Here's my take: the first half of the book was all about characterization, and plot development just had to wait. I'm rather impatient, and I'll admit I almost didn't wait around for the action to pick up, but I'm glad I did. Once main character Geraldine, the former shake-your-thing back-up singing Shakette, got married (rather against her better judgement), got a job and had a child, things started to really move.
And, since Colwin had fleshed out the characters so that I really knew and liked them, I was rarin' to go along for the ride. When Geraldine's best friend (who was dating a married man) left to become a nun right before Geraldine's European returned to his home continent was a bit disappointing, but only because I liked those girls so much, I wanted to watch them have a little more fun. Not that nunneries aren't fun...
The point is, I found it easy to forgive Colwin for a lack of action at the beginning precisely because she spent the first several chapters letting me develop a relationship with her characters.
Of course, other reviewers have reported feeling the the complete opposite. Decide for yourself. (As if you had any other option, right?) I've made my decision, and I'll happily dive into another of Colwin's works, fiction or non-fiction.
What I particularly enjoyed about Goodbye and specifically, Geraldine's character, was her honesty in admitting her disappointment at not only not fulfilling life's expectations of her - her, the good girl, who got good grades in a good school, with all the advantages - utterly failing to raise a perfectly manicured child and tuck a sharp corner in her slip-covered couch but also her honesty about failing herself, to be a self she could be proud of. (Hint: that self had nothing to do with slip-covers.)
Sigh. Well, speaking of unfulfilled potential, back to work I guess.
But first, maybe a stop at the library... what are you reading, anyway?
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