"I wasn't expecting a sequel to Bucher's brilliant The Belan Deck, and was delighted to see him join its Marksonian mode with the diary form for a captivating account of an intellectual on severance. While the nervy narrator declutters his capacious mind of cultural trivia in an attempt to reinvent himself, Bucher limns post-COVID America with wry accuracy. As of Easter, this is the most enjoyable new novel I've read in 2025." -Steven Moore, author of The Novel: An Alternative History

"Remarkable...a Something Happened for the 21st century in both form and content. The Summer Layoff feels vital and indispensable, the kind of book that makes you wonder how you ever lived without it. Its narrator is an all-timer, more companion than character, who stays with you long after the book is closed. If it fails to resonate, try again every ten years: this novel addresses certain of life's inevitabilities-whether you're aware of them or not-and does so with a grace, humanity, and wisdom that will inspire gratitude in any reader ready to enter into conversation with it."-Don Hough, author of The Funeral Girl