Good Luck of Right Now (Quick)

The Good Luck of Right Now 
Matthew Quick, 2014
HarperCollins
304 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062285539


Summary
Call it fate
Call it synchronicity
Call it an act of God
Call it . . .
The Good Luck of Right Now

For thirty-eight years, Bartholomew Neil has lived with his mother. When she gets sick and dies, he has no idea how to be on his own. He thinks he's found a clue when he discovers a "Free Tibet" letter from Richard Gere hidden in his mother's underwear drawer. In her final days, Mom called him Richard—there must be a cosmic connection.

Believing that the actor is meant to help him, ­Bartholomew awkwardly starts his new life, writing Richard Gere a series of letters. Jung and the Dalai Lama, ­phi­losophy and faith, alien abduction and cat ­telepathy are all explored in his soul-baring ­epistles. But mostly the letters reveal one man's heartbreakingly earnest ­attempt to assemble a family of his own.

A struggling priest, a "Girlbrarian," her feline-loving, foulmouthed brother, and the spirit of Richard Gere all join the quest to help Bartholomew. In a rented Ford Focus, they travel to Canada to see the Cat Parliament and find his biological father...and discover so much more. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—October 23, 1972
• Raised—Oaklyn, New Jersey, USA
• Education—B.A., LaSalle University; M.F.A, Goddard College
• Currently—lives in Holden, Massachusetts


Matthew Quick is an American author of young adult and fiction novels. His debut novel, The Silver Linings Playbook, was adapted into a movie, starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, with Robert De Niro, Jackie Weaver, and Chris Tucker.

His other novels include Sorta Like a Rockstar (2010), Boy21 (2012), Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock (2013) and The Good Luck for Right Now (2014). Quick was finalist for a 2009 PEN/Hemingway Award, and his work has been translated into several languages.

Quick grew up in Oaklyn, New Jersey. He has a degree in English literature from La Salle University and an MFA from Goddard College. He left his job as a tenured English teacher in Haddonfield, New Jersey, to write his first novel while living in Collingswood, New Jersey. He now lives in Holden, Massachusetts with his wife, novelist Alicia Bessette. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 02/17/2014.)

Book Reviews
[A] quirky coming-of-age story about an earnest, guileless 38-year-old man with a dyspeptic stomach...[whose] motley flock slowly takes form, including the bipolar priest he's known his whole life, a foulmouthed paranoid grieving for his dead cat, and the paranoid's depressed sister.... Quick writes with an engaging intimacy, capturing his narrator's innocence and off-kilter philosophy, and the damaged souls in orbit around him
Publishers Weekly


Quick, the author of The Silver Linings Playbook, provides another offbeat gem populated with eccentric, fallible, intensely human characters…. Humor, pathos, and quirky bends in the road define they odyssey, making it increasingly clear that it is all about the journey, not the destination.
Booklist


(Starred review.) Quirky, feel-good.... [Neil] Bartholomew...is something of a holy innocent. He becomes enamored with the "Girlbrarian," a woman he falls platonically in love with at the library he haunts. Through synchronicity (a key concept in the novel), it turns out the Girlbrarian, Elizabeth, has a brother, Max...and the novel switches to a road trip to Canada.... A whimsical, clever narrative.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
1. Bartholomew becomes somewhat obsessed with Jung and synchronicity. Two events linked not by causes but by meaning to a certain individual—we often call this coincidence. What is the most memorable coincidence you have personally experienced? Did it challenge or reinforce your personal beliefs? How so?

2. The little man in Bartholomew’s stomach often calls him a "retard." Others have called him similar names in the past. In your opinion, is Bartholomew mentally challenged? What are his strengths and weaknesses?

3. At the end of chapter seven, Bartholomew’s mother says, "most people don’t measure intelligence the right way." Do you agree or disagree? Why?

4. How do Bartholomew’s inherited religious views (Catholicism and his mother’s ‘Good Luck’ theory) help him? How do these worldviews limit him? Compare these views to Max’s belief in aliens.

5. Is Father McNamee a good priest? Is he a good person? Defend your point of view.

6. Compare Wendy and Elizabeth. What do they have in common? How are they different? Who is better suited to help Bartholomew? Why?

7. At the end of Chapter 10 Bartholomew quotes the Dalai Lama. "Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength." Which characters do this? How does it affect their lives?

8. Why does Max say "fuck" so much? Did his repetitive use of the word make you laugh, did it frustrate you, or did it have no effect on you whatsoever? What does your answer to that last question say about you?

9. How does Bartholomew save Elizabeth? What exactly does he do? Why does his involvement make a difference? Is he a hero? Why or why not?

10. Discuss Richard Gere’s role in the story. Serendipity links Gere to our protagonist, but the Pretty Woman lead (or Bartholomew’s fictional version of him) turns out to be—in so many ways—the perfect mentor for our protagonist. If you had to research a celebrity and write him/her intimate letters, who would it be? Why? What would you hope to learn?

11. In the last chapter, Max gives an impassioned speech about Cat Parliament. Bartholomew and Elizabeth allow Max to watch the cats for a long time afterward, even though he looks odd amongst the children. When was the last time you gave yourself permission to fully enjoy an experience that others might label foolish or odd? Have you ever risked your reputation to allow a loved one access to beauty or joy? Was it worth it?

12. What can we learn from Bartholomew Neil?
(Questions issued by publisher.)

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