Cheer Up, Mr. Widdicombe

James, Evan

2.83

540 ratings by Goodreads

ISBN 10: 1508284210 ISBN 13: 9781508284215

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio, 2019

Named one of 2019 s most anticipated reads by Entertainment Weekly, a hilarious and witty joy of a novel about a family s insanely dramatic summer at their new island home (Cosmopolitan) in the Pacific Northwest.

The inimitable some might say incorrigible Frank Widdicombe is suffering from a deep depression. Or so his wife, Carol, believes. But Carol is convinced that their new island home Willowbrook Manor on the Puget Sound is just the thing to cheer him up. And so begins a whirlwind summer as their house becomes the epicenter of multiple social dramas involving the family, their friends, and a host of new acquaintances.

The Widdicombes son, Christopher, is mourning a heartbreak after a year abroad in Italy. Their personal assistant, Michelle, begins a romance with preppy screenwriter Bradford, who also happens to be Frank s tennis partner. Meanwhile, a local named Marvelous Matthews is hired to create a garden at the manor and is elated to find Gracie Sloane, bewitching self-help author, in residence as well. When this alternately bumbling and clever cast of characters comes together, they turn as frothy and bitter as a pot of freshly brewed dark-roast coffee, the kind that s always available on the Widdicombe s sideboard. And the dialogue, oh how it singes and sears (The Washington Post).

A gleefully over-the-top satiric debut (Kirkus Reviews), Cheer Up, Mr. Widdicombe is perfect for fans of Maria Semple s Where d You Go, Bernadette?, Andrew Sean Greer s Less, and Jess Walter s Beautiful Ruins.

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About the Author:

Evan James is an award-winning writer whose personal essays and fiction have appeared in such publications as the Oxford American, Travel + Leisure, and the New York Times, among others. He received an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and has received fellowships from Yaddo, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Carson McCullers Center, the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation, the University of Iowa, and the Lambda Literary Writers' Retreat, where he was a 2017 Emerging LGBTQ Voices Fellow. He has taught at the University of Iowa, the Iowa Young Writers' Studio, and Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. Born in Seattle, he now lives in New York and teaches creative writing and English at Pierrepont School in Westport, Connecticut.

Review:

Had me smiling from the very first page, and long after I put it down. Evan James writes dysfunctional characters with more wit, compassion, and heart than any writer I've come across in a long time. This is an enormously satisfying debut.

--"Grant Ginder, author of The People We Hate at the Wedding"

An assured, big-hearted debut, as tender as it is hilarious. Evan James' wry intelligence and sense of the absurd are an absolute delight.

--"R. O. Kwon, author of The Incendiaries"

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