The Good Luck of Right Now

Call it fate Call it synchronicity Call it an act of God Call it . . . The Good Luck of Right Now For thirty-eight years, Bartholomew Neil has lived with his mother. When she gets sick and dies, he has no idea how to be on his own. He thinks he's found a clue when he discovers a "Free Tibet" letter from Richard Gere hidden in his mother's underwear drawer. In her final days, Mom called him Richard—there must be a cosmic connection. Believing that the actor is meant to help him, ­Barth-olomew awkwardly starts his new life, writing Richard Gere a series of letters. Jung and the Dalai Lama, ­phi­losophy and faith, alien abduction and cat ­telepathy are all explored in his soul-baring ­epistles. But mostly the letters reveal one man's heartbreakingly earnest ­attempt to assemble a family of his own. A struggling priest, a "Girlbrarian," her feline-loving, foulmouthed brother, and the spirit of Richard Gere all join the quest to help Bartholomew. In a rented Ford Focus, they travel to Canada to see the Cat Parliament and find his biological father . . . and discover so much more.