My Ex-Life
A Novel
فرمت کتاب
audiobook
تاریخ انتشار
2018
نویسنده
George Newbernناشر
Macmillan Audioشابک
9781427296160
کتاب های مرتبط
- اطلاعات
- نقد و بررسی
- دیدگاه کاربران
نقد و بررسی
June 18, 2018
The wry, bittersweet seventh novel by McCauley (The Object of My Affection) transports its hero into the life that might have been his if things had turned out differently. Fifty-something David Hedges, who makes an adequate living in San Francisco coaching the children of wealthy parents through the college application process, has recently been dumped by his boyfriend, and the cheap apartment he rents is up for sale. So when Julie Fiske, to whom he was briefly married before he came to terms with being gay, asks him to join her at her sprawling, decaying house in a seaside town north of Boston to get her unmotivated daughter, Mandy, in shape for her senior year in high school, he gladly accepts. Plot isn’t McCauley’s strong point: Most readers will see every twist coming, and a subplot involving Mandy’s involvement with a local creep who drives around in a van hitting on teenaged girls has an after-school special feel. It’s the author’s confused but lovable characters, and his plentiful one-liners—like David’s recognition that he “had rarely worked with a parent who did not describe her child as ‘gifted’ ”—that provide the charm. This comedy of manners is a summery confection tinged with awareness of a coming autumn.
Narrator George Newbern eloquently embodies the voice of a man at a midlife crossroads. In McCauley's entertaining audiobook, David and Julie reconnect years after their short marriage ended following a miscarriage and David's discovery of being gay. Julie is now going through another divorce, and her estranged husband is planning to sell their New England home despite Julie's reliance on the property for income as a bed-and-breakfast. David and Julie reconnect over Julie's daughter, Mandy, who needs assistance preparing college applications. Newbern's tone is skillfully timed for subtle humor and thoughtful wisdom. He hits just the right notes as multiple characters face major decisions in their lives. S.P.C. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
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