Bud is an obituary writer living in New York. His life kind of sucks. He's been divorced for a few years and he doesn't really have any friends other than his landlord, Tim. One night Bud gets home from a disastrous blind date (the woman brought her ex-boyfriend along to explain they were getting back together. Yikes. I thought the blind dates I've been on were bad). Bud goes home and starts drinking and gets an email from his ex-wife letting him know her mother passed away. The email sends him into a bit of a tailspin, imagining what his own obituary will look like one day.
So he writes it. He makes up a lot of fun, exciting things he did. And then he accidentally publishes it through his newspaper, sending it out to all the major publications throughout the country, who run it the next day.
His boss isn't very happy. Apparently they can't fire someone who's technically, if not factually, dead, so they put him on suspension until they can get it straightened out.
So Bud starts going to random strangers' wakes and funerals. Tim tries to help him realize how much he has to live for. One of his colleagues, Tuan, is even being friendly. Bud meets a woman, Clara, at a wake and she's spontaneous and whimsical and breathes fresh air into Bud's life.
Things are looking up when an unexpected, tragic death occurs. The book ended on a hopeful note, which was unexpected but welcomed. I enjoyed it, Kenney is a very good writer.
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