Good for Nothing
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
"Enchanted by Good For Nothing..." --Stephen Fry
"This book could be the lovechild of Bill Bryson and Martin Amis.... But at its heart is a very serious point. It is about the tsunami of destruction that has hit Middle America since the financial crisis." --Daily Mail
Flip Mellis believes his recent past would be best described as: a man with his feet planted on terra firma. As a husband and father, he was a consistent breadwinner. As a business professional, he was a go-getter. For twenty years, he did all that was expected of him, if not much more.
But a job loss in his middle years, in the midst of a national economic crisis, has knocked Flip squarely on his big, soft ass, where he has been wallowing for nearly a year.
Over the course of one hectic week, replete with a cast of colorful characters, Flip is forced by circumstances of his own invention to finally get his life headed in the right direction. Like a pudgy, irritable toddler, he carefully tests his balance and lurches forward, stumbling around absurd obstacles and grasping for any solid purchase. Ultimately a spark of human resilience locked deep within his core begins to spread. The question becomes: will Flip's best efforts be enough to lead him safely to redemption or will they merely lead to a futile, purely graceless, and quixotic crash?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Flip Mellis is a hapless middle-age man, fat and lazy, fired from his job, kicked out by his fed-up wife, and wallowing in self-pity and failure. He can't even commit suicide. Graham's second novel (after Missing People) is a quirky and grim portrayal of a man's life circling the drain; he knows it but is powerless to change anything, despite his empty words of hope. There is dark humor here, and the story is by turns hilarious and poignant. Flip stumbles from one goofy misunderstanding to another, chowing down on Lucky Charms and beer for breakfast, and burgers and glazed-donut shakes for lunch, convinced that "thinking never helped anything." He ends up living at the dumpy Lakeside Motor Court (the location is unspecified), planning for a job interview he knows he will blow, and promising his shrink that he won't try to kill himself for at least one more week. Flip's other dilemmas include deliberately damaging a police car, shoplifting, exposing himself in a bar, and making bad deals in a pawn shop. In this tragic comedy, nothing Flip does or says turns out well for him, and the laughs are all at his expense. Graham's message is clear: don't be like Flip.
