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David Hedges's life is coming apart at the seams.
His job helping San Francisco rich kids get into the colleges of their (parents') choice is exasperating; his younger boyfriend has left him; and the beloved carriage house he rents is being sold. His solace is a Thai takeout joint that delivers 24/7.
The last person he expects to hear from is Julie Fiske. It's been decades since they've spoken, and he's relieved to hear she's recovered from her brief, misguided first marriage. To him.
Julie definitely doesn't have a problem with marijuana (she's given it up completely, so it doesn't matter if she gets stoned almost daily) and the Airbnb she's running out of her seaside house north of Boston is neither shabby nor illegal. And she has two whole months to come up with the money to buy said house from her second husband before their divorce is finalized. She'd just like David's help organizing college plans for her seventeen-year-old daughter.
That would be Mandy. To quote Barry Manilow, Oh Mandy. While she knows she's smarter than most of the kids in her school, she can't figure out why she's making so many incredibly dumb and increasingly dangerous choices?
When David flies east, they find themselves living under the same roof (one David needs to repair). David and Julie pick up exactly where they left off thirty years ago―they're still best friends who can finish each other's sentences. But there's one broken bit between them that no amount of home renovations will fix.
In prose filled with hilarious and heartbreakingly accurate one-liners, Stephen McCauley has written a novel that examines how we define home, family, and love. Be prepared to laugh, shed a few tears, and have thoughts of your own ex-life triggered. (Throw pillows optional.)
"McCauley delights with intimately, often hilariously observed characters and a winking wit that lets plenty of honest tenderness shine through. Readers will love spending time in these pages." ―Booklist (starred review)
"Wickedly funny…. For all the idiosyncrasies of McCauley's creations, it's likely many readers will see aspects of their own lives reflected in these pages." ―BookPage
"McCauley's effervescent prose is full of wit and wisdom on every topic―college application essays, Airbnb operation, weed addiction, live porn websites, and, most of all, people....A gin and tonic for the soul." ―Kirkus Reviews
"This comedy of manners is a summery confection tinged with awareness of a coming autumn." ―Publishers Weekly
"My Ex-Life is Steve McCauley's best novel so far―and that's saying a lot. For those of us who devoured his previous books and eagerly awaited another, My Ex-Life is cause for celebration. McCauley's trademark wit and cultural commentary is all here, as is a cast of smart, complicated, heart-sore characters…. You're going to love My Ex-Life." ―Anita Diamant, author of The Boston Girl and The Red Tent
"This wonderful novel has its finger on the pulse of the present, but the questions it asks―about family and the ineluctable past and the strange, sustaining grace of friendship―are as timeless as the elegance and craft of its prose. Stephen McCauley is a master, one of our wisest and funniest observers of American life." ―Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to You
This information about My Ex-Life was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Stephen McCauley is the author of The Object of My Affection, True Enough, and Alternatives to Sex. Many of his books have been national bestsellers, and three have been made into feature films. The New York Times Book Review dubbed McCauley "the secret love child of Edith Wharton and Woody Allen", and he was named a Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture. His fiction, reviews, and articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Harper's, Vogue, and many other publications. He currently serves as Co-Director of Creative Writing at Brandeis University. He has several properties listed on Airbnb in Massachusetts and New York and owns a total of zero toss pillows.
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