Man Overboard!, by Kathleen Rooney: "Men really will do literally anything instead of going to therapy"

Let's start here: Kathleen Rooney is the author of one of my favorite pieces of writing this year: Her essay, "Why Criticism Continues to Matter: Book Reviews and Our Literary Community" at Chicago Review of Books (which she originally delivered as her opening remarks at an AWP panel) is astoundingly inspiring. I can't recommend reading it enough. Always remember, "Art is the transmission of the human spirit."

Now, Rooney is also the author of one of my favorite novels of the year, too! Man Overboard! is a funny, inventive fiction about a fellow examining his life whilst treading water in the Gulf of Mexico. 

You might be thinking, okay, is the sole plot of this novel really a guy who drunkenly fell (or jumped?) off a cruise ship and is forced to have a good long think? Is this really going to play for 200 pages? 

Yes. Yes it does. It plays magnificently. Man Overboard! is a voice-y, mischievous novel. And if brevity is the soul of wit, it's a very soulful one, as well. But as much as we're amused on a line-by-line basis, what's really going on here? 

Our man overboard is a dude named Kick Kilpatrick, a bro-tastic 33-year-old personal trainer, flirt, and former swimmer who also has a penchant for clowning. Literally. His great dream in life (you know, should he survive his current predicament) is to continue his education at clown college, but he's kept this as a secret from his family and friends, worried about their opinions. Kick has layers, multitudes. But his big thing is that he and older sister are still coming to terms with their mother leaving the family with no reason and no contact since Kick was 10. 

So as Kick floats, he ruminates about his life, sometimes stopping to have a chat with various senteinent sea creatures (or maybe that's just in his head) -- a dolphin, a sea horse, an octopus, etc. "No more distractions to be had," he thinks. "I have no choice but to be really present." 

But why this novel works so well and why I REALLY loved it is that we begin to see Kick as a stand-in for all men these days. The book's kind of a long and elaborate joke (because the best jokes are social commentary at their core) that all men need is 20 hours in the ocean by themselves to figure their shit out. But it's funny because it's true! Wouldn't we be better off in society as a whole if men were forced to do a little more self-examination? To interrogate themselves? To try to figure out why they are the way they are? To come to terms with past trauma? To get some clarity on why they do what they do?

Will Kick get that clarity? And even if does, will it be all for naught if he sinks quietly into the sea? Or will he be rescued, now armed with a whole new insight about his life and marching orders from himself to himself about changes he needs to make?

I read this so quickly, and you probably will too. Rooney is just so fun to read! Cannot recommend more highly. A perfect summer read.