I finished this book yesterday. I can’t remember how I came across it but it was one of those funny, random reads and while the title sounds extremely depressing; it actually had a number of laugh-out-loud moments! Written by Jonathan Tropper, the whole story is from the point of view of Doug Parker whose wife has just died in a plane crash. He’s 29 with a dysfunctional family knocking down his door every second to check he’s ok and lives in middle class suburbia in upper state New York.

Without giving anything away, there is this one scene where he’s on a date and because Tropper writes so exceptionally well in first person, you feel like you ARE Doug on the blind date and sitting in front of you is this nattering, nervous ninny who talks a mile a minute and won’t let you have a word in sideways. His paragraph writes so there are no pauses or breaks and you feel like saying to this date “just take a breath will you!” This was just one of my many laugh-out-loud moments.

Totally recommend this book. LOVE