“Man Overboard”: What you don’t want to hear this summer.
Man Overboard: What you do want to read.
Chicago author Kathleen Rooney is at her best in her latest novel of adventure, humor, hope—and even a chorus of dolphins and sea horses who arrive to encourage Patrick “Kick” Kilpatrick, a former college swimmer who is drifting alone in the Gulf of Mexico after falling or jumping in the midst of an all-inclusive drinks cruise planned to celebrate Thanksgiving with his fractured family. A ballistic brother-in-law, a domineering father, a sort-of girlfriend and most of all a mother who left the family a long time ago have left Kick in choppy waters.
Rooney who is the author of the national bestseller “Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk” and “From Dust to Stardust,” a fictionalized account of the early life of Chicago silent screen star Colleen Moore, talked with us recently. She will be at bookstores across Chicago to discuss Man Overboard this week, visit kathleenrooney.com for particulars.
“I hope readers will come for the humor and the adventure and stay for the reckoning. Kick has plenty of room for growth and change. And he is a guy who is trying to fix his life.”
We asked her what is at the heart of the book:
“Although it is a made-up story I did lots of research to see how long a person could survive in a life and death situation. His life like so many others has been about earning money, all the social media things. As he treads water Kick has time to make friends with his own brain and heart. In a way it is a beach read but about a guy that doesn’t have a beach.”
Why did Rooney set it in the Gulf of Mexico?
“For an exceptional athlete which Kick is what he is doing is in the realm of possibility. If he were in the North Atlantic hypothermia would set in quickly. The Pacific churns and waves crash all the time. Set in one of those oceans, it would have been not a novel but a short story. In the Gulf, you have a chance but I wanted to keep the reader on edge.”
Rooney admitted that she had never been on a cruise and is somewhat scared of the open sea. “I am a fresh-water swimmer and love to go in Lake Michigan but am careful. I treat it in a very respectful way”, she said.
The idea for a novel about extraordinary challenges actually came from her grandfather’s collection of Reader’s Digests.
“As a child I would search out his collection for stories like hikers attacked by bears or climbers pinned by boulders or scuba divers in trouble who somehow managed to escape. The seed of the idea goes all the way back to elementary school days. Flash forward to 2022. I was visiting relatives in Houston close to the Gulf for Thanksgiving and the idea took shape.”
Inventive and inspiring, Man Overboard gets to the heart of what it means to be alive, stay alive, and what keeps us treading water until we find our way.
For more information about Man Overboard and Kathleen Rooney’s appearances around Chicago in coming weeks, visit: kathleenrooney.com
