This Close to Okay

Locations
Call Number: Adult Book / Fiction / General / Cross-Smith, Leesa, Fiction / Cross-Smith, Leesa
On Shelf At: Traverwood Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Cross-Smith, Leesa	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Cross-Smith, Leesa	4-week checkout	Due 04-26-2024

A powerful, vibrant novel about the life-changing weekend shared between two strangers, from the award-winning writer Roxane Gay calls "a consummate storyteller." On a rainy October night in Kentucky, recently divorced therapist Tallie Clark is on her way home when she spots a man precariously standing on the edge of a bridge. Without a second thought, Tallie pulls over and jumps out of the car into the pouring rain. She convinces the man to join her for a cup of coffee, and he eventually agrees to come back to her house, where he finally, reluctantly, shares his first name: Emmett. Over the course of the emotionally-charged weekend that follows, Tallie makes it her mission to provide a safe and comfortable space for Emmett, although she doesn't confess that she works as a therapist. However, Emmett is not the only one who needs help--and he has secrets of his own. Alternating between Tallie and Emmett's perspectives as they inch closer to the truth of what brought Emmett to the bridge, This Close to Okay is an uplifting, powerful story of two strangers brought together by wild chance at the moment they need it the most.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

This Close to Okay submitted by katieh on June 20, 2021, 10:30pm Tallie is a therapist who is still dealing with her recent divorce. Her ex-husband has already remarried and has a new baby, which is a gut punch to Tallie who wanted nothing more than to be a mom. One rainy night she sees someone standing on a bridge and pulls over to talk him down. Emmett originally wants nothing to do with Tallie, but he relents and agrees to go for a coffee with her.

They spend the weekend together and it is filled with the push-pull of talking about their respective traumas and hanging on to secrets. Each chapter alternates between his and her point of view and that really works for this story.

Even though I really enjoyed this book it does occasionally fall prey to the trope of the exceptional woman saving/changing the damaged man. There is also a lot of mention of suicide and self-harm.