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Stephen McCauley
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Easy Way Out Hardcover – June 3, 1992

by Stephen McCauley (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 95 ratings
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When his brother, Tony, calls to say he has fallen out of love with his fiance+a7e, travel agent Patrick O'Neil finally feels a kinship with his sibling. By the author of The Object of My Affection. 25,000 first printing.
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  1. Print length
    304 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Simon & Schuster
  4. Publication date
    June 3, 1992
  5. Dimensions
    0.9 x 6.4 x 9.3 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    067170818X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0671708184
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

McCauley's The Object of My Affection was among the highly praised first novels of the 1980s. This beautifully written, heartbreaking book lacks the earlier novel's magnetism and spark, but is an eloquent depiction of the compromises lovers and families make to keep relationships alive. Narrator Patrick, a Cambridge, Mass., travel agent in his early 30s, lives with Arthur, an immigration lawyer; but for a long time, Patrick has been sleeping on an air mattress on the floor of their bedroom. His younger brother, Tony, plans to marry his high school sweetheart but is having an affair that is far more satisfying than his relationship with his fiancee. Their older brother, Ryan, is divorced, living at home and working at his parents' hopelessly unprofitable men's clothing store. And McCauley soon makes achingly clear that the parents' marriage is far from happy. The novel's deeply contemplative and melancholy mood is accentuated by the fact that there is little plot; its considerable drama arises from the clever, revealing dialogue and the reader's intense involvement with the sharply drawn characters. Most notable among McCauley's dysfunctional eccentrics is Patrick's uproarious, chain-smoking colleague Sharon, whose strategems for beating the airlines are priceless. Author tour.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The author of The Object of My Affection ( LJ 3/1/87) returns with an amusing, eccentric collection of dysfunctional middle-class Bostonians. Patrick O'Neil's relationship with lover Arthur "had developed into the kind of benign domestic dependency that takes love for granted and accepts as inevitable a certain level of boredom, discontent and suppressed rage." As the rather predictable plot develops, Patrick's yuppie brother Tony avoids marriage to his childhood sweetheart by having a last fling, and other brother Ryan, recently divorced, feels lonely. Mother and Father O'Neil snipe constantly at their discontented offspring; interactions among the clan make for lots of bitchy lines and great characterizations. Good for expanding gay fiction collections, but not a necessary purchase.
- Kevin M. Roddy, Univ. of Hawaii at Hilo Lib.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster; First Edition (June 3, 1992)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 067170818X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0671708184
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.15 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.9 x 6.4 x 9.3 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 95 ratings

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Stephen McCauley

Stephen McCauley

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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
95 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

james crosby
5.0 out of 5 stars love the author
Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2018
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Still reading...love the author....will get more by this same author....lots of real humor in this!
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letters2mary
4.0 out of 5 stars The Full Catastrophe.....
Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2010
Something in McCauley's style makes reading him seem like getting caught up with an old friend. I find myself muttering to myself, "Oh, yes, they were always like that!" and..."Yes, that's true," and "Well, what did you think would happen?" This capacity for engaging story telling and the nuanced detail of everyday life should not be underestimated, speaking as it does to the place where most of us live, where notwithstanding our best efforts (or, worse yet, perhaps because of them), love eludes and lust deceives. Yet we keep trying. And reading.
2 people found this helpful
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Alaska
5.0 out of 5 stars Fun and smart
Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2014
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Stephen McCauley never disappoints. It's like good quality chick lit, but from the perspective of a gay man. He is extremely witty.
2 people found this helpful
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beelove
5.0 out of 5 stars i will always love this book!
Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2023
i will always love this book- i got it when it first came out and it still cracks me up!

i listened to the audiobook this week and i think the voice actor did a great job!

loooooooooove this book!
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Wanda B. Red
3.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable nostalgia, a little flat
Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2008
I admire the novels of Stephen Macauley, and I had a good time reading this very human book. Macauley is especially good at dialogue -- more accurately repartee. He has a finely tuned ironic ear. Unfortunately, all the characters sound the same -- all versions of the sharp, sophisticated, but increasingly disillusioned narrator. That's okay because I enjoyed the narrator, but I did not by the end of the book have the sense of having truly entered into a fully realized fictional world. The characters were broadly drawn and remained flat. Despite the novel's urbane, world-weary manner, it feels oddly naive, even innocent, Macauley practicing for later books, perhaps a little drained by the recent success of "The Object of My Affection."

Adding to that feeling of innocence is the novel's setting. Because it concerns the travel industry and was published in the early 90s (before 911 and more and more advanced technology revolutionized that business), it is charmingly dated. I found that to be a fascinating aspect of the book. One of the central characters, who manages a travel agency, blithely forges boarding passes. Another character waits at Logan airport for an incoming flight in a lounge right at the gate. "The Easy Way Out" offers a window back to a more innocent time, and reminds us that it wasn't very long ago.
2 people found this helpful
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dgica@gene.com
4.0 out of 5 stars I laughed out loud, then it made me think.
Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 1998
I read this novel for my own pleasure. I did not look for structure or any literary values, as I am a fairly critical reader. I just laughed. Your recognize a book as a long lost friend or a friend you wished you had and it was like this for me reading the first line from "The Easy Way Out." Patrick became a friend as I followed the stress, the indecisions, the ups and downs of his life. His problems became my own. I had to also decide whether he should stay with Arthur and I had similar vicissitudes when I asked myself if I would have stayed in this relationship. This book was thoroughly enjoyable and it felt like I took a vacation somewhere too and gathered up my life. It's fun to just read and I am looking forward to Stephen's other novels. Have you seen "The Object of My Affection?" Great screenplay!
One person found this helpful
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NABFRESNO
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2016
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Delightful!
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PDB
5.0 out of 5 stars excellent
Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2014
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excellent
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Top reviews from other countries

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Marion Delarue
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 19, 2015
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funny, great, as usual!
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quentin omer albert mer
2.0 out of 5 stars Déçu
Reviewed in France on December 11, 2014
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Le livre reçu est bien un exemplaire de 3easy way out", mais contrairement à ce qui l'annonce laissait penser, il ne s'agit pas d'une édition de 1992 mais une réédition.
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Mr. C. C. Barrett
4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliantly detailed and informed novel about dealing with death when it can be chosen by the deceased.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 21, 2018
Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
Evan (or Everly, as he named himself during a short spell in a commune as a child) has just been promoted to assist, within a hospital environment, with lawfully sanctioned suicide. Evan appears to be a very dutiful and responsible member of staff, although he's sidestepped some of the vetos on putting people into his position: his father committed suicide when Evan was a young child (it was legally described as accidental death, though Evan knows it not to be) and his mother has Parkinson's Disease - two factors that could influence Evan's handling of his patients. We follow Evan dealing with his first "assists" at the hospital, negotiating his mother's quite miraculous improvement in health following a medical implant, and his rather unconventional personal life as the 'third wheel' to a gay couple (one of whom works at his mother's residential care home). The most fascinating aspects of the novel are the technical detail - and legal hoop-jumping and box-checking required - in the process of handling patients with terminal illnesses, who ultimately decide to commit suicide, and the constraints put upon the medical staff who assist: the patient has to declare three times, unprompted, that they want to die; the medical assist cannot pour the poison into their mouth; they must remain overall an impassive observer. The reader really feels the depth of knowledge the author - who works as a palliative care nurse - brings to the story they have constructed, and it is compelling. The story of Evan (and, dominantly, Evan's mother) was more tricky to swallow. The read was smooth and a page-turner, but I can't quite square up the progress of Evan's attitude to his work, his mother's illness, his historical - somewhat unsentimental and unconventional - relationship with his mother, as well as his romantic/sex life throughout the novel. Are we to assume Evan's attitudes to suicide and death are a result of these personal relationships? He does seem to lead an oddly isolated life: his one friend is kept distant at the end of a phone call and appears rarely; he seems fearful of the notion of love entering his threesome 'arrangement', despite a homely domesticity obvious between the three men from the start; his mother continually wants to push him away, she resents needing his help or care.
This is really well written and I'd recommend it - if only so there were more people with whom I could discuss the ending and their interpretation of the novel.
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Antonella
5.0 out of 5 stars Sensitive novel dealing with assisted death
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 7, 2016
Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
It's easy to have a view on issues like euthanasia, until they actually affects you. Ewan has been working as a nurse all his life, and now he's drifted into a position where he is an assistant in assisted suicides. He's fine about the job, he really is, until it starts affecting him after work. He's in denial about his father's death, and can't face the fact that his mother, Viv, who has Parkinsons, may be facing death soon. The pressure piles up, and Ewan's thoughts about assisted death start to become more complex. Set in a very imaginable near future, this is a well written book that uses fiction to explore the difficult idea of assisted death. It's written by a palliative care nurse, and that shows in the insightful analysis. It is, despite the difficult topic, very readable, and I read it in a few nights, gripped to keep on going right until the end to find out what Evan finally decides.
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Zipster Zeus
4.0 out of 5 stars An informative and at times affecting tale
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 6, 2017
Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
An informative and at times affecting tale dealing with the tricky subject of assisted dying. Needless to say its a complex issue and this rather good novel tackles the subject sensitively and thoughtfully in a very rounded, human way. A difficult subject maybe to want to read about, but worth taking the plunge where this book is concerned I'd say.
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