Have you ever been stuck in a situation by your own white lie?
How Not to Die Alone by Richard Roper is about Andrew, a middle aged man who searches for the next of kin of the recently deceased. He spends most of his time alone with his Ella Fitzgerald records. Andrew has told his co-workers that he is married with two children and it’s getting harder to maintain the lie. When a new co-worker, Peggy, enters his life, Andrew has to decide whether he going to tell the truth about his imaginary family.
Andrew seems like a decent guy who got mixed up in telling this weird lie. I really wanted him to be able to move on and have a relationship with Peggy. Peggy also has an alcoholic husband. So there’s another hurdle that Andrew needs to clear before he can even think about dating Peggy.
I wondered how the office would deal with the situation. Would he be fired for making up a family? Is Andrew’s lie worse than the co-worker with terrible hygiene and manners? It probably isn’t.
If you’ve ever had a co-worker with bad hygiene or manners– body odor, terrible breath, licking their fingers while eating etc. – then you know. (Licking your fingers while eating might not be bad manners, just irritating. So gross.) Lies are terrible but smelling bad in close quarters with other people is something difficult to deal with.
This book was funny and also had some more poignant moments. Once I got past the part with the finger licking co-worker, it was worth the read.
- I received this ebook from NetGalley in exchange for doing a review. All opinions are mine. Obviously.
