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michellehogmire's review
challenging
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Thanks to WTAW Press for a finished copy of this title, which was published on Tuesday April 27, 2021. I'm writing this review voluntarily.
The Groundhog Forever is a delightfully odd and curious short novel about two New York film students who get trapped in a daylong time loop on Tuesday April 27 in early 2000s Manhattan. Of course, this happens to be a day when they watch the film "Groundhog Day" and meet Bill Murray in a film class. It's like the inseparable friends--a woman nicknamed "Thing 1," and a man called "Thing 2," but both queer--are stuck in a sequel version of the Murray movie in real life: no matter what they do, they wake up in the same way on the same day.
The book is goofy and upsetting and existentially insightful in equal measure. It's about our fascination with the famous at a distance, and how our interest shifts with close contact. It's about how artists always wish they had more time to create, when it's not clear how limitless, infinite time would change the outcome. It's about that intense, platonic love that can form between two friends who share the same passions--and the particular kind of pain those relationships can cause. Henry Hoke also smartly links this repeating Tuesday to another seemingly endless Tuesday in New York, September 11, when everything changed, yet the perpetual wars feel like different versions of the same thing. Ultimately, just like the original film, it's about the potential of a constant present--what happens when people really start living in the moment, instead of worrying about the future, because tomorrow never comes.
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