Alan’s advertising agency is in the running for a huge account with the dairy industry. He has been living and breathing milk, the American way of life, to prepare! But when the biggest pitch of his career bombs spectacularly, this is no simple case of crying over spilled milk. Alan is devastated and begins questioning everything he has worked for his entire adult life. While wallowing in self-pity, he unexpectedly finds peace in his own backyard—inside his daughters’ abandoned childhood playhouse. The little structure has not been touched in years, but Alan decides it is the perfect place to opt out of his old life and embrace a new one. Meanwhile, his wife, Vivian, is determined to earn membership in the Queen Annes, an exclusive women’s club in their fancy Connecticut community. She will do whatever it takes to belong, something she never had growing up. Their teenage daughters are fairly certain both parents have gone completely bonkers! Laugh-out-loud funny, surprisingly thoughtful, and filled with rich-people drama and sharp social commentary. It takes on consumerism, marriage, and the exhausting business of keeping up with the Joneses. Alan’s favorite philosophy is also one I wholeheartedly agree with: less is definitely more. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (As a little throwback, in 2007 I thoroughly enjoyed the memoir How Starbucks Saved My Life by Michael Gates Gill, about an ad executive whose life falls apart and unexpectedly finds himself working on the other side of the Starbucks counter. Alan Opts Out really reminded me of that premise, but with its own very funny, modern twist)
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