Perfect for:
- Anyone who loved Uncle Joey from Full House
- Fans of Three Men and a Cradle
- Fans of Beach Read and Twice Shy
Review:
“Grief orbits the heart. Some days the circle is greater. Those are the good days. You have room to move and dance and breathe. Some days the circle is tighter. Those are the hard ones.”
Do you ever get to that certain point in a book where you’re thinking to yourself “wow, this is more than I bargained for when picking this up”? Because that’s what I felt like reading The Guncle.
What I expected? A fun time watching a gay uncle wrestle with his brother’s children. What I got? That, and so much more. This book has more hidden depths than I have double chins and that’s saying something.
Let’s get straight to the point: Patrick—or Gay Uncle Patrick as he is known by his niece Maisie and his nephew Grant—is a kaleidoscope of awesomeness. From hilarious one-liners to deep discussions on what it means to be lost in the world, that man is riveting. There’s a scene in this book where Patrick basically gets an entire room of TV producers to fall in love with him, his wit and humour, and his vulnerability in less than ten minutes and that’s how I felt reading this book—it wasn’t even a choice to love Patrick, it’s just the natural consequence of reading The Guncle. I’ve rarely read books where I’d describe the protagonist as charismatic—sarcastic? Sure. Confident? Of course. A mess? Always. But Patrick has the kind of charisma that you want in a movie star and I don’t know how Rowley was able to translate this character trait so well onto the page, but it’s there. Patrick has this sort of magnetic aura that makes you want to find out every little detail about him, especially as we start out the novel thinking he’s a retired sitcom star who’s just bored by Hollywood and then learn the real reason for why he’s moved away from the spotlight.
Of course we have the great moments that come with this sitcom-y kind of novel: Patrick doing everything wrong with the kids, feeling overwhelmed by coating children in sunscreen, losing arguments and being unable to answer any of the five million questions children ask each day. Maisie and Grant are as funny as they are exasperating, as heartbreakingly adorable as they are storms to be weathered—in short, they are exactly what children are: a force to be reckoned with and boy, does Patrick have to reckon. And that was a great time, no doubt about it. I laughed out loud as much as I would watching a sitcom, for sure.
But then there’s the other side of this novel. The one that will take your heart by storm and make you flip those pages, wondering how you ever thought this was just going to be a good time instead of the unforgettable reading experience it will transform into. And most of that can be attributed to the discussions around grief.
The depiction of grief within this novel was also outstanding. I loved how this discussed the different ways in which to grieve someone, and this feeling of possessiveness when it comes to losing someone—on the one hand, you know you’re not the only one who lost that person and on the other, you don’t want to share your memories, your belonging to this person, with anyone else. There’s also a lot of discussion around what others perceive as grief and the “right way” of behaving after you lose someone—and Patrick does not stand for that bullshit when told that his nephew and niece shouldn’t be having a great summer. Indeed, he even encourages them to have fun while also remembering that it’s okay to feel pain when thinking of their mother. Rowley takes his time exploring the different versions of grief and getting over that loss (even though everyone involved knows that’s never going to happen) and it just really hit home for me. From the passages where Patrick told his brother that sometimes, you’ll miss the pain because you’ve become so accustomed to it, to the passages with the kids where Patrick tried his hardest to make sure they don’t forget their mom, everything resonated with me. I think that anyone who’s ever grieved someone can find empathy and support within these pages without judgement and that alone is a great reason to pick this book up.
Beyond the deep dive into grief, we also have so much more in this novel—from fraught family relationships to misunderstood and suppressed loss, to addiction and what it means to be in the public eye—there’s really no end to the depths once Patrick opens the floodgates to his heart. I don’t want to spoil too much, but really, this book deserves an Oscar or something for how much it puts into such a short amount of pages.
What I also really appreciated was the diversity in this novel. Patrick lives next to a throuple (three men in a polyamorous relationship) and I loved how Patrick started out as superficial friends with them but slowly came to realise that their relationship wasn’t just a “trend” or something “quirky” but three adults who don’t want to live without the other. This kind of “won” acceptance was a welcome representation in adult fiction I haven’t seen before.
As hysterically funny as it is profound, The Guncle is the perfect summer read for anyone who’s looking for a good time with amazing characters without forfeiting deep and meaningful discussions that will feel like a balm to the soul for anyone who’s ever lost someone.
The Guncle is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Patrick, or Gay Uncle Patrick (GUP, for short), has always loved his niece, Maisie, and nephew, Grant. That is, he loves spending time with them when they come out to Palm Springs for weeklong visits, or when he heads home to Connecticut for the holidays. But in terms of caretaking and relating to two children, no matter how adorable, Patrick is honestly a bit out of his league.
So when tragedy strikes and Maisie and Grant lose their mother and Patrick’s brother has a health crisis of his own, Patrick finds himself suddenly taking on the role of primary guardian. Despite having a set of “Guncle Rules” ready to go, Patrick has no idea what to expect, having spent years barely holding on after the loss of his great love, a somewhat-stalled career, and a lifestyle not-so-suited to a six- and a nine-year-old. Quickly realizing that parenting—even if temporary—isn’t solved with treats and jokes, Patrick’s eyes are opened to a new sense of responsibility, and the realization that, sometimes, even being larger than life means you’re unfailingly human.
With the humor and heart we’ve come to expect from bestselling author Steven Rowley, The Guncle is a moving tribute to the power of love, patience, and family in even the most trying of times.
