Goodnight, Nebraska

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SOURCE: A review of Goodnight, Nebraska, in Publishers Weekly, January 12, 1998, Vol. 245, No. 2, p. 32.

[In the following review, Hix provides information on the editorial process that led to the final version of Goodnight, Nebraska.]

When Bob Loomis, Random House vice-president and executive editor, purchased Goodnight, Nebraska, Tom McNeal believed his interlocking narrative about the inhabitants of that fictional fanning community constituted, he says, "in the broadest definition, a novel." The veteran editor disagreed: "What Tom had was a bunch of short stories with connections all over the place. I felt we could meld it all together for more impact." After 15 months and two comprehensive overhauls, Goodnight, Nebraska took final shape. "What I feel pretty good about, now, is thinking of this definitely as a novel," declares McNeal. "I enjoyed the process. Bob was never prescriptive. He would present such and such as a possible problem, and if I agreed, he'd ask, 'Can you fix it?' I never felt I was making compromises." States Loomis, "Tom figured out how to do it. These characters are great because they don't know they live in a small town. Tom doesn't sentimentalize or patronize them." As Goodnight, Nebraska begins, protagonist Randall Hunsacker is 14 and living in Salt Lake City when his father is crushed to death while repairing the underside of the front porch. By the time Randall is 16, he has shot but not killed a man after discovering that he is sleeping not only with Randall's mother but also with his teenaged sister. A year later, Randall is on probation in Goodnight, Nebraska, trying to reassemble a life. He marries his high school sweetheart and more years pass. "Randall and his wife outgrow their lesser selves," explains McNeal. The first-time novelist's short stories have been published in the Atlantic and anthologized in The O'Henry Prize Stories. Asked to liken his work to another's, a genuinely modest McNeal replies, "I'd be really embarrassed to compare it to Dubliners. But Joyce talks about the moral history of a town. I knew I couldn't do anything that ambitious. But the moral history of a family, I felt I could try that."

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