Pride Month Book Review: The Celebrants by Steven Rowley
The Celebrants by Steven Rowley
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Publication Date: May 30, 2023
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
It’s been a minute—or five years—since Jordan Vargas last saw his college friends, and twenty-eight years since their graduation when their adult lives officially began. Now Jordan, Jordy, Naomi, Craig, and Marielle find themselves at the brink of a new decade, with all the responsibilities of adulthood, yet no closer to having their lives figured out. Though not for a lack of trying. Over the years they’ve reunited in Big Sur to honor a decades-old pact to throw each other living “funerals,” celebrations to remind themselves that life is worth living—that their lives mean something, to one another if not to themselves.
But this reunion is different. They’re not gathered as they were to bolster Marielle as her marriage crumbled, to lift Naomi after her parents died, or to intervene when Craig pleaded guilty to art fraud. This time, Jordan is sitting on a secret that will upend their pact.
A deeply honest tribute to the growing pains of selfhood and the people who keep us going, coupled with Steven Rowley’s signature humor and heart, The Celebrants is a moving tale about the false invincibility of youth and the beautiful ways in which friendship helps us celebrate our lives, even amid the deepest challenges of living.
Jordan, Jordy, Naomi, Craig, Marielle and Alec were best friends at Berkley. When Alec dies before graduation, the rest of them make a pact that they will all have living funerals. That is, when one of them is needing support, they will call on the rest of them to gather for their “funeral.” That way, they get to hear all of the nice things their friends have to say about them versus waiting until their actual funeral when they would not be able to benefit from hearing them.
For instance, Marielle called the group together when she was going through a divorce and Craig’s funeral was because he was having some serious legal problems. Now Jorden has called them together but no one is sure why.
The friend group in The Celebrants is made up of friends who don’t actually do a very good job of keeping in touch in between funerals, but once they get together, they pick right up where they left off. I think we all have friends like that. You love them but sometimes life gets in the way.
Like The Guncle, The Celebrants is the perfect blend of humor and heartbreak. Steven Rowley is now on my automatic buy list for sure. Highly recommended.
Other books I’ve reviewed by Steven Rowley:
Lily and the Octopus
The Editor
The Guncle
(I received a complimentary copy of The Celebrants for review.)
