The Reason You're Alive
Matthew Quick, 2017
HarperCollins
240 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062424303
Summary
A timely novel featuring his most fascinating character yet, a Vietnam vet embarking on a quixotic crusade to track down his nemesis from the war.
After sixty-eight-year-old David Granger crashes his BMW, medical tests reveal a brain tumor that he readily attributes to his wartime Agent Orange exposure. He wakes up from surgery repeating a name no one in his civilian life has ever heard—that of a Native American soldier whom he was once ordered to discipline.
David decides to return something precious he long ago stole from the man he now calls Clayton Fire Bear. It may be the only way to find closure in a world increasingly at odds with the one he served to protect. It may also help him to finally recover from his wife’s untimely demise.
As David confronts his past to salvage his present, a poignant portrait emerges: that of an opinionated and good-hearted American patriot fighting like hell to stay true to his red, white, and blue heart, even as the country he loves rapidly changes in ways he doesn’t always like or understand.
Hanging in the balance are Granger’s distant art-dealing son, Hank; his adoring seven-year-old granddaughter, Ella; and his best friend, Sue, a Vietnamese American who respects David’s fearless sincerity.
Through the controversial, wrenching, and wildly honest David Granger, Matthew Quick offers a no-nonsense but ultimately hopeful view of America’s polarized psyche. By turns irascible and hilarious, insightful and inconvenient, David is a complex, wounded, honorable, and loving man.
The Reason You’re Alive examines how the secrets and debts we carry from our past define us; it also challenges us to look beyond our own prejudices and search for the good in us all. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—October 23, 1972
• Raised—Oaklyn, New Jersey, USA
• Education—B.A., LaSalle University; M.F.A, Goddard College
• Currently—lives in Holden, Massachusetts
Matthew Quick is an American author of young adult and fiction novels. His debut novel, The Silver Linings Playbook, was adapted into a movie, starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, with Robert De Niro, Jackie Weaver, and Chris Tucker.
His other novels include Sorta Like a Rockstar (2010), Boy21 (2012), Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock (2013), The Good Luck for Right Now (2014), and The Reason You're Alive. Quick was finalist for a 2009 PEN/Hemingway Award, and his work has been translated into several languages.
Quick grew up in Oaklyn, New Jersey. He has a degree in English literature from La Salle University and an MFA from Goddard College. He left his job as a tenured English teacher in Haddonfield, New Jersey, to write his first novel while living in Collingswood, New Jersey. He now lives in Holden, Massachusetts with his wife, novelist Alicia Bessette. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 02/17/2014.)
Book Reviews
Inspiring.… Matthew Quick has a way with wounded characters.
Boston Globe
The author of The Silver Linings Playbook delivers another engaging and screen-ready dramedy about an irascible misfit on a mission for closure.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The role of David Granger may someday be played by an Oscar-hungry actor. But that shouldn’t distract from the vivid, high-definition protagonist that already glows from the page.... That candor and honesty gives this first-person narrative its potency. It also supplies the humor.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
It’s impossible not to love each of these deeply flawed characters.… As funny as it is touching, Quick’s latest effort is on par with Silver Linings.
USA Today
A gratifying romp.… Fans of The Silver Linings Playbook know Quick’s penchant for emotionally troubled, big-hearted characters, and Good Luck will satisfy those readers and new ones alike.
People
Meet David Granger, the bigoted 68-year-old Vietnam veteran and narrator of Quick’s dark, funny, and surprisingly tender new novel.… Granger’s life is rife with instances that either prove or belie his reputation as a xenophobic, racist homophobe.
Publishers Weekly
Quick delivers an exceptional novel; its themes of war and memory as well as its unforgettable characters, especially the ornery David, fast pace, and insightful dialog will connect with readers of Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. —Russell Michalak, Goldey-Beacom Coll. Lib., Wilmington, DE
Library Journal
A scorching family drama.…narrated with ire and eloquence by David Granger... It’s as if Holden Caulfield grew up to be a reflective, even soulful, Archie Bunker.… A touching, old-fashioned drama about the ties that sometimes choke, but always bind.
BookPage
A veteran tries to come to terms with the traumatic experiences he had a generation earlier in Vietnam.… A valuable addition to fiction about the tangled aftereffects of Vietnam on soldiers in the field.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. How would you categorize this novel? Is it a father/son drama, a tale about war’s aftermath, a tragic love story, a political commentary, or something different altogether?
2. How does David’s voice affect the story? How would the story be different if it were told in third person? Or from Henri’s point of view? From Ella’s? Sue’s? Teddy’s? Johnny’s? Timmy’s? Femke’s? Frank’s?
3. How are David and Henri different? How are they similar?
4. If you met David’s son would you call him Henri or Hank? Explain your answer.
5. David was highly influenced by his father’s WWII experience and adopted a worldview that matched his old man’s. Henri was highly influenced by David’s Vietnam War experience, yet David and Henri ended up on opposite ends of the political spectrum. Why?
6. Are words more important than actions, or are actions more important than words?
7. Discuss the women in the story. Why does David love and admire his mother, Jessica, Ella, and Sue? Why does David dislike Femke, Femke’s mother, and Frank’s wife? Why does he mistrust the woman who is recording his confession?
8. Is David’s relationship with his granddaughter, Ella, healthy?
9. Do you think Femke is as insufferable as David makes her out to be? Do you believe that Femke and David will work out their differences in the end? Is that possible?
10. His politically correct minded son labels David a bigot, yet—while he does harbor some antiquated ideas about race and sexuality—David has a diverse group of friends and business associates. What makes Henri think his father is a bigot? Discuss David’s criteria when it comes to separating those he respects from “the morons.”
11. How does David help his wife, Jessica? Reading between the lines, how might David have made things difficult for Jessica?
12. Discuss Jessica’s painting, The Reason You’re Alive. What role does art play in this story?
13. Why does Clayton Fire Bear keep Jessica’s painting? Why does he hang a portrait of his abuser in his home?
14. Why does David assign his Vietnam War nemesis a nom de guerre?
15. Does David’s mistrust of the government (and most authority figures) ever seem exaggerated or comical? Is he paranoid, or is his doubt justified?
16. If David Granger—in full military-issued camouflage—approached you in public and tried to strike up a conversation about politics, how would you react?
17. Is David Granger an honorable human being?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)