Hello, I Must Be Going by Christie Hodgen

Hello, I Must Be Going is Arkansas author Christie Hodgen's first novel. And it's a winner.

Hodgen is young but shows amazingly perceptive insight into the 60s, which play a significant role in the story. More importantly, she shows much insight into death -- or rather the ways survivors deal with it, some worse than others.

The book is an easy read, but not an insignificant one. In fact, the father in Hodgen's novel reminds me a bit of the namesake character in Alice McDermott's Charming Billy. Both are good people who lack common sense. You know the kind: They love their family, but their actions say otherwise. They spend their money on booze, the lottery, clothes or, well, you name it -- everything but their family except for those times when they over-spend on family to compensate for past failures.

I shall definitely check out Hodgen's next book. She tells me she's intrigued by the subject of death and grief. Intrigued or not, those are certainly universal themes.
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