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The Silver Linings Playbook: A Novel Paperback – April 27, 2010
| Matthew Quick (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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Why did NPR's popular librarian Nancy Pearl pick The Silver Linings Playbook as one of summer's best reads for 2009?
"Aawww shucks!" Pearl said. "I know that's hardly a usual way to begin a book review, but it was my immediate response to finishing Matthew Quick's heartwarming, humorous and soul-satisfying first novel . . . This book makes me smile."
Meet Pat Peoples. Pat has a theory: his life is a movie produced by God. And his God-given mission is to become physically fit and emotionally literate, whereupon God will ensure him a happy ending―the return of his estranged wife, Nikki. (It might not come as a surprise to learn that Pat has spent several years in a mental health facility.)
The problem is, Pat's now home, and everything feels off. No one will talk to him about Nikki; his beloved Philadelphia Eagles keep losing; he's being pursued by the deeply odd Tiffany; his new therapist seems to recommend adultery as a form of therapy. Plus, he's being haunted by Kenny G!
As the award-winning novelist Justin Cronin put it: "Tender, soulful, hilarious, and true, The Silver Linings Playbook is a wonderful debut."
- Print length304 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherSarah Crichton Books
- Publication dateApril 27, 2010
- Dimensions5.5 x 0.68 x 8.5 inches
- ISBN-100374532281
- ISBN-13978-0374532284
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“Matthew Quick has created quite the heartbreaker of a novel in The Silver Linings Playbook.” ―from the Kirkus First Fiction Issue
“Matthew Quick is a natural storyteller, and his SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK--honest, wise, and compassionate--is a story that carries the reader along on a gust of optimism. Without shying away from the difficulties of domestic life, it charts a route past those challenges, and leaves us with a lingering sense of hope. More than a promising debut or an inspiring love story, this novel offers us the gift of healing.” ―Roland Merullo, author of In Revere, In Those Days
“You don't have to be a Philadelphia Eagles' fan (or even from Philadelphia) to appreciate talented newcomer Matthew Quick's page-turning paean to the power of hope over experience--the belief that this will all work out somehow, despite the long odds that life deals us. Tender, soulful, hilarious, and true, THE SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK is a wonderful debut.” ―Justin Cronin, PEN/Hemingway Award-winning author of Mary and O'Neil and The Summer Guest
“The hero of Matthew Quick's first novel is Pat Peoples, amnesiac optimist and absolute original, whose dysfunctional journey takes him from big-league fandom to competitive dance and a host of other modern preoccupations. This is a funny, touching performance on the part of Mr. Quick--and the beginning, I hope, of a big career.” ―Dave King, author of The Ha-Ha
“Entertaining and heartfelt and authentic, The Silver Linings Playbook magically binds together love, madness, Philadelphia Eagles football, faith, family and hard-earned hope into a story that is both profound and wonderfully beguiling. This is a splendid novel, written by a big-time talent.” ―Martin Clark, author of The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living and The Legal Limit
“I loved The Silver Linings Playbook. It is warm, funny, and moving.” ―Shawn McBride, author of Green Grass Grace
About the Author
In the six months that followed his leaving teaching and the Philadelphia area, Matthew Quick floated down the Peruvian Amazon and formed ‘The Bardbarians' (a two-man literary circle), backpacked around Southern Africa, hiked to the bottom of a snowy Grand Canyon, soul-searched, and finally began writing full-time.
Matthew earned his Creative Writing MFA through Goddard College. He has since returned to the Philadelphia area, where he lives with his wife and their greyhound.
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Product details
- Publisher : Sarah Crichton Books; 1st edition (April 27, 2010)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 304 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0374532281
- ISBN-13 : 978-0374532284
- Item Weight : 10.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.68 x 8.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #3,448,184 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #7,044 in Humorous American Literature
- #34,669 in Humorous Fiction (Books)
- #145,527 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Matthew Quick is the New York Times bestselling author of THE SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK—which was made into an Oscar-winning film—and eight other novels. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages, received a PEN/Hemingway Award Honorable Mention, was an LA Times Book Prize finalist, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, a #1 bestseller in Brazil, a Deutscher Jugendliteratur Preis 2016 (German Youth Literature Prize) nominee, and selected by Nancy Pearl as one of Summer’s Best Books for NPR. The Hollywood Reporter has named him one of Hollywood’s 25 Most Powerful Authors. Matthew lives with his wife, the novelist Alicia Bessette, on North Carolina's Outer Banks.
www.matthewquickwriter.com
Customer reviews
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More importantly, the movie motivated me to read the book.
Written in first person, author Matthew Quick draws you right in with the main character, Pat Peoples, and describes effectively the illness he faces. Peoples is diagnosed as bi-polar and the author stays true to the character in how he presents the story in every aspect.
What struck me as I read along were the vast differences in the way some of the characters were shown on the big screen compared to the book. Pat Peoples is trying to make his way back into the world after spending time in a mental facility. He is embraced by his mother but shunned by his father in the book. The movie presents Pat’s dad as caring, dedicated and loving.
There are other examples of extremes between the two that will eventually make you appreciate how the author presents his story. I won’t delve into this for fear of killing the wonderful surprises that arise in the movie and the book.
There are some similarities though with the two in the plot. But there weren’t enough of them to convince me that the movie stayed true to Quick’s novel.
The bottom line is this — you would be cheating yourself if you only saw it on the big screen. And you need to be patient with the book version. At first, I had the notion that the movie had done a better job in telling the story.
It took a while for Quick to reach deeper into the depth of the characters. This is the selling point of the book. Quick does a terrific job in letting the characters play off of each other in some funny and dire circumstances. This is present in the movie, too, but not on the scale of the book.
I will not spoil this for you by showing any more examples. You’ll notice how the story Quick wrote is done with strength and courage and truth to what he disease is and how it can manhandle even the strongest person.
What about the ending? The movie version ignores the ending of the book. It’s more Hollywood. Well, it is Hollywood.
The ending in the book version is better.
In fact, it’s perfect.
Quick’s story will inspire you. It will help educate you on what bi-polar is and can do to the individual person, their families, and their lovers. He takes you deep into that dark world and somehow manages to shine a bit of light and hope.
It will help you understand that everyone deserves to be loved, no matter what the struggle one faces.
It will motivate you to read more.
There’s something so magical about a book. It’s a grand feeling sweeping over your soul when you are falling in love with a story and the characters under a lamp at 2 a.m. in the morning.
Happy reading.
I found it to be very funny. I didn't laugh out loud a lot, although I did a few times, but I definitely smiled to myself a lot. I'm a sports fan (not a football fan) but I found the Eagles obsession to be very funny. Probably because I believe it to be true. The scenes with his father made me sad, but I also found them to be very typical family moments, and that was comforting.
I found Pat very sympathetic as a character. Life doesn't turn out exactly the way we all want it to. Sometimes we don't get everything when we want it, sometimes we don't get it at all, and wind up with something different. That's true of us all. And important for us all to remember.
I think it was a fascinating journey that Pat took and I was more than happy to take it with him. I'll hold some of his observations as I go forward, and I do think it'll make me think about certain things differently. No one is perfect, you do not always know what goes on in someone's mind or behind closed doors. So never pretend you know the whole story. It was a simple lesson, but a really great story.
As a fan of Pat Peoples, I'd thoroughly recommend. And with 10 pages to go, I already stopped to rent the DVD so I'm looking forward to watching that tonight to finally see how they compare.
The narrator and protagonist is Pat. He's a former high school history teacher and coach (as well as undiagnosed bipolar disorder sufferer) who went a bit crazy after "something" went wrong with his marriage. That something landed him in a mental hospital for four years as part of a plea bargain. We meet him the day his doting and loving mother gets him discharged from the facility. Pat is touchingly and sometimes even maddeningly naive about the chances of renewing his marriage with his wife Nikki. Like many people (including me), he's been conditioned by Hollywood and popular culture to expect a happy ending to the "movie" his life seems to be to him.
But Pat should have remembered that sometimes the happy ending that you think you want is not the ending you are going to get and the one you get is much better than the one you want. The "twist" in his life-movie plot comes in the form of a young widow named Tiffany who is struggling to overcome her own serious problems. Somehow, unwillingly, Pat becomes friends with her and then something more along the way...I won't say more than that, except to say the story has an immensely uplifting ending that put a smile on my face.
This odd love story unfolds in Philadelphia and against the backdrop of the 2006-2007 NFL season. Pat, like his brother and father, is a rabid Eagles fan and a great deal of the novel delves in what that means to love a team so much. Suffice to say that even though I'm from Washington DC (go Redskins!) it made me want to go see the Eagles play and root for them to be part of the Eagles fan-dom brotherhood for just a moment (so long as it wasn't a game with the Redskins).
There are four things about this novel that stand out to me as being particularly praise-worthy.
1. Dr. "Cliff" Patel (Pat's therapist) is a great supporting character in this novel...especially when he reveals that he too is an ardent Eagles fan.
2. The depiction of serious mental illness like that Pat suffers (and to a lesser extent Tiffany) is not candy-coated but not portrayed in an ugly way that might repel the reader.
3. The section of the book that deals with Pat training with Tiffany for the dance competition is cleverly depicted as the literary equivalent of a movie montage.
4. Finally, the ending when Pat has a crucial insight into who he loves and why is deeply moving and --I say this as a dude who does not read a lot of romance stories-- beautiful.
***
Note on the movie version of "The Silver Lining Playbook": I just saw the movie the day after I read the book. Bottom line: the book is somewhat better simply because 300 pages can convey more than a film, but it's well worth seeing and captures the essence of the story, and I know when it comes out on DVD, I will buy it.
Silver Linings Playbook
Finally, those who like this book/movie probably will like "Ordinary People," another story that also deals with family tragedy and mental illness but is similarly uplifting with some romantic elements.
Ordinary People
Ordinary People
Top reviews from other countries
This is a touching story of a man suffering from mental illness following the breakdown of his marriage. He has just been released from hospital and is living back at home, working on self-improvement and getting back on track, with a somewhat unrealistic view to getting his wife back. He is a sweet character, whose innocence at first comes across as false or annoying, but quickly grows on you.
We meet a range of amazing characters in Pat's life, including his absent wife Nikki, his therapist Cliff, his brothers who are all mad about football, the all-Indian football club and their bus, his mother and his would-be girlfriend Tiffany. I found it to be a gritty, realistic yet warm view on a man's struggle with mental illness. On a wider level, it explores the concepts of self-improvement, self-awareness, the notion of 'normality' in people and how you can sometimes find support in the unlikeliest places.
The flaw with this for me would be the amount of football content. As someone completely uninterested in sports, even unable to follow the rules of American football, I felt there was just too much of if in there. I'm sure it was great for all of you who like football and follow it, and it was justified as the character and his brothers all love it and he bonds with his therapist and meets some friends and enemies through it.
I think the book leaves you with a feeling of hope and optimism.
Pat is a man in his mid thirties, though he believes he is some years younger, having spent more time than he realises in a `neural health facility' in Baltimore (a psychiatric hospital) Pat committed some sort of violent act, and has an obsession with his ex-wife. He is an incurable optimist, dedicated to happy endings in films and determined that the silver linings on clouds, and the happily ever after, must happen. Following his release from the hospital, engineered by his loving mother, he must agree to regular therapy, and a regimen of psychiatric drugs. He has returned to living in the parental home. He has agreed to all of this, and is working hard on shedding the weight he put on in hospital, his goal being to become again the sports and history teacher with a great body which he had when he met and married his ex-wife. He is convinced they can get together again.
In his life he has : a loving mother, a great and supportive and successful brother, a best friend, whose wife has a sister with mental health issues of her own, the kindest and in some ways most unprofessional of therapists, another great friendship with a fellow inmate in that `neural health facility'. He also probably has Asperger's - at least, this is what accounts for his voice, which sounds not cold, but without emotional nuance and subtlety. Pat, despite being prone to a violence he barely understands when he hears smooth jazz music, particularly a specific piece of music played by Kenny G, is a `good person' with a warm and open heart. He is actively working on `being kind'. He also has an extremely dysfunctional father, who is deeply depressed and emotionally cold.
Part of Pat's journey to try and get re-united with his ex-wife, an artistic, intellectual literature major and teacher, is to begin to read through some of her favourite books, particularly those she taught to her students. So he reads, and responds to such books as The Great Gatsby, A Farewell to Arms, Catcher In The Rye, The Bell Jar, responding to them with approval or dismay according to his `Silver Lining' philosophy, and need for the happy wrap. There is a lot of warm humour in the author's use of this.
I held back from the final star because the overall tone of this warm, charming and sweet book, despite the bleakness which appears along the way at times, is perhaps a little too anodyne and Hollywood. This did not quite equal my first acquaintance with Matthew Quick: Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock , which I preferred. Nonetheless, recommended
This was made into a film, which I haven't seen, and didn't know about, so my review is from someone coming new to the book, purely from my appreciation of Quick's writing in Leonard Peacock'
Typically, I liked the book better. Perhaps.
I saw the film first, and whilst it's very watchable and the main characters well cast to the page, it did feel like serious compromises/additions were made in transition to the silver (linings) screen... <-- see what I did there? Eh? Robert De Niro is a totally new character (playing himself, shockingly) from the silent mess of Pat's dad - and the second half/ending is unrecognizable from the book, in order, style, the whole playbill in fact.
I see two sides to this - one, the author himself in the back of the book states he couldn't care less what they did to make it more watchable (I'm paraphrasing, but he was clearly stoked to get it made, of course so), and he accepts the need for dramatic tension, stakes raising etc to make it more 'watchable' - not sure if this means a failing of the book to start with? Secondly, there were a few whopping cliche clangers towards the end of the book to draw some loose ends together that to be frank, never needed tying in the first place (when you get there, you'll know). But then, when it gets to the dance-off, in two very different places in the story's arc with two very different lead ups, the two handlings of the same event lead me totally undecided as to how the adaptation team planned the playoffs. Again, I think the book wins - But then, watching/reading one without the other kinda feels like part is missing either way.
It's a shame I saw the movie first perhaps, because I saw this play for play with the star actors as I read, which perhaps clouded my immersion in the story. I also am not a fan of American football - whilst not essential, it certainly would help in large passages.
I sound like I didn't like this book. I really did. And a whole lot more than the protag likes Kenny G. Poor Kenny...




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