Books: You Only Call When Your're In Trouble by Stephen McCauley (2023)

After a lifetime of taking care of his impossible but irresistible sister and his cherished niece, Tom is ready to put himself first. An architect specializing in tiny houses, he finally has an opportunity to build his masterpiece—“his last shot at leaving a footprint on the dying planet.” Assuming, that is, he can stick to his resolution to keep the demands of his needy family at bay. Naturally, that’s when his phone rings. His niece, Cecily—the real love of Tom’s life, as his boyfriend reminded him when moving out—is embroiled in a Title IX investigation at the college where she teaches that threatens her career and relationship. And after decades of lying, his sister wants him to help her tell Cecily the real identity of her father. Tom does what he’s always done—answers the call.

As I wrote five years ago when I read McCauley’s My Ex-Life, he has always excelled at creating wonderful relationships between gay men and straight women, along with the dysfunctional families that come with it. Part of the theme of this a book appears to be what we owe our family. Dorothy is complete mess, as is her daughter Cecily. Tom –who could probably benefit from therapy- is the one constant; he has helped them and solved most of their problems. While the book is not without it’s humor, there is a slight suffocation to the story and characters –maybe this goes on in the upper crust, upper middle class families where kids call their mother and uncle by name. So that created a certain heaviness I was not expecting, based on McCauley’s previous work.

Tom, surprisingly, comes off as unlikable at times and there are pacing issues, but I found the book worth reading (perhaps in paperback than hardcover). Also, Cecily’s relationship with her Chicago lover Sontash seems oddly unnecessary (or could've been heavily condensed). The whole premise of Sontash’s mother using Cecily’s Title IX issue that drove her from Deerpath (possibly Roosevelt University?) to the East coast is steeped in racist tropes and the old caste system where appearances must be paramount and scandal buried or tossed away.

Not as enjoyable as his previous work, but I still liked it.