One of the most beloved novels from the critically acclaimed novelist Laurie Colwin, Goodbye Without Leaving explores a woman&;s attempts to reconcile her rock-and-roll past with her significantly more sedate family life as a wife and mother.As a bored graduate student, Geraldine Coleshares is plucked from her too-tame existence when she is invited to tour as the only white backup singer for Vernon and Ruby Shakely and the Shakettes. The exciting years she spends as a Shakette are a mixed blessing, however, because when she ultimately submits to a conventional life of marriage and children, she finds herself stuck in bittersweet recollections of life on the road. As she grudgingly searches for a path toward happiness that doesn't involve a Day-Glo neon minidress, readers will be enchanted by Geraldine&;s attempts to grow up, even though she&;s already an adult. Employing Colwin&;s usual dry wit and candor, Goodbye Without Leaving is a classic novel from the writer hailed as &;ingenious, comic, and spirited&; by the Boston Globe and &;a writer of originality and vision" by the San Francisco Chronicle.