The Good Luck of Right Now

Dear Mr. Richard Gere,
There is something about the characters that Matthew Quick populates his stories with that appeal to me. They are flawed and funny, raw and real. His writing has a unique humanity, which is something you can probably relate to, considering all your work on behalf of Tibet and your close relationship with the Dalai Lama.
This book was a pleasure throughout with quirky story lines, relatable characters and insightful reverence for the simple moments that make us who we are.
I loved Bartholomew and Father McNamee and even Max. It made me wonder what you might think of Max, but then I realized what is acting if not putting on a mask and going about your business. You do that every day. Richard, you are an expert at creating masks!
I can understand how some of Quick's repetition of certain phrases and expletives could put readers off, but he imbues too much care in the crafting of his characters in The Good Luck of Right Now to let it dissuade from the wonderful messages woven into the novel.
I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did, Richard Gere, and I feel sure that you did. I know that we must see eye-to-eye on this, because of our connection. After all, I was you for some time.
Your admiring fan,
JK

Easily among the top 3 epistolary novels addressed to Richard Gere I've ever read - no qualification.

The thing I like about Matthew Quick (having read this and The Silver Linings Playbook) is the realism he brings to characters and situations. I don't think a single one of the people who populate his works could be classified easily via archetype or caricature. Each of them is a living, breathing (FLAWED) human.

It's the kind of writing that can be difficult to read, if only because it seems awkward to be intruding on someone else's life in so personal a way. But it's definitely worth making your way through.

Short Review: 2 stars is probably too harsh. It was more of a 2.5 star book. The Good Luck of Right Now is about a 38 year old man (maybe on the Autism spectrum?) who learns to cope with his Mother's death by writing letters to Richard Gere. There is also a bipolar priest, a man obsessed with cats that can't say help but use the word F**k at least once in every sentence (usually twice) and his sister that thinks she was kidnapped by aliens.

Once all of the characters are introduced, the story gets much better. But still the plot is weak and the big reveal was clear from long before you get there.

Maybe I was just thrown by the beginning of the book, where it feels like Quick is actually making fun of Bartholomew. I really almost stopped reading a couple times in the first 100 or so pages. I am not disappointed that I kept reading because the book did get better. But the two other books of Quick's that I have read are so much better than this one.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/good-luck/

4.5

Sooo... the thing is, I am still not sure how I feel about this book. I kept Reading it expecting to like it more, and by the last chapters it had happened: I was used to Bartholomew's quirkiness (he's 39, bound to have Asperger's, lost his mom, nobody knows how his bills are being paid, including him, takes everyone to his home because he's very kind, never had a job, has a crush on a girl he calls The Girlbrarian and literally hear voices. Ah, before I forget: the whole book is told through his letters to Richard Gere, whom he believes was some sort of vessel to his mom.)Still, it was not absolutely lovable like Flowers for Algernon or The curious incident of the dog in the nighttime (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1050.Mark_Haddon) or even my favorite of the genre (or what comes to my mind when I think of the genre, which is loosely bizarrely depicted mentally characters), Unexpectedly MIlo, by Matthew Dicks. Then, at some point I thought, why did I look for it in the first place?
(drum rolls): because he's the author of The silver linings playbook, which I hadn't read but saw the movie and really enjoyed. And now it just occurs to me that this exact book would probably be amazing turned into a screenplay, maybe it's just the guy's talent.
Or maybe I'm rambling. Sorry about that.

I love stories about oddballs who find their flock, and I thoroughly enjoyed Matthew Quick's Silver Linings Playbook, but The Good Luck of Right Now just didn't work for me. The main character is a combination of quirks that never quite add up to a real person, and the plot is too thin to leave a lasting impression. Bartholomew was supposedly bullied and friendless as a child, but he doesn't appear to have any serious emotional or physical impairments except being overweight. For one brief moment he appears to be psychic, but that trait is quickly abandoned and never mentioned again. He talks about having an “angry man in his stomach” at times but he is never violent. It's hard not to like such a gentle giant, but it's difficult to fully embrace him either because of the inconsistencies in his portrayal.

Ultimately, this is a quick read whose idealistic “good luck of right now” philosophy is probably best suited for a young adult audience.