Marianne’s Pick of the Week: Go Gentle

“It’s not Keep Calm and Carry On. It’s Change Your Perception So You Never Have to Keep Calm and Carry On. Stoics are very passionate people. The key is to be correct in your passions.”

Go Gentle by Maria Semple

Adora Hazzard is living her best life. A fifty-something divorcee residing in the historic Ansonia Hotel on the upper west-side of Manhattan with her “coven” of friends and her teenage daughter Viv. Adora, a philosopher, makes her living as the “moral trainer” to twin tween sons of billionaire Lionel and Layla Lockwood. Life is good.

Who needs a whole loaf of bread for two people? Split it with the coven! A whole gallon of milk? The coven comes to the rescue. Let’s talk about tickets to the theatre, the ballet, and the opera. Who can afford all that? Not Adora, but the coven? Oh yes, those tickets are within reach.

Anyway, you get the picture. Adora is happy. She follows and teaches the Stoics. Not the “grin and bear it” stoics, but the key to happiness is in wanting a virtuous character stoics of Marcus Aurelius. Adora is heading out to the ballet one evening and finds herself with an extra ticket. She offers the seat to a handsome stranger, Digby, and so begins Adora’s adventures in Maria Semple’s newest Go Gentle.

After the ballet, Digby tracks Adora down and asks her to spy on the Lockwoods. Does he work for the CIA, MI5, or some shadow organization?  Are the Lockwoods international art thieves, weapons runners or just your run-of-the mill billionaires? What follows is a zany series of events that ends up with Adora in hiding in France with Viv.  Digby and Adora have off the charts chemistry and a connection (attached to Adora’s back story as a writer for an SNL-type show) that comes as a surprise to both Adora and the reader.

The relationships between Adora and other characters including Viv, the Lockwoods and the newest recruit to the coven are all touching, hilarious and authentic. The plot in this tale is too complicated to go into in depth. My advice is to go along for the ride, the laughs, and the joy. If Semple’s goal in authoring this novel was to explore the wisdom that comes with middle age, the joy of mother-daughter and female friendships; I would wager that she achieved it.

Check out Go Gentle if you enjoyed Where’d You Go Bernadette also by Semple or Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash.