I’ll Take You There

I’ll Take You There returns to Felix Funicello, the same character introduced in Wishin’ and Hopin’, but this time he is an adult looking back while also being pulled into an unusual collision between past and present. The novella centers on Felix in middle age, still marked by memory, regret, and the unfinished emotional business of earlier years. Rather than unfolding as a straightforward realist drama, the book uses a more playful and reflective premise, giving Felix a chance to revisit the people and versions of himself that helped shape his life.

What makes the premise distinctive is that Wally Lamb blends nostalgia, longing, and self-reckoning with a lighter speculative touch. The story is less about external plot mechanics than about memory, identity, and the wish to understand one’s younger self from the distance of adulthood. That gives the novella a more intimate and inward feel than Lamb’s larger family sagas, while still carrying the warmth, humor, and emotional unease that run through much of his fiction.

At its core, I’ll Take You There is about revisitation in every sense: to old feelings, old selves, and the private stories people keep telling about who they were and who they became. As a shorter work, it reads more like a character-centered meditation with a whimsical edge than a broad, plot-heavy novel, with Felix once again providing the emotional center.

Check Price on Amazon