Mary Miller seizes the mantle of Southern literature with this wry tale of middle age and the unexpected turns a life can take.
Like her predecessors Ann Beattie and Raymond Carver, Mary Miller brings an essential voice to her generation. Building on her critically acclaimed novel The Last Days of California and her biting collection Always Happy Hour, Miller slyly transports listeners to her unapologetic corner of the South—this time, Biloxi, Mississippi, home to sixty-three-year-old Louis McDonald, Jr. His wife of thirty-seven years left him, his father has passed—and he has impulsively retired from his job in anticipation of an inheritance check that may not come. In the meantime, he watches reality television, sips beer, and avoids his ex-wife and daughter. One day, he stops at a house advertising free dogs and meets overweight mixed-breed Layla. Unexpectedly, Louis takes her, and, newly invigorated, begins investigating local dog parks and buying extra bologna. Mining the absurdities of life with her signature "droll minimalist's-eye view of America" (Joyce Carol Oates), Biloxi affirms Miller's place in contemporary literature.
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“Grumps don’t come more endearing than Louis McDonald Jr., the 63-year-old hero of the latest redemptive tale from Miller. He’s been a pretty rotten person since his wife left him, but finds a new outlook on life after Layla, a chubby mixed-breed, comes into his world. Biloxi is slow and sticky, just like its Southern setting, and rich with observational humor. This dog may not do many tricks, but she can eat the hell out of a bologna slice off the floor. That’s realism, folks.”
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Entertainment Weekly