Covid and Loss of Business: Turn to the Bottle or the Pen?
New Hampshire novelist Michael Lacoy splits his time between writing fiction and running a writing and editing business. As with many small business owners his bottom line suffered due to the pandemic. “It was an extremely stressful situation, but rather than turning to the bottle I reached for my pen—it was the smart choice!” he joked. The result: his second novel, Making a Better World (Monteverdi Press).
Making a Better World is a story about family, faith, love, and our turbulent present times. At the heart of it is Oscar Perilloux, a middle-aged widower and cash-strapped artist who is just trying to be good: a good father, a good brother, a good son. Yet thanks to an ensemble of well-developed supporting characters, Oscar’s journey to goodness is a rocky one. There’s a cantankerous elderly woman who needs a place to live; a love triangle involving two very competitive brothers; a fractured family in need of reconciliation; and a little girl who’s inching her way into the adult world. To complete the picture, there is also a childhood friend who becomes the object of a social-media firestorm.
“Creating these characters and following their stories was a fantastic gift, the best mood-therapy you can imagine,” said Lacoy. “Despite all the many hardships of the past year, the writing of this novel brought me tremendous joy and exhilaration.”
The book mixes satire and romance, as well as family drama and social commentary. Subjects that are humorously explored include internet cancel culture, “woke” capital, the crisis in the Catholic Church, the treatment of the elderly, and the raising of children. Witty and big-hearted, Making a Better World takes a playful look at the way we live now.
Initially, Lacoy looked to write something similar to his first book, The Mystical Adventures of Stavros Papadakis, which is a blend of tragedy and comedy. But as the first draft developed, and the pandemic continued to worsen, he decided to focus on the comedy. “There was enough tragedy all around, so I determined to write something hopeful and lighthearted, something that would make people smile,” he said.
The initial inspiration for this book came by way of a random mental image: a middle-aged father and his young daughter riding a motorcycle on a wooded New Hampshire back road—he driving the bike, and she riding beside him in a passenger car. “Where this came from, I have no clue,” Lacoy said. “I don’t have a daughter, and I’ve never driven a motorcycle! But the image stayed with me, and so finally I thought, OK, let’s go with it.”
Lacoy said his primary goal for the book is the one that all novelists have: to amuse and entertain. “Yet given all the problems we face today—not just the pandemic, but the many social and political divisions that are tearing this country apart—I’m hoping as well that Making a Better World might remind people of what’s important, and of how easily those things can be lost,” the author added.
Making a Better World is being released on April 14, 2021. It is available for purchase at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Gibson’s Bookstore and other internet booksellers. Michael Lacoy is a member of the New Hampshire Writers’ Project.
