April Fool

by John Neufeld

A tale set in Cheever country (suburban Connecticut). It features suspense, politics, romance, manners and murder, not to mention sex. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0980037735
• ISBN13: 9780980037739
• Release Date: July 2008
• Publisher: Grey Swan Press
• Length: 340 Pages
• Weight: 1.09 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Happy to recommend

The April Fool sequence of events opens at not quite midnight; with George Willetts, married, political campaign consultant, middle aged and wanting one last extramarital assignation to carry him through memories into old age. Sitting in the bathroom, checking his pulse and pondering whether he might be suffering more than simple arrhythmia George contemplates his next move. Obviously, should he expire everyone would be sure to learn all his secrets. Not just Peg his wife and/or Valerie his latest sweety, but everyone. George has a larger problem than the fact that his father had died of a coronary thrombosis, well, he had. His father WAS in his eighties, refused to follow his doctor's orders following open heart surgery, but he DID die, didn't he, yes, he did. And, his brother Bobby died of a heart attack in his fifties. George has cause for concern. George and his wife Peg have moved to a new area where Peg quickly becomes part of the local community; George becomes entrenched in his hypochondria and his desire for that last fling. George keeps reminding himself that he does love his wife, and has no desire to end their marriage even as he pursues trysts via the internet. Why wouldn't George wonder if each little skipped heart beat might be his last. Before that situation should take place George is going to have to figure out how to disable his computer, the motherboard in particular he thought, so that no one would be able to learn what he had been doing online. George's wife Peg enjoys her life filled with community events, activities and occasions. George, on the other hand, feels life may be slipping by as he becomes a regular visitor at the local hospital due to chest pains which may or may not be in his chest at all. George begins to dream of a better middle age and that better middle age does not include Peg. George has a quandary; he has begun a relationship with Valerie a woman he knows through the internet. She has no desire to be "the other woman." George begins to convince himself that if Peg were not in his life; he and Valerie would be able to take pleasure in life to the fullest. George Willett's impractical plan rapidly borders on abnormal as his unusual affiliation with Valerie along with those spur-of-the-moment, trepidation driven midnight trips to the local ER expose a self indulgent oaf who seems not capable of facing what he is himself and sans penitence or culpability formulates plans to rid himself of the wife who has been with him faithfully and supportive for years. Writer Neufeld's forebodingly comedic narrative, regarding a man having difficulty trying to cope with the recognition that more years of his life are behind him than there are to come; does have moments of drollness laced with more than a little gallows humor as well as, at times, moments of just plain disagreeable and pathetic, and characters that tend to foist themselves into situations they cannot handle. George is not a particularly likeable g

Was It Something I Said (Or Didn't Say?)

John Neufeld takes the fantasy of the baby boomer generation - a hookup at a bar with an attractive member of the opposite sex - to the next level. The author brings this "near miss" fantasy experience into the current generation. The hook-up really happened to George Willets, the protaganist in the novel, and the fantasy takes on even greater proportions in his imagination as he exchanges emails with Valerie, a beautiful author and part-time college professor whom he met while on a business trip to New York. George had been suffering with cardiac like symptoms occasionally that awakened him in the middle of the night which required a trip to the emergency room where they would do a battery of blood tests and an EKG only to pronounce him, healthy and explain he had an anxiety disorder. Surprisingly, after meeting Valerie, George did not suffer from these symptoms for quite an extended period of time. George is convinced he is still in love with his wife Peg but their ho hum life has become very predictable and they have no children ... The computer becomes the conduit which opens up George's fantasy life to the secret desires he had hidden even from himself. Freud knew the dangers of opening up the unconscious mind to its well kept secrets. It spawned a whole new profession called "psychotherapy". If denied, these repressed emotions could pop out at the wrong moments, creating all kinds of unexplainable symptoms. Even when these repressed emotions and desires are released gradually via email exchanges - the results can be unpredictable as John Neufeld reveals in this compelling novel about repressed desires, partially fulfilled fantasies and the promise of a more fulfilling life. However, there is that one main problem that George has, he is already married to Peg his wife of about 25 + years. A spontaneous visit to a local working class bar and a joke about snuffing out one's wife put some ideas into George's mind. The question is, can he go through with it? The author explores the emotional guilt of a man who makes a decision which is totally out of character for him. He makes a decision which goes against all his previously held values. The author provides some surprising twists and turns in the novel and a totally unexpected explosive ending. This book is most highly recommended.

A great laugh...

John Neufeld Grey Swan Press, 2008 ISBN: 9780980037739 Reviewed By Debra Gaynor for ReviewYourBook.com, 08/08 5 Stars A great laugh... George keeps reminding himself that he loves his wife, Peg. All the while, he is lusting after Valerie. He loves Peg, but he needs Valerie. George is also obsessed with having a heart attack. Written with a lot of humor, April Fool will leave you laughing. John Neufeld comments that he enjoyed writing this book, because the characters were fun. Not only was this book fun for him to write, but fun for me to read. Each character has a distinct voice. They seem to be alive. If you like to read books that will lift your spirits, put a smile on your face and a giggle in your mouth, this one is for you!

Everything you would expect from an author who has been included twice in The Sunday New York Times'

George Willett, the lonely complex, yet oddly empathetic protagonist of John Neufeld's recent novel April Fool, seems to have one compelling obsession, the desire to have one last fling before he kicks the bucket. Although he claims to love his wife Peg, he never considers leaving her. All he ever wanted was one final romantic fling, "an attachment that would last as long as summer sunsets on inland waters." George is a political campaign consultant and he and his wife Peg live in a small town in Litchfield County, Connecticut. From all outside appearances they look like the perfect couple. However, all is not as what it appears as George and Peg seem to be going through the motions of marriage with little intimacy. Described as a "fairly successful, and successful ordinary fellow, George missed being `dashing' only by the narrowest of margins." He suffers from irregular heartbeats or arrhythmia and as a result he frequently visits his local hospital for reassurance that he is not about to die. George has a few secrets and one is that if he should die his wife will find out what Internet sites he has been visiting, for what purposes and what assignations have been arranged, as well as the contents of his emails. When George meets Valerie through the Internet he believes that this is his last chance and only shot at finding romance. To George it is "companionship that was composed of wit and sex, of honesty and laughter"-something he felt lacking in his own marriage. Encouraged by Valerie, the couple carry on an intense sexy email romance. In fact, George is so desperate to have Valerie that no one would believe what devious act he was planning for his wife Peg. Neufeld's enormous talent is his ability to disturb, amuse, and delight without ever becoming too philosophical or inept. In addition, he displays a strong grasp of the complexities of human character as they relate to marital relationships and middle age. And when you lightly scratch the surface, you realize that the theme of April Fool is a novel of profound reality that reflects the state of many of today's empty marriages where couples stoop to seeking out destructive solutions to satisfy their selfish needs rather than working out their difficulties. April Fool is everything you would expect from an author who has been included twice in The Sunday New York Times' Best Books of the Year. Norm Goldman, Publisher & Editor Bookpleasures

April Fool s' Gold

George Willett's self-induced plight typifies the later lives of many....His longing for his previous BIG life blended with his fear of being over, create the plot's toxic cocktail with a deadly hangover. As drone as George's daily life is, his escape plan unravels like hearing lake ice braking underfoot. George's, if at first, surreal relationship with Valerie and his anxiety driven trips to the local ER at midnight, fuel his desperate attempt to escape. George writes a check with his old ego that his soul won't cash and too soon, he finds he can't cancel it. We are as comfortable with wife Peg as we are in rural New England. Each description of the various towns and landscapes rolls along like a country drive... like we all live there or have.