Regular Guy, A

In this luminous and tartly comic new novel, Mona Simpson, modern master of the surreal family drama, trains her eye on a generation - and a man - torn between idealism and self-absorption.

Tom Owens is a brilliant barefoot entrepreneur who has become rich and famous by inventing a new kind of business - a man who is fond of showering his largesse on friends and perfect strangers even as he resists any deeper claims on his affection. Into Owens's charmed life comes a ten-year-old girl whose claims he cannot ignore: Jane is his daughter, born out of wedlock, raised in communes, and now dispatched into his care by a mother who is no longer capable of providing it. As this raggedy, preternaturally observant girl seeks a place within Owens's circle, A Regular Guy depicts the miraculous chemistry that transforms longing into belonging, an uneasy menage into a family, and an arrogant boy-man into a father.

"Simpson understands families. She understands money. She understands America. This is a poignant, funny book about loss and disillusionment." - Chicago Tribune