Go Gentle, Maria Semple, author; Saskia Maarleveld, narrator
In this book, we have Adora Hazzard, a “wannabee” comedienne, in an era when female comediennes are rare. She obtains a job writing for a top-notch comedy group to write for the program “Laugh Riot”, which has the real potential of catapulting her to fame. However, the love-starved Adora, with her head in the cloud of possibilities, becomes enamored with one of the successful male comedy writers, T. J. Steele. He suggests they work together, and she eagerly agrees. She goes to his apartment so they can collaborate. They almost immediately fall into bed to frolic with abandon, although they only just met, and he is married.
Since little work was done, Adora writes most of the sketch for the show. When she is selected to present the sketch to the committee, which is an honor, the room is packed. It is packed so tightly that she cannot move, and Steele who is sitting next to her, manages to rape her with his hand, while she tries to unsuccessfully squirm away. She remains quiet, however. Later, she discovers that he was dared to do it, and that everyone knows; the men had a good laugh. Fast forward, Adora is then fired because of this. She is offered a huge settlement to remain silent. Steele, for the moment, is safe. While she is having her “exit” interview, she watches the company lawyer’s expressions. She determines that he is trying to help her get the best deal. She refuses the first offer and gets even more with the second. The explanation for the lawyer’s behavior will come later.
Time passes and Adora moves on with her life. She marries Hal, and they have a teenaged daughter named Viv. She teaches 10th grade philosophy and publishes a book called “The Happiness Handbook” containing her own introduction and a compilation of her favorite quotes from Epictetus, the philosopher who espoused Stoicism. She becomes known as the “Happiness Philosopher”. Then politics become front and center in her life. Adora loves Bernie Sanders, but he does not win the nomination to run for President, so she is forced into adoring Hillary Clinton. When Hillary loses the election, Adora loses her cool. She attacks her husband when he jokes about Trump, although he is actually a Democrat. She, of all people, should understand comedy. She has Trump Derangement Syndrome, although it is not mentioned that way. She and her teenaged daughter Viv are both beyond the beyond devastated about the election loss. Soon, the marriage fails. Adora and her husband Hal divorce. He moves on, remarries and has a new family; they remain cordial. Adora resigns herself to an independent life without depending on a man. She lives in the Ansonia, an older building that is a throwback in time, with few amenities, but it has a reputation of having once been home to the rich and famous. The help in the building and Adora are very much in tune with each other, and they are cordial and help her out, when needed. Adora decides that she will form a coven of women who are single so they can live out their lives happily supporting each other and can remain independent without men. They each contribute to a fund to pay for the services they require now and will also require later on in life. They share a car and responsibilities, actively helping each other. They live on the same floor. It is like a small sorority.
One day, Adora is approached by Layla Lockwood, to work in the Lockwood Library, a museum on Fifth Avenue that is just across the street from where she lives. Adora accepts, but in fact, she was really hired to help Lionel Lockwood, Layla’s husband, and she also guides the young Lockwood twins with her own moral philosophy. Lionel Lockwood had suffered a grievous injury during a catastrophic climbing accident at Independence Pass. His wife wants him to face life with a more positive attitude, since he is really depressed. He is helpless without the assistance of others and is no longer able to be the physically, powerful man he once was. Adora, a Stoic who follows the teaching of Epictetus, is hired to make him happy. Both, at one time or another have questioned whether or not they want to live. Both do want to live.
One day when Adora meets a strange, quirky woman, Blanche Falk, who is working on the garden at the Lockwood mansion, she decides that Blanche would be a good addition to her coven. She invites her to try and purchase the apartment for sale in the Ansonia, on her floor, so she can join the group of women in the coven already living there on that floor. Blanche is wondering why she was chosen. Blanche has a double life which will soon be revealed. Adora, who is an avowed single woman, has also met a very handsome man named Digby at the ballet. She had an extra ticket when one of the coven women could not attend. He was on the line to purchase a ticket, and she approached him to gift him the ticket. He was very surprised. They go in together, but shortly after, she runs from the ballet to avoid a relationship with him. He follows her, and eventually they meet up again. Ziggy, who walks her dog, Mr. Man, gives him her address. She gave Ziggy her own ballet ticket, when she left. When the man, named Digby, and Adora do meet up again, she, still supposedly love-starved, jumps into bed with this stranger too, and has fantastic sex.
When Digby asks for her help regarding a statue that Layla Lockwood is having shipped to the Lockwood Library, Adora is conflicted. Is he using her, or does he really like her. The statue is called “Boy With Apple”. He believes it is a matter of national security to prevent the sale. He wants to meet Layla and he wants Adora to arrange it before the party selling it arrives in New York. That party is Celine Montfort. She is on the Board at the Louvre, and her family hid the Mona Lisa from the Germans. Is this statue a piece of stolen Holocaust art? Is this a legitimate business deal. Why does Layla want this stature? Why is Digby trying to prevent it. Here, the storyline grows stickier. Who is Digby working for?
Layla agrees to help Digby. He meets Layla the evening that Celine arrives. That same evening, her boss, Ravi, seems to go missing, and his partner, Scott, tells her he is unable to reach him. When she views a video of him showing the statue to Celine Montfort, Adora’s imagination runs wild, and she once again makes an incorrect leap of judgment. Although she gets telephone calls, she does not answer them or read the messages. Instead, she impetuously decides that the terror group that recently blew up the Rosetta Stone is coming to the Lockwood to blow it up. Museums had already been put on the alert, so she believes the statue of “Boy With Apple” is a bomb, instead. There is no record of such a statue ever existing. She calls the FBI, tells them she fears a terror attack and why, and reports the Lockward family, causing them to raid the museum for nothing. Adora, of course, is fired. She blames Digby for getting her involved, not herself for her own poor judgment. She retreats into her own little world and rejects any contact from Digby.
Adora travels to Paris with Viv to deliver a lecture. She receives a letter from Digby. It tells a very different story about the statue than the one that Celine had told her. Adora goes to the Louvre to see the statue of Venus de Milo, and somehow, she manages to connect the armless statue of Venus de Milo with the Boy with Apple statue that has arms. She uncovered Layla’s scheme and a terrorist plot, confusing as that may be. Almost immediately after she realizes this, the room explodes and Venus is destroyed. Digby shields Viv and Adora. In usual fashion, this fairytale ends with Adora and the very wealthy and handsome Digby becoming a couple while the wide-eyed Viv asks if she is now rich?
What is the connection of the missing arms of Venus to the story? The novel became increasingly silly and confusing. Yes, it is about the idea that even when you are disconnected from society, for whatever reason, when you are unable to be what you were, you can recover, there is redemption, there is a way back because your mind is still functioning when your body is not. You can be happy. I was very conflicted when I finished this book. I wanted to love it. I liked the author’s previous work. However, I found the book to be disjointed and overly slanted to the left, like so many books today that seem to be written with only one purpose. That purpose seems to be to brainwash or indoctrinate the reader to the author’s personal political view. Let’s face it. The novel is a great venue to do it. The publishing industry supports it, and the vulnerable readers are unsuspecting. Many readers seem to be suffering from the Stockholm Syndrome. They are a captive audience that is reading books recommended largely by left-leaning authors or entertainers who exist in and support the publishing industry and the entire media realm. They are being blindsided. Instead of learning how to be happy, they are being encouraged to be angry and unhappy, and to act out when they are discontented. Even when Viv, a teenager who was angry, behaved in a childish, spoiled and disrespectful manner, her behavior was not remonstrated, but was rewarded. This is the current left-wing philosophy we are witnessing daily. Poor behavior is now acceptable, as we witness children acting out and rioting everywhere. I think that the varied “microphones” of the left are encouraging this.