A Stoic philosopher navigates midlife in this madcap comedy from the author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette
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hat would Marcus Aurelius have made of the Kardashians? Would Seneca have been amused by mindfulness apps? These were questions I had never consciously pondered before reading Maria Semple’s new novel. Neither, in my irrational and unvirtuous state, had I spent much time considering the application of Stoic philosophy to any other key aspects of modern life.
Semple, best known for her exuberant, ingenious bestseller Where’d You Go, Bernadette?, here presents us with Adora Hazzard, Stoic philosopher and divorcee. Adora lives a contented life on New York City’s Upper West Side, spending her days tutoring the twin sons of an old-money family in philosophy and seeking to live according to Stoic virtues, without recourse to destabilising “externals”. But her settled life is soon disrupted by that most classic of externals, the handsome stranger. “Curse these alluring men who throw us off our game!” (Marcus Aurelius, paraphrased.)
What follows is tricky to categorise. Is it a knockabout comedy about the collective power of midlife women? (No, it isn’t, though it seems to gesture in that direction at the start.) An art heist caper? (Sort of.) A thriller? (A bit.) A romcom? (Sort of, I guess?) A cry of female rage? (Briefly.) A paean to the virtuous joys of Stoic philosophy? (100% yes!) Ultimately Semple seems to have resolved not to agonise over genre for too long. We could look at this as a gift: several books for the price of one.
