A satisfying, feel-good novel about human shortcomings, perseverance and serendipity.
Big changes befall the sleepy town of Timber Lake, Mich., in a novel about ordinary people who try to achieve extraordinary goals after a local man finds God during a night of heavy drinking.
After an inebriated revelation, Cooper Moon sets out to build a church in the woods behind his trailer, with no money or education to ease his way. But what he lacks in biblical literacy and financial resources, he makes up for in charisma and blind faith. With the help of the young neighborhood troublemaker, TJ, who has set his sights on winning a network television competition, World Wide Warrior, Cooper navigates new religious and spiritual territory and makes key changes in his own life. He quits drinking, swearing and cheating on his ever-patient wife, Sally. Amid a memorable cast of characters—including cunning lovers, resentful husbands and a skeptical pastor—determined to throw him off his righteous track, Cooper traverses the precarious path to fulfilling his newfound vision. The plot crescendos when TJ goes off to compete in World Wide Warrior, the pastor unexpectedly revives his own faith, and spiteful supporting characters find creative ways to meddle in Cooper’s life even as he delivers a unforgettable, climactic sermon. At its core, this is a story about class, karma and ordinary people trying to accomplish difficult goals that require extraordinary strength of body, mind and spirit. Cooper contemplates his calling to build a church: “I’m broke. I’ve never even read the Bible….Why wouldn’t God just give this same idea to a rich guy who knows the Bible?” In an attempt to answer his own question, Cooper considers Moses: “God could have parted the sea before they ever got there and made a clear path for them. But he didn’t. He didn’t part the sea until they stepped into it.” And indeed, this novel suggests that hope, good humor and moral fortitude are keys to realizing one’s dreams. Packed with biblical analysis and pop-philosophy, this book has a strong, engaging voice that encourages readers to reflect on their own calling.
A satisfying, feel-good novel about human shortcomings, perseverance and serendipity.Pub Date: July 18, 2012
ISBN: 978-1478153658
Page Count: 360
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Sweet, sharp, and satisfying.
Their daughter’s wedding stirs up uncomfortable memories for a divorced couple.
The day before the ceremony, the bride’s mother, Gail Baines, second in command at the Ashton School in Baltimore, learns that not only has she been passed over to replace the retiring headmistress, but the new recruit is bringing her deputy with her. The lack of people skills that have cost Gail this promotion are evident even in that initial scene; she’s a classic cranky Tyler protagonist, given to blurting out her opinions with little consideration for others’ feelings. Her first-person narration also reveals her to be touchingly vulnerable, convinced that daughter Debbie, prettier and more polished than she, will inevitably prefer husband-to-be Kenneth’s overbearing, better-off parents. Although her divorce from Max was amicable, Gail considers him a bit of a slacker, and isn’t best pleased when he turns up with a rescue cat in tow and says he has to stay with her because Kenneth is horribly allergic. A startling revelation from Debbie, fresh from her pre-wedding “Day of Beauty,” immediately divides the exes, who have very different opinions about how their daughter should handle this crisis. It also leads to Gail’s revelation of the infidelity that led to their divorce, though not in the way readers might imagine. Laid-back Max is the only fully fleshed character here other than Gail, and the novel is very short, but Tyler’s touch is as delicate, her empathy for human beings and all their quirks as evident in her 25th work of fiction as it was in her first, published an astonishing 60 years ago. Gail’s acerbic observations about the wedding and all its participants, her wistful memories of her odd-couple romance with Max, and her account of their enforced intimacy over the three days surrounding the wedding alternate to poignant effect. The closing pages offer a happy ending that feels true to the characters and utterly deserved.
Sweet, sharp, and satisfying.Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2025
ISBN: 9780593803486
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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