Amy 
fiction
The Reason You're Alive is a short novel and is told by a crotchety Vietnam veteran who is
broadly liberal-hating, doctor-mistrusting, and self-righteous. His outlook on people is largely
stereotype-based. I feared I would not be able to get through it at first.
However, the reader starts seeing chinks in his armor fairly quickly so I stuck
with it. David is closed-minded about
most things yet surprisingly open-minded about people, especially when looking
back on his life after removal of a brain tumor. For all his bluster, he truly
has made connections and become friends with a diverse group of interesting
people about whom he deeply cares. He
has a soft spot for hard-luck cases and has survived a difficult life. While he is rough on the outside, he’s a true
softy on the inside. He possesses some
ideas that are hateful and some qualities that are admirable. He’s complex yet
simple. He has a nuanced philosophy of
life. I grew to like him, despite his flaws, the more I read. In the end, it’s a book about acceptance,
forgiveness, and love. And Matthew Quick has populated another novel with interesting, quirky characters.
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