Redhead by the Side of the Road

January 13, 2020
A fastidious everyman weathers a spate of relationship stresses in this compassionate, perceptive novel from Tyler (Clock Dance). Micah Mortimer, 43, makes house calls for his Tech Hermit business and moonlights as the superintendent of his Baltimore apartment building, where the residents observe his regimented routine and wonder, through Tyler’s gossip-inflected narration, “Does he ever stop to consider his life?”
The disruptions begin with a call from his schoolteacher girlfriend, Cassia Slade, who is in a panic because she is facing eviction. Then college freshman Brink Adams shows up on his stoop and claims to be his son. Micah knows it isn’t true, because he never slept with Brink’s mother, Lorna, an old girlfriend, but he tolerates the languid, starry-eyed kid who claims to look up to him for living a working-class life and who fixated on a photo of Micah kept by Lorna. After Micah tries to put Brink in touch with Lorna, he disappears. When Cassia dumps him for not immediately offering to let her move in, Micah descends into a funk that just might push him to prove himself worthy of her companionship. While Micah’s cool indifference occasionally feels like a symptom of Tyler’s spare, detached style, his moments of growth bring satisfaction. This quotidian tale of a late bloomer goes down easy. Agent: Jesseca Salky, Salky Literary Management.

Tyler's latest audiobook is a small novel about Micah Mortimer, a bachelor fussbudget in his mid-40s who is reevaluating his life. Although narrator MacLeod Andrews has a tendency to replace commas with periods when introducing dialogue, he gives the diverse cast of characters unique voices. Micah, the youngest child and only son in a family with four older sisters, has a detached tone. He sounds patient with the tenants of the apartment building he manages and with the clients of his Tech Wizard business. Andrews also captures the admiration and amazement of the Travel Gods who live in Micah's head and complement his every move while driving. Brink, the young man who appears at his door thinking Micah is his father, sounds like the floundering, frustrated teenager he is. This is a small novel with a big heart. N.E.M. � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine