RAY VS THE MEANING OF LIFE - Michael F. Stewart


 Death is inevitable, but that doesn't make it any easy to accept, and when Ray loses his grandmother Ray examines the meaning of life.  ... Not because he's typically philosophical, but because his grandmother instructed him to do so in her will.  

Ray stands to inherit his grandmother's $1Million estate - a success trailer park inhabited by a number of ... unique ... people.  Perhaps misfits and oddballs would better describe the residents.  But to inherit this property, Ray must discover the meaning of life within the next 30 days.  If he doesn't do so, the estate will go to his estranged family. How will Ray know if he's found the answer of not? Grandmother has left the answer in an envelope.

Ray will experience a lifetime's worth of encounters in the next month, from nutjobs to nature, from the sullen to the sanguine, which will only help him to potentially achieving his goal.

I would classify this book as existential humor - sort of the same category into which I would place, Catch-22, A Confederacy of Dunces, or even M*A*S*H. It's not always laugh-out-loud funny (though there may be moments) but the general look at the everyday absurdities of human life has inherent humor and author Michael F. Stewart nicely exposes this through his unusual cast of characters.

I really enjoyed the contrasts and contradictions that Stewart employs to showcase life's absurdities.  This starts right with the concept of finding the meaning of life in a trailer park. Who thinks of a trailer park as a place to discover the meaning of life?

Based on the little bit of description I had read, and based on the goofy cover (I know ... don't judge a book by its cover, but more than one person felt that this cover was representative of the book contents!), I was rather expecting a cheesy, trying-too-hard-to-be-funny sort of book.  It wasn't. This was a solid, character-growth novel with plenty of humor and some nice life-lessons. There are a few moments when Stewart maybe tries a little too hard to either make a point or to be funny, but the overall book is quite sweet.

Looking for a good book? Ray Vs The Meaning of Life by Michael F. Stewart is a delightful, entertaining read.

I received this book as part of Amazon's "First Reads" program.

4 stars

* * * * * *

Ray Vs The Meaning of Life

author: Michael F. Stewart

publisher: The Publishing House

ISBN: 9781989133002

paperback, 284 pages

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

VINYL RESTING PLACE - Olivia Blacke

Image
 Juni Jessup and her two sister, Tansy and Maggie, have gone into business together in their hometown of Cedar River, Texas, opening a combination record store and coffee shop. Vinyl LPs are making a comeback after all, despite critics thinking the medium was dead.  But speaking of 'dead' ... finding a dead body in the supply closet just as they are looking to have a grand opening is not part of the plan.  Juni's life gets more complicated when their uncle, Calvin, already a suspect in the murder, disappears. And the police officer leading the investigation is Juni's EX-boyfriend (who passive-aggressively keeps putting himself back into her life). Convinced that her uncle would never murder anyone, Juni sets out to prove his innocence - which isn't easy since he's making himself look guilty - because Calvin is family and family is EVERYthing to Juni. As readers of my blog know, I'm not a big fan of most cozy mysteries, but the setting caught my eye and my in...
Read more

THE WALLED CITY - Ryan Graudin

Image
  Jin and her sister, Mei Yee, were taken and sold and then sent to the lawless Walled City to serve as prostitutes or slaves to anyone willing to pay. Jin managed to escape her captivity, but not the Walled City and she now lurks about, disguised as a boy and is trying to track down the brothel where her sister is still captive. Jin will work odd delivery jobs to earn a small bit of money and hopefully have a legitimate means of coming in contact with her sister's captors.  This is how she meets up with Dai, a mysterious boy who has somehow managed to avoid running with any of the gangs in the city but he seems to have his own unusual connections, which Jon could desperately use if she has any hope of finding Mei Yee. But Dai has his own desperate needs.  The story is told from the different perspectives of each character and we do bounce around quite a bit as the chapters are generally short. This never bothered me, which is slightly unusual as often I find this techni...
Read more

THE RAVEN THIEF - Gigi Pandian

Image
 With Tempest Raj now a member of the company, Secret Staircase Construction (a company who, as their title suggests, builds mystery-themed, secret rooms inside homes) has finished their first job. Their client now wants to celebrate to kick off her new beginning - new home and new life now that she's divorced from her cheating ex-husband, famous mystery author Corbin Colt. First up, a mock séance to remove any trace of Corbin from the property, led by Tempest's friend, Sanjay.   But during that séance, while all those gathered sat in a dark room holding hands, Corbin's dead body crashes the party, falling across the table in front of everyone. There were eight people in the room, and they were all holding hands, but all the evidence points to one of them being the murderer.  Suspicions point to Ash, Tempest's grandfather, because he was the only one with Corbin's blood on him. Of course, as a doctor, he was also the only one who checked on the body - ...
Read more