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We Wish You Luck by Caroline Zancan
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Release Date: January 14, 2020
Length: 320 pages
Amazon
{A Bit of Backstory}
Single Sentence Summary
Students in an MFA program watch with interest and delight as two of its most interesting students lay out a plot of revenge against one of their professors.
From the Publisher
“It doesn’t take long for the students on Fielding campus to become obsessed with Hannah, Leslie and Jimmy. The three graduate students are mysterious, inaccessible, and brilliant. Leslie, glamorous and brash, has declared that she wants to write erotica and make millions. Hannah is quietly confident, loyal, elegantly beautiful, and the person they all want to be; and Jimmy is a haunted genius with no past. After Simone – young, bestselling author and erstwhile model – shows up as a visiting professor, and after everything that happened with her, the trio only become more notorious.”
The Draw
- I always love a campus story.
- MFA students exacting revenge on a rogue professor.
- Told in the collective voice.
{My Thoughts}
I love a good campus novel and We Wish You Luck delivered that and much more. Set at a small Vermont campus, the book followed students in a low residency MFA program. (Meaning they had two intense 10-day sessions a year and the rest of the time wrote, and submitted work from their homes.) The students all quickly became fascinated (some might say obsessed) by three of their own, Jimmy, Hannah, and Leslie, who over the years had become near legends to their classmates. It’s those classmates, looking back, who tell the story using the collective voice, which I loved!
“Maybe even the best stories need to be retired at some point, even if you think you could tell it better if you had another try.
But we’ll tell it one last time.”
It’s not often an author uses a collective group to tell a story, but when done right it’s a powerful device, and Caroline Zancan did it right. Everyone in the program is involved in telling the story except Jimmy, Hannah, Leslie and the professor they sought to make pay. (For what? I cannot say!) Since it’s a whole group telling what happened you, get many perspectives, some conflicting accounts of what happened, and a lot of gossipy tidbits. This gossipy element might be the one flaw in We Wish You Luck for me. There were times I wanted less of the side stories and more focus on the plot of revenge.
In addition to the main focus of this book I also loved that it took me inside the writing process and into the hard work of an MFA program. I had just read Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett, which did the same, making We Wish You Luck a perfect companion read. And perhaps what I loved most about this book was Zancan’s writing. At times beautiful, often clever, Zancan’s snarky, collective voice made her story, always propelling me forward, wanting more and more. Whether you’re a fan of campus novels or just a fan of great writing, you’re going to want to read We Wish You Luck. Grade: A-
“There are as many different stories and feelings and thoughts and ways to tell them as there are freckles on all the redheads who have ever lived. And someone like Simone Babbot should have known that.”
If you liked this book you might also enjoy:
- Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett – A memoir of the authors long friendship with poet/writer Lucy Grealy, including their time together in an MFA program.
- Black Chalk by Christopher J. Yates – A campus novel that takes a dark turn as a group of classmates become involved in an increasingly dangerous game of dares.
Note: I received a copy of this book from Riverhead Books (via Edelweiss) in exchange for my honest review.
I had put this in my ‘no’ column until reading your review! I’m not a fan of student driven books (did not like Black Chalk) but the idea of everyone else BUT the main players doing the telling is intriguing. Moving it into the ‘yes’ column.
I hope you enjoy it, Madeline. Please let me know.
Hmmm, very difficult read. The writing was tortured. Run on sentences with parenthetical remarks inserted in between barely understandable thoughts. But I kept wondering if that was the intention of the author: how these amateur and terribly self-involved writers would write. And then I thought perhaps the author was exactly that (the only exception being a book contract). But it did not make for an easy or enjoyable read.
I thought going in that the narrators would rotate. But it’s written in first person plural, which made it impossible to know WHO was telling the story. The word “we” became akin to a Greek chorus, and not in a good way.
It finally focused in the last 60 pages or so, although the outcome was no secret by that point.
I can’t recommend this. There were many times when I thought of giving up on it and in fact, I probably should have.
Reading the blurbs on the back cover had me howling in amusement and disbelief. “Tightly controlled.” “…thrilling tale.” “…richly imagined characters.” “…prose is precise, deft, cutting.” No. Not any of those things.
Sorry Susie. I should listen to my gut.
I agree with Madeline; I hadn’t heard enough about this book to make me want to read it, but now I’m intrigued. I think I’ll have to go on that dreaded hold list.
I read is worth the wait!
I had trouble getting into this book. The characters were so many and I didn’t realize why the opening was so foreign to me. I think now it was the “ group speak” that was unfamiliar. As soon as I got the hang of it, I Really Enjoyed the Writing atmosphere and the character driven plot! It was a window into the Writing experience that I had never seen through before. It sure could have been named “Sweet Revenge”. This is a really interesting author!
Thanks for your review ( which I should have read, first)!
I’m glad you liked it in the end. That collective voice does take some getting used to. I’ve only read it a few times, but I actually like it a lot. I have another review coming up soon that also used that voice.
I’m having trouble getting into this book. I’m only about 50 pages in. I’m going to keep reading though! 😊
50 pages is quite a bit. If it’s not working for you, don’t feel bad about giving up. There are PLENTY of other books out there!
At what point do you DNF a book? I usually try to get to 100 pages but maybe I’m waiting too long!
It really varies for me. If it’s an ARC I try to read about 20% (so about 60-70 pages) before quitting, but if it’s a library book I may give it even less. Audiobooks I try to give about an hour.