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    Goodbye for Now: A Novel
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    Goodbye for Now: A Novel
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    Goodbye for Now: A Novel
    Audiobook11 hours

    Goodbye for Now: A Novel

    Written by Laurie Frankel

    Narrated by Kirby Heyborne

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    In the spirit of ONE DAY, comes a fresh and warmhearted love story for the 21st century. Sometimes the end is just the beginning . . .

    Sam Elling works for an internet dating company, but he still can't get a date. So he creates an algorithm that will match you with your soul mate. Sam meets the love of his life, a coworker named Meredith, but he also gets fired when the company starts losing all their customers to Mr. and Ms. Right.

    When Meredith's grandmother, Livvie, dies suddenly, Sam uses his ample free time to create a computer program that will allow Meredith to have one last conversation with her grandmother. Mining from all her correspondence-email, Facebook, Skype, texts-Sam constructs a computer simulation of Livvie who can respond to email or video chat just as if she were still alive. It's not supernatural, it's computer science.

    Meredith loves it, and the couple begins to wonder if this is something that could help more people through their grief. And thus, the company RePose is born. The business takes off, but for every person who just wants to say good-bye, there is someone who can't let go.

    In the meantime, Sam and Meredith's affection for one another deepens into the kind of love that once tasted, you can't live without. But what if one of them suddenly had to? This entertaining novel, delivers a charming and bittersweet romance as well as a lump in the throat exploration of the nature of love, loss, and life (both real and computer simulated). Maybe nothing was meant to last forever, but then again, sometimes love takes on a life of its own.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateAug 7, 2012
    ISBN9780449013526
    Unavailable
    Goodbye for Now: A Novel
    Author

    Laurie Frankel

    Laurie Frankel is the New York Times bestselling, award-winning author of novels such as The Atlas of Love, Goodbye for Now, and the Reese’s Book Club x Hello Sunshine Book Pick This Is How It Always Is. Frankel lives in Seattle with her husband, daughter, and border collie. She makes good soup.

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    Reviews for Goodbye for Now

    4/5

    94 ratings36 reviews

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    • 5/5
      In Laurie Frankel‘s second novel, Goodbye for Now, there are many moments that will bring a tear to your eye, but not a single sappy sentence. I loved it. To shower some of my highest praise on this book: Goodbye for Now reminded me of Laurie Colwin.Although I haven’t read Laurie Colwin’s Happy All the Time; Shine on, Bright and Dangerous Object; Family Happiness; and Goodbye Without Leaving in years, they remain among my favorite novels of all time. Although they were about relatively privileged New Yorkers in their late twenties and early thirties, the novels made the domestic lives of these smart, witty people, who were also down-to-earth and kind to each other, so irresistibly appealing that readers were drawn in and forgave them any faults, wanting only the best for them all. Throw in computer technology, social media, and improved forms of electronic communication and you’ve extended the boundaries for a contemporary comedy of manners with family, friends, colleagues, and beyond. The author’s tweaking of the geek-boy-meets-geek-girl theme and the characters’ philosophical musings on digital afterlives (when we die, our Facebook pages, etc. remain) add to the humor and the pathos of the characters’ everyday lives.Both in their early thirties and unattached, Sam and Meredith (forever known to Sam as “Merde”) fall in love so easily and undramatically that when events conspire to have them moving in together, it makes perfect sense to start the living-happily-ever-after part of their lives right away, now that the wonders of computer technology and Sam’s programming genius have brought them together. It’s best not to know much more of the plot in advance because serendipity and bolts from the blue play a major role in how the story goes, so I won’t say much more here, except that the theme of loss runs through the novel starting with the sudden death of Sam’s mother when Sam was only thirteen months old, leaving Sam’s father (also a software engineer) to miss her for many years and Sam with a hole in his life where his mother should have been and no memories of his own stored up.Disclosure: I received an advance reading copy of Goodbye for Now from Doubleday through LibraryThing‘s Early Reviewer program.To read complete review, visit Bay State Reader's Advisory blog.
    • 5/5
      I LOVED this book - so unique and thought-provoking. Sam, a software designer for a dating website, makes the perfect code that matches people with their soulmates. He tries it on himself and meets Meredith. They’re incredibly happy falling in love when Meredith’s grandmother dies. They were incredibly close, and Meredith is heartbroken. Sam tweaks his code from matching soulmates, to making it seem like the dead are still alive, at least via email. This is a great book, worth the read. It’s an interesting story on the surface level, but there’s an undertone of what is reality when it comes to the internet.
    • 3/5
      I was kind of disappointed with this book. The story sort of creeped me out - neat concept but kind of creepy. The characters were likable and the writing easy to read.

    • 1/5
      Sounded promising but turned out to be hard going and obscure
    • 5/5
      Sam Elling is a brilliant computer programmer. Working for a popular internet dating site, he has developed the perfect algorithm that brings together two extremely compatible people. Problem is - he's so brilliant and so talented with this algorithm that he's lost his job. What kind of dating site can remain profitable and charge monthly fees of people who've so easily found their match? They don't, so he's unemployed.Luckily, he's deeply in love with Meredith - a co-worker at the same company, albeit in a different department - and he'll figure it out. . . eventually. When Meredith's beloved grandmother dies suddenly, Sam finds a new outlet for his talents: RePose. An opportunity for those who've lost loved ones to reconnect. They use data from video chats, email histories, chat logs, and any kind of saved information that's retrievable to re-create the person they'd like to connect with. After a successful launch with Meredith's "grandmother", the two set forward to offer peace and closure to the world suffering in grief. - No technology is perfect, and Sam and Meredith do their best to attack each glitch with grace and respect.- Not everybody thinks this is a good idea.- Unexpected (and unforeseeable) consequences emerge when the desperation to keep a connection after a loved one's gone overrides someone's good sense (think: parents of very sick children).But what they never expected was that someone would eventually use this technology for the other. Sam and Meredith are delicious characters whose stories and connection to each other are developed cleanly and at a very comfortable pace. No technical errors are present, and I am able to lose myself in this story. Emotions run high with empathy for the various grieving characters, and a slight undercurrent of desperation punctuate each sentence. The end of this story is painful and wrecked with despair, but in a way that ties the entire story together: Do we do our best to circumvent nature with the power of our technology? Or is what's never meant to last forever best left alone?*I was provided this Advanced Reader's Copy free of charge from the publisher.
    • 3/5
      Interesting plot concept. Unrealistic characters.
    • 4/5
      I love Laurie Frankel's characters and her writing. I found the plot very unlikely and I kept arguing with the book for the last half. But it isn't a bad book--it's an interesting look at death and what we feel and need after loved ones die.
    • 5/5
      'It wasn't a miracle. It was computer science.'Sam Elling is a genius but lonely software engineer working, ironically, at an online dating company creating wondrous algorithms that will find you your soulmate. 'He cracked the code to your heart.' He runs the programme on himself and finds his match within the same company, Meredith Maxwell. His invention is so successful he is fired because it works too well! His next invention will change his life. Meredith suffers a loss and Sam has a computerised answer for it. Does his genius mean that people will no longer have to say goodbye for ever, even when someone dies?'Forget really good internet dating. Without even trying, without even deciding to really, somehow Sam had invented eternal life. Immortality.Not for you, but you wouldn't care because you'd be dead. As far as your loved ones were concerned, however, Sam could keep you alive and with them forever. How was that not immortality?'His invention, which harnesses the modern day social networking and electronic communications methods we seem to prioritise, such as facebook, email, texting, twitter, video chat, means that someone's thoughts and opinions and their love may still be there, still be available to us even after their physical presence is no longer with us. We could still share things with them, tell them what we wish we'd said, talk with them and receive their advice. Can it help those who are bereaved to deal with loss? Or does it merely prolong forever the ache of missing them?The premise for this story intrigued me straight away. Then, when I started reading, the imaginative storyline grabbed me and kept me reading until the end. The two primary characters, Sam and Meredith, came across as warm, caring human beings. Sam is a geek who is sweet, likeable and romantic, Meredith is a lovely lady and they suit one another so well. Their relationship is touching and believable.Sam's incredible technological invention, the responsibility for what they have made possible, comes to dominate their lives. It is viewed variously as wondrous, destructive, healing yet pain-inducing, troubling yet miraculous. As it evolves, it could be said to destroy human contact with the living and yet it helps others find it anew. At the heart of the matter is the stark loss felt when a loved one dies and that connection is lost: 'You think you'll have all the time in the world. You think there will always be a later. Sometimes, suddenly, horribly, there's not.'What would we give to have another chance to see and speak to that loved one? There are moral issues. Readers may react differently depending on their own personal views regarding death. It is rich with topics to discuss and debate. I don't want to reveal too much about how the story, and the invention, progresses, because this is best discovered as you read the novel. I really enjoyed this author's style of writing and her use of language throughout. From the start Laurie Frankel's writing is witty and heartfelt, her words offer us ideas and truths, and the story is both incredibly modern in terms of relationships and technology, and yet completely timeless in its' themes of love, loss, memories and death. Goodbye For Now is an insightful, imaginative novel, at times funny, at times heartbreaking, and definitely thought-provoking.
    • 5/5
      Sam was a computer engineer for an online dating site when he created a matchmaking algorithm so successful that he loses his job, since the online dating site requires monthly fees and instant succesful matches don't make the company money. So although Sam was abruptly terminated, he came away with his own perfect match, Merideth. Unfortunately, Meredith loses her beloved aunt Livvy, soon after they begin dating. In order to bring her some consolation, Sam develops an algorithm that combines all of Livvy's past online communication with Merideth to generate a computerized Livvy, able to communiate with Meredith in the present. Meredith is at first horrified, then skeptical, and then elated with computer-generated Livvy, who is so flawless that it is hard to believe she is dead. Which becomes part of the problem... or is it? Does this program postpone the natural grieving process or help the one left behind to deal with grief in a more compassionate way? Sam, Meredith and Meredith's cousin are so excited about the possibilities that they launch a new company to bring this connection to familes who have recently loss loved ones (who had adequate stores of online activity). The company is immediately successful, but as it takes off, unexpected social consequences emerge.This novel is a brilliant, fun, and fascinating exploration into the possibilities for virtual relationships that transcend death. It also became increasingly sad as the book went on, so much so that I was surprised by my own feelings of grief and loss at the end. This would be a fascinating book club book to discuss the ethics of futuristic technologies, the consequences of which cannot always be predicted. While I loved this book, it was profoundly sad and may not be for everyone due to this aspect.
    • 5/5
      Sam is a software engineer for a dating agency in Seattle. Creating a programme to find the "love of your life" is an easy step for him to take and he is rewarded by meeting Meredith, his perfect partner. There is a downside as far as his boss is concerned....the concept doesn't make money. If you've found that special one, you don't need to go on searching and paying good dollars to do so! Sam gets fired!He moves in with Meredith (who, luckily, is still gainfully employed), when her beloved grandmother Livvie dies suddenly. Meredith utters the oft heard words of the bereaved..."I just wish I could talk to her again." That gets Sam's brain (with too much time on it's hands) ticking over and he wonders at the possibility of such a concept. He secretly creates a programme based on past conversations between the two women by email, text, Skype and phone. He can't hide it from Meredith forever and when she discovers what he has created she is overcome with joy at being able to chat with Livvie just like she used to. Despite Sam wanting to keep this a personal pastime, they do begin to see the possibility of this becoming a viable business. "Repose" is born and the demand for talking to your deceased loved ones becomes very popular indeed.I can hear you saying..there has to be a down side to all this...and yes there are many and they come from the least thought of places. The reader is swept along with Sam and Meredith's desire to do good and their disappointment when something goes horribly wrong. The many characters are beautifully constructed and each have their own story.Just over half way through the book, monumental tragedy strikes and the whole concept of staying in touch with your dead loved one becomes achingly real.I can not praise this novel enough. It is beautifully written and so emotional...the writing just flows off the page. It is, by turn, hugely funny and achingly sad. I found myself crying over the purity and honesty shown by the author for the grieving process....so individual and so moving. Having been recently bereaved myself, the pain was almost unbearable at times but there is a wonderful closure to this story and it is a story you won't forget. Sam and Meredith will stay with me for a long, long time.This is the finest novel I have read this year and all I can say to Laurie Frankel is..."hell I wish I could write like that!" Beautiful.
    • 4/5
      Goodbye for Now by Laurie FrankelBook starts out with Sam and he's designed a dating program and it's a big hit. He likes Meridith but it takes time for them to really see one another.After her grandmother passes away he sees how sad she is and knows he has a program using AI that can help and it does and it doesn't.Really strange happen and they open it to others to try out as they are suffering also. Unheard of what happens next... Few characters easy to keep track of what they each are doing.Love the scenery and places visited in the book, near Seattle as we've been to many of them.I received this book from a contest I won.
    • 5/5
      Saying goodbye is hard. So what if you didn't really have to. Sam is a computer programmer with a heart of gold. He develops a great program that helps you find your soul mate and it really works because Sam finds his in Meredith. After Meredith's beloved grandmother passes away Sam sees that Meredith isn't ready to let go so he develops another wonderful program that lets her share emails with her grandmother. This leads to another level and viola - they are in the business of talking with the dead. Enter Meredith's crazy cousin Dash who thinks making cheese is the answer to all of life's problems and everything seems to be coming up roses until the next disaster strikes.Laurie Frankel will have you laughing and crying in the same breath. She has a wonderful way of blending technology with good old fashioned values and characters. The book takes you on a journey of love and loss - makes you wish these characters were your friends and family - you cannot ask more from a novel than that.
    • 4/5
      Sam Elling is a computer geek. He can make miracles with the right data. He works for a company that wants to find the perfect dating niche in society. What do people want in a mate, what do they look for? Given the assignment of coming up with the next "it" thing in dating Sam writes a program that uses all of your computerized data (chats, e-mail, financial records, etc.) and has the program look for what you really want in a mate, not what you say you want. Sam is able to find a soul mate, not by dating numerous people to find that person, but the one person out there that matches perfectly to you. Sam decides to make himself the trial case and he is matched with a woman in the company named Meredith. Quickly the pair find they are each others soul-mates and do not want to be apart. When people start to find their soul-mates on the first try business wanes. There is no money to be made if people only come once and find their Mr. Or Mrs. right, so the boss fires Sam just after he has come back from a conference in London. While in London though Meredith's Grandmother Livie dies. Meredith is crushed. Sam tries to decide what he wants to do and he and Meredith become very close. As the weeks pass he see's Meredith mourn Livie and also how well Meredith knew her Grandmother. Sam decides to write a program that will generate Livie in computer form. He takes all of Livie's data and runs it through a program similar to the one he had made for dating. He then generates an image that allows Meredith to talk to Livie in a chat feature. Meredith is at first unsure but finds she misses her Grandmother so much that to just be able to say goodbye would be cathartic. Even though Livie isnt living the program can use her past data to make it seem like she is still there. The only problem they find is that the virtual person can only understand past things, things that were already known to them before their death. After their experience with virtual Livie they decide to open a company called "Repose" and do this for others that are mourning the loss of a loved one or feeling like there was unfinished business. As they go through the ups and downs of owning and running a company and the feelings/questions that are brought up in society, tragedy strikes and things will never be the same.I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Some will look at it and think harshly about the moral issues it raises, but if you read it as purely enjoyable fiction you will like it. The author was able to capture human frailty and the grieving process superbly. I also found the book to be humorous but not overdone. She seems to have gotten a good balance on many levels. There are some areas that will maybe make you tear up and it is not a happy go lucky book. If I had to categorize it like they do in movies, it would be a Romantic Drama. Not really a good beach book due to the sadness that permeates the book, but rainy days would be ok.I was given an Advanced bound galley in exchange for a review and was not paid.
    • 4/5
      When you lose a loved one, you don't just lose their physical presence, you lose the knowledge that they are alive somewhere in the world, accessible by phone or computer. You lose the fact that they are there for you in large and small ways. And although they are always in your heart, it's not the same thing. How many times have you heard (or said yourself) that you wished you could just talk to your loved one just one more time? What if you could do just that, not in reality but in a virtual reality sort of way that would mimic your relationship before their died? Would you do it? Would it be too macabre or would you welcome the chance? Laurie Frankel's novel Goodbye for Now offers up this very question and the unsettling implications of such a possibility. Sam is a computer programmer who works for an online dating service. When he creates an agorithm that actually works, pairing people with their perfect match, he uses himself as a test case and meets Meredith, the woman who is in fact his soul mate. But his discovery would lose the dating service business so they bury his program and fire Sam. Meanwhile, Meredith's beloved grandmother dies and this woman who quickly became the center of Sam's world is sunk in her grieving, wanting nothing more than to be able to talk to Livvie one more time. Sam, with nothing but time on his hands, decides to try and create a program that will allow Meredith the illusion of doing just that. He collects all of Livvie's e-mails, video chats, and online life together and fashions a program that uses her own words and images to simulate the sort of conversation she and Meredith used to have over the internet when she was still alive. Meredith is delighted with the program and she helps to convince Sam that others will benefit from this same service. So their own business, named RePose, is born. As Repose takes off, Sam works through the bugs and Meredith and their friend Dash handle the publicity and the moral implications of giving hurt and grieving people the chance to talk to their deceased loved ones again and again and again. And the moral implications are many and varied. But they make friends with quite a few of the program users, coming to know them, their particular heartbreak, and the gaping hole that exists in each of their lives and that RePose hopes to help fill. But then the unthinkable happens and despite the fact that Sam and Meredith are soul mates who have only just found each other, terrible, senseless tragedy strikes. And RePose becomes more important and all-consuming than ever. RePose was never marketed or meant to be reality for the grief-stricken users, just to offer an approximation, but it becomes absolutely everything, an addiction and a crutch, a way to avoid facing unbearable loss. This novel is an intriguing look at the unpredictability of loss and the differing ways in which people work through grief. It is also a lovely examination of love and letting go, the ways in which those who touch our lives have enriched us and continue to do so even after they are gone. As might be expected of a novel centered around death and triumphing over it, even in just a small way, there are numerous extremely emotional scenes and passages that will leave readers reaching for tissues. Sam and Meredith as main characters are sweet and as Sam's original dating algorithm promises, perfect for each other. Their love and care of each other is well described and the reader roots for them to make a go of RePose. By allowing the reader to see the secondary characters' relationships with their deceased loved ones, they are remarkably well defined and provided with just enough back story to be interesting to read about. The novel as a whole is heartbreaking but beautiful and will certainly make you think about how far you'd go to "see" and "talk" to your loved ones after their death, whether the ability to recreate a virtual reality loved one with characteristics almost indistinguishable from the living person is a positive or a negative, the path that grief sends us all down at one time or another, and how, in the end, to go on living after a terrible loss.
    • 5/5
      When Sam Elling creates an algorithm for the internet dating company that employs him that matches people with their soul mates, two things happen: he gets fired and he meets his soul mate.The owner of the internet dating company decides that people actually finding their soul mates would end his company, which relies on people continuing to search for that perfect person, so he fires Sam.Sam's algorithm matches him with Meredith, who works in the company's marketing department. We watch as they fall in love and as Sam searches for his next career move. Then Meredith's beloved grandmother dies suddenly, and Meredith is bereft. She spent a lot of time with her grandmother, and all she wants is to talk to her again.Sam can't stand to see Meredith so sad, and he comes up with a crazy idea. He creates an algorithm that goes through the deceased person's emails, video chats and social network messages that allows the deceased person to communicate with loved ones left behind. The caveat: they can only say things that they have actually said in the past, so it is essentially having the same conversations over and over.Initially he does just to make Meredith feel better and it does. But Meredith thinks others could use it to make them feel better too. She convinces Sam to start a business, and Meredith's cousin Dash joins them.Their first customer is Eduardo, whose brother died suddenly in an accident. Eduardo tells his brother that the brother is dead in their first chat, and Sam has found a bug; the dead loved one can't understand that he is dead. The first thing rule has become "Don't tell your loved one he/she is dead", and every single person breaks the rule.The business takes off, and they meet many kind, loving and sad people. Meredith handles the people part of it, Sam the tech part. Things go well, until they get some bad publicity. Questions are raised about the ethics of doing this, and whether they are profiting from other's people tragedies.I read this remarkable book on a plane and I flew through it. A tragedy occurs in the last third of the book, and although it is one that a careful reader will see coming, it is still devastating. I sobbed and read through tears.Frankel has written a novel that asks you to question how much technology is too much, and I guarantee that you will be much more conscious of your social media and email communication after reading it. She has taken something that seems at first so fantastical, yet makes you believe it is possible.The end of the story reinforces your faith in humanity, and the importance of the human connections we make. Facebook friends are nice, but when the chips are down, it is the actual, physical relationships we create with each other that sustain us.I loved the characters, and the story is just beautiful. We have all faced loss; Frankel takes that universal experience and the desire to keep our loved ones with us forever and touches your heart with her moving, emotional novel.
    • 3/5
      Like several of the other reviewers have stated, I wanted to really love this book. It sounds exactly like my type of thing. What could be better than a computer nerd love story? (I won't rehash the plot because you can find that in other reviews better than I can write it.) Unfortunately this one fell flat for me. It was OK. I didn't hate it, but I didn't get involved. I didn't love the characters or feel happy when good things happened or that bad when bad things happened. Also there were a lot of supporting characters that played similar roles and honestly I had a hard time keeping track of who was who. It was disappointing to be so unaffected by this book that I think is based on a brilliant concept. That being said, I would certainly consider reading another novel by Laurie Frankel as I think she has an interesting take on modern society and how we relate to each other.
    • 2/5
      I found this book very depressing. Working in the software industry myself, I initially found the concept-- using a person's online interactions to create a "projection" of them after death--interesting, and the character of Sam pretty realistic. But the more I read, the more I realized how sad this book was, and by the end I just wanted it to be over, so I could move on to a happier story. The writing style itself was a little odd - lots of use of repitition, and long, rambling sentences - and took some getting used to. As the story progressed, and more characters were thrown in the mix, I had a hard time keeping everyone straight, particularly those who were clients of RePose. I didn't see the major plot point coming at all, so the plot did keep me on my toes. But overall, I just found the story sad. I was glad when I finished this book. I think it's time for a light chick lit read.
    • 3/5
      I agree wholeheartedly with the curvymommy's review, she pretty much said what I thought. I also was glad to finish the book and was just depressed at the end. I did enjoy the writing style, though. I think this book would be more enjoyable to those in their 20's and 30's than those 60+ (my age group). The author is young and has written from a young viewpoint about things that she can't really understand yet. I had no problems with the younger main characters, but the older ones made me unpleasantly sad. I, too, had to go with some fluffy chick lit after this one just for attitude adjustment.
    • 4/5
      I thought that the entire premise for this book was interesting and innovative. Sam is a computer genius who is fired for doing too good of a job developing a dating algorithm that quickly finds the perfect match for an online dating company. While unemployed, he develops an algorithm to help his girlfriend work through the grief of the death of her grandmother. Sam and his friends and family decide to market the software, which interacts with people like it is their departed loved one DLO. Although it is about grief and human interaction, It is presented in a light and funny way. The characters are wonderfully developed and raise many interesting questions about life and love. Well worth the read!Reader received a galley copy from Library Thing Early Reviewers program.
    • 4/5
      As Laurie Frankel's GOODBYE FOR NOW begins, Sam Elling is a programmer for an internet dating site who creates a way to match people with their soul mates. He finds his own perfect partner in Meredith, and his program is wildly successful -- and so he is fired because the company is losing customers as they are hooked up with their soul mates and no longer need the service.When Livvie, Meredith's much-loved grandmother, dies, Sam creates an algorithm to bring her back through e-mails and video chats so that Meredith won't be so sad. His labor of love is so successful, the couple decides to create a business that will bring the ability to communicate with the dead to others who are mourning. What follows is a thought-provoking, funny, sob-fest of a story that I struggled to put down and will miss now that I've finished it.As one would expect, Absence (it seems to require a capital A) is a major theme in the book. Sam says early on in the story, "Absent is less absent than it used to be," and contemplating the role of technology in our communications, our relationships, and even in death will keep your mind churning while you immerse yourself in the story of Sam and Meredith, and their friends, family members, and customers. I highly recommend this book and I look forward to reading more by the author.**I was provided an Advance Reader Copy of this book through LibraryThing, and I was not paid to do this review.**
    • 4/5
      When I first began reading Goodbye for Now, I had very high hopes. The concept was so unique and intriguing. As I got further into it though, I found myself sort of bored. It wasn't that I disliked the characters. It wasn't that I hated the concept...I won't get into the story line itself as there are already a few reviews here that have done that, and it's easy to see how different it is. It's just that it failed to really grab me. I kept waiting for that moment to come, and it just never did. At some points I felt like I just wanted it to speed up and get through some of the less interesting parts of the story. I also kept waiting to really feel something, but the book was almost narrated like a news story is supposed to be - reporting facts and not the feeling behind them. You are told that Merde (that does make me giggle) had a hard time getting over her loss, but do you really ever see it? Can you really feel her pain or are you just told she feels it? I personally find myself more connected to novels that make me feel what the characters are feeling.Overall, though, I'd recommend it. I think there are a lot of people out there that WOULD get sucked in, it just wasn't really for me. Laurie Frankel is an author I've never read before, and I will give her another try.
    • 5/5
      This book is both hilarious and heartbreaking at the same time. Frankel has a crisp writing style and wonderful sense of humor and irony. If it wasn't for the dark, dry humor this would be an awfully depressing book. It is pretty much all about death and grieving after all.Goodbye For Now raises so many thought-provoking questions in today's social media age. Is chatting and emailing with a DLO (Departed Loved One) that much different from having purely electronic relationships with living people? Should RePose be used just for the short-term as a crutch in the grieving process? Or should it be used long-term as a means of honoring the DLO's memory? Is using it long-term just prolonging the denial stage of grief - perhaps forever?I'm not sure of the answer to any of these questions but I do know that I enjoyed this book immensely.
    • 5/5
      What a beautiful book. I already know that this is one that will stay with me for a very long time. Sam is a computer programmer who is fired from a dating service when the algorithm he's written to match people with their perfect mate works too well and starts losing the company business, but not before it's found him his own perfect match, Meredith. However, soon after, Meredith's grandmother dies and Sam invents an algorithm to bring her back, analyzing her electronic correspondence. The ramifications of this, dealing with grief and how social media might be able to help people heal constitute the theme of the book. With clever, witty dialogue and very real and genuine characters, this was entertaining to read, despite the somewhat depressing subject matter. In the end, a very hopeful and poignant book.
    • 4/5
      Sam is a very talented software engineer working for an online dating company when he is asked to create an algorithm that matches people with their perfect mate. He does so and is promptly fired because all of the company's profits were in people coming back for more dates. Before he was let go though, he tried it on himself and he meets his soul mate, Meredith.Soon after they meet Meredith's beloved grandmother Livvie dies and she is bereft. Sam doesn't like seeing her that way so he puts his brilliance to work to design another algorithm that seemingly recreates Livvie. Meredith can email her and video chat as long as she stays with subjects they had previously discussed.Meredith's cousin Dash sees possibilities in the program so they the three of them create a business called RePose where people can commune with their Dead Loved Ones. But they find that mourning WITH the dead is not as simple as it might seem.This book is unique in topic and tone. It also takes on the topic that most people are most afraid to discuss and presents an open discussion about death in a rather amusing manner. In truth, I find the concept of RePose truly creepy but perhaps it's my age. I was not born in the time of the computer. Death and dying are facts of life and trying to ignore them doesn't help. The writing is sharp and the characters are all well developed and you really start to care for them.
    • 4/5
      I was excited to read my first Laurie Frankel novel. The beginning dove right in to the story, as outlined in the synopsis on the back. There were a lot of asides in parenthesis, which I thought was alot. That said, it definitely would make a great book group selection. Lots of things for people to talk about.
    • 5/5
      Sam works at an online matchmaking site, but he's hopeless at finding the right date for himself. When he writes an algorithm for determining the perfect match, it works so well he gets fired: a dating site doesn't make money if its clients find their match immediately! When Sam runs the algorithm for himself, though, he does find his perfect woman, Meredith. After Meredith's beloved grandmother dies, she's devastated. Sam, now unemployed, spends his time tweaking his program until he creates a system that allows users to communicate with the deceased through email and simulated video chats. Meredith is soothed to no end by the contact with her grandmother, so naturally the concept is taken to the next step and introduced to the public. Summary BPLThis one is on everyone's BEST FICTION OF 2012 list, including mine! It's a roller-coaster ride of true love, true loss, social--real and virtual--networking, algorithms to produce interactive projections of DLOs (dead loved one) and intergenerational community. Intelligently funny, sometimes scaldingly sad, Goodbye for Now asks questions about how social media might propel the evolution of human response to loss and death and concomitant moral concerns. I gobbled it up! Find myself thinking of a film adaptation--I'm not ready to let the story go--but could the producers resist stereotyping the characters: the sassy gay friend; the dotty old lady upstairs; the arty-smarty parents? WARNING Not suitable for the recently bereaved.8.5 out of 10 For fans of smart but not vapid contemporary fiction, funny and true enough to get the reader thinking....
    • 4/5
      Laurie Frankel's Goodbye for now is a beautiful and heartbreaking love story for the techno times we are living in nowSam works at an Internet dating site and still has not found the girl of his dreams. He decides to invent a program that matches people with their soul mates. The program works so well he finds his soul mate Meredith and together they invent a new & futuristic computer company and with Meredith's dead grandma (or is she?) fun and quirky family members, friends and neighbors this is a wonderful read. Throughout the book I was asking myself the same questions the characterswere, how far would you go for your loved one? how far should you go? what is real and what is just imagined? In the end I believed,like Meredith and everyone else, that Sam did good...and I cried.Laurie, you can tell your mama that this "grandchild" is definitely worth bragging about!...:)
    • 4/5
      If my husband died, would I want someone to create a program for me so I could talk to him via video chat or email, even in death? I'm not sure about the answer to that question, but that is how Sam's service works. Now mind you, you are not REALLY talking to your loved one, but an algorithm that puts together all of the past video chats and emails the person had online and compiles them into an avatar. So while it really LOOKS like your husband, it's just a computer program. But still. That would be a pretty cool thing to have.But here's the thing. If my husband died, and I talked to him every day, how would I get over the loss of him? How would I move on with my life? Would I ever? Or would I spend all my time indoors, in front of the computer, talking to him? I might lose my friends, my job, MY LIFE. It's kind of an ethical dilemma. Is this company doing a good thing or a bad thing? Should the dead stay dead? I don't know. And that's what this book does. It makes you think.I am more of an emotional person than most, I think. Please don't be offended by this statement. I'm not trying to compliment myself at all. I actual wish I wasn't. Living would be a lot easier if I cared less about the goings on in my life. So I'm just thinking, something like this program, I think it would really mess me up. Scar me for life. Ruin my sanity. As hard as it is, I think I would want to move on. I would really worry that if I had a program like this, it wouldn't help me at all. It would KEEP me from moving on. Ya know what I mean?Now let's talk about the actual book. I did sort of have an issue with the characters. Because I didn't really love the idea of this program, I never really liked the characters. I didn't think the protagonists were doing a good thing. The author never said that they were either. She sort of left it up to the reader to decide, and I completely appreciate that and applaud that good writing decision. But still, it made me not get as close to the characters as I could have. I am totally okay with unlikable characters in books as long as I liked the story, and in this case I did.That brings me to my next topic. The story. It was amazing. I mean seriously. So original and unique. The dialogue is fantastic and the book is extremely well-written. While I normally don't read books like this, I was really interested in the blurb. And I won a copy, so I went for it. And honestly? It was a fantastic idea, and it was executed brilliantly. I don't know what else to say without spoiling things, but if the blurb interests you AND you enjoy adult fiction, I think this is a book that you should read. The other thing you should know is that the book is pretty depressing, but there are some moments of humor and scenes in the book that might inspire you. So it's not all sad, but it IS a book about death and dying. So sometimes I had to put it down for a little bit and read something else.There is a twist to this book. And I can see people getting pissed off by said twist. The thing is though, it was entirely necessary. When you get to that part, if you just take a step back to stop and think about it, you will understand why it had to happen. But you will be shocked and that's all I am saying. I could have gotten mad, and normally something like that would make me throw things, but I understand where the author was coming from and to me, there was only one way this book could wrap up. The author did the right thing.All in all, I think this book is going to be a huge hit. I know I rambled for paragraphs about absolutely nothing, but whatever. The movie rights for this book have already been sold and normally there is a good reason for that. Not always, cough *Beautiful Disaster and 50 Shades* cough, but this should be a good one. It's a beautiful book that will make you think, even if I didn't agree with the message all the time.
    • 2/5
      I found this book very depressing. Working in the software industry myself, I initially found the concept-- using a person's online interactions to create a "projection" of them after death--interesting, and the character of Sam pretty realistic. But the more I read, the more I realized how sad this book was, and by the end I just wanted it to be over, so I could move on to a happier story. The writing style itself was a little odd - lots of use of repitition, and long, rambling sentences - and took some getting used to. As the story progressed, and more characters were thrown in the mix, I had a hard time keeping everyone straight, particularly those who were clients of RePose. I didn't see the major plot point coming at all, so the plot did keep me on my toes. But overall, I just found the story sad. I was glad when I finished this book. I think it's time for a light chick lit read.
    • 4/5
      Sam is a very talented software engineer working for an online dating company when he is asked to create an algorithm that matches people with their perfect mate. He does so and is promptly fired because all of the company's profits were in people coming back for more dates. Before he was let go though, he tried it on himself and he meets his soul mate, Meredith.Soon after they meet Meredith's beloved grandmother Livvie dies and she is bereft. Sam doesn't like seeing her that way so he puts his brilliance to work to design another algorithm that seemingly recreates Livvie. Meredith can email her and video chat as long as she stays with subjects they had previously discussed.Meredith's cousin Dash sees possibilities in the program so they the three of them create a business called RePose where people can commune with their Dead Loved Ones. But they find that mourning WITH the dead is not as simple as it might seem.This book is unique in topic and tone. It also takes on the topic that most people are most afraid to discuss and presents an open discussion about death in a rather amusing manner. In truth, I find the concept of RePose truly creepy but perhaps it's my age. I was not born in the time of the computer. Death and dying are facts of life and trying to ignore them doesn't help. The writing is sharp and the characters are all well developed and you really start to care for them.