Unexpectedly, Milo: A Novel [Paperback]

Matthew Dicks (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 3, 2010

 
The author of SOMETHING MISSING returns with another hilarious and sneakily profound tale about a man whose behavior is truly odd, but also oddly relatable.
 
 
Milo Slade, a thirty-three year old home healthcare aide, is witnessing the rapid dissolution of his three-year marriage to a polished, high-powered attorney named Christine. Though Milo doesn't quite know the root of his marital problems, he inevitably blames himself, or more specifically, he faults the demands his obsessive compulsive personality place upon him--the need to open a jar of Smuckers grape jelly or sing 99 Luftballons in front of an audience, to name just a couple.
 
Yet Christine is still none the wiser about these inexplicable quirks as Milo has painstakingly hidden them from her and everyone else for years. No one knows the true--and in his mind more insidious--Milo, and such is the root of his profound loneliness, especially now that he and Christine are living apart during a trial separation.
 
Then one day Milo stumbles across a video camera and tapes, left behind in a park. He watches the first tape, which is a heartfelt confessional by a young woman who begins to reveal her secrets, starting small at first, and finally revealing that she blames herself for a tragic death of a friend. But not all the details add up and Milo is struck with the urge to free the sweet confessor from her guilt. He is, after all, an expert in keeping secrets…
 
In typical screwball fashion, Milo sets out on a cross-country journey to crack the case, but quickly gets sidetracked as his un-ignorable demands call. But it is during these sidetracks that the true meaning of his adventure takes shape. Milo is weird, but as he discovers, so is everyone else. UNEXPECTEDLY, MILO is a humorous and touching novel about finding oneself, embracing the journey, and, unexpectedly, love.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Dicks offers another neurotic romp (after Something Missing), this one about a Connecticut home nurse and closet OCD sufferer who, recently separated from his uptight wife, satisfies the demands of his disorder by, among other things, flipping open jars of grape jelly and singing German pop music. Among Milo Slade's geriatric patients are a man dependent on Viagra for his addiction to Internet pornography and a woman who makes Milo rake her shag carpeting. Milo, meanwhile, stumbles onto a cache of videotapes that form a mysterious woman's video diary. In it, she confesses her secrets and talks about the guilt she carries around about a childhood friend named Tess who disappeared and is, the woman believes, dead. The story prompts Milo to take a road trip to North Carolina to find Tess, and though it upsets his routine, he is finally forced to share the demands of his disorder with someone else, which changes his rather grave perspective on life. Despite exhaustive commentary after every demand takes hold, Milo proves to be a pretty charming character, even if a lot of the intended humor gets buried beneath his suffering. (Aug.)
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Review

"An adventure of a summer read you’ll never put down."  -Daily Candy 


 
Reading a Matthew Dicks novel always proves to be an unadulterated joy, and Unexpectedly, Milo, is no exception. Dicks’ gift lies in his ability to take superficially eccentric characters and dig beneath their peculiarities to develop full-bodied, lovable human beings. Rather than feeling gimmicky, Dicks' approach to his his characters’ off-center habits provides insight into broader truths on human nature and the things that make us tick. Readers join Milo on a riveting and tender voyage into the heart of insecurity—the fear we all carry inside us that no one will ever truly accept us for who we are. Filled with humor and sweetness, Unexpectedly, Milo reminds us that happiness can be found in the strangest of places.   --BookPage
 

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Broadway; 1 edition (August 3, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307592308
• ISBN-13: 978-0307592309
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.9 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #624,942 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

My name is Matthew Dicks. I am an author, a storyteller and a teacher.

In the spring of 2008, under the guidance of my agent, Taryn Fagerness, I sold my first novel, SOMETHING MISSING, to Broadway Books, an imprint of Doubleday, and thus made one of my childhood dreams come true. SOMETHING MISSING was published in August of 2009 and has since been translated into six different languages.

My career as an author was born.

One year later, in the fall of 2010, I published my second novel, UNEXPECTEDLY, MILO. It has been translated into three languages.

My third novel, MEMOIRS OF AN IMAGINARY FRIEND, published in the United States in August of 2012 with St. Martin's Press. It has been translated into 17 languages worldwide.

At the request of my UK publisher, I am published under the name Matthew Green in the UK and its affiliated markets. Green is my wife's maiden name.

In addition to novels, I've also written a rock opera, The Clowns, and am working on a memoir and several children's books. In addition to fiction, I write poetry, essays and a daily blog. I have published pieces in newspapers, poetry journals, online news sites and educational journals throughout the United States.

In addition to writing, I am also a storyteller. I tell stories for The Moth on a regular basis and am a three-time Moth Story Slam champion. I also tell stories for a variety of storytelling organizations including The Story Collider and Literary Death Match. My wife and I also host out own storytelling series in Connecticut called Speak Up! In addition to storytelling, I also occasionally work as a public speaker, addressing issues related to publishing, writing, education, productivity and more.

I grew up in the small town of Blackstone, Massachusetts with two siblings, two lost-but-recently-found step-siblings, a loving mother, and an evil step-father. I was a Boy Scout, a pole-vaulter, a flutist and bassoonist, and a proud member of my school's drum corps. I also have the distinction of having died twice by the age of eighteen before being revived by paramedics both times.

Sorry. No white light.

I left home at eighteen and worked in a variety of dead-end jobs for the next five years until I was robbed at gunpoint at the age of twenty-three. This brush with death finally convinced me to get off my ass and make something of my life.

Six months later, I was sitting in my first college classroom (a class ironically called On Death and Dying), hoping to one day become a teacher and an author. I would often tell friends and family that my goal was to one day write for a living and teaching for pleasure. While I have not yet realized this goal, I am closer than I would have ever imagined.

I worked my way through college, managing McDonald's restaurants, opening a small business, and working on campus as a writing tutor. I graduated from Manchester Community College with a liberal arts degree in 1996 and Trinity College with an English degree and Saint Joseph's College with a teaching degree in 1999.

Following graduation, I went to work as an elementary school teacher and have been teaching ever since. I currently teach fifth grade but have taught second and third grade as well. In 2005 I was named West Hartford's Teacher of the Year and was a finalist for Connecticut's Teacher of the Year.

In addition to my teaching career, I also own and operate a DJ company that performs weddings throughout Connecticut. I also serve as an occasional, albeit fairly heathen, minister and a life coach.

In 2006 I married my wife and colleague, Elysha, after proposing to her in front of friends and family on the main landing of Grand Central Station in New York. We live in Newington, CT with our daughter, Clara, our son, Charlie, our Lhasa Apso, Kaleigh, and our enormous, slightly insane house cat named Owen.

When not teaching, writing or playing with my children, I spend my free time listening to music, eating poorly and dodging phone calls. I'm an avid, albeit awful, golfer and a much better basketball and poker player. I am an enormous fan of the New England Patriots and a season ticket holder and an equally rabid fan of the Yankees, Celtics and Bruins.

I would play more football if my fragile friends were more willing.

I also read a great deal, consume an enormous number of audio books, and listen to about three dozen podcasts on a daily and weekly basis.

I also run a occasionally-annual race throughout Connecticut modeled after CBS's The Amazing Race called The A-Mattzing Race, and this keeps me busy planning and coordinating the next event.

I don't sleep much.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars He's done it again! June 2, 2010

By C. Smith VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I am a huge fan of Matthew Dicks first book Something Missing: A Novel and I had high hopes for his second book. This book had some similarities to his first work, (Neurotic main character whose quirks are running their life, a love interest, some conflict, and lots of humor) but this book seems to be directed to a more "adult" audience. There is a good deal of discussion about things like sex which for me robs the book of some of the special charm "Something Missing" had and this one would have had if that subject that been dealt with in a different manner. However the wonderfully singular storytelling is still there and the unique situations the main character Milo gets into makes this book wonderfully distinctive and intriguing (I only wish it had been longer so it wouldn't have had to end so quickly!). I recommend this book to anyone who liked Matthew Dicks first novel and to anyone who likes original characters and plot lines.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Unexpectedly milo July 8, 2010

By Gail Rodgers VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I was privileged to read the author's first book, Something Missing: A Novel, and to comment on it and so it was a double treat to get a copy of his second novel to read. His writing style is fresh and funny. His very observant eye picks up the details that many of us don't see and that really is the premise of his books, no body is looking!

Milo quite obviously has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and has untold routines that he has to do so that his head doesn't feel like it will blow off. Yet he has managed to be married for 3 years without his wife knowing about his quirks and when she keeps telling him she needs space, he moves out. Apparently she meant only to go visit a friend for a week or two and to not sign a lease on an apartment. They aren't communicating very well at this point. But Milo had signed a lease and he is starting to realize that life feels so much better when he can do his rituals when needed instead of having to wait to be sure no one will observe him.

Then life takes an unexpected detour when he finds a video-camera and film on a park bench. In his search to find the owner, he discovers that the owner was using the camera as a video journal and that she feels responsible for the death of two friends. Milo decides that he has to help her and goes off on many tangents to help this girl. Along the way he makes friends and discovers that even when he lets himself and his problems be known to others, they still like him and care for him. As he observes the people around him, he comes to realize that we all have some kind of quirk and it doesn't make us bad, it just makes us each an individual.

Matthew Dicks is a very talented author that writes books that you can enjoy reading to the point of laughing out loud and yet is sensitive to the ways that each of us are different and unique and being unique in a one size fits all world is okay. This book was a delight to read and I hope to read many more books by this author.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Very nice book, good characters. August 10, 2010

By Theoden Humphrey VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

You know those annoying little habits that you have, that you don't want anyone else to know about? Your little rituals, the way you have to carry your keys in your right pocket and your phone in your left, and check them every time you walk out your door?

Do you hide those habits from others, embarrassed that they might raise an eyebrow, or roll their eyes, or even -- horror of horrors -- laugh at you?

If you do any of these things (and who doesn't?), then Milo Slade has you beat all to heck.

This is a man who has arranged his life, including his employment, his marriage, where he lives and who he spends time with, around his habits. His demanding habits. His obsessive-compulsive habits, one could say, though Milo doesn't think he has OCD. He thinks he has a German submarine captain in his head who gives him orders, and then begins tightening valves and increasing pressure inside Milo's mind until the orders are carried out. He doesn't think this is literally true, but it is how he pictures the mysterious source of these strange demands that control nearly everything he does.

Demands like: opening jars of Smuckers grape jelly, just to hear the pop! as the vacuum seal releases. Bowling a strike. Singing "99 Luftballoons," by Nena, in the original German, karaoke style. Cracking the cubes out of an ice cube tray. Letting the air out of his car tires and replacing it with fresh air. Perhaps the most difficult are the words that arise in Milo's mind -- placebo, or loquacious -- and which repeat over and over again, becoming louder and more insistent until he can think of nothing else, can do nothing else, and is overwhelmed with pain, until: he can hear somebody use the word. Of course, the use must be in natural conversation; he cannot simply ask someone to repeat the word, oh no -- the submarine captain wouldn't be satisfied with that.

Milo has built his world around these demands -- and then he has, somehow, managed to hide them completely from everyone around him. Including his wife. Doing so has not been easy, has probably ruined his marriage, as the two go through a trial separation that seems fairly permanent, and it has certainly increased the power of the demands on Milo, making them arise more often, making them more powerful. Keeping a secret is hard.

Of course, Milo's secret is not all that bad compared to the secret he hears when he discovers a stranger's video diary, and begins watching it, partly out of curiosity, and partly out of a desire to discover the owner's identity. Because Freckles, the girl on the videotape, has killed her best friend.

And only Milo can help.

Just as soon as he watches Star Wars: Episode III (Revenge of the Sith) one more time. Just in case the ending has changed since the last time he watched it.

This book is wonderfully written, fantastic characters, great interactions, really fascinating exploration of Milo's condition. It gets a bit tiresome in the beginning, watching Milo flail around trying to juggle his work life, his marriage, and his demands, and not doing very well; but that's the point: if it gets tiring to read about it, just imagine what it's like to live with it. But the book really picks up when Milo begins his quest, and the ending was fantastic, and nicely unexpected. Definitely recommended.