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The plot of “Maggie; Or a Man and A Woman Walk into a Bar�� by Katie Yee can be summarized simply - a woman learns in short order that her husband is having an affair and that she has breast cancer. The results of these events are what create the action the novel. However, the depth of the book comes from the narrator’s observations about the joys and sorrows of being alive, about friendship, motherhood, and ways of seeing the world. At one point the protagonist says, “I think if enough bad things pile up, they inevitably cross over into comedy. I am a collector of bad things with the hope that I can make them funny.�� This is exactly what Yee does in this novel. She takes bad things and casts them in new light, making them funny and poignant as well as real and relatable.
What struck me most in this novel was the power of the connections that Yee makes through her choice of metaphor and the vividness of her prose. I found myself highlighting sentences and passages because of the unique connections that struck me as relevant and true. This novel elevates the joys and sorrows of every day. It gives the act of living importance and power and celebrates our humanity.
Thank you to Simon and Schuster and Net Galley for this ARC in exchange for my independent and honest review.