Grief changes everything. So does friendship.
A Pleasant Fiction is a powerful novel about love, loss, and the long road to meaning. With honesty, humor, and emotional depth, it explores how we find resilience when life takes everything away.
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Winner of a Readers’ Favorite Book Award and 3 Firebird International Book Awards (Most Likely to Make You Cry, Best Risk Taker and Death & Dying)
Praise for A Pleasant Fiction…
★★★★★ A Pleasant Fiction: A Novelistic Memoir by Javier De Lucia is a stark and intimate exploration of loss, memory, and the uneasy terrain of healing after tragedy. At its center is Calvin, a man reeling from the death of his family. Instead of collapsing into expected rituals of mourning, his attention veers toward the ordinary—the dishwasher's hum, the sheen of water in the pool, the trivial rhythms of daily life that both dull and intensify the void. Structured in nonlinear fragments, the narrative drifts between piercing sorrow, moments of unexpected warmth, and flashes of sardonic humor. De Lucia portrays grief not as a neat progression through stages but as a jagged, unpredictable sprawl across time and recollection. Calvin's voice is at once raw and incisive, revealing how absurd it feels to obsess over the mundane even as those obsessions provide a lifeline. What emerges is not a story of easy resolution but of fragile persistence. Through its fractured lens, A Pleasant Fiction suggests that forgiveness—toward others, and perhaps most painfully, toward oneself—becomes the only way forward. The result is a memoir that is unsparing, darkly funny, and ultimately luminous in its search for meaning amid loss.
Javier De Lucia paints hugely complex emotions with words through simple but effective sentences, resulting in a raw and beautifully fractured exploration of grief. Effectively balancing unbearable sorrow with moments of dark humor and warmth, the novel sweeps readers into every detail, no matter how humdrum or extreme. De Lucia writes with searing honesty and lyrical precision that's devoted to authentically capturing the messy truth of loss without any false sentimentality. In the middle of it all is Calvin's obsessive focus on the mundane, which feels startlingly authentic and deeply moving. The plot is well crafted with a non-linear structure that cleverly mirrors the unpredictable nature of memory itself. The storyline flows smoothly despite the deliberately disjointed nature, showcasing an author with a talent for maintaining total control of their story and crafting a tale that's at once intimate, unsettling, and profoundly relatable. As De Lucia transforms personal loss into a universal reflection on love and endurance, so the reader may well find themselves reflecting on their own lives and decisions through Calvin's words and actions. A powerful follow-up that stands firmly on its own, A Pleasant Fiction is a strikingly intimate exploration of what it means to lose, and what it takes to keep living.
—K.C. Finn for Indies Today
★★★★★ In A Pleasant Fiction, Javier De Lucia delivers the emotionally resonant second act to his two-part coming-of-age story, continuing the story of Calvin McShane where The Wake of Expectations left off. If the first book chronicles adolescence in all its messy, comic glory—equal parts coming-of-age tale and Gen X time capsule—A Pleasant Fiction is its older, wiser, and more painful counterpart. Together, the two novels form a sweeping narrative arc that spans the giddy freedom of youth through the disillusionment and hard-earned wisdom of middle age.
De Lucia's central theme in A Pleasant Fiction is grief, but not grief as an isolated event. This is grief as a condition of life, one that shapes identity and outlook. The book becomes a study in how people carry grief, how they adapt to it, and what they do with the space it leaves behind. But grief here is never cheapened into sentimentality. Calvin's decisions are morally murky, especially as they pertain to his disabled brother Jared. That's what makes De Lucia's work so affecting: the absence of clear heroes or villains. Just people, burdened with love and trying not to collapse under it.
Jared is more than a side character; he is the axis around which the McShane family orbits. His needs shape their routines, his presence defines their household, and his vulnerability tests the limits of their resilience. De Lucia treats Jared not as a symbol, but as a person. For Calvin, Jared represents both the weight of responsibility and the purity of unconditional love. Their relationship is rendered with tenderness and brutal honesty. In one unforgettable line, Calvin reflects: "Loving him was hard. Not loving him was even harder." That one sentence captures the emotional complexity of being a sibling to someone whose suffering is constant and visible. Jared's life, and ultimately his death, transform Calvin's understanding of love, sacrifice, and meaning.
A Pleasant Fiction elevates the series from charming autobiographical fiction to something far more profound. In its patient, unsparing look at illness, family, and the work of grief, the novel finds meaning not in plot twists or dramatic revelations, but in the simple, difficult act of enduring. As Calvin muses in the closing pages, maybe the idea of reunion, of eternal peace, is just "a pleasant fiction." This is a novel about what it means to grow up and grow older. And for those who have loved and lost, it rings painfully and beautifully true.
—Literary Titan
★★★★★ A Pleasant Fiction by Javier De Lucia offers readers a raw and emotional exploration of familial loss, personal struggles, and life's unexpected challenges. The story follows Calvin, a man navigating the profound sorrow of losing his parents, brother, and uncle in quick succession. Calvin's family has always sacrificed for his brother, Jared, who faced various health issues. After their mother's death, their elderly father, with whom Calvin had past conflicts, could no longer care for Jared alone. Consequently, Calvin, his brother Ryan, and their uncle stepped up to support the family, but tragedy continued to strike. By the end of this ordeal, Calvin reflects on this traumatic period and the memories that taught him resilience and the importance of holding on to what truly matters in life.
A Pleasant Fiction is a story about family, duty, and unconditional love. It delves into themes of sacrifice and personal ambition, highlighting how circumstances compel us to take responsibility while prompting reflections on our past actions. Throughout the narrative, Calvin examines his roles as a son, brother, father, husband, and friend, outlining his growth and the pivotal moments that define him. The story captures the struggles of losing parents and caring for a disabled family member. Despite addressing painful topics, the narrative also presents the bittersweet aspects of life, illustrating that even amid hardship, there is room for transformation. Javier De Lucia's writing is non-linear, weaving together past and present moments from Calvin's life. This structure allows readers to understand the book's lessons and themes better. The connections are clear, painting a vivid picture of Calvin's state of mind. Whenever he encounters something from his family's past in his parents' house, he experiences flashbacks to significant moments in his life. This approach makes the story engaging and unpredictable. I found the book to be insightful, offering valuable lessons about life, family, loss, and responsibility. I highly recommend adding it to your reading list if you enjoy fictional memoirs that cover these topics.
—Doreen Chombu for Readers' Favorite
★★★★★ Whilst clearly a direct sequel to Javier De Lucia's The Wake of Expectations, this book couldn't be more different in tone, style and premise. The author has assured me unambiguously that Calvin McShane is not real, and his adventures pure fiction, but I have to say that I suspect a good deal of cathartic content for the author, and I suspect Cal is based very strongly on Javier or someone he knows. I'm also well aware I might be getting a little personal now, and don't know if I'm crossing lines, so I'll move on.
All this said, A Pleasant Fiction is probably the best-written book in the series - it is also definitely the most serious. "Pleasant" and "fiction" are probably two words I would use last to describe it, yet don't get me wrong; it's excellent. We already know what a very good writer Javier is, with a real labouring style which he makes look so easy, as I've alluded to in previous reviews of his work. This book is much more personal, profound and poignant. Cal is a lot older now, married with children of his own, and rather than hope, his life is now - or, at least this fictional memoir is - characterized by loss and heartbreak. Indeed, the entire book seems to revolve around people he loves passing on, many of whom we aren't familiar with from the series, but are clearly a huge part of Cal's life in adulthood. The musical dreams, Solitaire and the lottery win are all distant memories, and only briefly referred to; what matters now is the people Cal loves, what they mean to him and how their losses shape him as a man. Yes, there's humour, and hope and love, but none of the coarse banter which characterized the original trilogy - so if that's what you're hoping to see you'll be disappointed. This one rather more stands alone, and unlike the serialized trilogy format of The Wake of Expectations, there is no real need to read any other first for context. It is sad, for sure, and an authentic reflection of life, to see that Cal has moved on from those dreams and is now talking about his day-to-day office job, which he has clearly been in long enough to make a career of. But there is also a maturity to "Cal's" craft as a writer now.
I'll be frank; if you loved The Wake of Expectations or its derivative trilogy, you may find A Pleasant Fiction a bleak detour. I would say it is more for the realists and those who like their fiction down to earth. I will just round up by adding that Javier explores so profoundly and intuitively into Cal's mindset he is either an incarnation of the writer's psyche, or Javier is a tremendously decent writer; I already know the latter is true, and I am pretty sure about the former.