I'm a big fan of short novels that pack a punch with emotion, and I was hoping that this one would have that kind of effect for me. It sort of did. I was engaged enough to keep reading, and the writing was good. However, for all this woman was going through (divorce, cancer), I didn't relate to her emotional reactions. I liked the humor she brought to her experiences, but everything just felt muted and wasn't able to connect as much as would have liked for this kind of "short with an emotional punch" novel. Oh, and the title is just so unwieldy - I think another choice could have been much more catchy and effective.

Author Katie Yee makes her novelistic debut with Maggie, or a Man and a Woman Walk into a Bar. A mother of two young children is blindsided when her husband reveals that he is having an affair with a woman named Maggie; almost simultaneously, she learns she has breast cancer, and so she decides to name her cancer Maggie, too. Now she and her soon-to-be-ex each have a Maggie. This novel is a vivid, authentic, utterly believable narrative that hijacked my attention from the other books I was reading. My thanks go to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the review copy. This book will be available to the public on July 22, 2025.

“They talk about women’s intuition…I never suspected a thing.”

The way that she contends with the news is completely different from how I would respond, and yet I believe her entirely. There’s no drama, no crying; at least, not when anyone is there to see her. Instead, she eats a lot and tries to maintain some dignity for herself. The scales are so badly skewed against her; Sam comes from heart stopping wealth, the sort of family that has multiple houses peppered around the U.S., and a couple of favorite places they like to stay in Europe. Our protagonist, whose name I am fairly sure is never provided, hails from the hardscrabble working class. And in leaving, her husband tells her that she can have the house as well as a generous chunk of alimony. If it were me and I were inclined to be nasty about it, all that money might stop me dead in my tracks, since clearly, the guy could get away with giving her far less if she really wanted to push him.

So instead, she sets some hard new boundaries. She won’t tell Sam about the cancer, at least not yet. She doesn’t want the awkwardness, the one where she witnesses him struggling with what is the right thing to do, versus what he’d rather do. No, she decides, it’s not his business anymore. And then she names the cancer after his girlfriend.

Maybe she’s a little passive aggressive, but who can blame her? It’s all she has left.

This novel has some power behind it, and if this is Yee’s debut, I can hardly wait to see what she writes when she has more experience. I recommend this book to any woman that enjoys contemporary fiction, especially those that have been jilted, and to progressive-minded men as well.

Maggie; or, A Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar follows a Chinese American woman as she navigates her husband’s affair and a breast cancer diagnosis. As her marriage unravels and her treatment progresses, she explores her complicated feelings by naming her tumor after her husband’s mistress, Maggie, and speaking to it.

I appreciated the friendship she had with her best friend, Darlene. Oftentimes, especially in books about marriage/motherhood, we see main characters entirely untethered from any further community, so it was really lovely for her to have a best friend as a support system. I also loved the sections about storytelling, Chinese folklore, and the narrator’s reminiscences about her mother and childhood. In many ways, this novel was very thoughtful and witty.

I really enjoy stream of consciousness narration as well as stories about women navigating grief, marriage, and motherhood. Maggie promised both, and was interesting enough for me to keep reading. However, the analysis falls flat in several areas, and there were points of incongruous characterization (for example, the narrator speaks a lot about growing up poor/compares that with her ex-husband’s upbringing, but regarding their divorce and her cancer, does not seem to be concerned at all about money or finances beyond a sentence about generous alimony and the fact that she can stay on his health insurance for up to three years beyond the divorce). For 200 pages of stream of consciousness, I wish I had left the story with a more fully realized character whose motivations I understood better.

Congratulations to Katie Yee on her debut, and thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. I look forward to more from Yee in the future!

Despite the unconventional title and the florescent cover, this is a story of back to back devastating events that befall the unnamed Chinese American narrator. When the novel opens, she and her husband Sam are dining kidless (!) at a nice Indian restaurant when Sam announces that he is having an affair and will be leaving his wife. The narrator almost laughs at the confession because it was “just so surprising.” Although her world is cracked wide open, her reaction is to return to the buffet, piling her plate high with samosas, to give her hands something to do. When they return home, she spies the mess and ponders whether the other woman, Maggie, said to herself, “She can’t even keep her own home in order.”

The narrator and her best friend Darlene, matched as college roommates, check Maggie’s social media and, learning that Maggie was white, “added another layer of betrayal.” The narrator wonders if Sam felt “that in choosing me, he had chosen wrong.” She dwells on Maggie after she learns that she has breast cancer because it was “a pretty good distraction . . . .” She wants to tell Sam, who grew up cosseted by his family’s wealth, about her diagnosis because he “had a way of making life easy,” but she decides that her vulnerability is no longer his business. She most wants to speak to her mother who lost her life to the same disease. She ponders child-rearing, makes lists, and talks with Darlene about dating, lamenting that “for me, there is also the very real possibility that there is no time to start over.” She and Darlene decide to name the tumor Maggie, after Sam’s new lover. “Like, you’re a cancer, Maggie. But also like, look, I have one, too.”

The narrator navigates these upheavals — which would leave mere mortals curled up in a fetal position — with intelligence, wit and dry humor. Yee’s debut is filled with accounts of the things we obsess over after a breakup, the salvation found in friendships, and humor found in despair. “I think if enough bad things pile up, they inevitably cross over into comedy,” the narrator reflects. The narrator’s dignity and strength — she is more comfortable with logistics than feelings — enables her to move forward with her life. This is a delightful, moving, and heartbreaking novel about resilience. Thank you Simon & Schuster/Summit Books and Net Galley for a novel that made me laugh and cry.

“𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘯𝘺, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘸𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘤𝘩 - 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘦𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘳 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘵𝘺, 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘦𝘹𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦.”

Summit Books is winning for me with their releases and cover arts this year - first Gulf, now this one. Thank you to them for providing an advanced readers copy via NetGalley! As I started reading I just had to get a physical copy with my BOTM credit.

What do you do when your life gets upended, not once, but twice, in quick succession? How do you process that grief, that anger? Those thoughts and emotions you struggle to articulate to those who have never been in your shoes? How do you respond and work through that loss of stability, of safety even, when the ground feels like it has gone out from under you and you’re free-falling? When you are overwhelmed, overcome, and uncertain of your future? What happens when you name your hardship?

A little over two years ago I was diagnosed with cancer and then seven months later was assaulted. Last summer I had an unexpected procedure that revealed a second cancer was growing (not yet in its actual “cancer” stage). Earlier this year I had a lumpectomy for what thankfully was a benign growth in my chest. I am still dealing with the legal issues from the assault, still dealing every moment with the physical ramifications from it, some which will be lifelong. Every morning I’m reminded of both, the cancer and the assault, because of the pain I’m in and/or the meds I have to take to keep me alive. These are griefs that unless you’ve been in them you won’t fully understand and just like in this story, cancer doesn't make everything stop in our world, it just adds another heavier, invisible weight. A diagnosis makes our world flip upside down, inside out, spun around, and yet continues on without a pause. I imagine a sudden divorce would do the same.

In reading this, though I’m not married, I felt her grief of the losses, and definitely related to her cancer journey; how she wished she could talk to her mom (for me it would be my grandma, though she passed due to a different kind). These things impact you in ways you don’t realize, deeper than you think, and reading/hearing about someone else’s experiences opens your eyes wider to your own experiences; how everywhere turns into a waiting room, not just for biopsy results but in regard to everything; for the other shoe to drop. The numbness that comes with it all, like you're on autopilot, going through the motions, living in a twilight zone. The desire for some control over the uncontrollable chaos… For me this one was wildly relatable, at times humorous (though the type may not be for everyone), and the writing was lovely; made it feel like a conversation with your best friend when you are able to really get into their mind. And with my being a cerebral dweller like our unnamed narrator, even more so!

BUT this isn’t just about the cancer or her husband’s affair: this is a story about motherhood, memories, and friendship; of all the other kinds of love we have in our lives, the people we have to live for, can live with. It reminds us of the often overlooked joys, the ways we touch each others' lives, and how we carry a piece of one another with us. It also reminds us that while hard, unfair, emotional and out-of-our-control these trials are, we can still take ownership of our story, of the things that we can, and maybe, somehow, some day, it can be beautiful and perhaps even better than before.

While most books I’ve read that have focused on motherhood have been a disconnect for me as a single woman, perhaps it’s the cancer arc or better yet the writing style, I felt truly immersed in this character. The train-of-thought and observational vignette style felt perfectly apt for this. I felt a part of this story, of this character, and what I wouldn’t give to have a Darlene in my life (the gift she gives at the end had my eyes well up). So much of it I thought “yup, I understand that. I think/have thought/felt/responded like that.”

Unique in its story and flow, this debut is a fantastic start to what will hopefully be a stunning collection of stories from Yee. I know I’m already waiting for the next one. Content includes infidelity, cancer, and minimal profanity.

Our unnamed narrator is eyeing the samosas at the all-you-can-eat-buffet, excited about a night out with her husband Samuel, when he lays it on her: “I’m having an affair.” With a woman named Maggie.

We go through the rollercoaster of emotions as she processes this information, what it means, and the questions it raises (how long, who, where, etc.), what about the kids...

Luckily her friend Darlene is there to commiserate over Bloody Mary's and margaritas. Everybody needs a Darlene.

This book was raw, earnest, witty, sad. And very funny. In addition to her marriage imploding, she is dealing with a very real cancer diagnosis. She names the tumor Maggie, and talks to it.

There's a lot to love about this wry, heartfelt debut novel as Katie Yee spins tragedy into laugh out loud comedy.

My thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster | S&S/Summit Books for the Advance Reader Copy. (pub. date 7/22/2025)

Amidst her cancer diagnosis, our narrator learns that her husband has been having an affair. So begins Maggie; or, a Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar, a book that meanders through the grief, frustration, and freedom we find in times of tumult. This book won't be for the masses but anyone willing to wade a bit through the muddy waters of our narrator's consciousness will find a lot of heart and profoundness in Yee's debut.

This is a book about the unraveling of a family--it begins with the narrator being taken out to dinner by her husband, who tells her he's been having an affair and is leaving her (for Maggie). The narrator at the same time is coping with a breast cancer diagnosis (she names her tumor Maggie, after the girlfriend). But that really isn't what the book is like--this is a narrator who's trying to figure out what the story is about (if there is even a story any more), sort out how to be a story teller and tell stories and jokes that both accurately describe her life and make sense to her audience. (There is a lot about failed and successful bedtime stories, passing on the stories the narrator heard from her mother's Chinese traditions, the kind of stories that can be told at PTA meetings, the way we wait to tell about pregnancies but maybe don't have a time or a way to share bad news at all.) The narrator has found herself in two stories she doesn't want to tell--divorce and cancer--and needs to find a way to tell a different story (while being unable to escape those). The result is really interesting.

Thanks to the author, the publisher, and Netgalley for a free earc in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are all my own.

This one comes out today and if you are a fan of raw stories with a lot of heart, you are going to want to scoop this debut up!

Yee’s writing reminded me a lot of Katherine Newman and Nora Ephron. This story is devastating while also hopeful and realistically showcases desperate moments while also clinging to happier ones, which I think we can all relate to. There are heavy themes explored but in a way that is vulnerable and honest. You get to witness a woman break and put herself back together and is there anything more truly powerful than that?

I don’t think this one will be for everyone as the writing style is more fragmented and almost stream of consciousness at times but there are so many things the main character says that really hit you in the gut and the heart and stay there.

A life affirming comedy in tragedy as we follow our narrators marriage dissolving and her diagnosis with breast cancer. Featuring reflections on language, stories, trees, and more, this book is hopeful and truly honest at once. Such an interesting study in a character making understandable decisions and heart-filled observations in ordinary yet extraordinary circumstances.

for fans of Nora Ephron's writing and character driven explorations of womanhood

4.5/5 stars

Thank you to #NetGalley and the publisher for advanced access to the book in exchange for an honest review.

A woman is told by her husband that he's having an affair and is leaving her. Shortly after, she starts having a pain in her chest that could be heartbreak but it's actually a tumor. So she decides to name the tumor Maggie, just like the woman her husband is leaving her for. This was a short and easy read despite the hard situations it deals with. I found it so sad that she decides to deal with her cancer treatment alone, besides her best friend Darlene, to try to keep a normal life for her two children during the divorce. In the end, I liked how she was on the path of healing, both from the heartbreak and the cancer.

It sounds like the beginning of a classic joke...

...but it actually signals the end of a marriage.

What she thought would be a lovely dinner out with her husband Sam is instead the night he told her of his affair with a woman named Maggie. What she thought was a perfect life, with a successful husband, two children she adores, and a nice home is disrupted when Sam announces his intention of leaving her. What she thinks is the physical manifestation of her breaking heart turns out to be breast cancer. Suddenly she must deal with a divorce she doesn't want, a frightening illness, becoming a single mother, and connecting with the Chinese heritage she has set aside for so long. With her best friend Darlene supporting her she must summon the strength to confront her challenges, and does so with humor and a strength she didn't know she had until she needed it.
Here is the story of a woman who has thrust upon her two unwanted and unanticipated events, either of which on its own would be devastating; the convergence of the two could fell anyone. But it is far from a depressing tale; the first person narrative is interwoven with humor as well as heartache, There is a bit of stream of consciousness to the narration, a style which is not to everyone's taste, but in a way it matches the narrator's life (and as such her state of mind) at this unusual time, jumping around a bit from topic to topic rather than following a logical sequence. The characters are developed with warmth and empathy, even the unfaithful husband and the "other woman". The depictions of a marriage that has run its course, of doing one's best to be a good and loving parent, of the strength found in women's friendships and of reconnecting with the heritage set aside in a person's search to fit in to another culture all ring true. The main character is far from perfect, and is in fact lacking in self-confidence, yet she doesn't let the grief over the collapse of her marriage nor the shock of a scary medical diagnosis conquer her. The novel, like its leading character, also isn't perfect...there is an unevenness in development of themes, and not everything receives the closure a reader might desire...but it has a charm derived from the humor and hope that are contained within the covers. Readers of authors like Nora Ephron, Ann Patchett and Alison Espach should give this story a try, as should anyone who enjoys a well-told character-driven story. My thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster/Summit Books for allowing me access to a copy in exchange for my honest review.

When the story begins, our unnamed narrator confesses to everyday insecurities. Her children seem more enthusiastic during story time when her husband Sam puts his own spin on things, placing characters and plot twists in books where they don't belong. She fears they're more enamored with their father when she notices them mimicking his idiosyncrasies.

We quickly come to find that she has much bigger concerns when Sam confesses to an affair, leaving her just as she discovers a lump that may or may not be cancerous. She decides to name that lump Maggie, after her husband's new girlfriend.

In honor of our narrator's fixation with making lists,
I'm going to make one of my own:
-Sam sucks for being fickle and selfish
-Everyone needs a friend like Darlene
-The narrator shows more grace than I ever would
-I wanted the narrator to stand up for herself more
-Myths woven throughout provide necessary respite
-Love this story, even though it kinda broke me

This book was a million things in one.

Sad, but funny.

Deep, but light.

Reflective, but also fantastical.

It definitely wasn’t for me, but I did appreciate it.

It was definitely one of the most unique books I have ever read, and I read about 200 books a year.

The protagonist is suddenly, and unexpectedly, facing a divorce, when her husband tells her he has met someone else, and is leaving her.

Almost at the exact same time, she finds out she has cancer.

This book is about grief, but it’s also about moving on. It’s about motherhood, divorce, and friendship.

My favorite part of the book was the stories that were included from mythology and Chinese tales.

For a debut this is stellar, it was beautifully written, but I enjoy more structure to my stories, and at times it just felt like rambling thoughts.

I recommend this book to those who like reflective stories that focus more on the characters, and less on a plot.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, Katie Yee, and the publisher, for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

From the start, I adored this novel. The narrator, a Chinese American woman, learns that her white husband has been having an affair with a woman named Maggie. Shortly after, she learns that she has breast cancer. On the surface, this sounds nothing but tragic, but Katie Yee captures the very human, sarcastic, dark humor of it all with a wittiness that I related to tremendously. Some of the thoughts and reflections of the narrator could have been pulled from my own head. I would absolutely be friends with her, though she already has an amazing bff. For those who thought it was unrealistic that the narrator wasn't more devastated, I would say that sometimes bad news feels very... mundane? Some people cope in ways that may be unfamiliar to you, but that doesn't make it wrong. I would add that there may have been a cultural element that led some people to miss the point. In any case, I loved this and look forward to seeing more from the author!

This will absolutely be one of my books of the year! I had heard a lot of hype and was slightly concerned going in that it might be overblown, but it only exceeded my expectations. The narrator immediately drew me in, and I could have listened to her voice forever. I don’t say this lightly - the Nora Ephron comparisons are apt. My second favorite character was Darlene; I could have read a whole book about her as well. The children are also really well done - deployed brilliantly, I thought. I cannot wait to see this book have all the success it so richly deserves.

This book honestly caught me off guard. I went in expecting something extraordinary, but I didn’t realize how sad and vulnerable it would feel. The unnamed main character experiences the most life altering changes one can possibly go through while also having to raise children, but there’s this quiet heartbreak running through the whole story that really stuck with me. The representation of Asian American women in this book was prevalent and powerful. Overall this book was a 4 star and I definitely would recommend to others.

Maggie; or, A Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar by Katie Yee (book cover is in image) tells the story of how our narrator deals with the grief of loosing her husband and a cancer diagnosis. Weaving heartbreak and humor into her narrative, Lee is able to cover themes of grief and identity in a series of vignettes.

Choosing vignettes to deliver her story, felt disorientating and jarring as a read, and thought that this may have been better suited written as a narrative. It was very hard to connect with the characters, and I believe this was more because of the structure chosen for the books vs the the writers capability.

Thank you @simonandschuter, @summitbooks and @netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 2 Stars
Pub Date: Jul 22 2025

#MaggieoraManandAWomanWalkIntoaBar
#KatieYee
#SimonandSchuster
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#NetGalley

The narrator in this novel learns her husband is having an affair and is leaving her, shortly before also finding out she has breast cancer. As difficult as this is, it also stirs up memories of her mother's breast cancer journey. We are in her head as she manages these life changes and I missed that when I finished the book. I really loved this character, especially her relationship with her best friend as a a daughter and mother. Though this deals with heavy topics like grief and identity, it is told with such warmth and humor. I also really enjoyed the Chinese folk stories she tells the kids as bedtime stories. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced digital copy. 4.5 stars.

It was a tad exhausting to be inside this character’s head, to be honest. This was a quick read but I didn’t connect enough with her enough to appreciate going through all of this with her. Not bad, not good, just not for me.