The Good Luck of Right Now

by Matthew Quick

When his mother dies, 38-year-old Bartholomew Neil, who doesn't know how to be on his own, discovers a letter in his mother's underwear drawer that causes him to write a series of highly intimate letters to actor Richard Gere, while embarking on a quest to find out where he belongs.

• ISBN10: 006228553X
• ISBN13: 9780062285539
• Publish Date: 11 February 2014
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: HarperCollins Publishers
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[Bianca]

Perfect doesn’t exist for people like us. Passable. That’s what I want. Just simply passable. If I could have a passable existence, I think I’d be very grateful.

— A funny yet touching book about meaningful coincidences (synchronicity), with quirky but memorable characters at its heart.

[Rinn]

I received a copy of this book for free from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review. Also posted on my blog, Rinn Reads.

Having read several of Matthew Quick’s books, I’ve come to expect something from his writing. His books are always a little quirky and unusual, the protagonists never entirely fit into ‘normal’ society, and there’s usually a darker thread running through the story. And whilst The Good Luck Of Right Now ticks all the boxes, it just wasn’t as enjoyable as his other works in my opinion.

I found it really difficult to connect with Bartholomew, a forty year old man who lives with his mother until she dies. He made me feel uneasy, uncomfortable and not at all sympathetic, not like Pat in The Silver Linings Playbook or Leonard in Forgive Me Leonard Peacock. I suppose it’s part of the point, as Bartholomew does not fit well into society, a man heading towards middle age who still lives with his parents is not the norm. I don’t know whether it was because Bartholomew was older than the normal Matthew Quick protagonist, or whether it was his home situation and general attitude, but I did not feel for him at all.

What I did like about the book, however, was how it was told through letters to Richard Gere, Bartholomew seeing him as some sort of ‘spiritual guide’, as his mother was fixated on the actor. It was a cute way of showing how Bartholomew was growing up, albeit rather late in life, after the death of his mother.

With a sweet, if rather predictable, ending, I definitely feel this is not the strongest of Quick’s books, but would recommend it to his fans nonetheless. It has that writing style I’ve come to know and enjoy, and as always he deals with mental health both delicately and creatively.

[Lianne]

I won a copy of this novel from an online contest hosted by HarperCollinsCA. This review in its entirety was originally posted at caffeinatedlife.net: http://www.caffeinatedlife.net/blog/2014/03/28/review-the-good-luck-of-right-now/

The Good Luck of Right Now is a very quirky novel; there’s just something about it. I found it sad quite a lot of the time but it’s quite profound because despite of how Bartholomew’s life is going, he finds the good and the positive in people and in the circumstances he finds himself in; it’s just so selfless in the way he offers to help someone or open his home for someone, it’s quite refreshing and wonderful and quite inspiring to read. I also really enjoyed reading Bartholomew’s observations about people, the situations around him and the concepts that he finds himself meditating on through his letters to Richard Gere.

It was wonderful to see how Bartholomew, over the course of the novel, gains a family of his own, this makeshift group of people just trying to figure out their lives. The road trip mentioned in the book blurb actually doesn’t kick in until the last third of the novel but it amuses me to no end that they travelled to Montreal and to Ottawa.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Good Luck of Right Now. It can be sad but it can also be happy and funny and reaffirming.