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New Southern Fiction

June 20, 2019

This is the funniest and most enjoyable book I’ve read this year.  If you’re a little misanthropic and have a vacation coming up, you need to place your hold now.

 
Mary Miller reminds me of Jill McCorkle, which is about the highest praise I can give.  Their styles of humor are very, very close.  She also has a little bit of George Singleton about her.  Mix this with some Eleanor Oliphant and I think you’ve got the idea.
 

The theme is human connection, but in an unsentimental rather than a sappy way.  It’s being promoted as a book about a curmudgeonly older man who adopts a dog, but that implies (at least to me) that it’s going to be sickeningly sweet.  Instead, Louis drinks too much, makes bad decisions, and has an unrelentingly snarky internal monologue that I found hilarious.

beth winter

Beth

Beth works in the Collection Development department.  She loves short stories, memoirs, documentary films, and cookbooks.  Her favorite things about working at the library are knowing in advance about all the new releases and the easy access to her library holds.