The Deep End

Relationship expert Kearns, author of four nonfiction books including bestseller Why Mr. Right Can’t Find You, makes his fiction debut. It’s 1984 and Dave, a defeated late-30s musician, never thought he would be working a paralegal at an L.A. law firm. Then he meets Maggie, a new hire with “fine features, a cat-like quality of face.” Immediately smitten, he invites her to spend two summer weeks in Canada with his family, at a rented summer cottage in Muskoka to relive memories of his youth spent by the lake. But this summer experience produces a rift in their relationship that escalates once they return and face more of life’s inevitable setbacks. Though Kearns attempts a lighthearted narrative that explores the complexities of attachments we create or sever, Dave is a largely insufferable loser and most of the characters are flat, despite the book’s flashes of humor. (BookLife)