Page Getz Delivers Frank Capra for the 21th Century in Goodnight, Kansas

A Town with Half the Lights On by Page Getz

Page Getz just may have added another volume to the ongoing quest for the Great American Novel.

Can a fish-out-of-water save a polluted lake — and an entire community?

Given their long gestation time, it’s stunning how some novels feel preordained to speak to the moment in which they’re published. A Town with Half the Lights On by Page Getz truly is one such book. Which is ironic given that it takes place in 2003, but the quirky, engaging and often maddening town portrayed in the book — Goodnight, Kansas — is a microcosm of the America we find ourselves in right now.

Using a smaller setting to represent a larger whole as a kind of geographic synecdoche isn’t new. Everything from madhouses to boarding schools to tropical islands have been employed as devices. Getz uses the town of Goodnight to open our eyes not only to what separates us, but also to what binds us, and shows us how even the most disagreeable among us are part of our own fabric and, if motivated enough, can still come together for the common good.

An Epistolary Kansas Tale

At first glance, this epistolary novel is a fish-out-of-water story. Sid Solvang is a Jewish chef whose mad dreams of culinary glory have run his family’s deli into the ground. His only recourse is to follow Scarlett, his Kansas-born wife, back to her hometown with their teenage daughter in tow to lick his wounds and plot how to get back to their beloved Brooklyn. Fortunately, Scarlett just inherited the farm of her late, estranged father. Unfortunately, the house is infested with neglect and alpacas, the property is packed with the detritus from a lifetime of hoarding and the townspeople insist the lake will give you the flu.

Sid is immediately tagged as a heathen, and no one knows what to make of his daughter, Harlem, with her odd name, combat boots and shorn head. One person notices that Harlem’s surface is all show and, in reality, she’s a mild-mannered, straight-A student. Disco Kennedy, renowned for her big mouth and adoration of glitter, immediately becomes Harlem’s best friend. The two bond over their conviction that Harlem’s grandfather, the deceased Pop Bannister, buried treasure on the property.

The Allure of Buried Treasure

As the girls hunt for the missing loot, Sid sulks and builds birdhouses, and Scarlett bakes loaf after loaf of bread, only coming up for air to beg her estranged sisters to come for Sunday dinner. There are no jobs to be had. The town’s main employer, Goodnight American Tire Company, isn’t hiring — in fact, it’s still laying off workers — and the buffet in the wealthier town down the road won’t even hire the former culinary superstar to mop floors. 

When no treasure is unearthed, Disco decides that digging and cutting lawns isn’t going to allow her to save the town’s May Day Diner, a beloved institution despite being little more than a truck stop with excellent biscuits. She turns to Sid and Scarlett and begs them to prevent the May Day from being turned into another Burger King. And the catalyst for change is set in motion.

Radiant and Inspiring American Novel

There are echoes of a classic Frank Capra film about Goodnight. Like Capra’s movies, this is not a cheery fairy tale, but rather a gritty, profound, resilient and deeply compassionate portrait of American life — a Capra-esque portrayal for the 21st century. The folks of Goodnight don’t agree on much, don’t trust outsiders and are having trouble facing the truth about what their leaders are doing to them. But as Sid proves his devotion by holding the line and coming through for them time and time again, others start to emulate him and fire up the town to stand together against their oppressors.

This radiant and hope-inspiring novel is made even more remarkable by how the author used a multitude of styles of modern communication to tell her story without once relying on conventional narrative. Page Getz just may have added another volume to the ongoing quest for the Great American Novel.