Emotionally demanding and profoundly rewarding.
Laney was barely even legal when Franklin, a man ten years her senior, took her as his wife. Four lackluster decades pass before Laney decides to go a different route. “Forty years is enough. I think it’s time to put a period at the end of this sentence.” Much to Franklin’s dismay, she packs her designer bags and walks out on her life. Laney avoids her husband’s calls and chases down her estranged daughter while Franklin struggles to adjust to life without his wife and with the lingering effects from Covid. He’s no longer a young man so his naturally declining physical health compounds debilitating symptoms, and the toll on his mind is even worse. Hoping to lighten Franklin’s load and ease some personal financial strain, his sister Gretchen moves in with him. But Gretchen is in the midst of her own internal war. Besides some long-standing ill-will toward Laney, Gretchen is battling feelings of grief and anger over the loss of her husband. Meanwhile, When Laney arrives in Righteous, Oklahoma, her daughter is less than enthusiastic about seeing the mother she felt abandoned by so many years ago. Laney tries to make amends with her daughter and get to know the grown granddaughter she’s never met, but circumstances quickly become dire. Though the family is spread apart, their distresses draw them together in tragic new ways.
Most of us are eager to move on from life’s trials after circumstances have improved. Hence, as time passes, it can be easy to forget how acutely painful financial instability, temporary illness, mask mandates, and other challenges once were. But for some, moving on from our traumas can be nearly impossible. Until It Was Gone highlights one splintered family and how they tackle their most formidable challenges, sometimes together, sometimes alone, but always with passion. Cast in a dramatic, contemporary light, David B. Seaburn’s story dives right into everything from mass shootings and sex abuse to ageism and reproductive rights. As in life, each character has distinct opinions on these many polarizing topics, and their diverse viewpoints are given balanced space on the page. This fair treatment offers readers the benefit of multiple perspectives while authenticating a fragmented family. In a cast populated primarily with assertive, headstrong women, Gretchen finds a way to stand out. Though many readers won’t share her exact life experiences, she is an extremely sympathetic character whose courtroom statement is so poignant, heartfelt, and vivid, it is as if you are sitting in the jury box. Emotionally demanding and profoundly rewarding, Until It Was Gone is a heart-blistering novel that will reaffirm what it means to be a family.
