A Grand Day to Get Lost is a well-written book that I thoroughly enjoyed. It had elements that made me want to jump up and get on with life and other elements that made me say, “You’ve got to be kidding!” 

The story revolves around a divorced, middle-aged librarian from Ohio who is delivering her elderly aunt somewhere in Florida and take a turn that isn’t on the map.  She ends up on some back roads, sees an estate sale and decides to take a look.  Her acquisition of a few boxes of documents changes her life. 

The documents seem to be a manuscript from the author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Yearling.  One problem, the document was written after her death.  This leads her on all kinds of adventures to find the answer to this puzzle.  She meets some fascinating characters living in rural Florida who were in Rawlings’ world and have amazing life stories of their own.  This is where the inspiring part comes in.  Many of them do make you feel that life is for the taking and I need to get out from behind my computer more and enjoy it.  I really did love that about the book. I love seeing the process of someone re-imagining their life.

The puzzling and “you’ve got to be kidding” aspects of the book came in relation to Rawlings herself.  I’m not a fan of The Yearling.  I didn’t enjoy it so the amount of adulation and sheer hero-worship heaped upon its author seems very unrealistic.  Every time the characters encounter anything she owned or any place she had been they are so overcome with emotion that I just want to slap them.  I understand being fans of an author but this was so over the top that it really distracted from the story.  She wrote a good book, she didn’t cure cancer or solve world hunger and even if she did, should sitting on her back porch send adult, intelligent women into such paroxysms of delight, completely giddy?  I think it would be cool to see where Agatha Christie lived but that’s it.  Just cool.  Not life-changing.

It’s a good read.  It’s very well-written.  It’s a good use of your time.  Just be prepared for the over-the-top adulation of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.

I received this book through the Goodreads giveaway program and I gave it an honest review.