THE NEW LIFE OF HUGO GARDNER

After his significantly younger wife of 40 years suddenly leaves him for another man, 84-year-old Manhattanite Hugo Gardner searches for answers.

A man of wealth who once was managing editor of Time and who writes books about U.S. presidents, Hugo thought his marriage was a good one, with still-great sex, shared tastes, and a beautiful house in the Hamptons to retreat to. Then his spouse, Valerie, a bestselling food writer, tells him that "living with you is like living with a corpse." And his daughter, Barbara, sides with her mother, calling him "unbearably dreary and unbearably selfish" even as she asks for a handout. Only his son, Rod, "a good guy" who's "doing well at his not-quite-top-tier law firm," offers any solace. During a trip to France, Hugo impulsively looks up Jeanne, the Frenchwoman he long ago dumped for Valerie, and gradually enters into a relationship with her. She lives with her dementia-afflicted husband. Hugo has been diagnosed with possible prostate cancer. What could go wrong? Reading like a personal diary, free of quotation marks, the book unfolds with self-effacing charm. Returning to the comfort of domestic fiction following a trio of mysteries (Killer's Choice, 2019, etc.), the 86-year-old Begley turns in a spry, unerringly smooth performance. As self-absorbed as he is, Hugo wins us over with his indefatigability. Lacking a meaningful connection to his personal adventures, the political commentary in the background is mere window dressing. (Engaging in what he would call "tones of persiflage," Hugo calls Trump a "contemptible swine.") But the novel's late-term spirit never flags.

A sharply amusing novel in which an octogenarian pundit rediscovers his past.