Matthew Quick | Bibliotica

About, the book Love May Fail

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Harper (June 16, 2015)

“It doesn’t matter how I got here. What I do with the puzzle pieces that are now in front of me—that’s what matters.

Save Mr. Vernon.

My three-word quest.

Why I’m here in this time and space.”

Portia Kane is having a meltdown. After escaping her ritzy Florida life and her cheating pornographer husband, she finds herself back in South Jersey, a place that remains largely unchanged from the years of her unhappy youth. Lost and alone, looking for the goodness she believes still exists in the world, Portia sets off on a quest to save the one man who always believed in her—and in all of his students: her beloved high school English teacher, Mr. Vernon, who has retired broken and alone after a traumatic classroom incident.

Will a sassy nun, an ex–heroin addict, a metalhead little boy, and her hoarder mother help or hurt Portia’s chances on this quest to resurrect a good man and find renewed hope in the human race? Love May Fail is a story of the great highs and lows of existence: the heartache and daring choices it takes to become the person you know (deep down) you are meant to be.

Buy, read, and discuss Love May Fail

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound | Goodreads

About the author, Matthew Quick

Matthew Quick (aka Q) is the New York Times bestselling author of several novels, including The Silver Linings Playbook, which was made into an Oscar-winning film, and The Good Luck of Right Now. His work has been translated into thirty languages and has received a PEN/Hemingway Award Honorable Mention. Q lives with his wife, the novelist-pianist Alicia Bessette, on North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

Connect with Matthew

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My Thoughts

I feel like I should begin this review by confessing that I’m one of only three people on the planet who hasn’t seen (or read) The Silver Linings Playbook. I swear it’s in my Netflix queue. On the other hand, I did read and review The Good Luck of Right Now last year, and I really enjoyed it, so that should count for something, shouldn’t it?

In any case, this book had me laughing and crying from the first page, where Portia Kane is hiding in her bedroom closet, to the last, which I’m not going to talk about because of spoilers. As with his other work, Matthew Quick has given us an array of unconventional characters whose lives intersect and interweave in ways that are at once preposterous and completely plausible. In fact, I’m pretty sure he’s the only author on the planet who can create the eclectic groups of people that he does. (I imagine him riding public transportation, watching people, and stealing their quirks and flaws – but this scenario exists solely in my head.)

Portia’s story was both appalling and affirming, her journey an exaggerated version of the voyages of self discovery all women, and indeed all people, must eventually take if they wish to truly be whole. Her mother, her husband, and all the other characters who inhabit her world are all as interesting as she is, and ultimately, each acts as either a guide or an obstacle for her.

If you like novels that exist many layers of enjoyment – from surface entertainment to layers of metaphor, allegory, and self analysis, you will enjoy this novel. Love May Fail is delightfully complex, refreshingly candid, and deliciously…off-kilter.

Goes well with diet Coke with lime, and Reese’s pieces.

Matthew’s Tour Stops

Tuesday, June 16th: Book Hooked Blog

Wednesday, June 17th: Novel Escapes

Thursday, June 18th: 5 Minutes For Books

Friday, June 19th: Jenn’s Bookshelves

Monday, June 22nd: Raven Haired Girl

Tuesday, June 23rd: A Bookworm’s World

Wednesday, June 24th: Bibliophiliac

Thursday, June 25th: Chronicles …

Monday, June 29th: she treads softly

Tuesday, June 30th: bookchickdi

Wednesday, July 1st: Into the Hall of Books

Thursday, July 2nd: Many Hats

Monday, July 6th: Bibliotica

Tuesday, July 7th: Becca Rowan

Wednesday, July 8th: For the Love of Words

Thursday, July 9th: Ageless Pages Reviews

Friday, July 10th: Snowdrop Dreams of Books

About the book, The Good Luck of Right Now

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Harper (February 11, 2014)

Call it fate
Call it synchronicity
Call it an act of God
Call it . . . The Good Luck of Right Now

For thirty-eight years, Bartholomew Neil has lived with his mother. When she gets sick and dies, he has no idea how to be on his own. His redheaded grief counselor, Wendy, says he needs to find his flock and leave the nest. But how does a man whose whole life has been grounded in his mom, Saturday Mass, and the library learn how to fly?

Bartholomew thinks he’s found a clue when he discovers a “Free Tibet” letter from Richard Gere hidden in his mother’s underwear drawer. In her final days, Mom called him Richard—there must be a cosmic connection. Believing that the actor is meant to help him, Bartholomew awkwardly starts his new life by writing Richard Gere a series of letters. Jung and the Dalai Lama, philosophy and faith, alien abduction and cat telepathy, the Catholic Church and the mystery of women, are all explored in his soul-baring epistles. But mostly the letters reveal one man’s heartbreakingly earnest attempt to assemble a family of his own.

A struggling priest, a “Girlbrarian,” her feline-loving, foulmouthed brother, and the spirit of Richard Gere join the quest to help Bartholomew. In a rented Ford Focus, they travel to Canada to see the Cat Parliament and find Bartholomew’s biological father . . . and discover so much more.

Buy a copy

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About the author, Matthew Quick

Matthew Quick

Matthew Quick is the author of The Silver Linings Playbook, which was made into an Academy Award-winning film, and the young adult novels Sorta Like a Rock Star, Boy21, and Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock. He is married to the novelist-pianist Alicia Bessette.

Connect with Matthew:

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My Thoughts

This review is really late, not because I wasn’t finished with the book (I was!) but because as I sat down to write it this morning, canine chaos erupted in my back yard. (My foster-dog had pinned my year-old rottie mix to the ground and was chewing on his flank, then my pointer mix tried to pull her off of him by biting her face. Blood and fur and yelping animals everywhere. NOT an auspicious start to the morning.) So, if this seems a bit disjointed, well, I’m sorry.

I haven’t read (or seen) The Silver Linings Playbook, so I don’t know if The Good Luck of Right Now is written in Matthew Quick’s typical style or not, but I liked the convention of an epistolary novel formed by letters to Richard Gere. It was quirky and innovative and when the book addressed some darker issues, that convention kept things from becoming unrelentingly grim.

I also really liked the characters – Bartholomew seems basically affable and sweet, if obviously not-quite-neurotypical. Father McNamee was a solid presence and the “Girlbrarian” was just amazing (as was her brother).

Having lived through my grandmother’s dementia, I could relate, especially, to those moments when Bartholomew’s mother forgot who he was, or insisted he was Richard Gere. In fact, those scenes played nicely against the eventual road trip to Canada, and the very sweet developing relationship between Bartholomew and Elizabeth.

Bottom line? This novel defies convention, but it’s all the more compelling for doing so, and I’m really glad I read it.

Goes well with Enchilada pie and a tossed salad..