“When you’re young, and you head out to wonderful, everything is fresh and bright as a brand new penny, but before you get to wonderful you’re going to have to go through all right. And when you get to all right, stop and take a good long look, because that may be as far as you’re going to go."

This quote from the book just blew me away. I keep reading it over and over again. It can apply not just to Charlie's trip to Brownsurg but to all of us on life's journey. Really makes you able to deal with the compromises you have to make along the way. Did anybody love this quote as much as I did? :)

Hi Poornima - thanks for such a great quote. You're right, it's so simply expressed but very profound and is certainly worth stopping to contemplate.

So true. All was wonderful, as it should have been, when I was very young. On my way to Wonderful, I, too, have made many compromises and readjustments in life. Great quote.

Things are not always wonderful you are young. In this novel, how wonderful could the past have been if we never learned what Charlie was running from? In my opinion, Charlie compromised his life when he fell in love with something that he couldn't have. It really destroyed everything he had come to love. If anything he was unwilling to compromise and accept the fact that he couldn't have something.

In life many people remain in "All Right" on the way to "Wonderful." Rather reminds me of an old Peggy Lee song which laments the question: Is that all there is?