Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Biloxi by Mary Miller.

I'll be honest, most of the time I read this, I kept asking myself, why is this a book. My biggest issue being that the main character was so hard to like. He doesn't care to see his daughter, his wife left him, he's fairly sexist, and he doesn't do anything. The one redeeming factor is that he really likes his new dog and takes good care of her.

Anyway, it was a readable novel, but that didn't necessarily mean that I needed to read it.

elwes #Biloxi
9781631497841 198
Biloxi by Mary Miller W.W. Norton UK July 3rd 2020
Book Synopsis

Mary Miller seizes the mantle of southern US literature with Biloxi, a tender, gritty tale of middle age and the unexpected turns a life can take.
Building on her critically acclaimed novel The Last Days of California and her biting collection Always Happy Hour, Miller transports readers to this delightfully wry, unapologetic corner of the south—Biloxi, Mississippi, home to sixty-three-year-old Louis McDonald, Jr.
Louis has been forlorn since his wife of thirty-seven years left him, his father passed away and he impulsively retired from his job in anticipation of an inheritance that may not come. These days he watches reality television and tries to avoid his ex-wife and daughter, benefiting from the charity of his former brother-in-law, Frank, who religiously brings over his Chili’s leftovers and always stays for a beer.
Yet the past is no predictor of Louis’s future. On a routine trip to Walgreens to pick up his diabetes medication, he stops at a sign advertising free dogs and meets Harry Davidson, a man who claims to have more than a dozen canines on offer, but offers only one: an overweight mixed breed named Layla. Without any rational explanation, Louis feels compelled to take the dog home, and the two become inseparable. Louis, more than anyone, is dumbfounded to find himself in love—bursting into song with improvised jingles, exploring new locales and re-evaluating what he once considered the fixed horizons of his life. With her “sociologist’s eye for the mundane and revealing” (Joyce Carol Oates, New York Review of Books), Miller populates the Gulf Coast with Ann Beattie-like characters. A strangely heartwarming tale of loneliness, masculinity, and the limitations of each, Biloxi confirms Miller’s position as one of our most gifted and perceptive writers.

My Review

At first glance Biloxi seemed like a straightforward story of one man and a rescued dog. It wasn’t until Miller peeled away the layers that you realised it was anything but simple.

Louis was the main man, retired, divorced and alone. Did he like being alone or was the aloneness forced upon him? As the reader, you had to say it was a mixture of circumstance and choice, Louis was somehow adrift, no structure to his day, no idea who to be and where to go as a newly single man.

I felt a smidgeon sorry for him, but a large part of me wanted to shake him out of his reverie, make him take care of himself, eat properly and exercise.

The acquisition of Layla, the free dog from a house he just happened to pass, acted like a door left slightly ajar, as Miller used Layla to gently push or squeeze Louis through.

You could see small chunks of light appear in his mind as he saw the possibilities of a new life on the horizon. Yet things are never that simple, and Miller excelled at the anguish and angst she put him through.

The irreverent house guest with her feminine wiles, the chance meeting of a woman in a bar gave Louis the opportunity to assess the role of the women who had been in his life, namely his wife. Did he want another relationship, were they important to his happiness, his life?

Miller examined the relationship with his father, the impending inheritance, the freedom it promised, or alternatively the chain around his neck.

Yet it was his interaction with Layla, that well and truly opened him up. She got him up in the morning, made him walk the streets, the city of Biloxi, gave him responsibility and maybe that will to stay alive, to make changes that you hoped would make him happier.

Millers prose was careful and considered as she probed Louis’s mindset, as she widened his horizons. The exploration of loneliness, of loss was touching and tender, no cliches, none of the usual stereotypical nuances so beloved by many authors. She gave Louis and us hope, a world of possibilities and the wonderful after effects of a superb novel.

I met Mary Miller at an excellent reading, Q&A and signing in Biloxi on Friday, May 24, 2019.

I received a digital copy of her wonderful book through NetGalley and her publisher back in March and as a man in his 60s who lives in Gulfport, I think of this story a lot, especially Louis.

The story seems so real to me, I imagine there will be a day when I see Louis and Layla going to the Walgreens on Pass Road in Biloxi.

"Biloxi" will stay with me.

This book was not really my cup of tea, but I can see its appeal to readers who like unlikely romances.

I requested the book so as to consider it for editorial feature on BookBrowse. For me, it did not resonate, but I can see that it would have its audience.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The novel builds slowly, but the hopeful ending makes it worth the read. It is sweet to see the transformation of protagonist once he finds a companion. Love heals.

This is a view of a 63 year old man who has simply given up on life. His father has died and his wife has left him. He barely knows his married daughter nor his granddaughter even though they live just 20 minutes away. He’d taken early retirement from his insurance job. His friends have abandoned him. Everyone or everything that was important to him has either left or rejected him. He is a study in loneliness, hopelessness and despair. He tries to find a “new life” in various ways, including helping others, but is thwarted at each turn by some form of failure or reversal.

I found the descriptions of his life to be very poignant and spot on. His attempts at reclaiming life are also true to reality. His favorite TV show, "Naked and Afraid" fit perfectly with what his life had become. It was a sad and tragic expose which, unfortunately, has become prevalent in our society.

The plotting was somewhat lacking and the ending was a bit too pat, but in spite of these negatives, it was a book which spoke to me. It’s well worth reading – especially for senior citizens. Actually, I’m not sure the younger crowd would understand it.

I received this ARC from NetGalley and the publisher, LiveRight Publishing, in exchange for an honest review.

Akin to Oblomov by Goncharov, this book spends many words on little plot. I assume the author is attempting to express that one's attitude is all important but I could be wrong. Sixty-three year old Louis is newly divorced and newly retired. He is expecting a large inheritance from his father's estate as he is also newly orphaned.

Louis engages in bizarre fantasies, adopts a dog and tries to 'adopt' its owner, a woman who moves in for awhile and robs him. Louis' only positive characteristic seems to be that he is trying to establish a more positive relationship with his daughter and granddaughter and eventually decides not to wallow in self-pity and misery.
Dr. Cheryl Youse

Biloxi was a mixed bag for me. Readers are presented with Louis McDonald Jr., a highly unlikable '60-something divorcee who is struggling with a whole host of things, including the emotional rejection of the divorce, the death of his father, and his advancing age. In an attempt to avoid a potentially awkward run-in with his ex, Louis takes a detour and ends up stopping by a house with a "free dogs" sign and taking one home.

The story that follows is of course a tale of redemption as Louis learns to love again because of his new furry friend. Or, that's what we're conditioned to think. These sorts of books always have some sort of sweet plot like that. But, in this case, it's a little different. The dog, Layla, certainly changes Louis, but as a reader, I struggle to say that he is better because of it. As I said before, Louis is highly unlikable. He's blunt, he's mean, and oftentimes, his behavior is shocking. A particular scene that jumps to mind happens about halfway through the book. Louis has convinced himself that he's in love with a man's wife (even though he's never seen her and knows nothing about her--not even her name). So, he tries to get close to her by pretending to be a door-to-door evangelizer for the local Baptist church. And to do that, he goes to said church and takes all of their religious pamphlets and instead of heeding the "suggested donation" gives a flat payment that is much less than the cost of the pamphlets and leaves. He then uses said pamphlets to get the woman to open the door and invite him inside.

By the end of the book, I rather liked Louis, but I can't say if it was because he had changed enough as a person, or if I had grown accustomed to him, or because the other characters he's faced with are actually worse than he was. Every trope that you'd expect from a book like this: Curmudgeon finds dog and it fixes his life, he falls in love, etc. falls flat. Louis is not a better person by the end of the book, his life is not fixed, and love doesn't really work out in the way that he had been hoping. I can't tell if this was accidental or intentional. If it was intentional, it was brilliant.

I think I would like this book a whole lot more if I knew the intentions. Was it meant to be a social commentary, or a commentary of this genre of book? If so, then it was a brilliant piece. It completely turns the genre on its head, and as something of a curmudgeon myself, I loved it. But, if it was meant to be another saccharine romance, then it completely missed the mark. Still, for what it's worth, it was a highly entertaining piece, and I as I was given a physical ARC of the book, I might actually keep it, which is something I don't often do.

Three stars for good intentions but interesting execution.

A charming tale! For anyone who enjoyed A Man Called Ove, you'll be sure to love Biloxi. It felt like a coming of age for old people (I'm 65, so I know), but that didn't exactly make sense. Then towards the end, Louis, our protagonist, describes it as his three-quarter-life crisis. That was closer to what I was looking for, but not quite. Because Louis doesn't try to recapture his youth, he just starts to enjoy his life, he gets comfortable in his own skin.

Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title. #Biloxi #Netgalley

I've never been the kind of person to annotate or highlight passages in books--something about that practice always made me feel a bit like a vandal--but BILOXI by Mary Miller changed me in that regard. Throughout this charming and delightful novel I found myself marveling at the author's turns of phrase and her wry observations of human (and animal) behavior, and in turn, tapping the highlight button on my Kindle to mark the passages for future reference.

As a recently retired 61-year-old man, I felt the parallels between myself and the main character, Louis, all too well. Kudos to Ms. Miller for capturing all the loneliness, anxiety, and indecision of the senior male experience. (I'm curious to find out just exactly how she pulled that one off!) I came away from the book with the same feeling I had when I finished Fredrick Bachman's A Man Called Ove: richer for the experience. I think you will too. This one is a perfect choice for book clubs.
This review is based on a digital ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley. BILOXI will be published on May 21, 2019.

A poignant novel about a dog coming into the life of a man called Louis and making that life less empty.