Guys Like Me

This wistful, short novel from Fabre (The Waitress Was New) has a 54-year-old Parisian office worker as the nameless narrator-protagonist. Divorced and melancholic, he drifts from day to day in search of his “second act,” while he fears there isn’t one. Luckily, he maintains strong emotional ties with his 27-year-old son, Benjamin, and his girlfriend, Anaïs, who are both soon to depart to Benjamin’s new research job in Zurich. The narrator also spends time socializing with a pair of old male friends: Jean, an unemployed bachelor, and Marc-André Lebars, a successful attorney, married for a second time. Eventually, the curmudgeonly narrator’s worldview is shaken up by a woman named Maria, whom he meets on a dating website. Readers will take pleasure in this well-told tale with a satisfying ending. [em](Feb.) [/em]