INSTRUCTIONS FOR LIVING SOMEONE ELSE'S LIFE, by Mil Millington

I first found Mil Millington's works through a link on cult humorist Christopher Moore's website, in which Moore lists authors to read while waiting for his next book. Mil Millington's writing has evolved from his hugely hilarious, though eventually repetitious, blog THINGS MY GIRLFRIENDS AND I HAVE ARGUED ABOUT to several novels. The first is titled after the blog, and has humorous but not very satisfying action built around blog-type arguments. In INSTRUCTIONS Millington has crafted a much richer story.

Chris is a advertising writer who's outstanding at his work, but despises it and everyone he works with. He plays pranks such as creating rude acrostics in his layouts, and giving child actors obscene foreign phrases to mouth unknowingly. He's planning to resign from his job, and gets roaringly drunk with his friends, in 1988. When he wakes up the next morning, he's in a strange bed, and it's later than he thinks. Eighteen years later. It's not a coming of age tale; it's a coming of sudden middle age tale. He's not quite sure what to do about the mystery woman living in his house, but that doesn't matter while he's got a gut to tame and a life to reclaim.