As usual, I wonder if this would be funnier if David read the stories out loud instead of me. I need to get this on audio at a later date.
Man, talk about bad timing. The first story has David and his sister going to a shooting range. I read this just a few days after the shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Ugh. But then, when can you publish a book in the United States that isn't near a shooting? But that beginning was in its own way appropriate, as the book is darker than a lot of his. His father is in a nursing home, failing, and eventually dies. COVID. The subjects just plain aren't fun no matter what. And David isn't crazy--he's not going to force humor into inappropriate places. So there's more of a dark and melancholy tone here. Also the book is rather on the shorter side.
That said, I still super enjoyed it. I still will read pretty much everything he writes. I loved the story about him walking in Manhattan in the middle of the night during COVID lockdowns, and that his sister's rabbit is destroying her apartment (she bought the apartment upstairs but isn't connecting them so she can escape the rabbit.) I wish the world outside wasn't intruding as much. Previous books are almost out of time as they often don't refer to current events at all, and I wish this one too had given me a reprieve. But it was still comforting to hear David telling me about his weird shopping trips and picking up trash and how his family gets along (or doesn't) with Hugh. Reliable, if a little less funny than usual. Here's hoping his next book is published into a sunnier climate.
I bought this book at South Main Book Company, an independent bookstore in Salisbury, North Carolina.
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