Daniel Patrick Ahearn is 64 years old and he is dying.  When his only child, Susan, was three years old, he killed her mother (his wife) in a jealous rage.  He spent 15 years in prison and lived a quiet, lonely life thereafter.  Because he knows his days are numbered, he decides to go to Florida to meet the daughter he hasn’t seen in 40 years.  Susan was raised by her maternal grandmother who didn’t tell Susan the true story of her mother’s death and her father’s part in it until she was well into adulthood.  Gone So Long Centers on three characters who are carrying a lot of emotional baggage and what they ultimately decide to do about it.

Gone So Long is not the gut wrenching tale I expected from Andre Dubus. The characters are flushed out, the concept is fine, but for some reason, and I’m not sure what it is, this novel is not dramatic or exciting.