For Book Clubs

Dear reader,

Thank you for considering Jetson’s Journey for your group.

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I should confess something first. I wrote most of this novel about Franklin, Tennessee, before I had ever set foot in it. I was living in California. I built the town out of maps and reading and whatever I could imagine, and then, partway through the writing, my wife and I moved here—and I got to walk streets I had been making up.

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When I look back, I got a fair amount right. Main Street. The tree lighting downtown at Christmas. How genuinely friendly people are here—which I had written as a small-town convention and turns out to be simply true. What I did not get—what I could not have gotten—is how beautiful this place is. I had read about the hills. I had no idea what they do in the late afternoon in October, or what the fog does over the fields on a cold morning, or how much of the drive between two ordinary errands is spent looking sideways. You cannot research light. That is the part of Franklin I would write differently now, and probably the part I will spend the next several books trying to get right.

 

I mention it because your group may well include people who have lived here far longer than I have, and I would rather say it plainly than be caught at it. If you find something I missed, I would honestly like to know.

The other thing worth saying is that I still think a book club is one of the better inventions. A room full of people who all read the same thing, and an evening to talk about it properly. I would be delighted to think this one found its way to your group.

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— Brock

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Why it works for a group

Jetson’s Journey is about a man who loses his footing entirely—his work, his family, the shape his life was supposed to have—and drives east with a duffel bag and his daughter’s dog because he can’t think what else to do. He lands in Franklin, Tennessee, stocks groceries, walks the dog, and quietly begins to write. There is a fair amount in it to discuss. What we owe the people who depend on us, and what we owe ourselves. Whether Michael is starting over or running away. How much of a life can be rebuilt on the kindness of people who have no particular reason to bother. I do not think the novel settles any of those, which is probably why I wanted to write it. A note for group leaders: the novel deals with serious illness in a child and with family loss. Nothing is graphic, but it’s worth knowing before you choose it.

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Join your discussion

I take a limited number of virtual book-club visits each season. If your group is reading Jetson’s Journey, you can request one here.

 

Getting copies

Paperback · 388 pages · $18.99   ·   Hardcover · 360 pages · $29.99   ·   Ebook $9.99

Available from Amazon and by order from any bookstore.

Groups in the Nashville area: Landmark Booksellers in Franklin can order copies for you, and I’m happy to sign them.

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A discussion guide posts here after publication on September 15. It assumes you’ve finished the book.