I made him walk on a lead and he jumped for joy, the way creatures do, and children do, and adults don‘t do, and spend their lives wondering where the leap went.

This book had some interesting characters and plot lines, but it took too long to rev up. By then I had nearly abandoned the book. The car race was a clever plot device, however it seemed that it too conveniently tied into the aboriginal storyline, which honestly was the most interesting part of the book. There were at least three stories begging to be told and by competing for airtime, they were each shortchanged.

The current stage (the Yes-to-Mirrors-No-to-Photos Stage) would lead to the It‘s-Not-Cancer stage, (although in Leonard‘s case it might be) and then the inevitable next stage—the Bedpan Stage. // McCauley nails aging in one sentence.

I found this book easy to read but unremarkable. The characters were accessible but I didn‘t really care about them until half-way through. The plot meandered and then fizzled. In the end, I was overcome by apathy and found it hard to finish. That said, I liked the author‘s wisdom and insights about middle age.