I am so thrilled to have discovered Matthew Quick’s The Silver Linings Playbook. It is a gem of a novel and I truly wish I could force everyone to read it! While I know that is not humanly possible, I am going to try my hardest to convince you through my review that this is a wonderful read.
The Silver Linings Playbook opens with our main character, Pat Peoples, being released from a mental health facility, thanks to his mother pulling some strings. The entire book is told through Pat’s point of view, which is a treat in and of itself. I thought I liked the character of Frankie Landau-Banks, but Pat definitely gives her a run for her money (in very different ways). The story unfolds in “real time” as the events unfold for Pat himself, which is one of the novel’s unique features. Because Pat is mentally ill, we perceive events and actions as he perceives them, but Quick also gives us moments where we, as the reader, know what is really going on. As the story progresses, Pat adjusts to life back at home with his patient and adoring mother, the brother who now wants a relationship, and his crotchety father who really only knows how to relate to Pat through their mutual love of Eagles football. Pat also reunites with some old friends, makes a couple of new ones, and spends most of the book trying to discover exactly what happened to him before he was put in the mental health facility, why he was sent there, and when he can get back with his estranged wife, Nikki.
The Silver Linings Playbook is pretty true to its title: it is a story about finding the silver lining. There are moments in this novel when it is truly hard to find. I was already crying pretty hard by page 62 or so, which is not exactly what I want in a leisurely read, but I’ll go ahead and tell you that there is a happy ending – or a silver lining if you prefer. This book is fiction of course, but Quick paints such a realistic and vivid picture that one can’t help but sympathize with Pat and his search for his true story and his hopes of reuniting with Nikki. As I mentioned earlier, Pat is our narrator and so we experience everything as he does, with a slightly skewed perception. At times it made me laugh, and at others I cried, but in the end Pat was such a charming and sympathetic character that I could not help but love him. Also, if you have ever been part of a family that is addicted to football (as my husband’s is), you will get an extra chuckle or two at the football/male bonding aspect of this novel. Let me add as a disclaimer that football is a facet of this book, but by no means dominates the action. That was my one fear when I picked up this book, as I am not really into the sport, but it was not at all an issue.
As I said, if I could force you to read The Silver Linings Playbook I would, because it is wonderful. But all I can really do is strongly encourage you by saying it is a gem of a novel. It’s really exciting to me that this is Matthew Quick’s first novel. I can’t wait to see what else he has up his sleeve.
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