A lack of originality torpedoes this fitfully funny romantic comedy.
A comic performer, still single in his 50s, begins a new relationship that challenges his need for space in Ross’ novel.
Randall Burns seems destined to die alone: He’s 56 years old, has never been married, and performs a one-man show entitled “The Chronic Single’s Handbook.” He frequents dodgy massage parlors to pay for sex and has erotic dreams about his stepsister, Harriet. He’s not exactly the most eligible bachelor—he once had a lucrative job as an editor for a magazine, but now he’s trying to make it as a “professional storyteller,” a career unlikely to ensure financial security anytime soon. Still, sparks fly when he meets Jackie Chin-Rosenthal, a Chinese woman raised by a Jewish stepfather. However, she’s not looking for anything romantically causal—she’s been married three times and is unreservedly looking for a fourth try. Randall wonders if he has finally met a woman he can commit to in terms that are lightsome but not terribly funny, much like the novel as a whole (“Could Jackie be the woman I’ve been waiting for? Someone who will think about me, miss me, and pick me up after a colonoscopy? Someone who is always there for me?”). In this largely formulaic comedy, Randall’s “wishy-washy waffling bullshit” wears on the reader as much as its tires Jackie. (“I hate her! I love her!…I don’t know how I feel!”) There is hardly a paragraph in the text without a witticism of some kind being attempted, and some of them are genuinely clever (the comedic hero of the novel is Jackie, who delivers more memorable one-liners than any other character). However, there is nothing fresh here—a novel about an emotionally stunted artist unable to make his peace with monogamy feels like the rehash of a hoary pop-cultural trope. This stale familiarity grows increasingly difficult to endure—despite flashes of comedic vitality, one can’t help but wish this was a short story rather than a full-length novel.
A lack of originality torpedoes this fitfully funny romantic comedy.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A wallowing, emotionally wrenching family drama that leaves little time for romance.
Two people with bad luck in relationships find each other through a popular Reddit thread.
Emma Grant and her best friend, Maddy, are travel nurses, working at hospitals for three-month stints while they see the country. Just a few weeks before they’re set to move to Hawaii, Emma reads a popular “Am I the Asshole” Reddit thread from a Minnesota man who thinks he’s cursed—women he dates find their soulmates after breaking up with him, and the latest one found true love with his best friend! Emma has had a similar experience, which inspires her to DM the man and commiserate. She’s delighted by her witty, lively interactions with software engineer Justin Dahl, and is intrigued when he suggests that if they date each other, maybe they’ll each find their soulmate afterward. Emma upends the Hawaii plan and convinces Maddy to move to Minneapolis for the summer so she can meet Justin in person. The overly complex setup brings Emma and Justin together and the two hit it off, with Justin immediately falling head over heels for Emma. Jimenez then pivots to creating romantic roadblocks and melodramatic subplots centering on each character’s family of origin. Justin’s mother is about to serve six years in prison for embezzlement, which means Justin must move back home to care for his three much younger siblings. Emma was traumatized by her own mother for much of her childhood, left to fend for herself and eventually abandoned in the foster system. When her mother shows up in Minnesota, Emma must face her traumatic childhood and admit that she has prioritized her mother’s well-being over her own. There is little time devoted to Emma’s painful efforts to heal herself enough to accept Justin’s love, which leaves the novel feeling unsatisfying.
A wallowing, emotionally wrenching family drama that leaves little time for romance.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781538704431
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Forever
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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