About this ebook
The enchanting and insightful story of a woman trying to reconcile her rock-and-roll past with her respectable present
When Geraldine Colshares drops out of graduate school to become the only white backup singer in an R&B band, nobody thinks it is a good idea. Not her parents, who are sure she is on drugs. Not her best friend, who sees going on tour as a way of staving off real life. Not even Doo-Wah Banks, her Juilliard-trained bandmate and crush, who suggests she find a nice white husband. But to be a Shakette—as in Vernon and Ruby Shakely and the Shakettes—has been the burning desire of Geraldine’s heart since puberty, and when she steps on stage in her chartreuse dress and luminescent shoes, she knows she is exactly where she belongs.
All good things must come to an end, however, and after two years on the road Geraldine quits the band and settles down to the kind of conventional routine—marriage, children, dinner parties—she never expected. To her family and friends, Geraldine seems to have it all, but the question remains: Once you’ve been a Shakette, will anything else ever feel so right?
A hilarious and touching novel about staying true to yourself while moving on with life, Goodbye Without Leaving stars one of Laurie Colwin’s most distinctive and delightful heroines.
This ebook features an illustrated biography of Laurie Colwin including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s estate.
When Geraldine Colshares drops out of graduate school to become the only white backup singer in an R&B band, nobody thinks it is a good idea. Not her parents, who are sure she is on drugs. Not her best friend, who sees going on tour as a way of staving off real life. Not even Doo-Wah Banks, her Juilliard-trained bandmate and crush, who suggests she find a nice white husband. But to be a Shakette—as in Vernon and Ruby Shakely and the Shakettes—has been the burning desire of Geraldine’s heart since puberty, and when she steps on stage in her chartreuse dress and luminescent shoes, she knows she is exactly where she belongs.
All good things must come to an end, however, and after two years on the road Geraldine quits the band and settles down to the kind of conventional routine—marriage, children, dinner parties—she never expected. To her family and friends, Geraldine seems to have it all, but the question remains: Once you’ve been a Shakette, will anything else ever feel so right?
A hilarious and touching novel about staying true to yourself while moving on with life, Goodbye Without Leaving stars one of Laurie Colwin’s most distinctive and delightful heroines.
This ebook features an illustrated biography of Laurie Colwin including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s estate.
About the author
Laurie Colwin (1944–1992) was born in Manhattan and raised in Lake Ronkonkoma, Long Island; Chicago; and Philadelphia. She attended Bard College and Columbia University and worked as a translator and book editor before selling her first story, at the age of twenty-five, to the New Yorker. She went on to publish eight critically acclaimed works of fiction and two beloved collections of essays and recipes—Home Cooking and More Home Cooking—in addition to writing a food column for Gourmet magazine and contributing regularly to Mademoiselle and Redbook. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, “if anyone wrote eloquently and magnificently about affairs of the heart, it was Laurie Colwin.”
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