AUTUMN

A lovelorn man’s life takes an unexpected turn when he becomes a caregiver for a crass nonagenarian in MacDonald’s novel.

Alex Chambers begins his story in a parking lot during a rainstorm in front of Silver Springs Health and Rehabilitation Center, where he intends to work as a live-in volunteer. His motives are unclear, and the staff greets him with trepidation; the center’s administrator, Susanne Rogers, informs him that their promised space for him is no longer available. However, she offers him another, less desirable assignment, and he soon begins his tenure as a caregiver for a notorious resident of the facility’s geriatric unit: Mae Seasons, a crass 91-year-old who’s been there for more than a decade, terrorizing any staff members assigned to her. Her crude gestures, foul language, and no-bullshit policy soon put her at odds with Alex, who’s oddly tight-lipped about his reasons for volunteering at Silver Springs. The pair become an unlikely match: a reticent young man and an elderly woman who becomes determined to bring him out of his shell. Eventually, Mae coerces Alex into giving her a straight answer, and the pair becomes bonded by shared regret and misery. Some readers are likely to recognize similar stories from literature and film, such as Harold and Maude(1971), but this book is equally as heart-wrenching as any that have come before it. However, MacDonald’s witty prose and original characters imbue the story with an optimistic liveliness: “I was a few hours away from meeting the most exquisitely unique, infuriating, charming, and heartbreaking woman of my life.” The clever title, in addition to describing the story’s setting, refers to Alex’s reason for coming to Silver Springs. Overall, the story leads readers on a journey of redemption that comes to a hopeful, cinematic conclusion.

A cozy, if somewhat familiar, tale of love and grief that will nonetheless leave readers satisfied.