Almost three years ago I reviewed Benjamin Markovits’s The Sidekick, a surprising choice for me as there’s a good deal about basketball in it but I enjoyed it enough to accept the offer of a review copy of The Rest of Our Lives. Billed appealingly as a road novel, it follows fifty-five-year-old Tom Layward whose daughter is about to start college leaving an empty nest behind her.
I liked watching them leave the house together, even if it meant Amy and I had a taste of things to come, staring at each other across the dining table.
Tom and Amy have been together for three decades, meeting when he was a PhD student harbouring plans to become a writer. They come from wildly different backgrounds: Amy from the kind of wealthy family that has a Cape Cod holiday home; Tom brought up by a mother who struggled after the departure of his father just after the birth of their second child. Tom swapped literature for law while Amy gave up her faltering career when Michael was born, followed six years later by Miriam. When Michael was twelve, Amy had an affair which, brief as it was, cast a long shadow over their marriage. Tom promised himself he’d leave once Miriam settled into her new life. He has other problems to deal with: his health seems to be a concern to everyone, but his doctor and he’s been suspended from his professorship for his political stance, unbeknownst to Amy. After driving his daughter to Pittsburgh, Tom sets off on an odyssey not quite knowing where he’s going, talking to Amy in his head as he drives.
She had lived in Paris for two years as a girl; her French was practically native. In fact, when I listened to her talk it was a gentle reminder of what her personality used to be like, before being slowly eroded by long association with me.
Markovits sets the scene for Tom’s journey, beginning with the family reunion for Miriam’s last weekend, before he sets off across the country, revisiting friends, an ex-lover and his brother as he tries to decide the next turn his life should take. Along the way, he talks to the version of Amy he remembers when they first met, ignoring the messages from his present-day wife. We’re in classic mid-life crisis territory as Tom remembers his youth, wonders about resurrecting the idea he had for a novel, broods on Amy’s affair and what their future life together might be if there is to be one. He’s a man out of step with modern sensibilities, finding out-and-out racism repugnant but failing to understand why lumping Japanese and Korean cuisines together into ‘Asian food’ could be considered insulting. Markovits brings his novel to a close with the kind of crisis that might be expected in a middle-aged man. I enjoyed this one for its structure – I do love a road novel, and a movie even more so – but I’m not sure I’ll be reading another book by Markovits.
Faber & Faber London 9780571388547 240 pages Hardback (read via NetGalley)
I’d seen praise for this elsewhere, but I don’t think it’s for me.
I think you can safely leave this one, Cathy.
I like a road novel, but I’m not sure there’s enough here that sounds particularly inventive for me to give it a try. Which is a relief as my TBR is reaching overwhelming levels!
I don’t think you need to worry about this one!
I do like road books but the impression I am getting from the review is that the storyline might not be robust enough for me.
The road novel structure carried it for me but the male mid-life crisis theme seemed a tad tired.
I agree with Madame Bibliophile!
Very wise! One fewer for the toppling tbr.
I read A Weekend in New York and didn’t think enough of it to read any more by Markovits.
I think this will be my last by him.
Aw, that quote about the language and personality…sad. But I feel like I’ve witnessed that a couple of times IRL.
Sad, indeed. I found myself sympathising with Amy more than a few times.
The male midlife crisis is such a recurring feature of American fiction. I feel I overdosed quite some time ago.
I’ll be steering clear of that theme for a while!
I knew I’d read something by him but I had to Google it. Apparently it was Either Side of Winter. This also sounds a bit forgettable.
I’ve a feeling I’ll only remember it because I reviewed it.