USA TODAY International Edition
‘Evvie Drake Starts Over’ is almost pitch perfect
Linda Holmes’ debut novel, “Evvie Drake Starts Over” (Ballantine, 304 pp.,
★★★☆), is a nuanced, extraordinarily ordinary adult love story that is as romantic as it is real. Like most love stories, there are flirtatious moments that will bring a blushing smile to the faces of the sappiest romantics, but they are sweetly and sparingly intermixed with the melancholy and mundane moments that also make up all relationships.
Just as Eveleth “Evvie” Drake musters the courage to leave her husband, Tim, a man she has been with half her life, fate steps in, and he dies in an unexpected and tragic way. A year goes by, and Evvie the widow is as much, if not more, a prisoner in her marriage as she was the day she decided to leave.
Still residing in the home her husband handpicked, among belongings that never really felt like her own, she plays the part of grieving widow to friends and family.
She also plays the part of dutiful daughter and best friend.
Enter Andy, a divorcé with two young daughters, and Evvie’s best friend and closest confidante.
Andy suggests Evvie rent her home’s spare apartment to a childhood friend of his, Dean Tenney, a former major league pitcher still struggling with his careerending case of the “yips.” Dean is in dire need of a new life direction and an escape from the spotlight in New York City.
After agreeing to mention neither failed baseball careers nor dead husbands, Dean moves in and the two hit it off. Over the course of a year, what starts as a landlord-tenant relationship evolves into friendship. As they bond over public radio and podcasts, that friendship evolves into something more. Along the way, the rules they set for themselves start to fall by the wayside. If they are to have any hope of finding love ever after, they both have to face their biggest obstacles – themselves.
At first, these characters appear to be stereotypes of fiction – the lonely woman and the jock – but with Holmes’ deft talent, they evolve into nuanced individuals. Once we get to know the real Evvie and Dean, and as they get to know themselves, we want to continue the journey with them.
Holmes has long proved herself a more-than-capable pop-culture critic as a correspondent for NPR and host of the “Pop Culture Happy Hour” podcast. With the effortlessly enjoyable “Evvie Drake Starts Over,” Holmes proves herself a natural novelist as well.