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Going All the Way
"... a passionate and tormented novel about the summer of 1954 as it transpired in the lives of two young Korean War veterans returning to their Indianapolis homes.... it is possible that the current publishing season will produce no book more urgently felt." New York Times Book Review, August 9, 1970
"A brilliant book." John Ciardi
"Wonderful, sad and funny; a scathing portrait of middle America through the eyes of a new fictional character who will inevitably be compared to Portnoy and Holden Caulfield." Gay Talese
Noted author Dan Wakefield's most famous novel seethes with pent-up frustration and confusion and nearly every episode bubbles with hilarity.
Two friends return home from the Korean War to find their world—and themselves—irrevocably altered in this novel hailed by Kurt Vonnegut as “gruesomely accurate and enchanting” and “wildly sexy”
Willard “Sonny” Burns and Tom “Gunner” Casselman, Korean War vets and former classmates, reunite on the train ride home to Indianapolis. Despite their shared history, the two young men could not be more different: Sonny had been an introverted, bookish student, whereas Gunner had been the consummate Casanova and athlete—and a popular source of macho pride throughout the high school. Reunited by the pains of war, they go in search of finding love, rebuilding their lives, and shedding the repressive expectations of their families.
As Sonny and Gunner seek their true passions, the stage is set for a wounded, gripping account of disillusionment and self-discovery as seen through the lens of the conservative Midwest in the summer of 1954. Rendered in honest prose, national bestseller Going All the Way expertly and astutely captures the joys and struggles of working-class Middle America, and the risks of challenging the status quo. Author Dan Wakefield crafts this enduring coming-of-age tale with fluidity, grace, and deep humanity.
308 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1970
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
November 27, 2016
I read this one a couple of years ago after hearing the author speak in downtown Indianapolis. He is a contemporary and friend of Kurt Vonnegut, and while this book does not really have the same feel as a Vonnegut novel, it may interest those who have a strong interest in Vonnegut as the author draws from his experiences growing up in Indianapolis with him.
Story wise, it is a decent coming home from war, looking for your place in society in the 1950s story. When I read it, I could definitely picture that era and the characters. Reading this is a pretty good use of a few hours - especially if you like 50s era coming of age stories.
Story wise, it is a decent coming home from war, looking for your place in society in the 1950s story. When I read it, I could definitely picture that era and the characters. Reading this is a pretty good use of a few hours - especially if you like 50s era coming of age stories.
July 8, 2024
You know you didn't enjoy a book a whole lot when after two weeks you have to look up the publisher's blurb to remember what the book was about. Going All the Way went that way for me.
October 30, 2013
Two former soldiers who served during the Korean War meet each other on the train going back home to Indiana. Willard 'Sonny' Burns - the photographer for the school newspaper when he was in high school - was a quiet, shy and rather introverted student, whose high school years were wholly unremarkable. Sonny has grown into a quiet, shy and rather introverted adult - preoccupied with thoughts of sex and women. Tom 'Gunner' Casselman - the typical 'Big Man on Campus' when he was in high school - was incredibly popular, with the type of reputation that inspired awe in his peers.
For good or ill, Sonny and Gunner search for love and fulfillment throughout their travels in middle America. They form an unlikely friendship after that first meeting on the train. In fact, it comes as a huge surprise to Sonny.to discover that Gunner truly respected him in high school. Sonny's unpretentious and inconspicuous demeanor was the quality that Gunner most admired. What follows is a coming-of-age novel about growing up in a time before free love, Vietnam and AIDS.
I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book; quite a bit more than I was actually expecting I would. It was a very funny story, although in my opinion, Sonny and Gunner's friendship was probably not the most advantageous relationship for either of them. This book was a best-seller in 1970, and is considered to be Dan Wakefield's most famous novel. I give this book an A+!
Going All the Way was made into a movie in 1997 and won an award at the Sundance Film Festival. It starred Jeremy Davies as Sonny and Ben Affleck as Gunner.
For good or ill, Sonny and Gunner search for love and fulfillment throughout their travels in middle America. They form an unlikely friendship after that first meeting on the train. In fact, it comes as a huge surprise to Sonny.to discover that Gunner truly respected him in high school. Sonny's unpretentious and inconspicuous demeanor was the quality that Gunner most admired. What follows is a coming-of-age novel about growing up in a time before free love, Vietnam and AIDS.
I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book; quite a bit more than I was actually expecting I would. It was a very funny story, although in my opinion, Sonny and Gunner's friendship was probably not the most advantageous relationship for either of them. This book was a best-seller in 1970, and is considered to be Dan Wakefield's most famous novel. I give this book an A+!
Going All the Way was made into a movie in 1997 and won an award at the Sundance Film Festival. It starred Jeremy Davies as Sonny and Ben Affleck as Gunner.
February 26, 2018
I have loved Dan Wakefield's writing for years. Somehow I had never read this book. I'm still in love with Wakefield's writing but have some mixed thoughts on a portion of this book. I absolutely loved the book up until what he terms the 3rd Part which is the last 3 chapters.
The story is about 2 young men returning from stints in the service during the Korean War. Both were classmates at Shortley High. Sonny was a photographer and always lived life in high school watching all the best stuff happen to the popular group of which Gunner was a member. Gunner was a star athlete but now after the war and his service is questioning all that he saw as important before.
Both men return to Indiana and are trying to find out what to do with the rest of their lives.
Wakefield develops both characters well. Sonny is the main protagonist and at times he is hard to like. He is so self absorbed in himself and what he wants that he often doesn't care how it effects the others around him. His treatment of his former girlfriend, Buddie, is especially cruel at times.
Wakefield captures the 1950s well and at times you can almost feel you are transported there with the racism, McCarthyism, the glory of WWII, the start of the Cold War, the fear of the bomb and how the Korean veterans returned home but not to the glory of the WWII veterans.
Another strong point of the book is how Wakefield makes Indianapolis seem like a fun place to live. That is helped by him being from there, but he translate life in Indianapolis so well on the pages of this book.
Overall an excellent book and a thought provoking one as well.
The story is about 2 young men returning from stints in the service during the Korean War. Both were classmates at Shortley High. Sonny was a photographer and always lived life in high school watching all the best stuff happen to the popular group of which Gunner was a member. Gunner was a star athlete but now after the war and his service is questioning all that he saw as important before.
Both men return to Indiana and are trying to find out what to do with the rest of their lives.
Wakefield develops both characters well. Sonny is the main protagonist and at times he is hard to like. He is so self absorbed in himself and what he wants that he often doesn't care how it effects the others around him. His treatment of his former girlfriend, Buddie, is especially cruel at times.
Wakefield captures the 1950s well and at times you can almost feel you are transported there with the racism, McCarthyism, the glory of WWII, the start of the Cold War, the fear of the bomb and how the Korean veterans returned home but not to the glory of the WWII veterans.
Another strong point of the book is how Wakefield makes Indianapolis seem like a fun place to live. That is helped by him being from there, but he translate life in Indianapolis so well on the pages of this book.
Overall an excellent book and a thought provoking one as well.
August 19, 2024
A very touching and vulnerable novel about masculinity and the struggle of growing up. I wasn’t expecting to like it as much as I did.
May 27, 2009
Another Indianapolis author, with a recommendation on my old edition from Kurt Vonnegut as "one of the best teen sex novels." Didnt know that was a genre, Kurt.
For Indianapolis natives, it will be a treat to identify 1950's-era stores and landmarks of the city, as well as streets, etc. For those not from the area, it is a very, very honest novel about the life of a teen/young adult as it regards sex and relationships. Readers will likely recognize in the behavior of the male lead and female and male supporting characters some of themselves. Their attitudes towards sex, dating, drinking, and "growing up." It makes a good coming-of-age novel, as well as one for someone who wishes to look back upon their own experiences. Set in the 1950s, you realize how much human sexuality has not changed since then.
The writing in this novel must have seemed subversive when it came out (later). It would get 5 stars if the quality of the writing was a bit better. Still highly recommend.
For Indianapolis natives, it will be a treat to identify 1950's-era stores and landmarks of the city, as well as streets, etc. For those not from the area, it is a very, very honest novel about the life of a teen/young adult as it regards sex and relationships. Readers will likely recognize in the behavior of the male lead and female and male supporting characters some of themselves. Their attitudes towards sex, dating, drinking, and "growing up." It makes a good coming-of-age novel, as well as one for someone who wishes to look back upon their own experiences. Set in the 1950s, you realize how much human sexuality has not changed since then.
The writing in this novel must have seemed subversive when it came out (later). It would get 5 stars if the quality of the writing was a bit better. Still highly recommend.
October 9, 2013
Well. That one's done...
I'd never heard of this book (or the film adaptation) prior to seeing some random article that made me want to pick it up solely on the merit of Kurt Vonnegut's forward. I was, therefore, probably approaching this with some skewed expectations. I was hoping to be struck by this in a similar fashion to the way in which I immediately took to Vonnegut's works, but that just never materialized. It did, however, become apparent fairly early on that I could not read this novel with that mindset, so hopefully I'm not too terribly biased in my final opinion.
I have also not yet watched the movie, so at least that bit of purity has been preserved...
I've currently lived half a dozen years a half a dozen times farting around this planet, and I think I've had the feeling that "real life" was (finally) beginning... twice. "Real life" that inevitably just turned back into "my life." Which has never been real to me. Or at least not "important." Much like the later episode at the Beemer's lake, I often think that I will be, have been, and *should* be on the outside looking in. Listening to the songs being sung without raising my own voice. Not with the negativity that Sonny seemed to have ascribed to this feeling but rather as a simple acceptance of fact. Every now and then, however, that "this is real life" feeling rolls down my spine, through my arms, down my legs, and out my fingers and toes with a shudder that spins to back up to the top of my head, makes my eyes water, and reminds me to remember that "real life" just... is. Whether you're singing along or just listening. This never happens just because someone looked in my eyes the right way, because I moved to a real house, because I accomplished some life goal, because I changed jobs, or any other particularly memorable "moment." It happens when I remember to appreciate when and where I am whatever the circumstances. Of course real life is moments. All we have is a series of interconnected moments, and the only way we can ever see real life (or, perhaps, believe in real life) is to remember to appreciate those moments and stop waiting for a turning point. Our life is our life, it's all we've got, and each moment, really, is no less important than any other. I suppose that really was the major takeaway from this story.
The flip side of that coin is, of course, that once "real life" starts it also draws nearer to a close. I was kind of surprised that this element of the story did not come back around in the end as much as the idea of "starting" did. It was nearly 2/3 of the way through when I finally really picked up on this, but it struck me at least as much as did the idea of "moments" being all-important. The change was significant from believing that, "maybe just looking at the things... and buying a few of them now and then [could help] take your mind off the thing that you couldn't change at all, which was that you were getting old, that very moment, everyone everywhere, [was] turning into the person who would finally die and not be a person at all" to grasping the beauty and personal importance of each of those moments as you inevitably age. Marty and Gunner had it right. At least generically. Our tendency is to "stop seeing it" and to "stop looking" as "most people do." We do tend to "go stale" and lose that way we had of seeing things as a kid. But they erred in the conclusion. That isn't "growing up." That is growing cold. That moment of empathy during which Sonny finally seemed to connect with his mother was one of the most poignant moments of the book, and I really wished I'd seen this come more to the forefront as the novel came to a close.
As for the actual style, I really enjoyed how this felt like a first person account of a real moment in time. Not like a novel written decades after the fact that would have been littered with references to cultural touchstones intended to pull the reader in. This simply was what it was. The lifestyle seemed to jump at me from the page without any garrulous passages describing the scene - I was just there. The language flowed, and everyone just felt... natural.
So... while I appreciate that this novel got me to reflect again on some things that have often helped steer my life and I enjoyed the experience of reading it I still feel, at the moment, rather... deflated. Although it took some conscious effort on my part, by the time the story was wrapping up I definitely had grown to empathize with and care for both Sonny and Gunner. I felt like I was learning not only from their experiences but also relearning from the experiences in my own life that we had in common. (My God, the episode with Gail was just cringe-worthy. Has anyone *not* been so awkward, so clumsy, so frightened, and so excited about someone at least once before? I had to look away.) It was impossible not to look back and see reflections of my life (or my hopes for my life) in the way in which Sonny (and Gunner) approached their own life transitions. I was also pulled in by the natural flow with which events seemed to have unfolded in the context of the novel. I enjoyed Sonny's internal monologues - Wakefield got it absolutely perfect - the things I've said to myself, feared, yearned for, enjoyed, and hated... and the way I convinced myself not to care. It was highly relatable.
But then it ended. The more I think about it the more I realize that this was, really, in keeping with the rest of the novel, but the last paragraph pulled me right out of the story and out of my mind. All of the conclusions were nearly identical to what was running through my head, but to have Sonny sit there, in the very last paragraph, and spell out these newfound revelations was a huge blow to my ability to enjoy the novel as a whole. I felt like we had travelled this journey together, learning the same things, meeting the same people, and having the same experiences. I did not want to be beaten over the head with the conclusions at which the author should have trusted the reader to arrive on their own. I didn't find anything spectacular about the book, but I did think it was a good solid read, and I was just disappointed that the author didn't have enough faith in me (or maybe himself) to leave those conclusions unsaid and just let the story stew.
So... while I definitely enjoyed this (and look forward to watching the film), I'd place Ham on Rye, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, and maybe even Breakfast of Champions higher on my list of person-searching-for-meaning-in-life novels. In a way I already feel this fading from my memory... a worthy read, just not earth-shattering.
Now I'm off to Netflix...
I'd never heard of this book (or the film adaptation) prior to seeing some random article that made me want to pick it up solely on the merit of Kurt Vonnegut's forward. I was, therefore, probably approaching this with some skewed expectations. I was hoping to be struck by this in a similar fashion to the way in which I immediately took to Vonnegut's works, but that just never materialized. It did, however, become apparent fairly early on that I could not read this novel with that mindset, so hopefully I'm not too terribly biased in my final opinion.
I have also not yet watched the movie, so at least that bit of purity has been preserved...
I've currently lived half a dozen years a half a dozen times farting around this planet, and I think I've had the feeling that "real life" was (finally) beginning... twice. "Real life" that inevitably just turned back into "my life." Which has never been real to me. Or at least not "important." Much like the later episode at the Beemer's lake, I often think that I will be, have been, and *should* be on the outside looking in. Listening to the songs being sung without raising my own voice. Not with the negativity that Sonny seemed to have ascribed to this feeling but rather as a simple acceptance of fact. Every now and then, however, that "this is real life" feeling rolls down my spine, through my arms, down my legs, and out my fingers and toes with a shudder that spins to back up to the top of my head, makes my eyes water, and reminds me to remember that "real life" just... is. Whether you're singing along or just listening. This never happens just because someone looked in my eyes the right way, because I moved to a real house, because I accomplished some life goal, because I changed jobs, or any other particularly memorable "moment." It happens when I remember to appreciate when and where I am whatever the circumstances. Of course real life is moments. All we have is a series of interconnected moments, and the only way we can ever see real life (or, perhaps, believe in real life) is to remember to appreciate those moments and stop waiting for a turning point. Our life is our life, it's all we've got, and each moment, really, is no less important than any other. I suppose that really was the major takeaway from this story.
The flip side of that coin is, of course, that once "real life" starts it also draws nearer to a close. I was kind of surprised that this element of the story did not come back around in the end as much as the idea of "starting" did. It was nearly 2/3 of the way through when I finally really picked up on this, but it struck me at least as much as did the idea of "moments" being all-important. The change was significant from believing that, "maybe just looking at the things... and buying a few of them now and then [could help] take your mind off the thing that you couldn't change at all, which was that you were getting old, that very moment, everyone everywhere, [was] turning into the person who would finally die and not be a person at all" to grasping the beauty and personal importance of each of those moments as you inevitably age. Marty and Gunner had it right. At least generically. Our tendency is to "stop seeing it" and to "stop looking" as "most people do." We do tend to "go stale" and lose that way we had of seeing things as a kid. But they erred in the conclusion. That isn't "growing up." That is growing cold. That moment of empathy during which Sonny finally seemed to connect with his mother was one of the most poignant moments of the book, and I really wished I'd seen this come more to the forefront as the novel came to a close.
As for the actual style, I really enjoyed how this felt like a first person account of a real moment in time. Not like a novel written decades after the fact that would have been littered with references to cultural touchstones intended to pull the reader in. This simply was what it was. The lifestyle seemed to jump at me from the page without any garrulous passages describing the scene - I was just there. The language flowed, and everyone just felt... natural.
So... while I appreciate that this novel got me to reflect again on some things that have often helped steer my life and I enjoyed the experience of reading it I still feel, at the moment, rather... deflated. Although it took some conscious effort on my part, by the time the story was wrapping up I definitely had grown to empathize with and care for both Sonny and Gunner. I felt like I was learning not only from their experiences but also relearning from the experiences in my own life that we had in common. (My God, the episode with Gail was just cringe-worthy. Has anyone *not* been so awkward, so clumsy, so frightened, and so excited about someone at least once before? I had to look away.) It was impossible not to look back and see reflections of my life (or my hopes for my life) in the way in which Sonny (and Gunner) approached their own life transitions. I was also pulled in by the natural flow with which events seemed to have unfolded in the context of the novel. I enjoyed Sonny's internal monologues - Wakefield got it absolutely perfect - the things I've said to myself, feared, yearned for, enjoyed, and hated... and the way I convinced myself not to care. It was highly relatable.
But then it ended. The more I think about it the more I realize that this was, really, in keeping with the rest of the novel, but the last paragraph pulled me right out of the story and out of my mind. All of the conclusions were nearly identical to what was running through my head, but to have Sonny sit there, in the very last paragraph, and spell out these newfound revelations was a huge blow to my ability to enjoy the novel as a whole. I felt like we had travelled this journey together, learning the same things, meeting the same people, and having the same experiences. I did not want to be beaten over the head with the conclusions at which the author should have trusted the reader to arrive on their own. I didn't find anything spectacular about the book, but I did think it was a good solid read, and I was just disappointed that the author didn't have enough faith in me (or maybe himself) to leave those conclusions unsaid and just let the story stew.
So... while I definitely enjoyed this (and look forward to watching the film), I'd place Ham on Rye, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, and maybe even Breakfast of Champions higher on my list of person-searching-for-meaning-in-life novels. In a way I already feel this fading from my memory... a worthy read, just not earth-shattering.
Now I'm off to Netflix...
July 24, 2024
It was something that Sonny had never really thought about before, and he felt a sudden, sharp sympathy for his mother, not as "his mother" but as Alma, a person, a woman who was growing old. He looked away from her, out the window, at the stores on Broad Ripple Avenue. Hardware. Five and Ten. Drugs. And there was nothing in the stores, nothing in any of the stores, that would help. There was nothing you could buy that would help; no monkey wrench from the hardware store, no toys from the Five and Ten, not even any drugs from the drugstore that could change anything, really. Maybe just looking at the things, though, and buying a few of them now and then helped take your mind off the thing that you couldn't change at all, which was that you were getting old, that very moment, everyone everywhere, turning into the person who would finally die and not be a person at all, no matter how hard that was to believe. Sonny knew it was true of his own mother; she had said it in a way, and he could see it. He was sorry, and yet it didn't really make him sad down deep, because he couldn't really believe it was happening to him, too. He believed it in his head, but not in his feelings inside. Even when he tried to grasp the fact, he felt that it wouldn't be happening to him for so long that by the time it did he wouldn't really care, it wouldn't matter very much. Of course, maybe his mother had felt that way too once, back when she lived in the snapshots before they got curly and yellow.
Brilliant melancholy Americana that also manages to be incredibly funny. Sonny and Gunner's relationship is very touching, and the stuff with Buddie is quite heartbreaking. Exactly my kind of novel.
Brilliant melancholy Americana that also manages to be incredibly funny. Sonny and Gunner's relationship is very touching, and the stuff with Buddie is quite heartbreaking. Exactly my kind of novel.
April 21, 2021
Just didn't strike me as a good book- As in, none of the elements were really that great, but it wasn't all that bad. Kind of entertaining but with stuff that really should not have been that entertaining for me?
I guess there was a point, but the pacing made it so that you'd go so long without it that you forgot about it, or it would come up so condensed that it just hit you over the head and tried to drown you.
Characters were just not that hot- Main guy was obviously modeled after Holden Caulfield and there were multiple references to Catcher in the Rye, but he reminded me of an older, more unlikable Holden with a gargantuan sex drive and no personality.
There's the thing about sex drive here, and sex- The author in the foreword mentioned the outdated sexism here in the book, and that it wasn't his views or anything, it was just a sign of the times- but still it was pretty rough.I feel like I gotta read women-authored books for like a month after this to repay all women, but Sonny (main guy) was part "nice guy" part bordering on "incel" but kind of depressed rather than hostile.
However, as a historical kinda piece I think the book was pretty interesting. The themes about moving on and seeing what you could do different in the world worked incredibly well for this time period and area of the U.S. Any mention to the Reds/Commies, and even when one of the main characters couldn't go swimming because he had grown a beard, an unforgivable offence, were kind of bizarre to me as a modern reader but gave a great background for the story of these characters.
Buuut, the story didn't do much. And since the characters and writing style weren't too hot, I didn't like this one much. However, it offers a really great zeitgeist to the period after the Korean war.
I guess there was a point, but the pacing made it so that you'd go so long without it that you forgot about it, or it would come up so condensed that it just hit you over the head and tried to drown you.
Characters were just not that hot- Main guy was obviously modeled after Holden Caulfield and there were multiple references to Catcher in the Rye, but he reminded me of an older, more unlikable Holden with a gargantuan sex drive and no personality.
There's the thing about sex drive here, and sex- The author in the foreword mentioned the outdated sexism here in the book, and that it wasn't his views or anything, it was just a sign of the times- but still it was pretty rough.
However, as a historical kinda piece I think the book was pretty interesting. The themes about moving on and seeing what you could do different in the world worked incredibly well for this time period and area of the U.S. Any mention to the Reds/Commies, and even when one of the main characters couldn't go swimming because he had grown a beard, an unforgivable offence, were kind of bizarre to me as a modern reader but gave a great background for the story of these characters.
Buuut, the story didn't do much. And since the characters and writing style weren't too hot, I didn't like this one much. However, it offers a really great zeitgeist to the period after the Korean war.
July 4, 2018
Sonny Burns hates himself and will do his best to make you hate him too, even while he's not narrating his own story.
I hated him for a lot of the story, mostly because I related far more than I wanted to. I remember being 22 and writing to-do lists for things that might help me get my life started. Doing that tiny thing and feeling good for half a day because I finally did something. Ugh.
But in the end I really liked him and those millions who have and will share that time of life. It also interested me that a millennial (me) and a baby boomer straight out of the army could have exactly the see experience of life. It almost makes you think that generational differences are fictions constructed based on the two-way antipathy between kids and their parents and little more, but that thought comes uncomfortably close to the knowledge that we're destined to make the same mistakes and not be able to admit it and instead write think-pieces on why every small thing, opinion, act, statement is wrong or right for a very subtle reason that only the smart can understand, and that's what our generation(s) enjoy(s) most after all, so let's keep it that way.
I hated him for a lot of the story, mostly because I related far more than I wanted to. I remember being 22 and writing to-do lists for things that might help me get my life started. Doing that tiny thing and feeling good for half a day because I finally did something. Ugh.
But in the end I really liked him and those millions who have and will share that time of life. It also interested me that a millennial (me) and a baby boomer straight out of the army could have exactly the see experience of life. It almost makes you think that generational differences are fictions constructed based on the two-way antipathy between kids and their parents and little more, but that thought comes uncomfortably close to the knowledge that we're destined to make the same mistakes and not be able to admit it and instead write think-pieces on why every small thing, opinion, act, statement is wrong or right for a very subtle reason that only the smart can understand, and that's what our generation(s) enjoy(s) most after all, so let's keep it that way.
December 17, 2016
This is a story of 2 soldiers coming home after the Korean War, trying to find their way. While they were in the same class at the same high school , they really didn't know each other. In the meantime they were both living at home, going out to bars at night together, boozing it up and trying to find love, the one night stand kind. The two were quite different but because opposites attract, they became best of friends. I found the resemblance to my own life's experience uncanny, primarily because my situation was much like theirs; I came home after a tour in the Navy during Vietnam Nam, living at home, trying to "find my way". I also enjoyed the description of life I the 50's. Written in the '70s, the book was made into a movie starring Ben Afleck. The author Dan Wakefield was at the time a standout with authors like Kurt Vonnegut promoting his work.
May 18, 2024
I enjoyed this novel about two young men returning home after serving in the military during the Korean War. The story takes place in 1954 mostly in and around Indianapolis where the two men lived and went to high school. Sonny is the main protagonist of the story. He was a photographer and kind of an outsider during high school and is very surprised when Gunner recognizes him on the train home and praises him for his photography during high school. Gunner was a jock and one of the 'Big Rods' during high school and was always a favorite with the ladies. Gunner had actually fought in Korea and spent time in Japan while Sonny spent his service time in Kansas City doing clerical work. Both have returned to Indiana to try to determine what to do with the rest of their lives. Gunner takes Sonny under his wing and introduces him to a life with women and acquaintances that Sonny never thought he could be a part of.
Wakefield did a good job of developing the characters in the novel including the friends and family of both men. Sonny was sometimes hard to like as he puts down his family and especially his girlfriend, Buddie, who he only wants for sex. The time period of the 50s was also very well captured . . . the time before Vietnam and the sexual revolution of the 60s. The novel portrays the 50s with the return of the Korean veterans as somewhat less than the glory of WWII, the racism of the time, the fear of Communism, the bomb, and the attitudes of the time. The story was funny, sad, raunchy, and overall I would highly recommend it. It was also made into a movie in 1997 starring Ben Affleck and Jeremy Davies that I'll be keeping a lookout for.
Wakefield did a good job of developing the characters in the novel including the friends and family of both men. Sonny was sometimes hard to like as he puts down his family and especially his girlfriend, Buddie, who he only wants for sex. The time period of the 50s was also very well captured . . . the time before Vietnam and the sexual revolution of the 60s. The novel portrays the 50s with the return of the Korean veterans as somewhat less than the glory of WWII, the racism of the time, the fear of Communism, the bomb, and the attitudes of the time. The story was funny, sad, raunchy, and overall I would highly recommend it. It was also made into a movie in 1997 starring Ben Affleck and Jeremy Davies that I'll be keeping a lookout for.
December 7, 2018
I've been meaning to read this book for years, the one Kurt Vonnegut said "might as well have been called Getting Laid in Indianapolis." It's criminal that it took me this long.
The snippet of a New York Times review on the back of this book called it "the Catcher of the Rye of the Midwest", and Vonnegut called it "a richer book than Portnoy's Complaint."
Going all the Way is better than Catcher in the Rye, the characters more interesting, developed, and for the love of god sympathetic, and I also read Portnoy's Complaint this year in tribute to Philip Roth, and I'd put these books right up next to each other, with respect to Vonnegut's point because Going all the Way does have a wider scope.
It's an Indiana book, and it's very real, both in terms of the geographic nature of this city, and also about the human condition, about being in your early 20's, trying to figure out what you are doing post college (or in this case after the war) and the anxiety and overthinking involved in those decisions, with exactly the right amount of partying thrown in. I cannot recommend this book highly enough!
The snippet of a New York Times review on the back of this book called it "the Catcher of the Rye of the Midwest", and Vonnegut called it "a richer book than Portnoy's Complaint."
Going all the Way is better than Catcher in the Rye, the characters more interesting, developed, and for the love of god sympathetic, and I also read Portnoy's Complaint this year in tribute to Philip Roth, and I'd put these books right up next to each other, with respect to Vonnegut's point because Going all the Way does have a wider scope.
It's an Indiana book, and it's very real, both in terms of the geographic nature of this city, and also about the human condition, about being in your early 20's, trying to figure out what you are doing post college (or in this case after the war) and the anxiety and overthinking involved in those decisions, with exactly the right amount of partying thrown in. I cannot recommend this book highly enough!
August 17, 2019
One of the Good Ones
I thought at first, throughout the first chapters and even beyond, that you had to have lived it to appreciate it. Maybe that you had to have lived there, in the Midwest, to appreciate the book and its characters. But this is a book that grows on you, sneaks up on you, despite the crap that dates it, that seems at first to weigh it down. I’m reminded of Ron McLarty’s THE MEMORY OF RUNNING, one of the most -ultimately- uplifting of stories. This might not be for everyone. I can imagine readers throwing the book away after a chapter or two. But for those with the stomach, yes, the stomach to persevere through the pages and pages of folly and phoniness, this book will prove to be one of the really good ones.
I thought at first, throughout the first chapters and even beyond, that you had to have lived it to appreciate it. Maybe that you had to have lived there, in the Midwest, to appreciate the book and its characters. But this is a book that grows on you, sneaks up on you, despite the crap that dates it, that seems at first to weigh it down. I’m reminded of Ron McLarty’s THE MEMORY OF RUNNING, one of the most -ultimately- uplifting of stories. This might not be for everyone. I can imagine readers throwing the book away after a chapter or two. But for those with the stomach, yes, the stomach to persevere through the pages and pages of folly and phoniness, this book will prove to be one of the really good ones.
July 31, 2020
Written in the late 1960s, set in the mid-1950s, Going All the Way still maintains its relevance in 2020. It is a great book that is to be savored.
Set in 1954 Indianapolis, Korean War veterans Sonny Burns and Gunner Casselman meet on a train bringing them home. They were high school classmates, but Gunner was a popular jock while Sonny was barely noticed in school. But their chance meeting leads to a friendship in the summer of 1954, as they try to get laid, get drunk and figure out life.
This is a gem -- a MUST READ.
Set in 1954 Indianapolis, Korean War veterans Sonny Burns and Gunner Casselman meet on a train bringing them home. They were high school classmates, but Gunner was a popular jock while Sonny was barely noticed in school. But their chance meeting leads to a friendship in the summer of 1954, as they try to get laid, get drunk and figure out life.
This is a gem -- a MUST READ.
May 6, 2023
This was an interesting book. The President of the company I work for told me about the book because it is set in Indianapolis. Being from Indianapolis, I did enjoy hearing about places in the city that I know. Set in the 1950's and written in 1970, most of the book is focused on women and sex and is a misogynistic but it is a coming of age story about two men returning from serving in the Korean War. It is worth reading only really if you have an interest in Indianapolis. Otherwise, I'd skip it!
August 14, 2023
One of the best coming-of-age tales ever - especially if you came of age in Central Indiana, where the story takes place. Dan Wakefield graduated from Indianapolis's Shortridge High School (fictionalized as "Shortley High" in the book), also the alma mater of his friend Kurt Vonnegut Jr., and while his style bears little resemblance to Vonnegut's, he shares with Vonnegut a deep appreciation for his Hoosier roots that informs his writing. Funny, insightful, true-to-life, *Going All the Way* remains one of my favorite books.
July 29, 2019
Did not finish.
I hope I never read a 'coming of age' novel again.
Stop me if you have heard this: main character rebels against authority figures that are shown to be narrow minded, having no room for differing lifestyles. BUT all of these main characters show the same damn propensity to be narrow minded and have no sympathy for other points of view. Ugh.
This book would have been good when I was in my teens and rebellious, but now in my 'older' years, it is just a hypocritical slog.
I hope I never read a 'coming of age' novel again.
Stop me if you have heard this: main character rebels against authority figures that are shown to be narrow minded, having no room for differing lifestyles. BUT all of these main characters show the same damn propensity to be narrow minded and have no sympathy for other points of view. Ugh.
This book would have been good when I was in my teens and rebellious, but now in my 'older' years, it is just a hypocritical slog.
July 4, 2017
Kind of a twist on the trope of soldiers who come home and can't feel normal or get on with their lives. Except this one is a would-be sexy romp that's actually a total bummer.
An interesting story, but neither as funny nor as bleak as it could have been.
An interesting story, but neither as funny nor as bleak as it could have been.
May 25, 2024
This really isn’t my kind of book and, as such, I don’t think it’s fair for me to rate it. I did anyway. I’m not quite sure what point the book is trying to make and I got to a point that I didn’t care much.
May 29, 2017
A coming of age story probably more of interest to male readers. I did enjoy the references to places in Indiana.
March 5, 2020
Sonny can be pretty frustrating as a character, but also laugh out loud funny.
September 16, 2013
'Help me, God, God help me. I hate your ass, but help me if you can. Help me lie down beside the still waters.' (P. 236)
This book is one of the most compulsive reads I've experienced. It's 'literary' in its themes and form, but it crackles along easy as pie. I'm a very slow reader normally, but I read this in about three concentrated sittings.
I wanted to read it because it is the rare novel set in my home town of Indianapolis, Indiana and the author was a friend of Kurt Vonnegut's (both of them from 'Naptown'). They were also fellow-atheists until Wakefield returned to Christian faith in the 1980s. I plan to read his 'spiritual autobiography' Returning (1988), but I wanted to see something of his background first. This book totally does the trick. It documents the protagonist's sexually-frustrated, existentially tortured quest for the God he both hates and doesn't believe exists. It perfectly exhibits the contradiction C. S. Lewis said he lived as a young atheist: 'I was at this time living, like so many Atheists or Antitheists, in a whirl of contradictions. I maintained that God did not exist. I was also very angry with God for not existing. I was equally angry with Him for creating a world' (Surprised By Joy). The protagonist of Wakefield's novel might add: for creating a world in which I can't 'get laid' by the kind of hot babe I think will solve all my problems. At any rate, it seems obvious to me that the main character's frustrations were shared by the author.
The book is hilarious and poignant by turns. The plot structure of the endless search for good sex with a 'sexy' woman gets old once or twice, but then some deeper layer always shows up to wow and devastate you. I could also do without some of the more pornographic details, but to be fair these are always provided in the most depressing way possible, increasing the pathos and misery. The sexism and misogyny of the male characters is hard to sit through at times, but it is clearly portrayed as a 'slice of life' in the Midwestern 1950s and largely (but perhaps not entirely) seeks to subvert such attitudes.
The religious satire is spot on and hilarious. One sexually mortifying scene that centres on the word 'manipulating' (I won't spoil it for you) had me laughing so hard and loud for about ten minutes that I had to stifle myself so my family wouldn't think I was weeping inconsolably in the next room.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, one scene had me taking five minute breaks between paragraphs so I wouldn't vomit (I can handle tons of violence - Cormac McCarthy is one of my all-time favourite authors after all - but I'm squeamish about slow, detailed cut-and-bleed scenes). And some passages made me feel nearly as depressed as the protagonist felt.
If you can get past the 'dirty' tone of the novel, this is a tremendous and enlightening read.
(Note: do NOT read the foreword by Kurt Vonnegut until AFTER you've finished the book. It gives away a few plot developments that would have shocked me much more if I'd not known they were coming. Thankfully, they still retained a punch even though I kept anticipating them. The same goes for Wakefield's own foreword if you have that edition. These are much more meaningful when read afterward anyway and provide a nice 'cool down' from the emotional impact of the novel.)
This book is one of the most compulsive reads I've experienced. It's 'literary' in its themes and form, but it crackles along easy as pie. I'm a very slow reader normally, but I read this in about three concentrated sittings.
I wanted to read it because it is the rare novel set in my home town of Indianapolis, Indiana and the author was a friend of Kurt Vonnegut's (both of them from 'Naptown'). They were also fellow-atheists until Wakefield returned to Christian faith in the 1980s. I plan to read his 'spiritual autobiography' Returning (1988), but I wanted to see something of his background first. This book totally does the trick. It documents the protagonist's sexually-frustrated, existentially tortured quest for the God he both hates and doesn't believe exists. It perfectly exhibits the contradiction C. S. Lewis said he lived as a young atheist: 'I was at this time living, like so many Atheists or Antitheists, in a whirl of contradictions. I maintained that God did not exist. I was also very angry with God for not existing. I was equally angry with Him for creating a world' (Surprised By Joy). The protagonist of Wakefield's novel might add: for creating a world in which I can't 'get laid' by the kind of hot babe I think will solve all my problems. At any rate, it seems obvious to me that the main character's frustrations were shared by the author.
The book is hilarious and poignant by turns. The plot structure of the endless search for good sex with a 'sexy' woman gets old once or twice, but then some deeper layer always shows up to wow and devastate you. I could also do without some of the more pornographic details, but to be fair these are always provided in the most depressing way possible, increasing the pathos and misery. The sexism and misogyny of the male characters is hard to sit through at times, but it is clearly portrayed as a 'slice of life' in the Midwestern 1950s and largely (but perhaps not entirely) seeks to subvert such attitudes.
The religious satire is spot on and hilarious. One sexually mortifying scene that centres on the word 'manipulating' (I won't spoil it for you) had me laughing so hard and loud for about ten minutes that I had to stifle myself so my family wouldn't think I was weeping inconsolably in the next room.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, one scene had me taking five minute breaks between paragraphs so I wouldn't vomit (I can handle tons of violence - Cormac McCarthy is one of my all-time favourite authors after all - but I'm squeamish about slow, detailed cut-and-bleed scenes). And some passages made me feel nearly as depressed as the protagonist felt.
If you can get past the 'dirty' tone of the novel, this is a tremendous and enlightening read.
(Note: do NOT read the foreword by Kurt Vonnegut until AFTER you've finished the book. It gives away a few plot developments that would have shocked me much more if I'd not known they were coming. Thankfully, they still retained a punch even though I kept anticipating them. The same goes for Wakefield's own foreword if you have that edition. These are much more meaningful when read afterward anyway and provide a nice 'cool down' from the emotional impact of the novel.)
Read
March 10, 2017So far, I can't stand the main character, but it's fascinating to read about what Indianapolis was like in the 1950s.
March 30, 2016
This is a curiously skewed piece of sexual Americana, set in post-Korean War Indianapolis. Sonny and Gunner are out of the service and investigating things to do next. Mostly, given the lack of ambition of both of them, they look for sexual conquests, easier for Gunner than Sonny. Gunner was a top athlete in high school, a “Big Rod.” Sonny was the part-time team photographer. It was assumed by all that Gunner was sleeping with the girl of his choice and he usually was; Sonny more often slept alone. The time is 1954, the summer of their release. Gunner is returning from Japan, enjoying geishas and a good life for a soldier. Sonny has the drab life of the Public Information Office in Kansas City to live down. They meet on the train going back to Indianapolis to their parents and their futures. Sonny’s future is bleak, dominated by his Fundamentalist mother who keeps slipping him religious tracts and names of good, Christian girls. She is also a fervent member of the Moral Re-Armament Movement though she still has her hair done regularly. Sonny has a regular girlfriend from high school named Buddie Porter, but he is embarrassed by her easy availability and by the fact that Gunner’s modern, audacious mother, Nina, turns him on easier and more regularly than Buddie. Being turned on is Sonny’s problem, as it turns out. After weeks of not getting a break with women, Sonny meets a delicious young thing at a party and everything proceeds as it should until time for consummation. The result of the failure is dire as the plot takes a very dark turn. But time is running out. Decisions must be made. Gunner and Sonny have their own crises to deal with as the novel winds to a conclusion and summer ends. Going All the Way may be the title of the novel but it is hardly an apt description of the events. There is a lot of beer-drinking and horseplay (the year is 1954 when horseplay was still in fashion) but not much growth. That is perhaps fitting for the times but for a novel it’s a bit limiting in terms of creating tension and conflict. The conflict is inner and as rewarding as that can be in a novel, especially one that’s more “coming of age” than anything else, but it is not overly stirring. The tone is genial, the characters sympathetic and even pathetic at times, but Wakefield does not compel us to care very much for his two main characters. That nobody else does either may suggest some possible remedies for the author, a distinguished writer later in his career.
November 18, 2008
I read this because the forward to the book was included in Kurt Vonnegut's book Foma, Wampeters, and Grandfallons, a collection of his non-fiction writing. Being a big fan, I trusted K. Vonnegut's judgment.
After the first few pages I was disappointed that it read nothing like Vonnegut. I was also disappointed that I didn't find any of the "belly laughs" Kurt Vonnegut so gleamingly wrote about.
However, once I was 3 or 4 chapters deep I started to really like the characters and care what happened to him. The main character is a hapless, sex crazed yet sexually unfulfilled young man with low self-esteem. Though I don't readily identify with this character, I think he resonates with in ways that I'm not quick to admit to myself; and I'd wager he also resonates with any person who has been a 15 year old boy.
Recommended if you have some time to kill and would like an interesting easy read :)
After the first few pages I was disappointed that it read nothing like Vonnegut. I was also disappointed that I didn't find any of the "belly laughs" Kurt Vonnegut so gleamingly wrote about.
However, once I was 3 or 4 chapters deep I started to really like the characters and care what happened to him. The main character is a hapless, sex crazed yet sexually unfulfilled young man with low self-esteem. Though I don't readily identify with this character, I think he resonates with in ways that I'm not quick to admit to myself; and I'd wager he also resonates with any person who has been a 15 year old boy.
Recommended if you have some time to kill and would like an interesting easy read :)
November 25, 2008
A book by an Indianapolis bred author, about Indianapolis in the '50s. Two recent veterans of the Korean War, former high school classmates, hook up together. One a noted athlete, the other a bit of a nerd. I read the book because the person upon whom the athlete is based, a college classmate of mine, told me about it. The ex-athlete is a painter and film producer who has lived in Greenwich Village for many years and was in Shortridge with the author. The preface is by K. Vonnegut, another Shortridge guy they both hung out with while he lived.
I've read several Wakefield novels, and find him a good craftsman with an ear for spoken language. His characters live as distinct individuals.
My one, ongoing criticism of this book is the visual similarity of the names of the two protagonists, Sonny and Gunner. For me, it was easy to confuse the dialogue tags after a while. Something like Norman and Max would have been better.
I've read several Wakefield novels, and find him a good craftsman with an ear for spoken language. His characters live as distinct individuals.
My one, ongoing criticism of this book is the visual similarity of the names of the two protagonists, Sonny and Gunner. For me, it was easy to confuse the dialogue tags after a while. Something like Norman and Max would have been better.
March 23, 2013
I read this just out of high school or very close to then anyway- a ridiculously silly half-memoir of a guy growing up in dull old Indianapolis (Vonnegut said the book ought have been titled "Getting Laid in Indianapolis")- Funny for me since I had no problems of the like at the time, living in the bay area, about a decade after this book is set- in the greaser years of the late-mid 50's when car jocks trying to be cool nursed deep neuroses beneath the sweat and swagger- like these guys! I don't want to spoil anybody on this, only to say it's more or less a period piece and probably inspired more "nostalgia culture" than Sha Na Na, American Graffiti and "Happy Days" will ever care to admit to.
May 17, 2013
A sex-filled book that isn't actually about sex. I really liked the Indianapolis setting! At the end of the audiobook, Kurt Vonnegut (Indy native and friend of the author) weirdly trashes Indianapolis. His estimation of the city is clearly based on decades past. I took the author's view of life in Indy as being told by a twenty-something eager to escape the city of his birth - a universal sentiment. Vonnegut makes it sound like the author meant for the characters to be running from the Midwest. I found that really odd - a bizarre, elitist take on where the majority of the country leads fulfilling lives. I enjoyed the book, but Vonnegut's speech was off-base and says more about him than it does the book.
January 29, 2016
I read this years ago and I remembered it as a very sexy novel, fresh and funny, and yet reading it now, it seems to me sad, pathetic, with the same bittersweet feeling that CATCHER IN THE RYE has after you’ve gotten over the shock of humor in that book.
More to the point, GOING ALL THE WAY seems to me a more modern version of THE SUN ALSO RISES, Sonny Burns a kind of mid-50s Jake Barnes, despair, in the midst of aimless drinking and parties – the parallels are astonishing.
Hope – a future – perhaps Sonny Burns has more of a future than Holden Caulfield or Jake Barnes – and there is hope here – after the endless frustration, the ‘wounding’ and the not measuring up, Sonny seems to feel he has a future, a new life, a beginning – or does he?
More to the point, GOING ALL THE WAY seems to me a more modern version of THE SUN ALSO RISES, Sonny Burns a kind of mid-50s Jake Barnes, despair, in the midst of aimless drinking and parties – the parallels are astonishing.
Hope – a future – perhaps Sonny Burns has more of a future than Holden Caulfield or Jake Barnes – and there is hope here – after the endless frustration, the ‘wounding’ and the not measuring up, Sonny seems to feel he has a future, a new life, a beginning – or does he?
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