The Rest of Our Lives by Ben

Monday, Jan. 11, 2026--San Antonio

The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits is about family relationships, personal desires, a road trip to figure things out, and coming to terms with how it has all turned out.  It's a short novel (240 pages) that was a finalist for the Booker Prize last year.  Tom is a middle-aged law professor living in Westchester County, New York, who has always talked about writing a book based on interactions with strangers in pick-up basketball games at local parks around the country.  He has had students file a complaint about his teaching and is on a semester-long enforced sabattical leave.  His father left his family before he was a teenager and his relationship with both his younger brother and his son are somewhat estranged.  His wife had an affair with another man 12 years ago, but he decided to stay with her until both their kids had left home.  His trip starts when he drives their daughter to Pittsburgh where she will begin her freshman year of college and then decides that rather than returning home he would like to see his brother in the Midwest, his best friend from his college days in Denver, and his son and the grave of his father in Los Angeles.  It's an easy read which kept my attention so well that I finished it within 2 days.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.