The Guncle, by Steven Rowley
Details
The results are in! The winner of our poll – and the book we will discuss on July 1, 2026 – is The Guncle, by Steven Rowley. We used STAR Voting again this month, and twenty-five members voted in the poll. Of our four book choices, Less and The Guncle received the most stars in the scoring round and advanced to the runoff round. In the runoff round, three people ranked the finalists equally, Less received eight votes, and The Guncle received fourteen votes. Thank you to everyone who voted!
If you are a member of One Drink Minimum Book Club and didn't hear about the poll or otherwise have not been receiving Meetup messages, we have two suggestions. First, check your Meetup settings and make sure you have notifications from our book club enabled. If that doesn't solve the problem, our second suggestion is guaranteed to work! Send an email to Chris and Gary at one.drink.minimum.book@gmail.com and tell us your name on Meetup and the date you joined our book club (the extra info is so we can match our members to their email addresses). Once we verify your membership in Meetup, we'll be happy to add you to our gmail mailing list! Your email address will remain private as we send all messages blind cc.
WINNER OF THE 2023 THURBER PRIZE FOR AMERICAN HUMOR • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER • USA TODAY BESTSELLER • AN NPR BOOK OF THE YEAR • FINALIST FOR THE 2021 GOODREADS CHOICE AWARDS
From the bestselling author of Lily and the Octopus and The Editor comes a warm and deeply funny novel about a once-famous gay sitcom star whose unexpected family tragedy leaves him with his niece and nephew for the summer.
Patrick, or Gay Uncle Patrick (GUP, for short), has always loved his niece, Maisie, and nephew, Grant. That is, he loves spending time with them when they come out to Palm Springs for weeklong visits, or when he heads home to Connecticut for the holidays. But in terms of caretaking and relating to two children, no matter how adorable, Patrick is, honestly, overwhelmed.
So when tragedy strikes and Maisie and Grant lose their mother and Patrick’s brother has a health crisis of his own, Patrick finds himself suddenly taking on the role of primary guardian. Despite having a set of “Guncle Rules” ready to go, Patrick has no idea what to expect, having spent years barely holding on after the loss of his great love, a somewhat-stalled acting career, and a lifestyle not-so-suited to a six- and a nine-year-old. Quickly realizing that parenting–even if temporary–isn’t solved with treats and jokes, Patrick’s eyes are opened to a new sense of responsibility, and the realization that, sometimes, even being larger than life means you’re unfailingly human.
With the humor and heart we’ve come to expect from bestselling author Steven Rowley, The Guncle is a moving tribute to the power of love, patience, and family in even the most trying of times. —description from the publisher Penguin Random House
“Influenced by comic dialogue that would make Neil Simon jealous, the novel’s serious undercurrent of loss gives way, in the end, to a warmth that will make readers smile….A funny, gentle tale of family and friends, and a salve for the wounds they often cause.” —Library Journal
“The Guncle is a story that deftly balances humor with deep sentimentality. Perfectly folded into the lines of Rowley’s narrative is some of the wittiest banter mixed in with some of life’s most philosophical lessons…. Rowley creates a wholesome narrative that digs deep beyond the surface, past the drollery, pulling at heartstrings and keeping the reader hooked with his tactful intuition for a beautifully balanced dramedy.” —Paperback Paris
“Patrick is a memorable character, and it’s genuinely thrilling to read screenwriter-turned-novelist Rowley’s take on the mechanics of stardom…. There’s true insight here into the psychology of gay men, Hollywood, and parenting. A novel with some real depth beneath all its witty froth.” —Kirkus Reviews
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