Jonathan Unleashed
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4.0 • 4 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
The first adult novel from acclaimed, bestselling author Meg Rosoff, a perfect summer read about a young New Yorker whose career and love life are turned upside down when he starts taking care of his brother's two dogs.
Jonathan is a copywriter at Comrade advertising agency, working on the most lucrative and most numbingly tedious account, Broadway Depot. His best friend Max works at the next desk, keeping him sane. Jonathan's girlfriend, Julie, works for Bridal 360, an online wedding magazine. When Julie suggests they get married for a live online wedding feature, Jonathan finds himself on a conveyor belt, hurtling towards the rest of his life.
When his brother asks him to look after his dogs, Jonathan begins to see the world around him differently. Could a border collie and a cocker spaniel hold the key to his true happiness? Their sly maneuvering on daily walks and visits to Dr. Clare, the lady vet, suggest that dog sense is several notches higher than human emotional intelligence.
A contemporary romantic comedy set in Manhattan, Jonathan Unleashed is as much a love letter to the city as it is a story about tangled relationships, and dogs. Hilarious, wise and heart-warming, Meg Rosoff's novel will touch a nerve with anyone thinking about what they really want to do with their lives, and which eddy they might allow themselves to be caught in.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Rosoff's buoyant, witty, but less than satisfying seventh novel follows Jonathan Trefoil's fumbling attempts at adulthood in Manhattan. When Jonathan's brother asks him to look after his border collie, Dante, and spaniel, Sissy, the pets give Jonathan purpose, and Rosoff (How I Live Now) is memorably funny on the foibles of dog owners. The book veers into wicked satire when Jonathan starts at Comrade, an advertising agency where everyone is "young, attractive, fashionable, underpaid, exploited, and full of existential rage." Jonathan's longtime girlfriend, Julie Cormorant, meanwhile, works at Bridal-360 magazine. Rosoff casts them as a plausible odd couple: he's a nervy art school grad, and she's a sensible salesperson. But after their engagement, incited by the offer of a free, live-streamed wedding to help promote Bridal-360, it's clear to everyone including Jonathan's best friend, parents, coworkers, and subconscious that the wedding is a mistake. As he nurses crushes on other people and ignores repeated warnings not to marry Julie, Jonathan becomes an ineffectual, unconvincing protagonist. The plot's resolution depends on heavy-handed coincidences and canine antics. It's a disappointing conclusion to a frequently thoughtful comedy by an author whose accolades include the Printz Award and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize.
