The New Life of Hugo Gardner

February 15, 2020
After his significantly younger wife of 40 years suddenly leaves him for another man, 84-year-old Manhattanite Hugo Gardner searches for answers. A man of wealth who once was managing editor of Time and who writes books about U.S. presidents, Hugo thought his marriage was a good one, with still-great sex, shared tastes, and a beautiful house in the Hamptons to retreat to. Then his spouse, Valerie, a bestselling food writer, tells him that "living with you is like living with a corpse." And his daughter, Barbara, sides with her mother, calling him "unbearably dreary and unbearably selfish" even as she asks for a handout. Only his son, Rod, "a good guy" who's "doing well at his not-quite-top-tier law firm," offers any solace. During a trip to France, Hugo impulsively looks up Jeanne, the Frenchwoman he long ago dumped for Valerie, and gradually enters into a relationship with her. She lives with her dementia-afflicted husband. Hugo has been diagnosed with possible prostate cancer. What could go wrong? Reading like a personal diary, free of quotation marks, the book unfolds with self-effacing charm. Returning to the comfort of domestic fiction following a trio of mysteries (Killer's Choice, 2019, etc.), the 86-year-old Begley turns in a spry, unerringly smooth performance. As self-absorbed as he is, Hugo wins us over with his indefatigability. Lacking a meaningful connection to his personal adventures, the political commentary in the background is mere window dressing. (Engaging in what he would call "tones of persiflage," Hugo calls Trump a "contemptible swine.") But the novel's late-term spirit never flags. A sharply amusing novel in which an octogenarian pundit rediscovers his past.

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March 16, 2020
The ghost of Louis Auchincloss hovers over this witty tale of Manhattan’s Waspy, wealthy Upper East Siders by Begley (About Schmidt). Hugo Gardner, a retired Time bureau chief in his 80s, is shocked when Valerie, his wife of almost 40 years, announces her intention to divorce him. Hugo—somewhat improbably—had no idea that she was unhappy with their relationship, or that she was having an affair with a younger French restaurateur. An ugly confrontation with his adult daughter and a possible diagnosis of cancer impel Hugo to fly to Paris, where he has been invited to speak at a political conference. Once there, Hugo impulsively decides to look up Jeanne, his French lover from before he met Valerie. To Hugo’s surprise, Jeanne agrees to meet, and before the reader can say coup de foudre, they have resumed their affair. But will this end up being the last great love of Hugo’s life? As always, Begley dissects the workings of the WASP heart with great precision. Begley writes touchingly about an older American visiting Europe and finding a second chance at life by shaking off the doldrums of his previous existence. Hugo’s octogenarian voyage of discovery will delight readers.

February 1, 2020
Wily and adept, Begley continued to conduct his signature droll and exacting dissection of the privileges and torments of the wealthy throughout his crime trilogy (Killer, Come Hither, 2015; Killer, Kill and Be Killed, 2016; and Killer's Choice, 2019). In his fourteenth novel, he occupies the calculating psyche of an octogenarian former managing editor of Time living luxuriously in Manhattan and Long Island and working with gleeful ire on an expos� of Bush and Cheney. Hugo believes all is well in his realm, aside from a bothersome medical diagnosis, until his much younger wife abruptly launches divorce proceedings. As Hugo recalibrates his relationships with his children and friends, revisits his past, and ponders his brief future, he lingers over how the pleasures of affluence accord with epicurean self-satisfaction. A trip to Paris inspires Hugo to contact the sexy Frenchwoman he cruelly abandoned decades ago, and their reunion is at once poignant, erotic, and treacherous. With discerning, amusing, and cutting commentary on everything from food and wine to politics, sex, and the right to die with dignity, Begley seduces and provokes with fiercely urbane wit.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)