Unemployment… the verge of foreclosure… folding newspapers and failing ventures… poetry about the recession, mid-life in middle-class America, and underpants. These motifs are all in this novel, and Jess Walter makes them all laugh-out-loud funny.
Matt has been out of work since his newspaper laid him off. He was a business journalist, but he also tried his luck with his own web venture, a website of business news in poem form. You can probably guess that Matt’s luck didn’t turn out to be very good. So now he’s hiding the home foreclosure warnings from his wife, even as he knows she’s hiding online flirtations with her high school sweetheart. His dad loops through discussions about chipped beef and bearded quarterbacks as he slips into dementia and Matt’s insomnia seems chronic, but a late-night milk run just might lead Matt to his only chance at regaining control of his life… or so he hopes.
Walter makes Matt, our hapless narrator, a loveable loser. His voice is dry, remorseful, and oddly hopeful as the odds seem to stack against him. I couldn’t help rooting for Matt, even as he made some really bad decisions. How could I give up on someone who likens a reheating 7-Eleven burrito to “baby Jesus in an incubator?” Matt is a loving father, son, and husband. He has a poet’s heart coupled with endearing humility and humanity.
This was a brilliantly entertaining, timely novel with a fresh voice— the kind of book I wish I could read again for the first time. ~Tegan