The Good Luck of Right Now
Quick, the author of The Silver Linings &#xAD;Playbook (2008), provides another offbeat gem populated with eccentric, fallible, intensely human characters. After his mother&#x2019;s death, 38-year-old Bartholomew Neil, a middle-aged man who has never left home, is at a crossroads in his life. Finding a form letter from Richard Gere buried in his mother&#x2019;s underwear drawer, he begins a one-sided correspondence with the superstar, triggering a series of events that culminates in a life-&#xAD;altering road trip to Canada with a motley crew of misfits including his secret crush, the girlbrarian; her foulmouthed, oddball brother; and a Catholic priest who has fled his parish. The quartet travels northward in search of Bartholomew&#x2019;s biological father, and humor, pathos, and quirky bends in the road define their odyssey, making it increasingly clear that it is all about the journey, not the destination.        HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Considering the megapopularity of the film version of The Silver Linings Playbook, expect high demand for this spiritually fueled midlife coming-of-age novel. --Margaret Flanagan