From the Publisher
The author of The Silver Linings Playbook delivers another engaging and screen-ready dramedy about an irascible misfit on a mission for closure.” — Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“The role of David Granger may someday be played by an Oscar-hungry actor. But that shouldn’t distract from the vivid, high-definition protagonist that already glows from the page.... That candor and honesty gives this first-person narrative its potency. It also supplies the humor.” — St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“The Reason You’re Alive is fundamentally about the power to forgive both yourself and others.... Quick forces both readers and characters to reexamine their first impressions through his narrator.... In classic Quick fashion, the novel is full of intriguing supporting characters.” — AV Club
“Dark, funny, and surprisingly tender.” — Publishers Weekly
“A scorching family drama. The Reason You’re Alive is narrated with ire and eloquence by David Granger... It’s as if Holden Caulfield grew up to be a reflective, even soulful, Archie Bunker.... A touching, old-fashioned drama about the ties that sometimes choke, but always bind.” — BookPage
“Surprising.... At the core of the novel is the voice of David Granger, a combination of Archie Bunker and Marlow of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.... A valuable addition to fiction about the tangled aftereffects of Vietnam on soldiers in the field.” — Kirkus
“A book of unexpected turns, a fun and funny narrative intermixed with many dark plot lines, The Reason You’re Alive is a poignant work and a must-read this summer.” — New York Journal of Books
“This new novel from the author of Silver Linings Playbook spotlights an unlikely hero, and a father-son relationship, with wry warmth and humor.” — National Book Review
“Poignant and uproarious…. A novel that thrums with energy…. A vibrant and compassionate tale of a complex man finding his way in a divided America.” — Minneapolis StarTribune
“Touching and often laugh-out-loud funny.” — Asheville Citizen-Times
“An extremely powerful book.” — The Missourian
“Quick has an amazing ability to build characters who are big-hearted and hopeful even in the face of great tragedy, heartbreak, and trauma. In this case, once you get beneath the camo and insults, you begin to really see Granger.” — Writer’s Bone
“David’s voice is completely distinctive and compelling — one that captures your attention from the first paragraph. David’s story will leave readers laughing one minute and crying the next. Another hit from Quick!” — RT Book Reviews
“Inspiring... Matthew Quick has a way with wounded characters.” — Boston Globe, on Love May Fail
“A gratifying romp….Fans of The Silver Linings Playbook know Quick’s penchant for emotionally troubled, big-hearted characters, and Good Luck will satisfy those readers and new ones alike.” — People, Three Stars, on Good Luck of Right Now
“It’s impossible not to love each of these deeply flawed characters….As funny as it is touching, Quick’s latest effort is on par with Silver Linings.” — USA Today, Four Stars, on Good Luck of Right Now
BookPage
A scorching family drama. The Reason You’re Alive is narrated with ire and eloquence by David Granger... It’s as if Holden Caulfield grew up to be a reflective, even soulful, Archie Bunker.... A touching, old-fashioned drama about the ties that sometimes choke, but always bind.
Asheville Citizen-Times
Touching and often laugh-out-loud funny.
Minneapolis StarTribune
Poignant and uproarious…. A novel that thrums with energy…. A vibrant and compassionate tale of a complex man finding his way in a divided America.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The author of The Silver Linings Playbook delivers another engaging and screen-ready dramedy about an irascible misfit on a mission for closure.
New York Journal of Books
A book of unexpected turns, a fun and funny narrative intermixed with many dark plot lines, The Reason You’re Alive is a poignant work and a must-read this summer.
AV Club
“The Reason You’re Alive is fundamentally about the power to forgive both yourself and others.... Quick forces both readers and characters to reexamine their first impressions through his narrator.... In classic Quick fashion, the novel is full of intriguing supporting characters.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The role of David Granger may someday be played by an Oscar-hungry actor. But that shouldn’t distract from the vivid, high-definition protagonist that already glows from the page.... That candor and honesty gives this first-person narrative its potency. It also supplies the humor.
National Book Review
This new novel from the author of Silver Linings Playbook spotlights an unlikely hero, and a father-son relationship, with wry warmth and humor.
USA Today
It’s impossible not to love each of these deeply flawed characters….As funny as it is touching, Quick’s latest effort is on par with Silver Linings.
RT Book Reviews
David’s voice is completely distinctive and compelling — one that captures your attention from the first paragraph. David’s story will leave readers laughing one minute and crying the next. Another hit from Quick!
The Missourian
An extremely powerful book.
Three Stars People
A gratifying romp….Fans of The Silver Linings Playbook know Quick’s penchant for emotionally troubled, big-hearted characters, and Good Luck will satisfy those readers and new ones alike.
Writer’s Bone
Quick has an amazing ability to build characters who are big-hearted and hopeful even in the face of great tragedy, heartbreak, and trauma. In this case, once you get beneath the camo and insults, you begin to really see Granger.
Boston Globe
Inspiring... Matthew Quick has a way with wounded characters.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The author of The Silver Linings Playbook delivers another engaging and screen-ready dramedy about an irascible misfit on a mission for closure.
USA Today
It’s impossible not to love each of these deeply flawed characters….As funny as it is touching, Quick’s latest effort is on par with Silver Linings.
Booklist (starred review)
A compact powerhouse of a novel. . . . it’s subversive, unexpected, and utterly compelling.
Writer's Bone
Quick has an amazing ability to build characters who are big-hearted and hopeful even in the face of great tragedy, heartbreak, and trauma. In this case, once you get beneath the camo and insults, you begin to really see Granger.
AUGUST 2017 - AudioFile
Narrator R.C. Bray brings the contentious, gruff yet thoughtful main character of this moving novel to life. David Granger, a Vietnam combat veteran who is coping with demons from his years of active duty, is now facing life after a brain cancer diagnosis. Granger speaks to the listener about his estrangement from his wife, slowly revealing family secrets that shed light on his life and worldview. Granger isn’t subtle; he’s direct, brash, and opinionated, but he occasionally allows his conflicts and demons to be exposed. Bray understands this character, and his performance, which consistently hits the dramatic, shocking, and humorous notes expertly, is simply remarkable. This is one of the best matches of material to narrator this year. S.P.C. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2017-04-18
A veteran tries to come to terms with the traumatic experiences he had a generation earlier in Vietnam.At the core of the novel is the voice of David Granger, a combination of Archie Bunker and Marlow of Conrad's Heart of Darkness. When the novel opens, Granger is 68, and he's still haunted by his experiences in Vietnam. There, he'd witnessed darkness and violence on an unimaginable scale and was complicit in that violence. His postwar life included "some crazy time in a military loony bin in Kansas," and every day he still dresses top to toe in camouflage and carries a sidearm in an ankle holster. His wife now dead, Granger contemptuously patronizes his son, Hank, an art dealer. (His wife, an artist, had named their son Henri Rousseau Granger, but David can't stomach the effete name.) David is casual and defensive about his prejudices, and he both recognizes and denies these prejudices in equal measure. But the narrator is not wholly unsympathetic—he had obviously deeply loved his wife, and he dotes on his 7-year-old granddaughter, Ella. After a terrible car crash that leads to the discovery of a brain tumor David attributes to his long-ago exposure to Agent Orange, he decides to "right a wrong" he committed during the war. He stole a knife from Clayton Fire Bear, a Native American who collected scalps as part of his own traumatic war experience. With the help of a buddy of his from his Vietnam days, Granger goes on a quest to find the elusive Fire Bear. The final reunion with Fire Bear, now a lawyer, is far more surprising than what Granger had expected or imagined. A valuable addition to fiction about the tangled aftereffects of Vietnam on soldiers in the field.
