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A review by banjax451
The Young Widower's Handbook by Tom McAllister
5.0
Ignore the comparison to Tropper and Quick. This is an amazing first novel.
Now, I have to confess...I was predisposed give it a favorable review. McAllister is the co-host of one of my favorite podcasts, which I have been listening to since Episode 1. His co-host on Book Fight! is a high school friend of my wife (part of why I've been listening since ep 1 - I get to hear side tales of Mike from my wife all the time). This is also the kind of literary fiction I am generally drawn to. Not overly pretentious or experimental - just well crafted prose with interesting characters and a story to tell.
My wife bought a copy of the book for me for my birthday. And when I finished it, I said to her..."I cannot say how happy I am that you got me this book." Which is saying something, considering the subject matter. No, what thrilled me was that McAllister's novel is fantastic. Well written, moving, sad, funny...all that. This is the kind of book I love reading - and it just so happens to be by someone I "know" (if only on podcast and through my wife's HS friend). It thrilled me that it wasn't just a mediocre book - it's a wonderful book.
The jacket summary compares it to Jonathan Tropper and Matthew Quick. Which is odd since I don't think it's necessarily much like either. I'd read Quick long before Book Fight launched, and I'm aware of McAllister's "feud" with him (it's one of the more consistently hilarious things about the podcast). Matthew Quick WISHES his prose was this good. And while I like Jonathan Tropper quite a bit, this novel is not nearly as intentionally funny as those. It's far more melancholy and sad - certainly more painful (if I didn't know better, I'd think McAllister had lost his wife - the grief is that intense). In many ways, more moving. And certainly more realistic - McAllister doesn't wrap everything up in a neat bow. This is not a novel about pithy lessons learned or the power of football to overcome everything. This is a very real novel about how grief can consume you if you let it. About how hard (and how necessary) "letting go" can be. Mixed in with McAllister's wonderfully wry observations on the modern age - and on a certain kind of person. The characters are well developed, the interlude chapters are fantastic and the prose is often stunningly beautiful.
I was predisposed to like this novel. I loved it instead. And I would have loved it even if I didn't listen to Book Fight! or anything like that. No...this is just a fantastic first novel. I very much look forward to reading more from him.
Now, I have to confess...I was predisposed give it a favorable review. McAllister is the co-host of one of my favorite podcasts, which I have been listening to since Episode 1. His co-host on Book Fight! is a high school friend of my wife (part of why I've been listening since ep 1 - I get to hear side tales of Mike from my wife all the time). This is also the kind of literary fiction I am generally drawn to. Not overly pretentious or experimental - just well crafted prose with interesting characters and a story to tell.
My wife bought a copy of the book for me for my birthday. And when I finished it, I said to her..."I cannot say how happy I am that you got me this book." Which is saying something, considering the subject matter. No, what thrilled me was that McAllister's novel is fantastic. Well written, moving, sad, funny...all that. This is the kind of book I love reading - and it just so happens to be by someone I "know" (if only on podcast and through my wife's HS friend). It thrilled me that it wasn't just a mediocre book - it's a wonderful book.
The jacket summary compares it to Jonathan Tropper and Matthew Quick. Which is odd since I don't think it's necessarily much like either. I'd read Quick long before Book Fight launched, and I'm aware of McAllister's "feud" with him (it's one of the more consistently hilarious things about the podcast). Matthew Quick WISHES his prose was this good. And while I like Jonathan Tropper quite a bit, this novel is not nearly as intentionally funny as those. It's far more melancholy and sad - certainly more painful (if I didn't know better, I'd think McAllister had lost his wife - the grief is that intense). In many ways, more moving. And certainly more realistic - McAllister doesn't wrap everything up in a neat bow. This is not a novel about pithy lessons learned or the power of football to overcome everything. This is a very real novel about how grief can consume you if you let it. About how hard (and how necessary) "letting go" can be. Mixed in with McAllister's wonderfully wry observations on the modern age - and on a certain kind of person. The characters are well developed, the interlude chapters are fantastic and the prose is often stunningly beautiful.
I was predisposed to like this novel. I loved it instead. And I would have loved it even if I didn't listen to Book Fight! or anything like that. No...this is just a fantastic first novel. I very much look forward to reading more from him.