Five Days in Autumn

Langston Keane
White Elk Press (2007)
ISBN 9780977723720
Reviewed by Danielle Feliciano for Reader Views (1/08)


Carter Lee is the true definition of a workaholic.  He has no life and no connections outside of his professional environment.  He is accessible around the clock and demands the same of his coworkers.  It is this unrelenting drive that brings Carter’s supervisor to force a one-week vacation on him.  Carter now faces a week with no email, no cell phone, and strict instructions not to work at all.  At the same time, Carter’s mother calls requesting he help sit with his dying grandfather as she has other obligations this particular week.  With nothing else to do and a sense of family obligation, Carter packs his bags and travels from the chaos of Atlanta back to the small town in Tennessee that he grew up in.

This series of events brings Carter to his grandfather’s home where he finds piles of journals documenting his grandfather’s life.  Carter begins reading these journals and soon finds himself immersed in getting to know a grandfather with whom he has never had a relationship. The time he spends in Tennessee combined with the journals and a brief encounter with his grandfather help Carter truly reevaluate his life and move on to be the person he wants to be.

This book is written in a number of points of view, jumping from first person to third person narrative, which at times became confusing.  There were points where the book was overwritten and I would have liked to have had more journal entries included to help develop the story.  The author did a wonderful job of telling a strong story of family and self in a very simple way.  With minimal characters and a subdued setting, the point of the story never got lost.  The story was beautiful and moving and left the reader feeling very satisfied with the story told in “Five Days in Autumn.”

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