Molly's Reviews

April FoolApril Fool
John Neufeld
Grey Swan Press

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The „April Fool“ sequence of events opens at not quite midnight; with George Willetts, married, political campaign consultant, middle aged and wanting one last extramarital assignation to carry him through memories into old age. Sitting in the bathroom, checking his pulse and pondering whether he might be suffering more than simple arrhythmia George contemplates his next move. Obviously, should he expire everyone would be sure to learn all his secrets.

Not just Peg his wife and/or Valerie his latest sweety, but everyone. George has a larger problem than the fact that his father had died of a coronary thrombosis, well, he had. His father WAS in his eighties, refused to follow his doctor’s orders following open heart surgery, but he DID die, didn’t he, yes, he did. And, his brother Bobby died of a heart attack in his fifties. George has cause for concern.

George and his wife Peg have moved to a new area where Peg quickly becomes part of the local community and George becomes entrenched in his hypochondria and his desire for that last fling. George keeps reminding himself that he does love his wife, and has no desire to end their marriage even as he pursues trysts via the internet.

Why wouldn’t George wonder if each little skipped heart beat might be his last. Before that situation should take place George is going to have to figure out how to disable his computer, the motherboard in particular he thought, so that no one would be able to learn what he had been doing online.

George’s wife Peg enjoys her life filled with community events, activities and occasions. George, on the other hand, feels life may be slipping by as he becomes a regular visitor at the local hospital due to chest pains which may or may not be in his chest at all. George begins to dream of a better middle age and that better middle age does not include Peg.

George has a quandary; he has begun a relationship with Valerie a woman he knows through the internet. She has no desire to be –the other woman.- George begins to convince himself that if Peg were not in his life; he and Valerie would be able to take pleasure in life to the fullest. George Willett's impractical plan rapidly borders on abnormal as his unusual affiliation with Valerie along with those spur-of-the-moment, trepidation driven midnight trips to the local ER expose a self indulgent oaf who seems not capable of facing what he is himself and sans penitence or culpability formulates plans to rid himself of the wife who has been with him faithfully and supportive for years.

Writer Neufeld's forebodingly comedic narrative, regarding a man having difficulty trying to cope with the recognition that more years of his life are behind him than there are to come; does have moments of drollness laced with more than a little gallows humor as well as, at times, moments of just plain disagreeable and pathetic, and characters that tend to foist themselves into situations they cannot handle.

George is not a particularly likeable guy. He is one of those fellows who thinks things so because that is how HE wants it to be and cannot see the action he is considering will likely lead to his own ruin whether or not he does succeed in removing Peg from his life.

Representative of many of the Baby Boom Generation, George revels in wallowing in his mid life crisis. George is egoistic, regularly exasperating, and often an attention-grabbing hypochondriac who is not a particularly likeable character. Unfortunately he is all too recognizable; most of us have one such relative in our own family. Our own kinfolk may not be quite as heavy handed as is George, however, it may be pretty satisfying to see a relative in him and watch as his life comes apart.

Writer Neufeld's writing is dynamic, hard hitting and presented without a lot of explanation or literary embellishments. George and his problems, real and imagined, are presented in stark reality. His deeds, inner feelings and misdeeds are all there in black and white for the world to view. The current of gallows humor running all the way through the work is minimalist, a little vinegary, and packed with the calamitous life as lived by George.

Settings are nicely developed, draw the reader into the narrative, characters move through the storyline in expected fashion albeit with the ability to hold reader interest tight without being over done. The ending although predictable; is satisfying nonetheless.

„April Fool“ is well written work devised to draw the reader into the action with fully developed character studies. The arc I received for review from the publicist has a list of seventeen stimulating discussion starters included at the back of the book which makes the book very accessible for book club use. Happy to recommend.

 

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© 2008 by Molly Martin