed this book now.
I have always “lived” to read. It is actually the fiber of my being! I see that clearly now.
“Before I Go” is a novel that helped me see that before I go, I must be sure that this is never forgotten!
Sometimes a book changes your life! Tommy Butler’s “Before You Go” has certainly changed mine! Little did I know that when I read it I would be in a place that I’d be considering the meaning of my life! With his words crashing into me, as if he was reaching into my heart and speaking it’s very language.
This story is truly breathtaking. A compelling journey I began and never wanted to end!
His words are poetry! He is absolutely beautiful in his prose and he took me to wonderful places.
He has me taking my present journey and seeing it with fresh eyes, and it is wonderful! With each tear stained page in this book, I know I’ve left my a piece of heart behind.
What a Story!! Finally! You are so imaginative! Thank you, Tommy!
I received this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.
5 Stars.
About the Author:
Tommy Butler was raised in Stamford, Connecticut, and has since called many places home, including New Hampshire, San Diego, Boston, New York City, and San Francisco. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School, he was a Peter Taylor Fellow at the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop and is an alumnus of the Screenwriters Colony. His feature screenplay, Etopia, was the winner of Showtime’s Tony Cox Screenplay Competition at the Nantucket Film Festival.
The Write Review 