Matthew Quick, author of The Silver Linings Playbook, made famous by the Academy Award-winning performances of Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper, presents a rollercoaster tale of Bartholomew Neil, 38, and his therapeutic coming-to, after his mother’s death.
Fashioned as a series of epistles addressed to Richard Gere, who plays a pivotal role in Bartholomew’s therapeutic journey, The Good Luck of Right Now tackles questions on the divine, love, Jung’s Synchronicity and evil in the world.
When he discovers a letter sent from Richard Gere in his mother’s underwear drawer, Bartholomew, whose entire life revolved around taking care of his mother until she lost her battle to cancer, sees this as no coincidence, but fate. Believing this as a sign, Bartholomew begins his correspondence with the actor and lets his subconscious free. He starts to question his relationship with God, his seemingly aimless life after his mother’s death, and the way synchronicity works in the world. The daily letters allow the reader into Bartholomew’s deepest desires of helping others like he helped his mother and his trivial life goal of speaking to the “Girlbrarian”.
Struggling with a defrocked Catholic priest, Father McNamee, who moved in with him and suffers from bipolar disorder, Bartholomew attempts to assess his role in the world “postMom,” and wonders about a father he’s never met.
Bartholomew reminisces about his childhood, how those around him, past and present, see him in a peculiar light, how the world balances the good and the evil—referring to it as the Good Luck of Right Now.
At the behest of his grief counselor, Bartholomew attends a grief therapy group session and meets Max, who has a propensity to curse and firmly believes in alien abductions. Soon thereafter and with the help of his alter-ego, Richard Gere, and teachings from the Dalai Lama, Bartholomew believes in the wonders of unus mundus, “one world”, where all are connected. With his newfound and eccentric social circle, he explores his limitations and fulfills his life goals.
The Good Luck of Right Now is, I believe, Quick’s most interesting work yet, delving into reserved and unprecedented issues of our relationship with the divine, if God really communicates to us; how grief can be experienced in different ways; how no matter the connection seems farfetched, individuals are far more interconnected as it seems. This is made possible by Quick’s quirky and peculiar narrative, through the epistle form reminiscent of Stephen Chbosky’s bestselling The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Entertaining and illuminating, Quick’s newest reverts to peculiar characters whose appearances are traitorous to their mental reality. The Good Luck of Right Now is a profound book of good and evil, God, and grief.
By Azza El Masri
