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Grady Harp is an Amazon Top 10 Reviewer
Jill A. Davis somehow manages to write hysterically funny stories about the oddest people in a manner so smart and lucid that the reader is left chuckling with every page - while at the same time falling in love with the zany heroine of her latest book, Emily Rhode (’or Road’ or ‘Rowed’ or even ‘Rode’, depending on the state of mind and at times acerbic patter of this marvelously created character).
Ask Again Later: A Novel is a book that sparkles with witty prose, high and low humor, and surprisingly a sensitive degree of philosophy about the current condition of life we are all living.
The balance between funny and touching keeps the scales even, making the reader laugh at situations that in themselves are not at all funny - unless you have the perspective of Emily ‘whatever’.
Emily is a trained lawyer whose career is put on hold with the sudden hyper-dramatic news of her mother Joanie’s lump. No, cancer isn’t funny, but Joanie is such a wildly entertaining character that when Emily moves in to care for her, all goes slightly bizarre.
We meet the father Jim who left the family when Emily was very young (for some later explained idiosyncrasies of behavior) and for whom she has no concern, the spendthrift airhead sister Marjorie who treats the world like a shopping party, Rick the boyfriend of Emily to whom she cannot commit, Perry her gay therapeutic friend, and Paul her therapist whose sessions contain some of the most hilarious (and most insightful) moments in the book.
Divided into very short, titled ‘chapters’, Davis ably lets us get close to Emily by exploring her foibles and her perception of the world and her family by means of what could be stand-up comedy routines - until the sadness peaks through. Marriage, therapy, death, fatal illnesses, fidelity, menial jobs for overeducated people, failed relationships - all are grist for Davis’ keen mind and wit.
An example of Davis’ writing: ‘As she’s lying there waiting for surgery, I imagine a cancerous Pac-Man - or Lady Pac-Man - running through her body eating up her healthy tissues, her life, expanding its mass and taking over. Devouring the flesh that nurtured me, or longed to. I want to scream. And I’m mad that I’m of a generation that can best relate a parent’s cancer to a video game.’ And that is only a short tidbit of the superb writing by Jill A. Davis.
This is a smart book, exceedingly well written, and one of the most entertaining reads of the year! Now in paperback
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