Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny

Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny – 336 pages 

Book Blurb:

Jane falls in love with Duncan easily. He is charming, good-natured, and handsome but unfortunately, he has also slept with nearly every woman in Boyne City, Michigan. Jane sees Duncan’s old girlfriends everywhere–at restaurants, at the grocery store, even three towns away. While Jane may be able to come to terms with dating the world’s most prolific seducer of women, she wishes she did not have to share him quite so widely. His ex-wife, Aggie, a woman with shiny hair and pale milkmaid skin, still has Duncan mow her lawn. His coworker, Jimmy, comes and goes from Duncan’s apartment at the most inopportune times. Sometimes Jane wonders if a relationship can even work with three people in it–never mind four. Five if you count Aggie’s eccentric husband, Gary. Not to mention all the other residents of Boyne City, who freely share with Jane their opinions of her choices. But any notion Jane had of love and marriage changes with one terrible car crash. Soon Jane’s life is permanently intertwined with Duncan’s, Aggie’s, and Jimmy’s, and Jane knows she will never have Duncan to herself. But could it be possible that a deeper kind of happiness is right in front of Jane’s eyes?

My Review: 4.5 stars 

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Early Morning Riser is one of my favorite books of 2021, and one of the funniest books I have read. After loving Katherine Heiny’s Standard Deviation, I was eagerly anticipating her newest novel. I savored every word and did not want the story to end. This is the first book I’ve read that I would read all over again. This brilliantly witty, keenly observant novel tells the story of Jane, a second-grade teacher, who has just moved to a small town in Michigan. The novel follows Jane and Duncan, and all of the people in Jane’s life over 17 years. Since the story is divided into 7 parts, it gives the reader insight into Jane’s innermost thoughts, relationships and life spanning two decades. 

This is not a book where there is a lot of action but is a quiet book about the day –to- day lives of the characters in a small town. The strength of the story is in the wonderful, lovable, unforgettable, quirky, eccentric, and hysterical cast of supporting characters. These include Jane’s best friend Freida, her mother Phyllis, Duncan’s ex-wife Aggie, Aggie’s new husband Gary, and Jimmy, who has learning challenges and who ties all of the characters together. All of the characters were lovable, flawed, and totally authentic. I found myself laughing out loud throughout the book. Almost every page had witty, humorous dialogue, and entertaining but truthful observations about life. The scenes in Jane’s classroom will delight both parents and educators with its realism and humor. Although the story was light and funny, the subject matter could be deep. It was uplifting, full of heart, and captured the bonds shared by a community of people. This author excels at capturing the ordinary, extraordinary, heartfelt, and humorous moments in the everyday lives of real people. The book was a treasure and a delight to read. It was also a recent Good Morning America “Buzz Pick.” I highly recommend this book!!  

Quotes I liked:

How could Duncan not realize that every time you fell in love and it didn’t work out, it scraped out a little piece of you, like scooping out a piece of cantaloupe with a melon baller, and there were only so many times that could happen before the scoop marks started to show? That in really no time at all, your heart could become a cold, pockmarked stone?” 

“Sometimes she thought being with her mother was like crossing a desert: long, hard stretches of burning sand that exhausted you, but every once in a while, you happened on a little oasis of kindness.”

“Worst of all were the mood swings. Although, actually, could it be considered a mood swing if it only swung one direction? Maybe it was more like a mood acceleration. Like the needle on a speedometer that whipped straight from ZERO to ANNOYED and stayed there. Because it seemed like the world was in an unkindly conspiracy to irritate Jane