I See You've Called in Dead
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The Office meets Six Feet Under meets About a Boy in this coming-of-middle-age tale about having a second chance to write your life's story. Bud Stanley is an obituary writer who is afraid to live. Yes, his wife recently left him for a "far more interesting" man. Yes, he goes on a particularly awful blind date with a woman who brings her ex. And yes, he has too many glasses of Scotch one night and proceeds to pen and publish his own obituary. The newspaper wants to fire him. But now the company's system has him listed as dead. And the company can't fire a dead person. The ensuing fallout forces him to realize that life may be actually worth living. As Bud awaits his fate at work, his life hangs in the balance. Given another shot by his boss and encouraged by his best friend, Tim, a worldly and wise former art dealer who is now confined to a wheelchair, Bud starts to attend the wakes and funerals of strangers to learn how to live. Thurber Prize-winner and NYTimes bestselling author John Kenney tells a funny, touching story about life and death, about the search for meaning, about finding and never letting go of the preciousness of life.
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This is the perfect read when you feel that you alone and when life just feels like it is asking too much of you. For those when you feel like you are not seen or understood, John Kenney has written a book will remind you, this is Modern Life. I loved that the writing was vivid, the characters and the struggle at the heat of the book was real and so present that I often felt like I was watching a movie that had all the hallmarks of a great dark comedy. Filled with all the psychological awareness and sharp biting wit that makes a great satirical work, I See You've Called in Dead truly fits this moment in time. If you like a story always walks the razors edge between dark and light but still crave a true and unexpected laugh out loud moment., then this is a book you will enjoy. This is what made this such a strong book for me, Kenny's dark comic timing. Wonderfully absurd, insightfully comic, and delightfully incisive, this is a slow burn of a book that, like a great campfire needs time to establish itself before it can shines light into the night.
As I was reading I found myself thinking how this stands in the tradition of William Saroyan's The Human Comedy and Herman Melville's "Bartleby, The Scrivner" and how there is an eternal struggle to live and experience Life in the face of trying to live that life.
Thank you to NetGalley and Zibby Publishing for the arc that I read