Fighting Gravity

A recent divorcé limps back into the dating scene in Godin’s lighthearted novel.

Nick Jordan’s life is pretty together—at least on the surface. At 50, he’s kept himself youthful and in good shape. He runs a successful plastic surgery practice out of an antebellum mansion on New Orleans’ St. Charles Avenue, and he drives a BMW convertible. When his wife, Elizabeth, serves him divorce papers, however, Nick’s world quickly comes undone. Drowning his sorrows in bourbon and Percocet, he wakes up to realize he’s wrapped his BMW around a streetlight. Even more embarrassingly, he realizes that, in his drunken haze, he emailed a messy dating profile—which includes several embittered jabs against Elizabeth—to all 3,000 contacts in his address book. And a lot of them have emailed him back. “He was horrified to see that many of the emails were replete with commentary on his dating likes and dislikes, hopes and dreams. People actually thought he had sent it to them on purpose.” With his ego in tatters and his insecurities laid bare, Nick has no choice but to proceed into the chaotic world of dating post-divorce: a minefield of websites, matchmaking services, speed dating events, and awkward first dates. To make matters worse, his practice is starting to suffer for reasons Nick can’t quite pin down. Can he right the ship and end up in better shape than before, or is he destined to be depressed, lonely, and broke? Godin narrates Nick’s adventures in warm, observant prose that captures the indignities of dating in middle age: “What part do you think you played in the demise of your marriage?” one woman asks him minutes into their first date. “I’m sure you have some personal flaws that contributed to it. You need to figure those out, so you can avoid making the same mistakes again.” The book is a tad long at over 400 pages—particularly since Nick’s ultimate romantic interest is tipped so early on—but this gentle, breezy novel has much to offer.

An entertaining novel about second chances in life and love.