Bottomless Cups

“If it were possible for Woody Allen and Max Shulman to have a kid together, that kid would be Joel Bresler.” –Joe Barrett, bestselling author of Managed Care

As senior citizens go, Teddy Greenwald might be described as a former class clown with life experience. Ray Starck is only slightly more serious – sort of like the one kid in a mischievous group who somehow never gets caught. Their friendship has endured through more than a dozen Presidents, marriages, careers, innumerable bottomless cups of coffee and, not least, one another.

With so much shared history, the pair carries with them a vast treasure trove of memories. Some are great fun to dust off and reminisce about every once in a while. A few of those memories, though, are secretly happier kept well below the surface.

When an old school friend decides to make a movie based on their lives, however, Ray and, especially Teddy, are forced to look back on themselves in vivid Technicolor. They find that facing your own life – past, present, and diminishing future – in one sitting can be considerably more challenging than it appears on the silver screen.

In the spirit of A Man Called Ove, Joel Bresler’s charmingly funny novel is a series of journeys between present and past, with characters who are amusing yet recognizable. They still have a taste for adventure, as long as it doesn’t require too much bending.