What is wrong with you? A novel

Review by Booklist Review

Thanks to a "sensitivity associate," Rob Barnett, a gay white guy about to turn 60, is fired from his job as an editor for championing a politically incorrect (to put it mildly) book by "an exciting, highly original young author named Tremble Woodspill (her real name)." It's been a year and two days since Rob's husband Jake died of ALS. In the meantime, Rob's trainer, Sean, has persuaded Rob to go with him to Maine to attend his ex-wife's marriage to Trone Meston, the third richest man in the world. Rob's best friend Paolo joins them, trying to escape a stalker. And Tremble is headed to Maine, too, to save Rob . . . and her book! Soon, some surprising others show up as well to keep the plot pot boiling. Rudnick's latest is a page-turning doozy filled with laugh-out-loud moments ("Being rich is so much work, but I bet there's okay food.") Playwright and author Rudnick (Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style, 2023) is famously witty and clever--on display here to readers' great delight. There isn't a dull moment to be found in this book that proves the sometimes-undervalued importance of humor in literature.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In this hilarious farce from Rudnick (Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style), a destination wedding goes extravagantly awry. Tech billionaire Trone Meston is set to marry his flight attendant fiancé, Linda Kleinschmidt, on Artemis Island, a private retreat he owns off the coast of Maine. Among the guests are Linda's bodybuilder ex-husband, Sean Manginaro, a former TV star who was "bodysurfing an ocean of nubile, pre-lubed, equally libidinous women" before he met Linda, and who misses the stability she provided. Also invited is Isabelle McNally, a sensitivity reader for a publishing company owned by Trone. She's followed to the island by literary wunderkind Tremble Woodspill, whose editor, Rob Barnett, lost his job after rejecting notes from Isabelle on Tremble's novel. Other interlopers include Rob's friend Paolo, who's attempting to evade a stalker he met on a gay dating app. As the weekend progresses, the subplots intersect in delightful fashion. Sean grows convinced Linda wants him back, Isabelle tries to get Trone for herself, and Tremble attempts to persuade Isabelle to help Rob get rehired. It's all carried along by Rudnick's delicious wit and keen eye for detail ("It's Ralph Lauren Prairie meets Embassy Suites in Akron," Paolo says of the lobby in Alchemy Hall, the island's estate and conference center). Readers will relish this comedy of errors. Agent: Esmond Harmsworth, Aevitas Creative Management. (Mar.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Review by Library Journal Review

As Carl Hiaasen's novels do for Florida, Rudnick's (Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style) work does for the New York region. Rob, a book editor mourning the death of his husband, loses his job. He then accompanies Sean, his longtime trainer, to the private-island wedding of Sean's ex-wife and a tech billionaire. Teeming with eccentric characters and too many plot points, this work is nevertheless, a very fun read. Rudnick's screenwriting abilities (he penned 1997's In & Out) show through in his beautifully weird dialogue. Most of the characters' backstories are absurd, but still lived-in and fully imagined. The book alternates between the perspectives of each character, with a focus on the friendship between Rob and Sean. Rudnick pokes fun at modern technology and late-stage capitalism, portraying Trone (the billionaire who is marrying Sean's ex) as a kind of unholy amalgamation of the various real tech billionaires of today. VERDICT In the end, the plot does not matter, really; what makes Rudnick's book so memorable are the well-drawn friendships among characters, their allegiance to one another, and a surprisingly touching reflection on love, trust, and the passage of time.--Julie Feighery

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

A very 21st-century wedding brings together a thoroughly modern cast of characters…and a nice, old-school gay book editor. Whatever modern trend has got you down--political correctness, health and wellness, device madness, you name it--Rudnick skewers it in his latest comedy of manners. At its center is a lovely man named Rob who has recently lost his longtime partner to ALS. His best remaining friend is a personal trainer/action movie actor named Sean, whose flight attendant ex-wife, Linda, is about to marry a kinder, gentler Zuckerberg/Musk master-of-the-universe-type named Trone Meston, whose devices have completely taken over "life as we fucking know it," which also happens to be the title of a debut novel Rob has just gotten fired over, thanks to a young "sensitivity associate" named Isabelle McNally. There are a slew of hilarious characters and connections, remarkably easy to keep straight once you're into it but not to be further detailed here. The whole gang, it turns out, is headed to Maine for Trone and Linda's wedding, which will also be the product reveal of the most revolutionary device Trone has ever introduced. A few examples of the bacchanalia that are Rudnick's sentences: "Isabelle sexually experimented with a Filipina who identified as a warrior goddess, a queer man who taught her about weaving wildflower penis wreaths, and a three-person collective dedicated to having sex with food to vanquish the patriarchal miasma long associated with eclairs and body shaming." Elsewhere: "As Linda told a friend, 'It was like sex with the friendliest robot, that only wanted to make me come and then fill out a response card. It was great because it wasn't really like sex, it was like--eating one of those astronaut meals from a sealed foil pouch and realizing it really did taste just like filet mignon.'" The sentences that aren't about sex are just as good. With regard to the names Bridger and Morrow, the boy-and-girl twins of Sean and Linda: Their names "sounded like a wine cooler, a law firm on a soap opera, or animated bunnies in a Disney film." It's the little thingsand the big things. Rudnick kills. Packed with fun in every sentence, this book is the cure for your bad mood. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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Chapter 1: Prologue: Love Is Everywhere 1 PROLOGUE: LOVE IS EVERYWHERE Linda Kleinschmidt roused herself in a cloud of fine linens and elegantly filtered San Francisco sunlight. She wondered how her life had somehow leapt from a one-meal-a-day-in-a-family-shelter childhood to this high-end-perfume-ad glow, but then she knew: she was about to be married, in just three days' time, to the third-richest man in America. A delicious goal, mostly. But that "mostly" was colonizing her thoughts. Sean Manginaro, on the opposite coast, had been up for hours, including the time change. His inner alarm clock had buzzed at 3 a.m., after which Sean chugged a protein shake, with its satisfyingly brutal taste recalling burnt coffee and sour milk. Sean never wasted a second, embarking on a five-mile run, calisthenics based on a program designed to eliminate Navy SEAL candidates, an icy shower, and a bicycle ride to the gym he owned, all while most of his clientele remained in bed. Was Sean keeping blazingly fit, or punishing himself for his transgressions? Or was he just single-mindedly determined not to think about his ex-wife Linda, or the catastrophic rumors he'd heard? Tremble Woodspill had stayed up all night in Arkansas, as she so often did, scribbling in the most minuscule print, since her stash of yellow legal pads was running low. But at twenty-three, she had no lack of energy, and she might have downed a few Adderall, which she considered mildly enhanced Skittles. Tremble always wrote feverishly, as her work remained an unslakable passion (and while she would eventually transfer everything to a TroneBook, she preferred to write her earliest drafts by hand, which felt more visceral, more immediately connected to her emotions). Her first collection of essays, titled Life as We Fucking Know It , would be published later this year, an event she still found incomprehensible, since she lacked such necessities as a home address or a reliable supply of ballpoint pens. And being superstitious, she was convinced horror was looming, and that she should text her editor, Rob Barnett, for reassurance. Was her life about to genuinely begin? Would strangers read her words, and maybe nod or laugh or pause for just a second, because Tremble had conveyed something truthful? Or would a calamity occur, would the publisher go bankrupt, or would Rob, despite his constant praise and encouragement, change his mind? Oh, shut the fuck up, Tremble told herself, you need to get laid. In the farthest reaches of Queens, Isabelle McNally was staring at the young guy slumbering beside her as she debated breaking up with him, firmly but caringly, or continuing to forcefully nudge him with her elbow until he opened his eyes and had sex with her. Paolo Baumgarner, Rob Barnett's best friend, was shivering in his darkened office, convinced, with good reason, that his life was in danger, at the hands and dental drill of a man he hadn't told Rob anything about, which meant Rob couldn't save him. Mayor Churn LeBloitte was deep into his habitual dream, in which federal agents appeared at his small-town law office and demanded he become President of the United States, without the peskiness of an election, because they'd heard about his staggering political skills, not to mention his roguish way with the ladies. "This isn't a request," an agent would make urgently clear. "The nation needs you." All of these people had two things in common: they all owned TronePhones, those ubiquitous devices that had infested the Earth, and most of them had purchased additional TroneTek products as well. Beyond this, they were all seeking love in one form or another, but were helpless to locate that love, or sustain it, or even categorize its nature: What were they pursuing? Something unrequited and doomed? A fling, a hookup, a tragic fable, or a lasting if negotiated wedlock? Despite their careers, family issues, workout routines, and committed new diets, all any of these people yearned for was love, and soon, but with whom and how? Trone Meston was dozing on his private jet, headed for California, smiling to himself, with what others might take as a grimace or indigestion. He'd just made a final inspection of Artemis Island, the $18 billion retreat off the coast of Maine where his wedding was scheduled for Sunday. But unlike much of the world's population, especially when it came to matters of the heart, Trone acted from absolute certainty. After years of research and investment, he was about to unleash not merely a social media platform or handheld gadget, but an advance in civilization. Trone was going to predict, define, and control love, on behalf of everyone. This made Trone happy and proud because, like so many geniuses, he knew exactly what he was doing. And he knew the world was waiting. Excerpted from What Is Wrong with You?: A Novel by Paul Rudnick All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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