Given that this is an advanced reader copy you can expect some editing blips, but not as many as this copy carried. For me the subject material itself was handled with competency and respect but it was a hard read because of those editing, or rather non-editing issues and I think Publishers have to concede that it's important to their pre-published opinion that the copies are well subbed.
Despite all this the novel deserves a reading. I itched to sit Michael down and talk him out of his self-destructive bent, to point out to him that before the last page of his story there exists an opportunity to realise that he is not responsible for the thoughts and actions of others. That the demons are of his own making and that "everything has a crack in it...that's how the light shines through".
Thank You to Black Rose Writing and Netgalley.

This review is based on an ARC of Exile on Second Avenue which I received courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher (Black Rose Writing).

I came into Exile on Second Avenue fully expecting to love this novel, but instead, I cringed through the whole thing, and only enjoyed maybe two quotes of the whole story. I'm sorry, but this novel is pretentious as heck. It's like reading a sappy, woe-is-me memoir that you hope ends as a biography. You're supposed to want to root for your main character, not be begging him to off himself faster. This felt as if the author desperately wanted his novel to seem like a classic, but he hit way off the margin.

Storyline disappointment aside, this read like a rough draft. There were so many spelling and editing errors (which is fine I guess, that gets cleaned up in the edits before publication), the writing was uninspiring, and I felt nothing but disdain for the characters and plot. And I really don't understand the decision to write in the first person, past tense format. It doesn't make any sense with the overall story and conclusion.

Really this book deserves 1 star, but I'm giving it 2 because of the last paragraph.

This was not an easy book to read and going against my better judgement, i decided to give it a go. My son committed suicide over 3 yrs ago, hence i could relate to this story. There were times when i had to put the book down and it wasn't due to anything other than emotions. Other than that, it is an excellent book and would highly recommend it.

My thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for my copy. This is my honest review, freely given.

"It was one of the coldest winters New York City had seen in decades, the temperature had not broken above the freezing mark in over two weeks. In this frozen season, New Yorkers seek comfort in the sun that managed to make the tundra bearable enough to venture out in the day."

James P. Walsh's debut novel, Exile on Second Avenue, tells the story of a suicidal man, Michael Venier. The novel takes place over the space of a week leading up to his sister's wedding, and Michael plans to kill himself after the wedding. Over the course of the novel, we learn about his unstable relationships with his family, and his father's suicide, which haunts him.

The story of a man mentally struggling following his father's suicide feels reminiscient of Adam Hasslett's Imagine Me Gone, which was a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. And, of course, the story of men struggling with mental health issues has been prominent in literature for centuries, so Walsh was not touching on a new subject. With that, he presents himself the challenge of presenting a memorable novel that focuses on a theme that has been touched on time and time again in literature.

This novel will always remain a memorable read for me, but I doubt for the reasons that Walsh would have wanted. To put it simply, this novel missed all the marks that he tried to hit, and Michael Venier is, perhaps, the most dislikable protagonist I have ever read about. Depression and addiction is not something to be romanticized or turned into something beautiful, certainly, but Walsh leans too much in the opposite direction. Michael is unnecessarily cruel to everyone around him, and uses the trauma of his father's suicide and his own depression as an excuse for this behaviour. With this, a major point of mental health discussion is completely missed: being mentally ill doesn't give you the right to treat other people badly. His family and friends try to offer him love and support, which he spits back in their faces. This is shown through any moments they show concern, prompting him to rant about how they could never truly understand him (despite the fact that his mother and sister have also suffered from the father's suicide).

The worst aspect of this is that the reader is meant to sympathize with the protagonist. The novel presents the inner struggles that Michael faces, often presented through the cliche of how he constantly feels as if he is drowning or suffocating, and he constantly has nightmares about his father. This does not excuse the way he treats his family, which is often cruelly and malicious.

Another major problem with this novel is its treatment of women. A feature that struck me was the way in which any women that aid and sympathize with Michael are described as beautiful. Any time a woman is described as ugly, she is often presented as being a burden towards Michael's struggle, often presented as hysterical and irrational for actions such as scolding him for smoking in a non-smoking area. All the beautiful women in this novel have endless patience when it comes to Michael, despite his rudeness and dismissiveness. On the rare occassion that they scold him, the narrative once again delves into a reflection on Michael's inner struggles, and how these women could never understand what this poor man is suffering through.

Perhaps the most irritating feature of this novel, however, is its poor writing style. As noted earlier, it relies heavily on cliches when it comes to depression. Aside from cliches, sentences are also often poorly structured, which meant frequent rereading of lines just to understand what was said. In dialogue, some of the most basic rules of punctuation are broken, with no commas, full stops, exclamation marks, or question marks. These examples jump out from early stages of the novel, such as, "'Are you crazy I'm not calling you a cab I just got here,' Rachel disagreed'", and continue all the way through. This causes the dialogue to read as either robotic or straight out of the script from Tommy Wiseau's The Room. These errors are not just limited to the dialogue, with often incorrect uses of your vs. you're, "shuttered" instead of "shuddered", and so on. Even if this novel is not the final edit, these are simple mistakes that every author should know not to make. If this is the final edit, I highly advise that Black Rose Writing consider expanding their editing team. The poor editing served to emphasize the sheer horribleness of the novel's content.

As noted earlier, the literary canon of mental illness is expansive. For this, Walsh needed to make an impression to set Exile on Second Avenue aside from all the other novels, to offer something unique. This novel will certainly be one of the most unforgettable books I've encountered, but solely because of how terribly written this was. I have absolutely nothing positive to say about this novel. It is poorly written, relies heavily on cliches, and we're asked to sympathize with a pretentious and self-entitled protagonist.

Final Rating: 1/5

This ARC was provided by NetGalley and Black Rose Writing.

Exile On Second Avenue by James Walsh

Michael Venice: A struggling writer struggling to make his dreams into a reality while dealing with life’s struggles and copping with grief of his fathers passing that sickens him.

Nearing the second anniversary of his fathers suicide, and so close to his younger sister; Rachel’s wedding, Michael has decided that his time being alive is over and plans to kill him self after the wedding is done. People in his life try to help him understand what’s going on within himself and try to offer him help but he just won’t accept it. He has to come to terms with his life mistakes, past memories that still haunt him as well as trying to say his last goodbyes to the people that matter the most within his life.

This story is one that talks about the ugly side depression; but the side where one doesn’t want to admit they need help before it’s to late. It won’t be a glamorous read, but it is a read that gets you thinking about what could of happened if one thing was done differently. This book shows actions of what some people may be struggling with on a daily bases that we may not even notice one is going through.

I hope anyone reading this book and is going through a hard time knows that it get will get better as time passes and there are people willing to help you succeed and get better when you think the world is just to dark for you. Everyone is going to take this story a different way but I hope with all that I can that you know you’re not alone.
(Major thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of the book in return for an honest review)

I really enjoyed this book. However, it needs to be better edited and maybe flushed out a little more. This is a tough book to read, but if you are a fan of "Leaving Las Vegas" you will enjoy this novel. It is a short novel and I read it in one sitting. It is not a perfect book, but I highly recommend it.

Winter in New York, and aspiring – but failing – writer Michael Venier is facing a major life crisis: nearing the second anniversary of his father’s suicide, and days away from his younger sister’s wedding, he has decided to kill himself. The book runs through what could be the last few days of his life as he tries to say goodbye to old friends and somehow come to terms with his past.

This is not a happy read, be warned, and most of the characters are a pretty nasty bunch, especially Michael himself: self-centred, alcoholic, popping pills, and prone to violent fits of temper. As the week progresses we learn more about the events surrounding his father’s suicide, and yes, we are perhaps meant to sympathise with the main character as he struggles with his grief and guilt at the burden he carries. His nights are filled with dreams of his dead father, and his days are haunted by the ticking of the watch his father once gave him as a gift. There is any number of metaphors and outward symbols of Michael’s inner turmoil: he smashes up his father’s study, his mother gives him a present of the watch his father was wearing when he died, and he himself is to walk his sister down the aisle to give her away, in the absence of his father.

This is a book about carrying loss and of families failing to connect. It is about what is left unsaid, and about the burden men carry in supporting families and hiding their true feelings. These are worthy things to address, but for me the book just didn’t connect with me. There was, unfortunately, little for me to try and sympathise with Michael and his decision, and at the end – which may or may not be some sort of resolution – I was left with a sense of dissatisfaction. Maybe this is what the author is trying to achieve: throughout the book other characters try to get Michael to open up, but their attempts feel half-hearted sometimes. I give it 3 stars because it treats a subject that needs to be discussed, but I just felt a slight disconnect from any emotional heart in the book.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of the book in return for an honest and unbiased review.)

Failed writer Mikey Venier is an alcohol- and opioid-addicted bartender in NYC who is trying to plan his own death, to coincide with his sister's wedding, which is scheduled around the anniversary of their father's suicide. Mikey's drunken family lives together in New York City and has plenty of money, apparently misbegotten? While details about the father's suicide and business dealings/failings are murky, every detail about Mikey's cigarette, whiskey and meds consumption seems exhaustively meticulous. The story takes place over the span of the suicide-wedding week, in which Mikey's sister sets him up with a beautiful bridesmaid and the groom's family gives him a job as a midtown financial analyst despite his inability to function for more than an hour or so at a time, before collapsing in a vomity, bloody mess.

I'm not sure whether this book was simply never edited, or if the author intended the reader to experience, meta-like, virtually how awful a writer this character Mikey was. But to quote James P Walsh, by the time I found coulple, wont and "a goodnight sleep" on a single page, "my patience were already wearing thin".