cover image Goodbye, Goodness

Goodbye, Goodness

Sam Brumbaugh. Open City Books, $13 (277pp) ISBN 978-1-890447-39-7

Brumbaugh's evocative debut novel begins with his narrator, Hayward, hightailing it from the scene of the car wreck he just survived. He finds refuge in an empty Malibu beach house where he recuperates and slowly reveals how he got there. Hayward had recently fled the East Coast for a TV production job in Los Angeles, but he's consumed with guilt for having left his ailing girlfriend behind. On his westward journey, he crosses paths with two close friends from his college days: Will, an up-and-coming magazine writer, and Kimmel, a somewhat famous singer-songwriter. Hayward's once tight relationships with them have become strained, and as he unravels the tensions, he discovers new, dark aspects of their lives. Brumbaugh's tight style and flair for detail (""His shirt collar poked out like a broken kickstand."") save this novel from being just another story about late twenty-something boho prepsters trying to find their place in a cruel, unforgiving world. With the occasional snippets about Annie Oakley (a relative of both the author and Hayward), Brumbaugh's novel, though at times melodramatic and forced, manages nevertheless to be drearily engaging.