Write your own review!
Diane L. (Lawrence, KS)
The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise
Louise is an octogenarian with an illness that she hasn't disclosed to her children. Her children are worried about her and think that she should move into an assisted living facility. Louise wants to stay in her home so the compromise is to have someone live with her, take her to appointments and run errands for her.
Enter Tanner, a promising scholarship athlete who has an unexpected accident that changes the trajectory of her life. She leaves school, returns home and becomes a video game playing couch potato. Her parents want her to get out and on her own. Tanner does too but doesn't have the means to do so.
…more Through a mutual acquaintance Tanner and Louise are brought together.
What Tanner, or even Louise's children, do not know is that Louise has a criminal past that she's kept hidden for over 40 years. When the past comes back to haunt Louise, she decides to go on the run. Tanner feels an obligation to make sure Louise is going to be okay, plus Louise dangles a large sum of money in front of Tanner. Enough to enable her to return to college, which is her dream. So the two head out on a cross country journey.
Tanner and Louise aren't exactly bosom buddies at the beginning of their trek, but as the journey continues across the country they find that they both need one another more than they think they do and a friendship of convenience becomes one of true regard for one another.
Their adventure eventually takes them to California to see a friend named George who may have a connection to Louise's mysterious past. What is George's connection with Louise? Will Louise's mysterious past ever catch up with her? Will Tanner ever return to college?
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a little mystery mixed with a dose of comedy and a side of artifice. (less)What an engaging book! An improbable pair of women, at different stages of life, but both dealing with physical frailties and past mistakes, go on a sudden, urgent road trip across America, learning from each other.
The author brings to life both the pathos of the young woman whose accidental injury ends her soccer scholarship and her dreams of a professional soccer career, and the feistiness of the elderly woman, recovering from a broken hip and dealing with the physical and mental deterioration of Parkinson's Disease.
Both have distanced themselves emotionally and hurt loved ones. Both have secrets they won't
…more share. And both come to trust and care about each other as they try to right their wrongs.
The writing is brisk and humorous, capturing both old and young voices and propelling the main characters, Tanner (21) and Louise (84) to an unexpected but satisfying ending.
Note: Though the book begins with an epigraph from the movie, "Thelma and Louise," one need not be familiar with that story to enjoy this one. (less)The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise is a fun story with some surprising twists that I didn't see coming. It has a bit of everything, including self discovery, adventure, and romance. I very much enjoyed it and recommend it to anyone looking for an entertaining escapist read.
Dorothy M. (Maynard, MA)
This is a feel good fun read
If you cross the odd couple with Thelma and Louise you'd come up with The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise. Tanner is a young woman whose life plan to be a soccer star is derailed by a severely broken leg and who spends the next few months burning bridges. When her Mother has finally had as much as she can take she tells her to move out and find a job. While Tanner insists that living as an assistant to an octogenarian with Parkinson's isn't really a job she isn't at all prepared for Louise's unexpected past or the frantic road trip across the country.
I enjoyed this story. I liked the characters, enjoyed
…more the humor and there is even a bit of romance along with a look at the difference between what's legal and what's right. (less)Colleen Oakley's Thelma-and Louise-tinged road trip novel involves two quirky characters -- 58-year-old Louise Wilt has just been released from rehab after hip surgery, and needs some help around the house. 21-year-old Tanner Quimby, a Northwestern University women's soccer star out of school because she broke her leg falling off a 2-story deck at a party, needs a job, so she can save the money she needs to return to school.
Louise is a stereotypical crotchety old lady, at least in Tanner's eyes, and Louise sees Tanner as a thoughtless, cell-phone and video-game=obsessed, junk-food-eating millennial. Then Louise
…more gets a phone call out of her past, and she needs to get out of town. She offers Tanner a substantial bonus to drive her to California, and off they go. Over the course of an extraordinary road trip, these two characters evolve in dimension and understanding of one another in touching, humorous, and engaging ways.
The light mystery that underlies their trip has a big surprise ending, but it is not really the focus of the story, which is at heart a tale of true female friendship and commitment. (less)This story started out slow but once their "adventure" began I became really engaged. Tanner and Louise are brought together almost by default. Louise needs help with driving and errands after she broke her hip. Tanner needs a job and a place to live after she broke her leg which ended her promising college soccer scholarship. This story involves a jewlery heist that happened 40 years ago. Louise gets a call which causes her to pack up and leave town taking Tanner with her. The characters are so good and their banter is entertaining. The author does a great job dropping clues that become important in the end. I
…more kept reading trying to solve the mystery while also routing for Louise and Tanner's unlikely friendship. This book has a mystery, a "Thelma and Louise" road trip, and lessons in not judging people by the way they look. Read this fun ride. (less)The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise has been aptly compared to Thelma and Louise and Midnight Run. It tells the story of an unlikely duo--21-year-old Tanner and 84-year-old Louise on the run from Florida to California. As the trip unfolds, we learn more about what brought the two protagonists to where they are today. I thought the author did a great job of doling out information about the women's pasts in a way that made me re-evaluate my initial impressions of them and showed the women to be complex, fully-realized characters. The book was a light read but also explored some deep issues, such as
…more domestic violence. Would definitely recommend! (less)I so enjoyed this book! The character development and the interaction between the characters was a joy to read! I started off thinking I know where this is going, however, it did not go that way at all! A very good read!
