The Good Luck of Right Now - by Matthew Quick (Paperback)

About the Book

From Matthew Quick, the New York Times bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook, comes The Good Luck of Right Now, a funny and tender story about family, friendship, grief, acceptance, and Richard Gere--an entertaining and inspiring tale that will leave you pondering the rhythms of the universe and marveling at the power of kindness and love.

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, writing Richard Gere a series of highly intimate 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, foul-mouthed 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 his biological father . . . and discover so much more.

Book Synopsis

From Matthew Quick, the New York Times bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook, comes a "simultaneously funny and devastating" (Boston Globe) story about family, friendship, grief, acceptance, and Richard Gere--an entertaining and inspiring tale that will leave you pondering the rhythms of the universe and marveling at the power of kindness and love.

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, writing Richard Gere a series of highly intimate 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, foul-mouthed 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 his biological father . . . and discover so much more.

From the Back Cover

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. He 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.

Bartholomew awkwardly starts his new life, writing Gere a series of letters--Jung and the Dalai Lama, philosophy and faith, alien abduction and cat telepathy are all explored in his soul-baring epistles. But mostly the letters reveal one man's desire to assemble a family of his own.

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

Review Quotes

"A gratifying romp....Fans of The Silver Linings Playbook know Quick's penchant for emotionally troubled, big-hearted characters, and Good Luck will satisfy those readers and new ones alike." - People (Three Stars)
"Grade: A. Picking up a Matthew Quick novel is a lot like going to your favorite restaurant. You just know it is going to be good." - Boston Herald
"Quirky, compelling....Reads rather like A Confederacy of Dunces removed 1,200 miles northeast. As with that novel, it's impossible to come away unamused by The Good Luck of Rights Now's kindhearted presentation of the misadventures of a damaged soul." - Philadelphia Inquirer
"A page-turner....The Good Luck of Right Now is easy to read but difficult to characterize. Part fairy tale and part vision quest...it could more aptly be called an adult-onset bildungsroman....Quick, a master scene-setter, details Neil's personal tragedy in prose that is simultaneously funny and devastating." - Boston Globe
"A page turner...Easy to read but difficult to characterize. Part fairy tale and part vision quest...[it] could more aptly be called an adult-onset bildungsroman....Quick, a master scene-setter, details Neil's personal tragedy in prose that is simultaneously funny and devastating." - Boston Globe
"Life-affirming....Begins as a character study and morphs into a road novel, blending humorous set pieces-pack a Canadian hotel with UFO abductees and there's bound to be fun-with poignant revelations about the novel's main characters. It's an unabashed tear-jerker." - Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Often funny, with humor that arises naturally from Bartholomew's deadpan, literal view of the world....It's easy to wish the best for Bartholomew." - Columbus Dispatch
"A gentle, wise, poignant and funny story about the nature of reality and the daily strength required of the brokenhearted to live in it. Quick makes no misstep; each scene, each character, each storyline is perfectly realized and seamlessly woven into the narrative....A delight from beginning to end." - Nashville Scene
"Mr. Quick ventures to the edges of society, ...He rewards us with an irresistible urge to think the best of humanity, to understand not only the need to walk in someone else's shoes but also the altruistic power attained from doing so." - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"This book channels the same screwball sad sweetness we loved so much in Silver Linings." - GQ.com, "The 8 Books You Need to Know This Month"
"It's impossible not to love each of these deeply flawed characters....As funny as it is touching, Quick's latest effort is on par with Silver Linings." - USA Today, Four Stars
"Often marked as 'crazy' by those around them, [Quick's] oddball protagonists...say out loud-and act upon-thoughts many of us have had, if perhaps kept inside....[With] The Good Luck of Right Now, Quick has done it again." - Nashville Tennessean
"Not just a postbag of whimsical letters; it's also a bildungsroman....A tender tale that manages to be both light-hearted and philosophical." - Financial Times
"[Quick] has a rare skill in portraying characters with mental illness, which, when coupled with his deft hand at humor, produces compelling and important prose....fans of Wally Lamb, Mark Haddon, or Winston Groom will appreciate." - Library Journal
"Original, compelling, uplifting. Quick celebrates the power of ordinary, flawed human beings to rescue themselves and each other. His writing is shot through with wit and humanity and an ultimately optimistic view of people, without ever becoming sentimental." - Graeme Simsion, author of The Rosie Project
"Winningly madcap." - Entertainment Weekly