This book was so wonderful and reflective - I can't wait for people to read it. Our protagonist navigates both divorce and a breast cancer diagnosis, but shies away from the big, explosive emotions that come from these life events.

As someone who has a best friend who was diagnosed with breast cancer, this book touches on the quieter and more reflective moments that may come up throughout the days when you're feeling fine and not consumed with the day-to-day dreariness that comes from a horrific diagnosis like this.

two serious life challenges happen to the female main character simultaneously - her husband leaves her for another woman and she is diagnosed with breast cancer. things could go really dark, really fast. instead, katie yee takes us along on her main character’s journey (she’s unnamed) and we get a glimpse inside her mind and heart. the comedy injected wasn’t laugh out loud funny but instead was the kind that made me smirk knowingly - more subtle, more “i hear you”.
i really enjoyed the way the chinese folklore stories were woven throughout the book. i also enjoyed that it is a shorter book with no chapters - just breaks between stories or experiences.
highly recommend if you like to read books that go inside of a person’s thoughts and aren’t full of extra words and descriptions to fill pages.

thank you to simon & schuster for providing this book for review consideration via netgalley. all opinions are my own.

This book is perfect -- just what I needed. The writing is smart, funny, and effortless. The story and characters are warm, touching, and totally relatable. I caught myself thinking about whether I should slow down reading so I can make the book last longer.

literary, interesting work about falling and rising and coping with several personal strifes at the same time. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.

Thank you soooo much to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the ARC!

What a debut! This book was truly a gem. It's incredibly well-written, with many lines that made me hesitate, reflect and highlight. The author is somehow able to craft sentences that perfectly capture emotion - be it regarding motherhood, grief, Asian American identity, or romantic love. Our main character is quirky, hilarious, sarcastic and loving, and her best friend Darlene (rebellious corgi in tow) is so real that I feel like I know her. We all need a Darlene in our lives!

I am Asian American, and I really resonated with the narrator in the sections where she was concerned about potential racism. The PTA participation also brought back memories of when my kids were in elementary school and I was in the throes of both motherhood and parent politics/drama. (As an aside, I love that she signed up to help in the school library!)

Lastly, as a physician with 2 coworkers recently diagnosed with breast cancer, I also really appreciated the insights in to being a patient during this scary time. So relatable.

Katie Yee, you have hit it out of the park! Please keep writing!

I heard alot of pre press on this book and was really looking forward to reading it. I thought the writing was excellent but the story itself, was not great. Thanks for the opportunity to read and good luck with the book.

I had the pleasure of reading this book before publication and I do truly mean pleasure! Normally a book without chapters scares me. I like knowing there is a place to stop, I like planning my reading. This book however gives you no reason to want to stop! Reading as a stream of consciousness through an unexpected divorce and an even more unexpected cancer diagnosis, Katie Yee was able to create a very familiar and compelling narrative about the stories we tell to others as well as ourselves!

Still in shock over how much I loved this book! The way the story was told made me not want to put it down at all, and each snippet of the narrator's life flowed so well into the next that the story felt fully cohesive. There were so many small tidbits that made me laugh or stop and think and I'm so tempted to read it again just to see what I missed!

Maggie; or, A Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar is a short novel from one woman's point go view as the life she has built for herself shatters. In the space of a short time, her husband takes her to a restaurant to tell her that he has been cheating on her, and she quickly realizes he also is leaving her. Subsequently, she discovers a lump and is diagnosed with breast cancer, the same disease that took her mother. She has two young children and one close friend that she relies on as she deals with all of these life changes. The book is told mostly in fragments of scenes from Maggie's life that illustrate the emotions she's experiencing and the thoughts running through her head. This is a pretty strong debut and would certainly be interested in reading what Yee writes next. I found myself at times wishing the scenes were longer and I got to know the characters better, but this is a quick read that I think many will enjoy.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for the advance reader copy in exchange for honest review.

4.25/5

The mark of an excellent author, I think, is the ability to subvert the established boundaries of humor and darkness in a way that feels natural. Anyone who has gone through a season of life where awful things come in waves knows that there is a point where you sit back down on the sand of your life and let the tides pummel you... and you just laugh. That's what this book feels like. Literary fiction at its finest.

It is so mind blowing to me that Katie Yee is a debut author -- her writing is mature and her voice is uniquely her own. I suspect that her name is one I will see on a listicle in a few years, sandwiched somewhere between Shelby Van Pelt, Sally Rooney, Marianne Cronin, and Elif Shafak - titled "Authors that are maybe on their third or fourth life because it's suspicious how much they understand human nature," but maybe condensed for clickability.

Katie Yee's writing style is clever, darkly funny, and deeply touching all at once. It is fragmented, creative, bold. It is told non-linearly, which is a technique I personally adore, but I know that it bothers some people, so bear in mind that this book might not be for you if you are that sort of reader. It fully immerses you in the character's head in a sort of stream of consciousness with no chapter breaks, but I feel that it does so in service of the book's structure, because memories are cyclical and life doesn't always happen to us in a neat line with tidy beginnings and endings of each section.

The story centers the inner thoughts of a mother whose domestic, complacent life shatters around her when her husband confesses he's having an affair and she finds out she has breast cancer in quick succession. It interrogates her past, her future, and the relatable humor of experiencing a sudden lifestyle change. While other reviewers have had mild critiques of the narrator taking metaphors just a touch too far, that is actually what sold me. A book about someone's inner dialogue falls flat for me when it is too neatly defined and makes too much sense. Next time you're crying while chopping onions and you laugh to yourself a little that no one can tell you were 'for real' crying earlier because now you can just blame the onions, and that maybe you should always cook with onions when you're sad for this very purpose, think of this book. Humans are silly, even in the depths of their grief, and this book just gets that.

I think what struck me most about this book is how distinctly real it felt, from the narrator's internal dialogue, her children's interests and personalities changing as they grow, the little rituals that she has with her best friend (everyone deserves a Darlene), the fickleness of memory, the reopening of generational wounds, and the absurdity of life's curveballs. This book felt like healing, tenderness, the simultaneous joy and grief of motherhood, and the love that we carry for people who sometimes don't deserve it. It could have been so easy for the author to "overcook" this story, shave it down a little here or there to fit a more traditional mold, but she didn't. Every word felt intentional (except for that one typo where "concept" was written as "conceit").

Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for providing this e-ARC! I can be proud to say I was here first when this gets shortlisted for awards!

Link to storygraph Review: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/90caf817-691c-49bd-a7ef-63e4c45c2b29

Maggie; or, A Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar is an incredible read. This book focuses on Katie’s candid perspective of dealing with her own cancer diagnosis while processing the unraveling of her marriage and her husband’s infidelity. She decides to name her tumor after his mistress.

This is a book that I could not put down. Katie reflects on relationships and time in a way that feels refreshing and familiar at the same time. The writing is consistently beautiful and honest.

“And it’s true: when it was me and Sam in that car at the very beginning, my wants were all so airy and unspecific….My dreams are so heavy now. When did that happen? Maybe it’s something that comes with age. Or family.”

An exceptional read. Everyone will be talking about this book.

This book was excellent! The writing was gorgeous and I was entranced. Will definitely be recommending this one!

Things I loved about this book: I love the use of language - the use of metaphors - when she compares loving Sam and losing him to her favorite room in the house, the one you go to when you want to feel comfy and the metaphor of the mirror that is broken in her purse are just two of my favorites. I also loved the way she incorporated Chinese tales and various other stories into the writing, as well as the mashup of children's books and tales that helped tell her story.

The way that Katie Yee uses language in this book is gorgeous - a few examples, when she writes about soulmates and describes how they come in different forms such as a husband, a best friend and possibly even a dog, and when she describes the part about having two heartbeats living inside her body - the way it is to be a mother and how when the children grow up it is like having a heart walking around outside your body since you once had two heartbeats inside it.

I love how she normalizes having cancer and being divorced, and how even though she has these incredibly difficult things happening to her, this story is in many ways a love story to herself and her children. I adore the relationship she has with Darlene, her best friend, and the way she describes the power of female friendship. I also love how she writes in this disjointed way, connecting ideas that don't seem to be connected in any way, and the short paragraphs that don't seem like they will work, and then they do. These disjointed short passages are like the way she is feeling - going through divorce and cancer - like the smoothness of life is not there - that smoothness which we all hope for and never happens. It is instead real, and emotional, and beautiful all at once.

This novel touches on themes of race, class, power struggles, and the role of women, so many issues that are important, and yet, it does not harp on them; they are just there, and she is experiencing them, and we experience them with her.

I do wish it had chapters, so it would be easier to put it down and then go back to it. It was tough to find a place to stop for a time, but otherwise it was amazing. I thank Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for the e-arc. Now go read this book - everyone should read it!

Let me start off by saying that the writing is great. I can imagine liking other books by this author but I just couldn’t deal with the cheating husband. I was so angry with how he treated her when he told her and how he didn’t seem to fight for the relationship at all.

The story of a woman who finds out her husband is having an affair, then is diagnosed with cancer back to back. Despite the heavy subject matter, this relies heavily on humor and leans into the absurdity of life’s surprises. The way this portrayed the dissolution of a marriage seemed really inauthentic and too tidy. I wish it was a little more focused, really loved the writing though and can’t wait to see what this author does next.

While I have some thoughts about a book title with a semicolon AND a comma, AND a joke line, I can forgive it for this book. A first-person narrative where the protagonist has had two life-altering things happen to her simultaneously. She quietly deals with the situations with the help of her best friend, Darlene, and the day-to-day caring of her children. She shares Chinese stories with her children that her mom shared with her. Quietly, everyone heals.
If you are looking for an overt, deliberate book to tell you how to feel, keep looking; this is not your book. If you appreciate subtlety, good writing, and much unsaid, here is your book.
Thanks, NetGalley, for the arc of this book.

This book is a little gem and I am grateful to NetGalley for an advance copy. It drew me in and kept me deeply engaged. Her writing is full of nuances- observational and emotional. It’s a tender story about delicate subject matters…and handled in ways that are both interesting to read and also feel quite real and not hyperbolic or overdone.
So glad to have found this book.

I loved this book! I read it in two days, thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy! This book though grappling with difficult topics (an affair, a divorce, breast cancer) felt more stream of consciousness than a steady plot, but I loved the book for its unique writing style! It was witty and at times made me tear up, while at other times it gave me thoughts about life to chew on. What a great debut book! I look forward to more from this author in the future.

Katie Yee's Maggie; or, A Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar offers an introspective look into a marriage in the process of ending. I particularly enjoyed the main character’s interrogation of how her own upbringing differed so significantly from her husband's. The narrative suggests they could discuss these differences frankly during their marriage, but that his privilege and sense of entitlement become more impactful now that they are separating.
There are also moments of humor and relatability in her observations on the practical shifts of daily life, such as the challenge of accidentally buying more bread than one person can consume before it molds when transitioning from shopping for a family of four.
Yee employs a very creative, associative style, weaving comparisons between her family life, her experience with cancer, party games, and fables. This was often inventive and fun. At other times, however, the connections felt less clear to me, or the metaphors didn't fully land for me. For instance, while the extended metaphor comparing the difficulty of cooking a fresh artichoke to her husband's flakiness and musings on hearts versus brains was certainly unique, I wasn’t sold. Similarly, while the Jenga analogy about forcing others to ruin things felt like a stretch at first, it also sparked a fun, thought-provoking angle on how seemingly innocuous games might subtly shape our worldview, especially for children.
Overall, the narrator's voice was very pleasant and engaging. I enjoyed reading her reflections on life. Despite the complexities of the subject matter, there was a relaxing quality to accompanying her on this journey of introspection. While the pacing dragged a bit for me around the two-thirds mark, the book remained an enjoyable and thought-provoking read.
Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

My mistake. Clearly I’m not the right reader for this one. I didn’t find it funny. I did find it smothering on the subject of children. As for the heartbreak of being dumped by your husband, where was it ? No anger. No desolation. Instead, the cancer metaphor.
Maybe this will be the summer read that everyone loves. Good luck to it. Just not my cup of tea.