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STOP ME IF YOU'VE HEARD THIS ONE

A funny and tender novel about life’s best and worst punchlines.

A lesbian clown walks into a bar and tries to figure out her life.

In Arnett’s new novel, Cherry Hendricks, a 28-year-old part-time aquarium-store worker, wants nothing more than to be a full-time clown. Though her persona Bunko, a rodeo clown terrified of horses, is successful on the Orlando birthday-party circuit, she’s broke because “going rates for clowns are at basement lows.” In addition to her money issues, Cherry is struggling with complicated family dynamics and an increasingly messy love life (including a penchant for “sleeping with people’s moms”). Five years ago, Cherry’s outgoing, hilarious, and successful brother, Dwight, died unexpectedly. In his absence, the already strained relationship between Cherry and her mother, Nancy, who is also a lesbian, is made even worse. Cherry’s life begins to change after a terrible first date with Margot—better known as Margot the Magnificent—who is nearly twice her age. One of Orlando’s finest magicians, Margot finds herself at a strange career crossroads in the wake of her divorce from Portia, her wife and magician’s assistant. Both Cherry and Margot see potential in each other—and begin a relationship that blurs the lines between personal and professional. As they become more closely enmeshed physically and artistically, Cherry must decide what kind of art she wants to make—and what she wants to be remembered for. During an eccentric sex scene near the beginning of the novel, Cherry says that “clowning is an excuse to make everyday life wildly, luxuriously absurd.” Though the novel dips into the absurd, Arnett grounds the characters and relationships beautifully through her signature style of humor and heart. Her writing is particularly strong when exploring the ways we show up for ourselves and our communities—as well as the sacrifices we should and shouldn’t make for our art.

A funny and tender novel about life’s best and worst punchlines.

Pub Date: March 18, 2025

ISBN: 9780593719770

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Riverhead

Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025

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MY FRIENDS

A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.

An artwork’s value grows if you understand the stories of the people who inspired it.

Never in her wildest dreams would foster kid Louisa dream of meeting C. Jat, the famous painter of The One of the Sea, which depicts a group of young teens on a pier on a hot summer’s day. But in Backman’s latest, that’s just what happens—an unexpected (but not unbelievable) set of circumstances causes their paths to collide right before the dying 39-year-old artist’s departure from the world. One of his final acts is to bequeath that painting to Louisa, who has endured a string of violent foster homes since her mother abandoned her as a child. Selling the painting will change her life—but can she do it? Before deciding, she accompanies Ted, one of the artist’s close friends and one of the young teens captured in that celebrated painting, on a train journey to take the artist’s ashes to his hometown. She wants to know all about the painting, which launched Jat’s career at age 14, and the circle of beloved friends who inspired it. The bestselling author of A Man Called Ove (2014) and other novels, Backman gives us a heartwarming story about how these friends, set adrift by the violence and unhappiness of their homes, found each other and created a new definition of family. “You think you’re alone,” one character explains, “but there are others like you, people who stand in front of white walls and blank paper and only see magical things. One day one of them will recognize you and call out: ‘You’re one of us!’” As Ted tells stories about his friends—how Jat doubted his talents but found a champion in fiery Joar, who took on every bully to defend him; how Ali brought an excitement to their circle that was “like a blinding light, like a heart attack”—Louisa recognizes herself as a kindred soul and feels a calling to realize her own artistic gifts. What she decides to do with the painting is part of a caper worthy of the stories that Ted tells her. The novel is humorous, poignant, and always life-affirming, even when describing the bleakness of the teens’ early lives. “Art is a fragile magic, just like love,” as someone tells Louisa, “and that’s humanity’s only defense against death.”

A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.

Pub Date: May 6, 2025

ISBN: 9781982112820

Page Count: 448

Publisher: Atria

Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025

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THE WEDDING PEOPLE

Uneven but fitfully amusing.

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  • New York Times Bestseller

Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.

Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.

Uneven but fitfully amusing.

Pub Date: July 30, 2024

ISBN: 9781250899576

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Henry Holt

Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024

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