A review by lola425
Truth in Advertising by John Kenney

4.0

Characters were believeable, the characterization of the advertising agency was spot-on, and it was laugh out loud funny. The media has made us think very specific things when we hear the words mid-life crisis: men trying to be young again, latching on to younger women, buying fancy cars, anything to deny the inevitable. I think Kenney managed to redefine the term mid-life crisis for me in the character of Fin Dolan. Here is someone who has managed his life well-enough that he is materially settled, but emotionally and intellectually stunted. Yet he manages to work his way through his existential crisis without resorting to cliches. He pulls himself out of a tailspin not by becoming who he is not, but by becoming who he really is (which in itself sounds like a cliche). Maybe I mean that he doesn't try to recapture the past, but tries to understand it, in order to move forward.