The Guncle & How Lucky

Reprinted from the Citizen:

February is the month we celebrate Valentine’s Day and love. This month’s Book Report features a few books I loved, but not necessarily books about romantic love.

Steven Rowley’s fantastic novel The Guncle is about Patrick, an actor who made his fame and fortune on a television sitcom a few years back. When the sitcom ended, Patrick left Los Angeles behind and moved to the solitude of Palm Springs away from everyone. 

Patrick’s best friend Sara married his brother Greg, and they had two children, Maisie and Grant. When Sara dies, and Greg has to deal with some troubling issues of his own, Greg asks Patrick to take in Maisie, age 9, and Grant, age 6, for the summer. 

Patrick agrees, and the children go to live with the man they call GUP (Gay Uncle Patrick). He doesn’t know much about caring for children, but he does know about dealing with grief after losing his boyfriend in a car accident a few years ago.

They fall into a routine, riding bikes in the morning, swimming in the pool, having dance parties, going out to eat. Things seem to be going as well as they can until Patrick’s sister Clara comes to town and wants to take the children back to their home in Connecticut. She believes she is better suited to care for the children until their father can come home.

The Guncle is a lovely, heartfelt story with characters you’ll fall in love with. Patrick grows to deeply love the children, and he gives them the sense of security and understanding they need. They in turn open Patrick’s heart up after it was broken in grief. 

Although the story is tinged with sadness, there is humor in it as well. Patrick sprinkles in his ‘Guncle Rules’, like this one: “Guncle Rule number eight: Make the Yuletide gay”, something they did when they put up their Christmas tree in the summer to celebrate the holiday early and left it up all summer.

Patrick also has wise words born of experience. “Grief orbits the heart. Some days the circle is greater. Those are the good days. You have room to move and dance and breathe. Some days the circle is tighter. Those are the hard ones.”

The Guncle is a story about a family lifting each other up and loving each other. You will smile throughout, and tear up at times. The dialogue is wonderful, and I think it would make a terrific movie. 

Will Leitch’s terrific novel How Lucky has a unique protagonist.  Daniel is a 26 year-old man who has SMA (Spinal Muscular Atrophy), a debilitating disease that leaves him unable to speak or move (other than his left hand) and using a wheelchair. He works monitoring a customer service Twitter account for a small regional airline, and lives on his own in the college town of Athens, Georgia. 

His childhood best friend Travis and an immigrant home health aide Marjani help care for him. Everyday Daniel sees a young woman walking down his street on her way to class. One day he sees a car stop and she gets in.

The young woman ends up missing. She is a Chinese student who, like Daniel, has trouble communicating as she doesn’t speak much English. Daniel and Travis contact the police about what Daniel saw, but when a young policeman stops by Daniel’s house, the communication problems cause the policeman not to take Daniel seriously.

Daniel turns to the internet site Reddit to alert a group of students searching for the missing woman. The man in the car sees the Reddit post and responds to Daniel. Daniel keeps in contact with the man, hoping to find out what happened to the missing woman, but it also may be placing himself in danger.

How Lucky is a real page-turner, and some people have compared the premise to the famous  Jimmy Stewart movie Rear Window, which is an apt comparison. The reader also learns what it’s like to live completely dependent on others for day-to-day living.

This book has it all- great characters, a fast-paced story, an interesting setting, a mystery to be solved, and How Lucky is nominated for an Edgar Award for Best Novel. Like The Guncle, Travis, Daniel and Marjani become a family who care for each other.

The Guncle by Steven Rowley- A+

Published by G.P. Putnam & Sons

Hardcover, $27, 336 pages

How Lucky by Will Leitch- A+

Published by Harper

Hardcover, $25.99, 304 pages

Friday 5ive- January 28, 2022

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly post featuring five things that caught my attention this week. We're preparing for a Nor'easter storm here in NYC, we'll see if we get one inch of snow or 8-12 inches of snow. Either way, we have enough wine and books in our apartment to survive.

1)  Everyone is playing the new Internet game sensation Wordle, and so I gave it a try this week. Once a day, a new puzzle is released. You get six chances to guess the 5 letter word of the day (you can only play once a day, which I like). I've only been doing it for four days, and each day I got the word in four tries- until today, I needed all six tries to get the word. You start by guessing a random five-letter word. If a letter is in the correct place, the tile turns green. If the letter is in the word but in the wrong place, the tile turns yellow. If the letter is not in the word at all, the tile turns black. It's a lot of fun and it really makes you use your brain power. You can play or get more information here. This is my Wordle from the other day.

2)  I saw this ad from McDonald's for their new "off the menu" items, specialty items you can ask for that aren't featured on their regular menu. When I saw their Surf 'n Turf- which appears to be a Big Mac with a Filet O' Fish stacked inside- I thought it was a joke. I'm guessing perhaps it was created by someone who had the munchies after smoking something. 

3)  I joined in on two terrific online book events on Wednesday evening. The first was Buzz Books Editors Panel, presented by Publishers Lunch and the American Booksellers Association. Six editors each presented a book they were excited about in a short conversation with the authors. The Buzz Books Editors Panel was always one of my favorite events at the late, lamented Book Expo, and I really like the new addition of hearing from the authors as well. I'm most excited to read Robin Peguero's debut legal thriller With Prejudice from Grand Central Publishing (publishing May 17th) and Take My Hand, a historical fiction from Dolen Perkins-Valdez (publishing April 12th from Berkley).

The second event was William Morrow's Summer Fiction Showcase. Tavia from William Morrow was our delightful host as authors from six novels publishing this summer introduced their books in taped pieces. Interspersed in the event were short messages from popular authors- Christopher Moore, Paul Tremblay, Susan Wiggs and more- who gave us a quick peek at their upcoming books. It was so well done and moved so quickly, they covered a lot of books in a short time. The ones I am most intrigued by are Shirlene Obuobi's On Rotation, (publishing June 21st) a novel about a Black female medical resident in Chicago, and Kirsten Miller's The Change, (publishing May 3rd) a "feel-good feminist revenge fantasy". You can watch the presentation on William Morrow's Crowdcast channel here. My To-Be-Read list expanded exponentially this week.

4)  We watched the first part of season four of Ozark, all seven episodes over the weekend. Things are winding down for the Byrde family, and not in a good way. It's reminding me more and more of Breaking Bad, as these people are in way over their head, and the tension is racheting up moment by moment. I find it interesting that the women are leading the way- Wendy Byrde is very scary, her daughter Charlotte is becoming a mini-version of Mom, Wendy's archenemy Darlene Snell is seriously unhinged, FBI Agent Maya Miller is walking a dangerous line, and Ruth, oh dear, Ruth, what will happen to you? We can't wait for the second part of season four, the end of the story (or do we already know the end???) 

5)  I read three good and very different books this week. My favorite was Steven Rowley's novel 

The Guncle, a sweet story about Patrick, a gay man who opens up his home to his young niece and nephew for the summer after their mother (his best friend from college) dies and their father (his brother) has to go to rehab. Patrick made his fortune as an actor on a hit TV sitcom, and left LA for Palm Springs once the show was over, leaving acting behind. I absolutely loved the characters and the relationship between the children and Patrick.  (His Guncle Rules are delightful.) This book made me smile as I read it, and you can actually feel your heart opening up to bring these characters inside. I hope this becomes a movie, because I heard Dan Levy's voice (Schitt's Creek) as Patrick as I was reading. He would be perfect! This is a truly feel-good book, albeit tinged with some sadness. Kind of like life, right? 

I read a thriller by Adele Parks titled Woman Last Seen. Leigh is married to Mark and stepmum to his two sons. The older son has become surly and angry with her, and Leigh doesn't know why. It hurts her that Mark doesn't defend her to his son. When Leigh fails to return home from work, Mark contacts the police. At the same time, a woman named Kai, who is married to a wealthy Dutch businessman, goes missing as well. DCI Clements is investigating the women's disappearance, which she believes may be connected even if her boss thinks both women are runaways. This book has a huge twist in the middle that shakes up the whole story. My full review publishes on Sunday. 

The third book I read was Brenda Janowitz's fascinating family story The Liz Taylor Ring. When a young Lizzie marries her sister's former boyfriend Ritchie (against her parents' better judgement), they have their ups and downs, and Ritchie doesn't seem to be able to keep a job. When Lizzie and Ritchie separate and reunite after nine months, Ritchie gifts Lizzie with a huge diamond ring like the one Richard Burton gave Liz Taylor after their separation. The ring resurfaces after the death of Ritchie many years later and that causes their three children- Addy, Nathan and Courtney- to fight over what to do with the ring. This is a wonderful family story, a love story between Lizzie and Ritchie, and there is much here that people will be able to relate to- sibling relationships, parental loss, and issues of addiction. My full review publishes Monday. 

 

Stay safe and warm everyone.