May We Be Forgiven

There is no way you can predict how this new novel from the author of This Book Wil Save Your Life is going to go. It starts with an explosive act of adultery followed swiftly by revenge and tragedy. And that's just in the first 30 pages. Homes deals with and dispenses with major plot points that most authors would spend hundreds of pages over. It's a breezy whirlwind of events that find our protagonist, underachieving Nixon scholar and bullied older brother Harry, living in his brother's house after he's committed for murdering his wife after finding her in bed with Harry, adopting his children, starting a series of precarious one night stand with women off the internet and discovering that Nixon was a secret short story writer.

And that's just before you get halfway through.

Harry is disconnected from his feelings, he feels no guilt, no remorse, nothing but an air of passive aggression to his brother. And the roadtrip of bizarre and surreal adventures and interactions Homes puts him through are all part of his growth as a person in his 60s with cares in the world. Homes also uses the set-up to discuss the horrors of modern America, the internet dates, the text messages, the inability to absorb our histories, the poor diets, the attitudes towards violence and celebrity and all of it brings together one of the most outrageously funny black comedies I've had the pleasure of reading in years.