Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today we are happy to have as our guest for the second time, Alex Gilvarry. Alex’s first book was From The Memoirs Of a Non-Enemy Combatant. Alex has been a Norman Mailer fellow and has taught at Wesleyan and Manhattanville College. His first book won numerous awards.

Eastman Was Here is the story of an author whose fading reputation, failing marriage and less than stellar character have led him to a crisis in his life. In his mid-fifties, Eastman is desperately searching for a way to jump-start his once vaunted career and save his marriage to Penny, a woman who he really seems to love.

But Eastman’s biggest obstacle to success on any of these fronts is Eastman himself. He is obnoxious, lazy, a liar, a cheat and a fairly miserable fellow. But we still like him or really want to like him.

In the end the book is about a man whose own worst enemy is he and the question asked is whether that is an insurmountable obstacle to a recovered life.

All in all a question I have ofttimes asked myself.