The Rest of Our Lives (by Ben Markovits)
The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits was something of an accidental Audible purchase. I had credit left from one of Audible’s reward programs that made the book nearly free, and it had already been on my radar as something I thought I’d enjoy. So I bought it.
The novel follows 55-year-old New York law professor Tom Layward. Twelve years earlier, when his wife had an affair, he quietly resolved to leave her once their youngest child left home. After dropping his daughter off at college in Pittsburgh, he doesn’t head back to Westchester. Instead, he keeps driving west, loosely planning to visit people from his past—his brother, an old college friend, a former girlfriend, and eventually his son—while grappling with a forced leave from work and health problems he’s been avoiding. What begins as a quiet escape becomes a meditation on the choices that brought him to this point.
The book starts strong and interesting. I expected the cross-country road trip to deepen that promise—to become reflective and meaningful. Instead, it grew increasingly flat. Tom’s visits with his brother, college friend, and former girlfriend felt awkward more than revealing. I found myself uncomfortable on his behalf, almost wishing I didn’t have to sit through those encounters with him. I did feel genuine sympathy for his health struggles and the worry they caused his family. The ending, though, landed abruptly and left me unsatisfied.
Thankfully, the book is relatively short, so I didn’t feel I’d invested a great deal of time in something that ultimately disappointed me.
I listened to the audiobook on Audible. Eric Meyers’s narration was a really good fit for Tom’s voice and temperament.
Overall, The Rest of Our Lives had the ingredients of a thoughtful midlife road novel, but the journey never quite delivered the insight or emotional payoff I was hoping for. A quiet, competent book that left me wanting more.
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