CANR
WORK TITLE: A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO FREE FALL
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CITY: Philadelphia
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COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME: CA 385
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/thank-you-goodnight-by-andy-abramowitz/2015/06/18/c08c9dd4-0ba3-11e5-95fd-d580f1c5d44e_story.html
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in Baltimore,MD; married; children: two daughters.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Novelist and lawyer; formerly worked as a musician.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Writer and lawyer Andy Abramowitz’s fictional debut is the novel Thank You, Goodnight. It tells the story of Teddy Tremble, a musician turned lawyer much like Abramowitz himself. Teddy had been the lead singer of a rock band, also named Tremble, whose time in the spotlight had passed years before with the release of just one hit single “It Feels like a Lie.” As Abramowitz explained in an interview with Scott Butki for Newsvine, Teddy “had his moment back in the ’90s … and he’s now a lawyer sporting some low-grade bitterness about his premature exit from the music industry. While traveling in London, he comes face-to-face with a photography exhibit in which he and some other has-beens are unflatteringly portrayed. (Teddy has been snapped unawares as he messily consumes nachos.)” It is only after Teddy encounters a small number of rabid fans in a tiny village in remote Switzerland that his attitude begins to change. “Way leads on to way,” Butki continued, “and soon he’s contemplating rounding up his old band mates, all of whom have moved on with their lives, and talking them into making one more album in the name of reclaiming their legacy.”
Each of Teddy’s fellow musicians has their own reasons for reuniting—or refusing to do so. The band’s drummer has built a successful career in education, while the lead guitarist lives off the charity of his ex-wife. Thank You, Goodnight, wrote John Wilwol in a Washington Post review, “deals with a special brand of male legacy anxiety. Even though Teddy is gainfully employed in a lucrative profession, and even though he has had dream- worthy success in a dream-worthy industry, he still feels vaguely unfulfilled. Abramowitz vividly imagines the lives of musicians and lapsed musicians while gleefully skewering lame music.” “While it would have been easy for Abramowitz to fall back on rock-and-roll stereotypes,” wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor, “these characters—even the ones who initially feel familiar—are complex and unique.”
Reviewers for the most part enjoyed Abramowitz’s fictional debut. Thank You, Goodnight ‘s “angst and humor,” wrote Gabriella Souza in Baltimore, “make this book ideal for a road trip or a day at the beach.” “Teddy struggles to let go of the ambition and self- aggrandizement that led to the band’s implosion,” stated Joanne Wilkinson in Booklist, “and his rebirth is a pleasure to behold.” “If this book is any indication of the other stories [Abramowitz] has in him,” declared reviewer John B. Moore in Innocent Words, “here’s hoping he walks away from that career to take up writing full time.”
(open new) A Beginner's Guide to Free Fall
Abramowitz’s second novel, the 2020 A Beginner’s Guide to Free Fall, is a poignant and sometimes humorous family drama focusing on the respected engineer, Davis Winger, whose life is falling apart. The designer of roller coasters at theme parks throughout the United States, Winger seems to have it all: great career, a loving wife, beautiful young daughter and fine home. Then a near fatal accident on one of this roller coasters sets his professional life into free fall. This process is sped up when a betrayal upsets his marriage and home, as well. Then his sister, Molly, who is also at a turning point in her life, determines to deal with the truth about their mother, who abandoned the two siblings many years ago and disappeared. What ensues is a troubled and busy time for both Davis and his sister, as he tries desperately to win his wife back and Molly attempts to restart her career and life.
A Kirkus Reviews critic was unimpressed with A Beginner’s Guide to Free Fall, noting: “Characters in this book rarely smile, they smirk. The prose is turgid, the story repetitive, the characters clichéd, and juvenile sexual innuendo abounds. It’s a man’s world and women exist as second-class citizens in this skippable novel.” On the other hand, a contributor on the blog It’s Either Sadness or Bookphoria had a more positive assessment of A Beginner’s Guide to Free Fall, terming it an “engaging, fun, emotional book with characters I really enjoyed.” The contributor added: “I do enjoy the way [Abramowitz] writes and tells stories of everyday people struggling to find their place.” (close new)
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Baltimore, July, 2015, Gabriella Souza, “The Latest from Will Holman and Andy Abramowitz.”
Booklist, May 15, 2015, Joanne Wilkinson, review of Thank You, Goodnight, p. 25.
Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 2015, review of Thank You, Goodnight.
Washington Post, June 19, 2015, John Wilwol, review of Thank you, Goodnight.
ONLINE
Bookreporter.com, https://www.bookreporter.com/ (January 15, 2020), “Andy Abramowitz.”
Fantastic Fiction, http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/ (January 6, 2015), author profile.
Innocent Words, http:/ /innocentwords.com/ (August 1, 2015), John B. Moore, review of Thank You, Goodnight.
It’s Either Sadness or Bookphoria, http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com/ (December 19. 2019), revkew of A Beginner’s Guide to Free Fall.
Kirkus Reviews, https://www.kirkusreviews.com/ (November 1, 2019), review of A Beginner’s Guide to Free Fall.
Newsvine, http:// sbutki.newsvine.com/ (June 10, 2015), Scott Butki, author interview.*
Andy Abramowitz lives in Philadelphia with his wife and two daughters. He is a lawyer with a past in music, but he has no musical legacy to correct. Thank You, Goodnight is his first novel.
Andy Abramowitz is the author of two novels, A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO FREE FALL (Lake Union Publishing, 2020) and THANK YOU, GOODNIGHT (Touchstone, 2015).
His work has been hailed as "soul-searching . . . fun and unfailingly heartfelt" by The Washington Post and "funny and compassionate" by Kirkus Reviews, but he is most proud of the fact that Grammy winner Rick Springfield described THANK YOU, GOODNIGHT as "a sage novel for anyone who believes that our talents don't fade as we get older, they only get better."
A native of Baltimore, Andy lives in Philadelphia with his wife and two daughters.
Andy Abramowitz
Andy Abramowitz is the author of two novels, THANK YOU, GOODNIGHT (Touchstone, 2015) and A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO FREE FALL (Lake Union Publishing, 2019).
His work has been hailed as "soul-searching...fun and unfailingly heartfelt" by The Washington Post and "funny and compassionate" by Kirkus Reviews, but he is most proud of the fact that Grammy winner Rick Springfield described THANK YOU, GOODNIGHT as "a sage novel for anyone who believes that our talents don't fade as we get older, they only get better."
A native of Baltimore, Andy lives in Philadelphia with his wife and two daughters.
QUOTE:
Characters in this book rarely smile, they smirk. The prose is turgid, the story repetitive, the characters clichéd, and juvenile sexual innuendo abounds.
It’s a man’s world and women exist as second-class citizens in this skippable novel.
A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO FREE FALL
by Andy Abramowitz
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KIRKUS REVIEW
A narcissistic man is kicked out of the house by his wife after a one-night stand while also having trouble at work; his tentative sister seeks success in her career.
Davis Winger, who's in his mid-30s, is confident that he's a good guy. The kind of guy who helps neighbors move and has sex with his wife of eight years “thrice weekly” without needing to picture “a tangle of tipsy sorority sisters.” Sure, he has sex with a co-worker while on a business trip. But she came on to him and he apologized for the “lapse.” Why can’t his wife understand that she belongs to him? And why is his boss putting him on leave during the investigation of a malfunction on a brand-new amusement-park ride he designed? Unfair! After being kicked out of the house, Davis moves into a nearby apartment complex, where he commences an ongoing physics tutoring/ogling situation with a high school teen. He is derisive of housewives and their “nicotine spots and low-swinging labias [sic]” who dare sit by the pool as he lifeguards to fill his now-empty workdays. Davis’ overt sexism is understood as such by himself and others and yet allowed to stand because, you know, he’s a good guy. Half of Abramowitz's (Thank You, Goodnight, 2015) book revolves around Davis’ younger sister, Molly, 32, and her love life and career trajectory as a soft-news journalist. But don’t worry, she recognizes that her own career opportunities are really due to the much younger man she’s dating. And when she starts dating someone new, her brother grants his permission after making sure the guy hasn’t slept with too many other women. Characters in this book rarely smile, they smirk. The prose is turgid, the story repetitive, the characters clichéd, and juvenile sexual innuendo abounds.
It’s a man’s world and women exist as second-class citizens in this skippable novel.
Pub Date: Jan. 1st, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5420-1465-6
Page count: 396pp
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14th, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1st, 2019
QUOTE: engaging, fun, emotional book with characters I really enjoyed.
I do enjoy the way he writes and tells stories of everyday people struggling to find their place.
Thursday, December 19, 2019
Book Review: "A Beginner's Guide to Free Fall" by Andy Abramowitz
A little familial and marital dysfunction, along with a few crises of self-esteem, never hurt anyone!!
Everyone likes Davis Winger. He’s funny, good-natured, a devoted husband and father, a loving brother and son. He has a great job designing roller coasters and other rides, which meshes well with his personality.
When a mishap on a ride he designed occurs, his job is threatened. At the same time, the one lapse in judgment he's made in his marriage comes to light, and suddenly he finds himself without work, living in a dismal apartment, as he tries to figure out how to get his wife back, preserve his relationship with his young daughter, and figure out his next step career-wise.
Meanwhile, Davis’ sister Molly, a journalist for a struggling newspaper, has doubts about her relationship with a younger man and is trying to find inspiration for a story that might help the newspaper gain advertisers again. When she finds that idea she realizes it is simply a manifestation of a major issue in her own life, but she's not quite willing to deal with that, and she's not prepared for the response this story idea will be met with. At the same time, she needs to figure out what she wants from life.
As Davis tries to convince his wife to take him back, and he interacts with a few of his fellow residents at the apartment building, he is in need of perhaps a little humility, while Molly could use an injection of self-esteem.
"We're all terribly unsure of ourselves, he'd said, each one of us tunneling toward something strange."
A Beginner's Guide to Free Fall is an engaging, fun, emotional book with characters I really enjoyed. A few years ago I read Andy Abramowitz’s first novel, Thank You, Goodnight, and liked that, too, so I do enjoy the way he writes and tells stories of everyday people struggling to find their place.
I felt like the book moved a bit too slowly and the characters hemmed and hawed a bit too much before things really got moving. But still, I cared about the characters and wanted to see how everything was resolved. It reminded me a little of a Jonathan Tropper book, although not as uproariously funny.
Amazon First Reads and Lake Union Publishing gave me a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making it available!
The book will publish January 1, 2020.