Another Place You've Never Been

Starred review from August 1, 2016
At the center of Kauffman’s wonderful debut, a novel told in stories, is Tracy, who first appears as a 10-year-old visiting her father, living on disability near Lake Michigan, and then at 13 as the neighborhood bad girl in a story about a sleepover. Two nearly perfect stories feature Tracy as an adult: one in which she interrupts her cousin’s moment of intimacy with his girlfriend at an Embassy Suites, and another in which Tracy, now a restaurant hostess, begins an on-and-off relationship with a younger coworker named Greenie. Readers are also introduced to other characters that circle her in and around Buffalo, N.Y., including alcoholic Jim; his troubled son, Charlie; and Jim’s ex-wife, Laura. Greenie himself gets his own story as he leaves Tracy behind for an ill-fated job in New Jersey, culminating in a memorable moment atop a Ferris wheel. Watching how these characters intersect is incredibly satisfying. In clear and vivid prose, Kauffman potently depicts lonely and isolated lives, marked by rash decisions made in the hope of finding connection. By the end of the novel, the pieces of the puzzle that is Tracy’s life fit together, her disappointments as much a part of her as her small victories, resulting in an undeniably moving and emotionally true portrayal of the kitchen sink of human experience. Agent: Michelle Tessler, Tessler Literary Agency.

Debut author Kauffman examines the lives of working-class characters connected to Buffalo, New York, in a novel of loosely linked stories.A father attempts to be a good parent when his daughter visits for the summer but gets an ultimatum from his girlfriend: either the kid goes or she does. He chooses the girlfriend, and the ramifications of this decision echo through the book in subtle ways. The novel is composed of short, storylike chapters, many told from the points of view of minor characters. We see the girl, Tracy, first through the eyes of her father's resentful girlfriend and later the girlfriend of a cousin. But gradually the connections deepen. As we follow Tracy from childhood to adulthood, she searches for love and purpose. Kauffman's compassion for her lonely characters is evident. At an ill-fated holiday gathering, Tracy watches her cousin Shelly "looking, as usual, like she was a woman who really knew how the world worked." Another divorced father, unsure of his ability to parent, feels "a private, throbbing panic" when his son throws his arms around him at the Shamu show at Sea World. Later he finds himself comforted by a chirping cricket and a loaf of banana bread as he tries to "become a man who finally deserved the things he once had." A character takes his ancient, sedated cat, Monkey, for a ride on a Ferris wheel. As he explains at the vet's, he asked for a monkey when he was 10, but "I got what I got." "We all get what we get, don't we?" the woman said. "No matter what we ask for." One misstep is the mysterious Native Americans who appear periodically, laconic and stoic, to deliver some of the novel's best lines. Tracy's father reveals he's dying of cancer to a stranger who tells him that death could be "just another place you've never been."In this debut novel, characters affected by "the cruelty of carelessness" nonetheless make the best of what they get. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from November 15, 2016

Focusing on thirtysomething Tracy, Kauffman's debut novel could be mistaken for a story collection if the pieces weren't so incredibly interwoven. The setting is working-class Buffalo, NY, and Kauffman reveals the passage of time as she recounts Tracy's interactions with other characters, notably her father, whom we first meet when Tracy visits him at age ten. Later, we see Tracy as the daring bad girl in the neighborhood and, from the perspective of her boyfriend and a cousin, as a grown-up restaurant hostess wanting more. Throughout, the presence of mysterious Native American figures adds insight and depth into the characters' experiences. The novel's snapshots reveal lonely, often unfulfilled people whose relationships with loved ones have largely missed the mark. Tracy's father allows a jealous girlfriend to come between them, for instance, and her boyfriend can't commit. VERDICT While a series of stories don't always add up to a novel, this is an accomplished debut--at times emotionally gritty but always emotionally true. For all fiction collections. [Long-listed for the 2016 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.--Ed.]--Faye Chadwell, Oregon State Univ., Corvallis

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.