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. This novel of the 1950s so perfectly captures its time and place that it transcends the specific and becomes universal—a true classic of American literature. Now a major motion picture.

"... 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. This novel of the 1950s so perfectly captures its time and place that it transcends the specific and becomes universal — a true classic of American literature. Now a major motion picture.

Library Journal

This is another title being reissued as a movie tie-in. The plot of this odd coming-of-age story follows army buddies Sonny Burns and Gunner Casselman, who return to their small hometown to find that life there is the pits. LJ's reviewer found the book flawed but noted that "the vacuous milieu and grubby, banal conversations are reproduced with fidelity, and the novel is depressingly believable" (LJ 7/70).

Dan Wakefield's latest book is Creating from the Spirit: Living Each Day as a Creative Act. His other novels include Starting Over, Under the Apple Tree, and Selling Out.