The Great Unexpected

May 1, 2019
In his 70s, Joel Monroe proves he has plenty of life left in him despite being held "prisoner" at the Hilltop Nursing Home. Joel shared a room at Hilltop with his wife, Lucey, until he awoke one morning to her unexpected death. When Lucey's bed is given to Mr. Miller, a man in a coma, it only adds to Joel's grief and loneliness. When Miller dies, Joel is not ready to share his life, such as it is, with a new roommate, let alone flamboyant Frank de Selby, a soap opera actor of bygone years. But Frank's not one to take rebuffs seriously, and, after a rough start, the two became unlikely friends. They share heart-wrenching secrets while fighting the powers that be at Hilltop with cranky defiance and passive resistance, pulling off applauseworthy antics such as sharing a pint--or several--at various pubs around town. Mooney addresses issues of aging--and life in general--with humor. Yet at times, while championing issues the elderly face--feeling infantilized, marginalized, hopeless, and forgotten--he delivers a subtle, perhaps unwitting, parody of the aged, painting with a soft stereotypical brush, on occasion making some look silly. Thankfully the characters fall short of becoming caricatures, and the strong message that there is life and value in older folk resonates loud and clear and encouraging. This is a testimony to the powerful medicine that a friend can be. An engaging chuckle about an elderly man who fights to regain the autonomy he deserves.

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August 5, 2019
Mooney (Me, Myself, and Them) tells a witty, endearing tale of a U.K. nursing home resident who is unhappy with his life. Since the death of Joels’ Monroe’s wife, three years ago, Joel’s roommate at the Hilltop Nursing Home has been the comatose Mr. Miller—until he stops breathing and nurses are unable to resuscitate him. After Miller’s death, Frank Adams becomes Joel’s new roommate, and Joel enjoys having someone to talk to even though he and Frank are very different men. Frank is a charming former actor who lost an opportunity to be with the man he loved for fear of coming out as openly gay, while Joel is a curmudgeonly former garage owner despondent over the fact that the nursing home feels like a prison. Joel tells Frank that he wants to commit suicide, and Frank agrees to help Joel come up with a plan for his demise. While working on Joel’s plan, Frank and Joel escape from Hilltop for nighttime adventures, enjoying pints at a pub and clubbing with Joel’s grandchildren. Through Frank’s friendship, Joel starts to believe that life might be worth living after all. Mooney’s novel is filled with humor and touching emotion, providing excellent character development of Frank and Joel and the varied experiences of their lives. This is a real crowd-pleaser.

May 1, 2019
Retired auto mechanic Joel Monroe lives in a nursing home, a place that feels more like a prison to him since his wife passed. He's cranky, severely depressed, and ready to end it all when retired actor Frank de Selby moves into his wife's former bed. Frank and Joel form a quick, if unlikely, friendship that Irish writer Mooney (Me, Myself, and Them, 2017) portrays in unadorned prose. Mooney gives readers a window into a retirement home, a setting that he employs to great effect in this tragicomic portrait of friendship formed late in life. The action occurs over the course of a few weeks and at times develops a bit too slowly; Frank and Joel break out of the home to go for a pint, and then they break out again for another, and then again for another. The book is short on surprises but long on heart, and Mooney's portrayal of this unexpected friendship will delight readers looking for an emotionally astute portrayal of people searching for meaning in their twilight years.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)