Reviews for Return to Gone-Away

The average rating for Return to Gone-Away based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-03-15 00:00:00 Mike Nowotny Although Elizabeth Enright's sequel to her Newbery Honour winning Gone-Away Lake does indeed recapture some of the charm of the former (and also features the same set of characters), the entire premise of Portia and Foster's parents purchasing and then renovating the decrepit, dilapidated Villa Caprice and discovering and exploring its many nooks, crannies and wealth of strange but at times also very expensive objects and furnishings (and finally, at the end of Return to Gone-Away, finding Mrs. Brace-Gideon's safe containing all of her family's jewelry) has in fact been a bit tedious and not all that adventuresome a reading experience for me. Yes, I do indeed appreciate how the Blakes, the Jarmans, Aunt Minnehaha, Uncle Pin et al go about tiding up and renovating the Villa Caprice and finding out its many often delightful, at times even monetarily fortuitous hidden secrets (such as an attic filled with not only expensive but also very highly collectible and sellable antique furniture) and how especially Portia, Julian, Foster and Foster's chum Henry do seem to heartily enjoy their many explorations (and sometimes get themselves into rather sticky situations). However, much too much of Return to Gone-Away really does seem to have the minute details of how the Villa Caprice is being renovated and fixed up as its general and all encompassing theme. And while I certainly would have found a few pages or a couple of choice episodes of Return to Gone-Away being devoted to this both interesting and readable, that almost the entire novel deals rather exclusively with the renovation process, and that therefore, aside from a few and only rather mildly exciting and possibly dangerous choice scenarios, such as when Foster and David get stuck in the Villa Caprice's Dumbwaiter or when Julian and his friend Tom are stranded in Judge Carter's house with Uncle Pin's goat during a lightning storm because the stairs have collapsed, not all that much truly ever really happens during the course of Return to Gone-Away, and indeed, this has made Return to Gone-Away a generally nice and sweet but ultimately also rather monotonous and mildly personally disappointing and not really all that engaging and intriguing reading experience (not in any manner a bad or a problematic novel, but yes, Return to Gone-Away has also most definitely not been in any fashion a great or a wonderful, spectacular read, or yes, a story I would thus consider as possible rereading material, while with the first novel, while with Gone-Away Lake rereading is most definitely in the cards).

Review # 2 was written on 2009-01-13 00:00:00 James Laster Gosh, for a big fancy legal professional, I have sure read a lot of children's books lately, hmmm? Darn you Powells! I go out and buy these books to collect and then I end up putting all my serious grown-up reading aside until I am thoroughly soaked in nostalgia. Anyway, this is by the same author as Spiderweb for Two, but seems to be set in the '50's rather than the '40's. It is a sequel to a book called Gone-Away Lake which tells the story of some children who come across a collection of abandoned summer homes in the woods (since the lake the houses used to be on had disappeared), and two lovely old people who make their homes there. Return To Gone-Away is about how the children's parents buy one of the old homes and fix it up. The books basically tells the tale of the children exploring their new-old home and learning its secrets. I loved these books growing up, since living in an old home filled with mysterious antiques and hidden treasures was just about my number-one dream. Of course, now that I actually live in an old home we have found more peeling plaster and drafty windows than attics full of antiques and safes full of jewels, but I keep the dream alive.