TITLE: The Good Luck of Right Now
AUTHOR: Matthew Quick
GENRE: General Fiction
PUBLISHED: February 11, 2014
RATING: ★ ★ ★ ★
PURCHASE LINKS: Amazon.com
MOBILISM LINK: Mobilism
Description: Bartholomew Neil is thirty-eight and lost. He’s lived his whole life, up till a few weeks ago, with his devoted mum, but now she has died. Bartholomew has no idea how to be on his own. His grief counselor, Wendy, says he needs to find his flock and leave the nest. But how does a man whose whole life has been grounded learn how to fly?
So Bartholomew turns to Richard Gere, the man his mum adored from afar, in the hope he can offer some answers. In Bartholomew’s letters to Richard Gere he explores philosophy and friendship, alien abduction and the mystery of women. The letters also reveal his heart-breaking need of a family, but when Bartholomew does manage to assemble a motley family of sorts, he seems to have taken on more than he bargained for.
Review: My first two reviews this month were the darker side of literary fiction. Reading those books took a lot of energy, both to understand the literary references and on the emotions evoked by reading the books. But that is not the case with this book, my friends - this is a feel-good book, a happy book, a simple book and yes, a somewhat cheesy book. For those who are unsure of what I mean, Urban Dictionary has a good definition for cheesy in this context. In my opinion, the great majority of romance and erotica are cheesy. Still after a run of serious novels, sometimes this is just what I needed.
The Good Luck of Right Now is an epistolary novel: written in the form of letters to the actor, Richard Gere. At first, it sounds weird but when you start reading for awhile you will see why this approach was chosen. I have read some other books written in this fashion, namely Incendiary by Chris Cleave - which novel I loved - and some I didn't like so much, namely Dear American Airlines by Jonathan Miles. The narrator of The Good Luck of Right Now, Bartholomew, lives with his mother until her death (which is where the book begins).
Richard Gere was his mother's favorite actor, and the letters begin like this:
“She pretended I was you, Richard Gere. I pretended Mom wasn’t losing her mind. I pretended she wasn’t going to die. I pretended I wouldn’t have to figure out life without her.”
This author, Matthew Quick, also wrote The Silver Linings Playbook so he seems to really like to write about odd, quirky, mentally ill, disabled, suicidal, depressive, bipolar, autistic, etc people. But unlike a lot of other situations where these people can be highly annoying, in his books, the people are adorable. Even the annoying ones do it in an adorable way.
Matthew Quick's characters aren't ones you see everyday. Most of them manage to both be complete oddballs, yet they all are strangely likable and wise in their own ways. The main character of this book is no exception. Bartholomew is an odd guy, he seems to be on the spectrum somewhere, not dumb really, just quirky. He lived with his mom his whole life, and now he is 38. He has no idea how his bills are paid, and how they continue to be paid even though he doesn't have a job. We find out how this is at the end of the book when it is explained in detail, but no matter. Father McNamee is his priest, a continuing presence in his life since he was born. Wendy is his therapist, who has problems of her own. Max is a colorful man he meets in group therapy, Elizabeth (or as he calls her "Girlibrarian") is Max's sister and the girl Bartholomew has had a crush on for a long time.
Like most savants, Bartholomew tends to come up with some oddly profound moments, like when says things like,
or when he muses"Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.”
"I wondered if faith were not a form of pretending."
In this book you will find a drunken bipolar defrocked priest, a quiet suicidal girl, a woman beat up by her boyfriend, an odd autistic guy, a weird inappropriately profane guy (with Tourette's?) who says the word fuck at least once in every sentence (to the point I was wishing the author had simply abbreviated it after awhile), a pilgrimage to Canada, a search for a biological father and a lot of other interesting stuff. For instance, did you know in Canada, there was an area (now closed) where stray cats gather and people fed them and provided them shelter? Max's dream is to go there, thus part of the reason for their pilgrimage to Canada. You can read about the inspiration for this concept here: Canadian Parliamentary Cats.
Although you will find profanity, what you will not find - absolutely no sex or nudity whatso-effing-ever (as Max would say). In fact, Bartholomew is a 38 yr old virgin. His life's goal (fulfilled in the book) is to have a drink with a girl in a bar. He next goal (at book's end) is to hold hands with Elizabeth. As weird as this would be in real life, somehow in the pages of this book it is sweet.
I really liked this book. When I first finished it, I rated it 5 stars. But then I realized, just like food, cheese can make everything taste better, and this book was no exception. Once I shoveled through the cheese, I realized the writing was not worth the 5 stars. So I will award 4 stars for the story, the vibrant characters, and the accomplishment of making me care about and understand each of its many diverse and quirky characters.
P.S. This is a genre which I like to read to lighten things up occasionally after slogging through some heavy reading. If you enjoy this genre too, there are some other similar feel good books about lovable weirdos that I recommend highly: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence, and Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend by Matthew Dicks (all 4 stars). This last one was so cheesy, even I was embarrassed to admit I read it, but I'm being brave and doing it anyway.