Book Review: November Road

This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase through links on my site, I may earn a commission at no cost to you. For more information, please see my disclosure policy.

This book review focuses on Lou Berney’s novel November Road. It is an Anthony Award-winning noir set against the backdrop of the JFK Assassination in November 1963.

Book Summary:

November Road is set against the backdrop of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The plot centers on a cat-and-mouse game across America between shady men in the 1960s.

Frank Guidry is a loyal street lieutenant to New Orleans’ mob boss Carlos Marcello. He has learned that everybody is expendable. Now he figures that it’s his turn. He knows too much about the crime of the century: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Within hours of JFK’s murder, everyone with ties to Marcello turns up dead, and Guidry suspects he’s next. Guidry was in Dallas on an errand for the boss less than two weeks before the president was shot.

With few good options, Guidry heads to Las Vegas to see an old associate, a dangerous man who hates Marcello enough to help Guidry disappear.

Guidry knows that the first rule of running is “don’t stop.” But then he sees a beautiful housewife on the side of the road with a broken-down car. She has two little daughters and a dog in the back seat.

It occurs to him that the hit men will be looking for a single man in a car, not a family and a dog. With this scenario, he sees the perfect disguise to cover his tracks from the hit men on his tail.

Guidry poses as an insurance man and offers to help Charlotte reach her destination in California. If she accompanies him to Vegas, he can help her get a new car, he tells her.

For her, it’s more than a car. It’s about escape. She’s on the run too, from her boring life in small-town Oklahoma and a husband who’s a drunk.

Accidentally Falling in Love:

This is the story of how two strangers meet and share the open road with hope and a dream. And maybe they will find each other on the way.

Charlotte sees that he’s strong and kind; Guidry discovers that she’s smart and funny. He learns that she is determined to give herself and her kids a new life. But Charlotte doesn’t know that he’s desperate to leave his old life behind just as much as she is.

The rule in the mob is that fugitives shouldn’t fall in love, especially with each other. Guidry’s ruthless hunters are closing in on him, he knows. But now, Guidry suddenly discovers that he doesn’t want to just survive; he wants to see what it’s like to really live. Perhaps for the first time in his life.

He knows that the rule in his world is that when you’re running, you can’t stop. But then something happens that causes him to do just that. He falls in love. Guidry finds that he just can’t throw away the woman he’s come to love.

But Frank and Charlotte’s newfound feelings about one another might get them both killed.

My Review:

I really enjoyed this book and loved the characters.

This author has a way of making his characters seem very real and multifaceted. He creates situations where there are two sides to every person’s story.

There are good actors and bad actors. The people in this book have complex personalities and backgrounds. And I somehow felt sorry for all of them in one way or another.

Sometimes we are victims of circumstances, and sometimes we create those circumstances. Often, we find ourselves in a situation we can’t easily get out of.

It was interesting to see the transformation of a man who loves no one but himself, suddenly discover that he can actually love someone else.

About The Author:

Lou Berney is the author of November Road, The Long and Faraway Gone (winner of the Edgar, Anthony, Barry, Macavity, and ALA awards), Whiplash River, and Gutshot Straight, all from William Morrow.

He’s also written a collection of stories, The Road to Bobby Joe, and his short fiction has appeared in publications such as The New Yorker, Ploughshares, and the Pushcart Prize anthology.

He teaches in the MFA program at Oklahoma City University.