Author: Steven Rowley
Year published: 2023
Category: Adult fiction (humor)
Pages: 320
Rating: 4 out of 5
Location: (my 2026 Google Reading map): USA (CA, NY)
Summary: It’s been a minute—or five years—since Jordan Vargas last saw his college friends, and twenty-eight years since their graduation from Berkeley when their adult lives officially began. Now Jordan, Jordy, Naomi, Craig, and Marielle find themselves at the brink of a new decade, with all the responsibilities of adulthood, yet no closer to having their lives figured out. Though not for a lack of trying. Over the years they’ve reunited in Big Sur to honor a decades-old pact to throw each other living “funerals,” celebrations to remind themselves that life is worth living—that their lives mean something, to one another if not to themselves.
But this reunion is different. They’re not gathered as they were to bolster Marielle as her marriage crumbled, to lift Naomi after her parents died, or to intervene when Craig pleaded guilty to art fraud. This time, Jordan is sitting on a secret that will upend their pact.
Review: I had fun reading Rowley's novel Guncle a year or so ago (link to my review). This one is good too, though it deals with more serious issues. I do like that Rowley includes his signature humor that manages to not detract from the main storyline or seriousness.
Many of us have a group (or groups) of friends that we feel like we've known forever, whether they are from childhood, high school, or college. There is something so strong about that bond with it's shared culture, experience, and the intensity of the age in which we met. Even when we aren't in touch with one another on a consistent basis, it doesn't matter. We come together and it's like no time has passed. That's what this book is about. Decades can pass, experiences take us in different directions, but we still care about one another and will come together when needed. We can tell each other almost anything, give each other a hard time, and yet still support the members of the group when needed.
Rowley does character relationships so well. I feel like the reader gets to know each of these group members through their own "living funerals" as well as how they are at those of the others'. I do like the idea of saying what we feel about people before they die. With one of my best friends dying last August, I was so glad that I said it all to her.
I also liked the thread of The Jordans and their secret. When to tell the group? How to tell the group? And how will it change the dynamics? The story is real, funny, touching, and poignant. I like the message: be sure to tell those you care about how they have impacted your life.
Challenges for which this counts:
- 20 Books of Summer
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