Gone Tomorrow
He will be honored at the Ohioana Day Awards Ceremony on October 17 at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus. The novel, published by Overlook Press, earned praise in reviews around the country and was included on lists of the best books of 2008 by National Public Radio and the Plain Dealer of Cleveland, Ohio.
"Kluge has dozens of gorgeous, wrenching passages, details, throw-away observations," said the San Francisco Chronicle. "He can really write, like a man who means it." According to the New York Times, Gone Tomorrow is "a sharply observed yet tender novel of academic life and its many sand traps."
Gone Tomorrow was among finalists that "represent the finest in the literature of our time," said Linda R. Hengst, executive director of the Ohioana Library. Finalists in the fiction category included novels by Toni Morrison and Curtis Sittenfeld.
"Ohio, it turns out, is my home," Kluge said. "It's not what I would have forecast, when I first came here, as a Kenyon College freshman in 1960. Or when I began teaching at Kenyon in 1987. But that's how it's turned out. I live in Gambier, Ohio, and I write about where I live. Gone Tomorrow is about life on a hilltop campus in Ohio. Among other things, it's an Ohio novel. And, among other things, I am an Ohio author, and pleased to be recognized as such."
Kluge is a native of New Jersey. He is the author of seven novels, including Eddie and the Cruisers, Biggest Elvis, and Final Exam, and the non-fiction Alma Mater. Eddie and the Cruisers was the basis for a 1983 film of the same name. He lives in Gambier with his wife, Pamela G. Hollie, senior philanthropic advisor at Kenyon.
The Ohioana Library was established in 1929 to recognize and encourage the creative accomplishments of Ohio residents and to preserve and share a collection of books, sheet music, and manuscripts.