I’m thrilled to announce the first selection of the wOw Book Club: Elizabeth Kelly’s first novel Apologize, Apologize!

You might ask why I chose this book from the thousands that will be published next month. Not only is Elizabeth Kelly a new voice, she is utterly hilarious and unflinching. In telling us the story of the Flanagans, she introduces us to a dysfunctional family that makes my — and probably your — dysfunctional family look like "Father Knows Best."

The early rave reviews have deservedly compared Kelly’s writing to John Irving and Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections. Or, if you’re a film fan: It’s "The Royal Tenenbaums" meets "Grey Gardens."

While there’s a certain — and appealing — madness to the voice that opens the story (it reads almost like Tina Fey on paper), Elizabeth Kelly has perfect, almost balletic control over her narrative. And just when she has pushed it to the edge of the ridiculous and you wonder where this is all going, an accident occurs which brings the story to a whole new plane. (I won’t go on about it here because I don’t want to give anything away.)

When you finish the perfect book-club book you’re left with dozens of questions and a deep need to talk them over with someone else. This book has all those questions and, best of all, we’ll have the chance to talk with the author about them next month online at wowOwow.com. Questions like how to navigate a complicated relationship with a sibling; what makes a person brave; how to overcome an egregious mistake; how a young person emerges from a family that’s filled with problems — alcohol, excessive snobbery, favoritism — to make her own identity; what it is that enables one person to survive a calamity while another is destroyed by it. I can’t wait to hear Elizabeth Kelly discuss what prompted her to write this story, how it may or may not relate to her own personal experience and, most important of all: How the hell did she get to be so funny?

One final reason I chose this book: its publisher, Jonathan Karp at Twelve, is doing something unique in the book biz: he’s publishing just 12 books each year, which is an act of great discipline and discernment. Most publishers are simply putting out way too many books, and by making such careful choices he’s showing a thoughtfulness that I really respect.  

R.J. Julia is happy to be able to provide wOw readers with signed first editions of Apologize, Apologize! at a ten-percent discount. We’ll send them to the first 50 people who place an order. To order, click here. If you’d like to read the first chapter, click here.

I can’t wait for the online discussion with Elizabeth Kelly on wowOwow on March 30th, 31st, and April 1st and I hope you’ll join us.

Happy reading!

Roxanne