In my brain, this book is A Man Called Ove meets Before the Coffee Gets Cold.

This is a story about an older man, recently retired, trying to find his purpose and way in the world since he has left his lifelong job. He is a terrible husband, stuck in the past, and doesn't know what he should fill his days with. He is extremely self centered when it comes to his relationships, presumably because he spent so much of the past forty years at work, away from his wife and family.

Here's where the premise gets weird. This book markets itself as an older man who "plays family," and he does! But only for about 30 pages of the book, 100 pages in. I was excited to read about how playing different characters in different families would alter his perspective on HIS life, but it fell short. This book is ultimately an inner monologue about his life, with subtle growth in the end.

It was a good read, but it was a completely different story from what I thought I would be reading about.