⇒ PDF Free The Good Luck of Right Now Matthew Quick 9780062285539 Books

The Good Luck of Right Now Matthew Quick 9780062285539 Books

Download As PDF : The Good Luck of Right Now Matthew Quick 9780062285539 Books

The Good Luck of Right Now Matthew Quick 9780062285539 Books

Matt Quick is certainly fearless when it comes to bringing us characters with sharp edges. His willingness to take on mental health issues in characters that most of us in real life would actively avoid and then make them people we seriously care about is a major feat. In THE GOOD LUCK OF RIGHT NOW, we meet Batholomew, a middle-aged man who has spent the better part of his sheltered life taking care of his mother who must now deal with finding a life of his own. Along for the ride are a Priest, a girl from the local library who Batholomew has admired for some time, her brother who can barely stop himself from uttering the F-word, and Richard Gere, whom Bart writes to and shares the book's entire story. The journey these fractured lives take together is pretty amazing and the end game of Bartholomew's trip to Canada is a lovely and pleasant epiphany. My only real critique of the book is allowing Richard Gere to surface as a voice in Bartholomew's head-once Gere's "presence" enters the story, it drives the main character to conclusions that I think would have been best left for him to come to without a vision of Gere giving him advice. I applaud Quick for taking a group of society's misfits and making them such fully developed characters to where you genuinely care about where each of them ends up. I enjoyed this book, although I am not sure as if I'm enamored over it as much as SILVER LINNINGS PLAYBOOK. Nevertheless, I'm happy to have spent time with Bartholomew and his crew as they find a place in the world for themselves.


Tags : The Good Luck of Right Now [Matthew Quick] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. From Matthew Quick, the <em>New York Times</em> bestselling author of <em>The Silver Linings Playbook,Matthew Quick,The Good Luck of Right Now,Harper,006228553X,Humorous - General,Literary,FICTION Family Life,FICTION Humorous,FICTION Humorous.,FICTION Literary.,Families,Family life,Family life;Fiction.,Humorous fiction,AMERICAN CONTEMPORARY FICTION,American Contemporary Fiction - Individual Authors +,FICTION Family Life General,FICTION Humorous General,FICTION Literary,Fiction,Fiction - General,Fiction-Literary,FictionFamily Life - General,GENERAL,General Adult,Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945),United States,bisacsh

The Good Luck of Right Now Matthew Quick 9780062285539 Books Reviews

What is it about off-kilter, quirky characters that make them so endearing, sweet and wise beyond first glance? Or is it just Matthew Quick and his books? Because I gotta say, he had another hit with The Good Luck of Right Now with said quirky, off-kilter cast of characters.

Quick wonderfully wrote a book that combined humor, intelligence, wit with a good dose of heart. I loved how it was all written in such a straightforward manner, with no long-winded, running monologue/dialogue wanting you to feel he holds the knowledge to the universe while in reality he’s just boring you to tears. The simplicity in the narrative makes a bigger impact because you can feel the truth and sincerity in Bartholomew’s observances and ideas. I was really impressed at many of those observances that Bartholomew makes both about his situation but how it relates to life in general. As simple as he puts it, when you reflect on it, you can’t help but agree with what is being said. It’s all driven home when made in connection with Bartholomew’s situation. This is the core of the story’s heart and what makes the story and its characters very moving.

Speaking of which, the book’s writing really help bring Bartholomew and the others to life. I think Quick did a great job of making Bartholomew someone that is wise beyond his station while also making it clear that he carries some major issues (I mean he has to considering he’s a 39 year old unemployed man who spent the majority of his life living and hanging out with his mom). With any other author and book, Bartholomew could easily play the role of “creepy, mentally disturbed sociopath” but Quick infuses him with a sincere and insightful nature that he endears you to himself. The same thing could be said for the others such as whiskey drinking Father McNamee, cat-loving foul-mouthed Max (my favorite and the one who made me laugh) and his withdrawn sister Elizabeth aka “The Girlbrarian”. Like Bartholomew, they all have their individual issues that could easily categorize them as “outcasts” but they each have that inner spark that makes them endearing and sympathetic people. With the kind of personalities the story contains, Quick did a wonderful job of meshing them together, creating some heartfelt, sweet and funny moments.

Books such as this one serves as a reminder that it’s good to have a story where you can root for the misfits of the world. It feels good to know that there are those who are like you (or if you prefer, there are those who have it worse off than you) and still able to find their place in the world. The Good Luck of Right was the kind of fun and smart read that I’d recommend to make you feel good and leave a smile on your face. I would especially recommend this to those who are Richard Gere fans (or even to Richard Gere for that matter Lol). I really enjoyed his previous book, Silver Linings Playbook, and this book solidified Quick as an author who I’d follow and, without any hesitation, read.
This is a book of letters—a sweet, lightly written epistolary novel.

Thirty-eight-year-old orphan Bartholomew Neil, a “developmentally stunted” man (according to his grief counselor), writes letters to the Buddhist activist actor Richard Gere after he discovers a form letter from Gere in his dead mother’s underwear drawer. They are sly letters—absolutely sincere on Bartholomew’s ingenuous level, but socially sly from the all-knowing author and the reader’s point of view. For instance, Bartholomew mentions how interesting it is that an actor can be named in an article where the name of the President of the United States is omitted, how an actor’s dinner party can do more for Tibet than a monk burning himself alive, “how it is okay to look at a man on fire on the Free Library’s Internet, but not two naked women licking each other. Who makes the rules? Death is okay. Sex is bad. Mothers must die. Cancer comes when you least expect it.”

Ah, the twisted rules of a society of “normal people” and the unfairness of death.

Bartholomew writes about the “pretending game” we all play—certainly one of my own favorite subjects
“Life is s***,” my young redheaded grief counselor Wendy says whenever we reach an impasse in our conversation.

It is her default platitude.

Her words of wisdom for me.

“Life is s***.”

When Wendy says that, it’s like she’s pretending we are not bound together by her job, but really truly are friends. It’s like we’re having a beer at the bar, like friends on TV do.

“Life is s***.”

She whispers it even. Like she’s not supposed to say that to me, but wants me to know that her happy talk and positivity are part of her pretending game.

Other than noticing or playing the “pretending game” we humans play, Bartholomew’s other concern is finding where he belongs—his “flock.” To help him navigate life, he has Richard Gere in his head and a reactive angry little man in his stomach. Bartholomew plus a motley crew of friends—a defrocked priest, a cat-loving movie ticket-taker, and a “Girlbrarian” who is recovering from an alien abduction—go on a pilgrimage of sorts.

The humor (from lampooning lingo-spouting therapists, grad student social workers, and other kinds of helpers to glorious mentions of Jungian and Buddhist wisdom), cadence, and obsessions about distinguishing who we are and maybe realizing (a.k.a. experiencing) “the good luck of right now” are so similar to my own obsessions and what I write that I sometimes had the weird feeling that I was reading something written by a middle-aged Buddhist Catholic male alter ego who favored light romantic stories.

Rather than Richard Gere, I had “a little old lady” in my head when I was a child; as I matured, she morphed into something I simply refer to as the Voice. I too have a bully voice (my fearful ego) punching me from the inside out. But the good part of this is that no matter how much pretending is going on, my body never lies to me about what I’m really feeling (positive or negative), so I have a sense of my enduring flaws and what I don’t know and my direction, even in the midst of abject confusion—which is the unarticulated gift of truth that Bartholomew embodies for the reader.

Like Bartholomew, I too often long to find my flock. I sense I’ve found part of it in this romantic little story of a pilgrimage. I’m guessing author Matthew Quick found a flock by writing The Good Luck of Right Now.
Matt Quick is certainly fearless when it comes to bringing us characters with sharp edges. His willingness to take on mental health issues in characters that most of us in real life would actively avoid and then make them people we seriously care about is a major feat. In THE GOOD LUCK OF RIGHT NOW, we meet Batholomew, a middle-aged man who has spent the better part of his sheltered life taking care of his mother who must now deal with finding a life of his own. Along for the ride are a Priest, a girl from the local library who Batholomew has admired for some time, her brother who can barely stop himself from uttering the F-word, and Richard Gere, whom Bart writes to and shares the book's entire story. The journey these fractured lives take together is pretty amazing and the end game of Bartholomew's trip to Canada is a lovely and pleasant epiphany. My only real critique of the book is allowing Richard Gere to surface as a voice in Bartholomew's head-once Gere's "presence" enters the story, it drives the main character to conclusions that I think would have been best left for him to come to without a vision of Gere giving him advice. I applaud Quick for taking a group of society's misfits and making them such fully developed characters to where you genuinely care about where each of them ends up. I enjoyed this book, although I am not sure as if I'm enamored over it as much as SILVER LINNINGS PLAYBOOK. Nevertheless, I'm happy to have spent time with Bartholomew and his crew as they find a place in the world for themselves.