My Ex-Life

February 15, 2018
When midlife woes descend, a long-divorced couple find their paths merging again.Many years ago, David Hedges and Julie Fiske had a short, sweet marriage. Then she lost a baby and he realized he was gay, and they parted ways. Now they haven't seen each other in almost 30 years. For much of that time, Julie's been married to her second husband, Henry, and raising their daughter, Mandy, in Beauport, a tourist town on the New England coast. But not only has Henry left her for another woman, he's now planning to sell their big, rambling Victorian out from under her. She needs that house: her sole means of support is her none-too-successful Airbnb. Then her surly teenage daughter goes digging in the basement and learns for the first time of her mother's earlier marriage, beginning the chain of events that leads to David and Julie's reunion. David is now a successful college admissions consultant in San Francisco, but his life has also hit a rough patch. His boyfriend has left him, he's put on weight, and it looks like he's about to be evicted from his apartment. When Julie reaches out in her hour of need, he decides to shelve his problems for a while and fly across the country to work on hers, which are quite a bit worse than she's aware of. As always, McCauley's (Insignificant Others, 2010, etc.) effervescent prose is full of wit and wisdom on every topic--college application essays, Airbnb operation, weed addiction, live porn websites, and, most of all, people. "When everything looks perfectly right about a person, there's usually something significantly wrong." "All couples start off as Romeo and Juliet and end up as Laurel and Hardy."A gin and tonic for the soul.

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March 15, 2018

David Hedges is glumly coming to terms with his landlord selling his gorgeous San Francisco carriage house and that his younger partner Soren has left him for a wealthier, fitter man, when he gets a phone call that jolts him into action. It's Julie Fiske, the one person he holds most dear, his former wife whom he has not seen in more than 30 years. Julie needs his help, so David flies to her small town north of Boston where she's running an Airbnb in an old, cluttered Victorian. Julie's soon-to-be second ex-husband wants to sell the house, and Julie only has two months to raise enough cash to buy him out. To add to her stress, her daughter Mandy should be applying for college but seems to have taken a wrong turn. David and Julie have a loving relationship despite their bittersweet history, and they each try to figure out a way forward. A colorful cast of less-than-helpful characters add wit and social commentary. VERDICT While the ending is a little too tidy, fans of McCauley (The Object of My Affection; Insignificant Others), who have come to expect his trademark warmth will not object. [Library marketing.]--Christine Perkins, Whatcom Cty. Lib. Syst., Bellingham, WA

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 18, 2018
The wry, bittersweet seventh novel by McCauley (The Object of My Affection) transports its hero into the life that might have been his if things had turned out differently. Fifty-something David Hedges, who makes an adequate living in San Francisco coaching the children of wealthy parents through the college application process, has recently been dumped by his boyfriend, and the cheap apartment he rents is up for sale. So when Julie Fiske, to whom he was briefly married before he came to terms with being gay, asks him to join her at her sprawling, decaying house in a seaside town north of Boston to get her unmotivated daughter, Mandy, in shape for her senior year in high school, he gladly accepts. Plot isn’t McCauley’s strong point: Most readers will see every twist coming, and a subplot involving Mandy’s involvement with a local creep who drives around in a van hitting on teenaged girls has an after-school special feel. It’s the author’s confused but lovable characters, and his plentiful one-liners—like David’s recognition that he “had rarely worked with a parent who did not describe her child as ‘gifted’ ”—that provide the charm. This comedy of manners is a summery confection tinged with awareness of a coming autumn.

Starred review from May 1, 2018
At midlife, David, a college tutor to San Francisco's elite teenagers (or, more correctly, their overbearing parents), finds himself unceremoniously dumped by his boyfriend; several pounds heavier than he'd like to be; and about to be booted from his gloriously low-rent, highly desirable apartment. When he hears from his ex-wife for the first time in decades, just as his life seems to be going up in betrayal-tinged flames, the timing seems meaningful. David and Julie's young marriage ended as amicably as it could have when they both understood that David was gay. Now Julie is desperately trying to buy her second ex-husband out of their seaside Massachusetts home as well as convince him that she's being proactive about their teenage daughter Mandy's future by seeking David's help. David's one-week trip to Beauport quickly becomes open-ended as he helps Julie make her sprawling home more welcoming to Airbnb guests?one of the ways she hopes to stay above water?and peels back flinty but confused Mandy's layers. As in his previous novels, most recently Insignificant Others (2010), McCauley delights with intimately, often hilariously observed characters and a winking wit that lets plenty of honest tenderness shine through. Readers will love spending time in these pages.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)