Maria Semple’s latest novel, “Go Gentle,” offers a delightfully sharp and whimsical take on a midlife romantic comedy set against the backdrop of New York City. The story centers on Adora Hazzard, a Stoic philosopher and divorcee residing on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Adora finds contentment in her daily routine, tutoring philosophy to the twin sons of a wealthy family and striving to embody Stoic virtues, avoiding the disturbances of external factors. However, her carefully constructed life is unexpectedly upended by the arrival of a charming stranger – a classic “external” that challenges her composure. As the paraphrased words of Marcus Aurelius suggest, alluring individuals can indeed disrupt one’s equilibrium.

English Translation:

Go Gentle by Maria Semple Review – A Joyfully Clever New York Romcom

A Stoic philosopher navigates midlife in this madcap comedy from the author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette. What would Marcus Aurelius have made of the Kardashians? Would Seneca have been amused by mindfulness apps? These are questions I had never consciously pondered before reading Maria Semple’s new novel. Neither, in my irrational and unvirtuous state, had I spent much time considering the application of Stoic philosophy to any other key aspects of modern life.

Semple, best known for her exuberant, ingenious bestseller *Where’d You Go, Bernadette?*, here presents us with Adora Hazzard, a Stoic philosopher and divorcee. Adora lives a contented life on New York City’s Upper West Side, spending her days tutoring the twin sons of an old-money family in philosophy and seeking to live according to Stoic virtues, without recourse to destabilising “externals”. But her settled life is soon disrupted by that most classic of externals, the handsome stranger. “Curse these alluring men who throw us off our game!” (Marcus Aurelius, paraphrased.)