But Not for Long: A Novel

by Michelle Wildgen

Hard-shelled, career-minded Greta is the newest and least likely member of a sustainable foods cooperative house in Madison, Wisconsin. Shortly after she joins Karin and Hal in their stately residence near campus, the husband Greta left appears on their porch, drunk, and the reason for her sudden appearance becomes clear. Yet the house members already have plenty to occupy them: a series of summer blackouts has unearthed a disquietude lurking just under the surface for each of the three residents. Gas is dwindling, electricity is unreliable, and the natural world around them is in upheaval. The uneasiness of the environ ment mirrors that of Greta, Hal, and Karin as they each make efforts to resolve their own personal crises. With subtle attunement to the hovering uncertainty affecting each of her characters, Wildgen crafts a story both terrifying and beautiful.

Genres: Fiction

336 pages, Paperback

First published October 13, 2009

About the author

Michelle Wildgen is a writer, editor, and teacher in Madison, Wisconsin. In addition to being an executive editor at the literary journal Tin House, Michelle is the author of the novels Bread and Butter: A Novel (forthcoming from Doubleday), But Not For Long and You’re Not You (both available in paperback from Picador), and the editor of an anthology, Food & Booze: A Tin House Literary Feast (Tin House Books). You’re Not You has been adapted for film, starring Hilary Swank and Emmy Rossum.

Michelle’s nonfiction has included a weekly column on food television as well as individual essays on a wide range of topics: from American Girl doll Rebecca Rubin, Burt Reynolds’ 1970s fan mail, and obscure Wisconsin card games to the craft of writing, fresh mozzarella, deer-hunting for the neophyte, and the number of times one has to endure anaphylactic shock before giving up shellfish for good.

She received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and has taught fiction and nonfiction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Tin House Summer Writers’ Workshop, and the Iowa Summer Writing Festival.

Her fiction, personal essays, and food writing have also appeared in publications including The New York Times, O, the Oprah Magazine, and anthologies such as Naming the World and Other Exercises for the Creative Writer, Dirty Words, Best New American Voices 2004, Best Food Writing 2004 and 2009, Death by Pad Thai and Other Unforgettable Meals, and journals including StoryQuarterly, TriQuarterly, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere.

Awards and honors include a scholarship to Bread Loaf, residency at the Hall Farm Center in Vermont, and the Virginia Faulkner Award for Excellence in Writing from Prairie Schooner.

Reviews

[Lorileinart · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am always awestruck when somebody is able to write a book about absolutely NOTHING and it's still a very good book...it rarely happens anymore.
This is one of those books though.
With very few words Wildgen shares a story about the lives of four people over the span of a few days. The entire book takes place during an extended black out, which even intensifies the languid tone of the book.
Sounds boring. And actually, it is boring.
Yet, I came to know the characters and wanted to know what became of them. Their thoughts were a lot like the everyday thoughts we all have, and sometimes its comforting to know that you are like everyone else on some level.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

A curious book about liberal do-gooders on the edge of the apocalypse. As a liberal do-gooder who is worried about being on the edge of the apocalypse, this is right up my alley. The best part of this book is the way it represents disaster in our lives: something we notice around the edges of our everyday existence, worry about when we get a spare minute, but ultimately am less concerned with then our own personal issues. Wildgen poses a question here that we need to consider: can all of our good intentions, our sustainable-foods co-ops and charity work, survive the destruction of the system they work within? This complicates the simplistic pro/anti-society divide, and suggests that efforts to change the world will be swept away along with the world itself.

Anyway, as far as technical quality of the novel goes Wildgen's not a perfect writer -- she has the irritating tendency to describe what everyone's wearing all the time -- but there are a lot of real moments of beauty here. The characters are well-drawn and realistic, and despite all of my prattling about the apocalypse they are the real core of the story. Our co-op dwellers can sometimes be aggravating, but in the way real people are aggravating, and it's fascinating to spend a couple days in their world.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this quirky book about a group of people that live in a coop on Madison's near east side. It could go along and be a perfectly good book about interesting people, but an added plot twist is a power outage that lasts for three days. In that time period you get to know the people that live in the coop and follow them to work. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the characters and how they dealt with perversity and people around them. Michelle Wildgen is the presenting author at this year's Book Club Cafe for the Madison Public Library. I think it will be great to hear her speak.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

The story takes place in Madison again, there's been gasoline shortages, power failures...sounds like it could be a pretty modern day story. The power goes out again and instead of it coming back on in a few hours, it's out for 3 days+ in the story.

After reading You're Not You, I was expecting a lot more. I didn't really care about any of the characters and their problems. There's too many unanswered questions when the book ends and it seems unfinished. I didn't like it.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a little distracted by the fact that this book is set in Madison since I live in Madison, but that's not Michelle Wildgen's fault -- she lives in Madison, too. Distraction aside, I thought the characters were well drawn and the writing is VERY good. I'm looking forward to reading her other novel.

[Anne Marie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was pleasant until the last page. The ending BLOWS. It was one of those abrupt endings that makes you feel as if a few pages were torn out of the back of the book. I think the author was trying to carry some symbolism through the book and have it culminate with a realization at the end. It did not work. At. All.

[Connie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The way a city works stops working. The way relationships work within this malfunctioning city is why I rated this book amazing. Place and people mirror each other. They patch up as similarly as they fall apart. Something strong holds it together, basic necessities and unspoken essentials of human spirit.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Life Goes On As Society Falls Apart

I review Michelle Wildgen's "But Not For Long" today, Sunday, December 20th, in The News & Observer.

http://www.newsobserver.com/entertain...

Joe

[Darielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was ok. It took me a long time to get into it and then after I did, the book ended and I felt like I was exactly where I was when I started. It appears that they are making a movie out of this book and I'm very confused how that will work. Not something that I'd recommend.

[Jen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't finish this one and I'm not sure why. As a Madison native, I really wanted to like it. I think I had a hard time getting to know the characters.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved her first book You're Not You, and so far this one is just as wonderful.

[Savannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book slow-paced and boring at first, and the characters a bit irritating as I waited for their redeeming qualities to be rolled out. It grew on me because I enjoy the writing style. The author’s pointed descriptions of mundane and monotonous people, places, and things allowed me to envision the story clearly and guess at different undertones to each character’s relationship with one another.

I noticed several grammatical errors as well that would have been easily fixable. Some areas really lacked sentence structure variation while other areas excelled in that. Overall splendid writing and I applaud the author for keeping me interested enough to finish a 300 page story about a group of average, boring people experiencing a couple of unexciting, but rather curious, events over the course of less than a week.

[Lorraine Schuchart · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have the greatest admiration for authors and hate to give less than 3 stars, however, But Not for Long was not for me.

There were some lovely passages in this book but they weren't enough to carry this story about three roommates on the verge of (possibly) the end of the world.

The plot languished as page after page described things in painful detail. The characters were only slightly of interest and the most interesting was Will, Greta's estranged, alcoholic husband.

I would love to understand what Michelle Wildgen was trying to say and I'd love to know what the ending, if you could call it that, meant—if anything.

[Ralf Klotz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well written, but a very incoherent story. Basically a dumb book

[Michelle Carson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Slow! Where did the plot go?

[Marcia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Michelle Wildgen is a Madison author. The book has all the familiar streets, lakes and places. This brought more interest to the book for me. The story also brings in the long standing Eastside vs. Westside living debate that has long been a subject of conversation in Madison. The storyline follows three people living in a co-op during a prolonged power outage. Karin is the youngest in the house. She write for a dairy journal. Greta recently moved in the co-op after leaving her alcoholic husband Will. The third person is Hal. Hal finds himself at a time in his life where he is working at a food shelter/meal delivery place and realizing that he is not going anywhere and no longer young and idealistic about the world . He has not saved for retirement. He seems to not be sure he is satisfied with his life.
I would say the book started out very strong for me. The author gave me a sense of all the characters. The power outage effect on people seemed to be that it threw everyone off from normal every day life. This seemed to bring out questioning in each character. But, toward the end, the book was dragging for me. The alcoholic husband became more of a central focus. This did not keep my interest and I wished for more of the other characters to take center stage at the end.
I think most Madison readers and maybe others would enjoy reading the book. It is a different plot line and I always enjoy reading something a little different.

[Marvin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of those books that's probably better than my rating indicates. I admired it but it didn't really work for me. It's set in Madison, Wisconsin, over a period of just two days, with what seems to be a very promising premise. There are lots of apocalyptic novels that start after some vague event has resulted in primitive conditions for the novel's characters. This is a more likely premise. After a vaguely ominous opening scene that hovers in the background of the novel, the power goes out, as it apparently has been doing increasingly. But this time it doesn't come back on in a couple of hours, as it usually does, and the characters gradually try to come to terms with the possibility that this is the new normal. And this is a very introspective novel focused on the inner lives of four main characters: 3 residents of a co-op house (1 male & 2 females) and the estranged, alcoholic husband of one of them. What's odd is that the introspection rarely connects with the two ominous backdrops (the opening scene or the power crisis), giving the novel an oddly disjointed feel. And despite all the introspection, I never really felt like I got to know the characters very well. It is well written, however, and the vaguely hopeful ending nicely balances the vaguely ominous opening.

[Pumpkin+Bear · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've gotten out of the habit of reading fiction that is at all experimental, and so on the last page of this book, I was all, "But what happens NEXT? You're not FINISHED!!!" Many intriguing and ominous things happen throughout this book--Has our society finally tipped the balance back into the Dark Ages? Is our delicate ecological balance collapsing? Are the zombies about to invade?--none of which is at all explored, only mentioned or experienced or wondered at.

It's because, of course, our main characters can't get their heads out of their own asses long enough to look around them--remind you of anyone you know? The world could be collapsing around them, the bureaucracy's silence is outrageous, and yet??? Let's have some more introspection!!! What should I really be doing with my life? Where should my relationships lie? What is my place in my little community?

It's the dark side of the ecological-minded, the shallow side of sustainability--these characters have spent so much energy examining everything in the minute, looking for their local ingredients and debating the environmental impact of the cheese that they buy and living in co-op housing communities that they can't manage to just look up.

Even at the end of the world.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing is very strong.

The book is very, very dark.

And, there were some plain old weird parts:
"Greta felt the work of her throat in great detail: it's glottal effort, the pulse of muscle, the wet contractions, like a python's, trying to ease the burden along. She felt the ragged edges of the crust against her flesh" (219).

And, that is just two sentences of 9 paragraphs of choking on a piece of bread and gentle receiving the Heimlich maneuver. Perhaps it was a bit too much information for me.

However, one reviewer said this: A leitmotif of asphyxia runs through the book, symbolic of society's sense of airlessness: A man drowns, Karin hyperventilates, Greta chokes on bread, and Will passes out from drinking. (News and Observer 12/20)


One other thing to be prepared for is that the book is a character study. Plot is not the focus, and much is left hanging.

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main characters of the book are the members of a housing co-op focused on sustainable food. This is the sort of person I frequently meet in life (I live in Berkeley), but rarely in literature, so I liked that. Characterization is Wildgen's strong point: Hal, Greta and Karin are complex and convincing, and there are some keen insights into relationships. There's also some gorgeous prose, together with a few clunky patches. Plot is less skillfully handled; there are some very slow sections, especially in the middle. The ending is odd and metaphorical--it didn't sit well with me initially, but then I "got" it and it's been growing on me ever since. A final note: The book is set in what at first seems to be the present, but the power blackout that initially strikes the reader as transitory continues in an ominous way. The book addresses some of the fears I sometimes have for our planet, and I think that's a good thing--I wish more novels did that.

[Anji Beane · Rating 1 out of 5]

I won this book as a goodreads first reads. I was excited to read it and I thought I'd really like it. I didn't. I felt like I was waiting for something to happen, and then the book was done and I didn't know what it was about at all. I was disappointed in the lack of a story. Things that seemed like they were part of a story that was supposed to happen never ended up amounting to anything, which was frustrating and confusing, as I felt like it could have been a decent book if any of the loose ends had been tied up. I struggled over whether to give more than one star, because it did keep my interest enough to finish reading it to see if it ended up going anywhere, but I was so frustrated about the whole thing that I couldn't bring myself to. I'd consider, however, reading other books by this author, who did emphasize the characters and their personalities well.

[K · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a copy of But Not for Long through GoodReads.com’s FirstReads giveaway program. The last book I won through the program was A Girl Named Mister by Nikki Grimes and I wasn't so impressed, so I was hoping for a breath of fresh air with this one.

One-sentence review: After finishing this book five months ago, I realize that I still don't know what the point was and why I was supposed to care about the characters portrayed.

[Andi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first thing that stood out to me about this book was the importance of its Madison setting. The name-dropping of streets, bars, and nearby towns might annoy, unless you live (or have lived) in Madison (in which case, you might enjoy it even more!). Set in the near future, it explores the possible implications of an energy crisis. But really it's about the people, most of whom are roommates at a sustainable-foods co-op. Although the plot only covers a few days, you'll learn histories and memories in very natural flash-backs. Only 3 stars because I found the focus on the alcoholic of the group, and his alcoholism, a bit excessive.

[Cathy Lenahan]

But Not for Long is an incredibly interesting story, one that couldn't be more timely. This is a character driven novel--all of them round, layered and believable--but there is also a dark, almost apocalyptic veil over the narrative. This is a world that feels just one click away from our own. To her writerly credit, Wildgen shows great restraint and exactitude in this book, which suits her story. A taut, wonderfully written, satisfying read that will keep you thinking about it long after you put it down.

[Jacquelynn Fritz · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book got good reviews and was the reason I got it from the library, but I don't understand the hype. Its the story of three housemates who live in Madison co-op during a black out. Hal helps run a food pantry. Karin works for a dairy magazine. Gerta, who has left her drunk husband, works as a college fund raiser. The story takes place over a couple of days during the black. The three are in crisis, but there isn't enough there to care about the characters. The book ends without a conclusion to the blackout or their lives.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some extremely beautiful passages, and I very much agree with the reviewer who commented on the writer's ability to illuminate the awkward moments and relationships that abound in the world. Overall, for me, there was too much too much. I was able to notice too easily when there was a flow; which meant that for me there often wasn't a flow. Part of it is because it is set in Madison, where I live, so I get too caught up on that and am not able to dive in the way I do, usually, with a setting that isn't known to me.

[CC · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately mediocre. I had high hopes. I'm always endeared to any of Wildgen's writing because she sets her novels in my city. I recognize the street names, the neighborhood descriptions, and love how the farmer's market is basically a character in each of her novels (accurate, for Madisonians). But this book rang hollow for me. It had its moments, but the characterization was flat. I appreciated the concept - no "real" conflict and resolution, vague sense of apocalyptic foreboding churning the narrative along. But the execution didn't do it for me.

[Claire · Rating 2 out of 5]

It took me ever so long to finish this book. It's set in Madison, WI, which is annoying to me for it's unexplained Madtown nicknames. I am annoyed that I don't have to have them explained to me because I am familiar with Madison--it's provincialism, and it's self-importance. But it's otherwise a book that I would want to read because an energy crisis occurs and several human crises occur, but they feel slow and plodding, adult. Not a permanent library candidate, but worth reading, otherwise I would not have stuck with it for, I don't know, two years?

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although it's set in the city where I live, which I found somewhat distracting, the characters were flawed in interesting ways. I was left somewhat lost by the ending, which I kind of like. There were places where the writing was terrific, and places where it was not that good.

It's an interesting story, in which Madison and the surrounding areas have a several day blackout. Life just gets weird.

[Carol]

Michelle Wildgen will be this year's Book Club Cafe author on May 26. Let me know if you need tickets!

This futuristic and rather unsettling novel is set in Madison, and even mentions Monroe Street several times. The novel's small range of motion is intentional but also somewhat disturbing. Well worth reading for Wildgen's masterful skill at catching the small nuances of character, dialogue and setting.