The Futility Experts

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Pub Date 01 Jun 2018 | Archive Date 31 Jan 2019
Timothy Schaffner | Schaffner Press, Inc.

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Description

Feeling trapped in a stagnant marriage, working a dead-end job, and desperately coveting the last good parking spot, Tim Turner decides to do what any middle-aged man not in his right mind would do; reinvent himself as a 21 year-old Marine sniper named Rusty. What could possibly go wrong? At the same time, Davis Beardsley—a professor of zoology with an unhealthy obsession for imaginary creatures—helplessly watches his chances for tenure circle the drain when a new department head takes a less-than-favorable view of his teaching methods. Throw in a decrepit Sasquatch, a Romanian adoptee hell-bent on destruction, and a trio of incontinent lapdogs, and you have the makings of a laugh-out-loud hit. Delivered with deadpan wit and keen insight, The Futility Experts is sure to appeal to fans of Jami Attenberg, Emma Straub, and Joshua Ferris.

Feeling trapped in a stagnant marriage, working a dead-end job, and desperately coveting the last good parking spot, Tim Turner decides to do what any middle-aged man not in his right mind would do;...


Advance Praise

"The Futility Experts starts with a bang and only gets more explosive from there, laughs and satisfying plot twists, a kooky cast, including dogs that only a mother could love. I flipped pages till the night was dawn, dying to figure out how Margaret Broucek would bring all the threads together. A self-invented sniper, a Sasquatch-loving scientist, a raucous neighbor (complete with contested real estate), a struggling family man, where's it all going to end? In a great reading experience, that's where, and an auspicious debut for this talented new voice."

~ Bill Roorbach, author of Life Among Giants, The Remedy for Love, and The Girl of the Lake

 

“Margaret Broucek's The Futility Experts makes hilarious art out of disaster. The characters herein might be failures, but they are inspired failures, and Broucek treats them so humanely that the reader can't help but root for them. An extravagantly comic, strangely moving novel. I loved it.”

~ Brock Clarke, author of An Arsonist's Guide to Writer's Homes in New England

 

"Broucek's prose is stunning. Terrific turns of phrase, technicolor images, and a linguistic sensibility left-of-center enough to please and amuse without ever becoming gaudy or otherwise drawing undue attention to itself."

~ Ron Currie, Jr., author of The One-Eyed Man, God Is Dead

 

What Kris Kristofferson said when he discovered John Prine is what comic writers are going to say about Margaret Broucek - "She’s so good that we’ll have to break her thumbs."

--David Carkeet, author of The Full Catastrophe

"The Futility Experts starts with a bang and only gets more explosive from there, laughs and satisfying plot twists, a kooky cast, including dogs that only a mother could love. I flipped pages...


Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9781943156498
PRICE $16.95 (USD)
PAGES 307

Average rating from 2 members


Featured Reviews

The Futility Experts is a sometimes funny, sometimes gut-wrenching look at two men who find themselves at middle age, and not at all where they thought they would. be in life. Tim is working at a magazine for band directors after having been rejected by more than 20 symphonies. Davis is seeking tenure at his university - in a field that roughly translates to trying to prove that Sasquatch is real - while struggling through life with an adopted teenage daughter who seems hellbent on making his life, well, hell.

In an awkward twist, Tim finds himself chatting with Davis's daughter on Words with Friends... and then Snapchat. Portraying himself as a hunky soldier stationed in Afghanistan, the in real life chubby Tim starts fantasizing about moving to Mexico with this hot, blonde 18 year old. Meanwhile, Davis worries about his daughter's proclivity for seeking sexual attention from much older men - including his boss.

These two guys struggle through work, marriage, and family life quite unsuccessfully. Sometimes it's funny. Sometimes it's sad. It's always interesting. There isn't a huge plot twist here. But if you tend towards movies like "Dan in Real Life," I think you'll like this one!

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