First published 1973
Tom Scanlon wants to spend his ninetieth birthday alone. Instead, his relatives converge on the small Midwestern town of Lone Tree for a family celebration he never asked for. The gathering forces each family member to confront their shared history and wrestle with what comes next. As the celebration unfolds, these unlikely participants begin to reshape how they see their past failures and future possibilities. What starts as an unwanted obligation becomes something stranger and more freeing. The family members discover that coming together in this forgotten prairie town allows them to reimagine themselves and their connections to each other. Wright Morris crafts their transformation with precision and restraint, finding beauty in the ordinary struggles of people trying to make sense of their lives.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, 20th-century, family-drama
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Lone Tree, Midwest
Period: 20th-century
316 pages · Hardcover · University of Nebraska Press