I See You've Called In Dead Book Review: If You're in Your "What Am I Doing" Era, This One Hits

Rating: ★★★★★

"I See You've Called In Dead" Book Review:

The pitch for this one is The Office meets Six Feet Under meets About a Boy, and honestly? That's pretty accurate. It's about a middle-aged guy whose life has basically fallen apart. Job's gone, marriage is gone, he's lost the plot. And he gets this unexpected second chance to figure out who he actually wants to be.

John Kenney was a copywriter for years before he started writing fiction, and you can feel that background in the prose. He's economical. He knows how to land a joke in as few words as possible. But what surprised me is how much emotional range he has underneath the humor. This isn't a book that uses comedy as a shield. It uses comedy as a way in.

That feeling of being forty-something and wondering if you missed your own story? This book gets that in a way that felt almost uncomfortably personal. The main character isn't a lovable mess. He's a real mess. He's made actual mistakes and hurt actual people and now he's sitting in the wreckage trying to figure out if there's still time to become someone worth being. Kenney writes that confusion with real warmth, even when the character is being an idiot. Especially when he's being an idiot.

The structure works well too. There's a lightness to the pacing that keeps things moving, but every few chapters something lands that stops you. A line about regret. A conversation that goes sideways. The kind of moment where you're laughing and then suddenly you're not.

If you're in your "what am I doing with my life" era, or you've ever been there, this one's going to hit. Four stars. Highly recommend.

If You Liked I See You've Called In Dead, Try:

• Less by Andrew Sean Greer — A Pulitzer-winning comic novel about a middle-aged writer fleeing his problems on a haphazard world tour. Same blend of genuine pathos and wit about aging and reinvention.

• Straight Man by Richard Russo — The gold standard for the "funny man in crisis" novel. Same observational humor about the gap between who we thought we'd become and who we actually are.

• A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman — A curmudgeon whose rigid routines mask deep grief gets pulled back into life. Same trick of making you laugh while quietly breaking your heart.

From Luke Stoffel's Bookshelf

If this book review resonated with you, if you love a Huck Finn story, then check out my memoir How to Win a Million Dollars — a story about chasing impossible dreams, finding yourself in unexpected places, and learning what really matters along the way. howtowinamilliondollars.com

How to Win One Million Dollars and Shit Glitter by Luke Stoffel