It’s. Nice. Outside. by Jim Kokoris

It’s. Nice. Outside. by Jim Kokoris is sad. John Nichols loves but is also tortured by his son Ethan. Ethan was born with a rare brain disease and will have no more than a 3 year old mental capacity. At nineteen he is a precious burden.

Being divorced the burden of raising Ethan has fallen mostly on John. Although his ex-wife lives close by, she does not share equally in Ethan’s upbringing, even though that is the intent. So John bathes him, shoots hoops with him and deals with Ethan’s frequent meltdowns. John has developed quite the sophisticated comedy routine with Ethan’s three favorite teddy bears (although I can’t say I really found them funny).

But John has an Overall Plan that he plans on implementing which starts with him and Ethan driving from their Wilton, IL home to South Carolina for his older daughter, Karen’s, wedding. Sitting in a car with Ethan for hours a day for two weeks is deemed a hair brained scheme by all involved.

In Carolina we meet Mary, John’s ex-wife, with whom he is still in love and his daughters Karen and Mindy who rarely, if ever, speak to each other. Your typical dysfunctional family. The family gets more dysfunctional as the wedding goes awry and John discusses his Overall Plan with his family.

I’ll admit, I’m not a big fan of John. While no one not in his situation can fully understand what he’s going through, in general I found him to be wishy washy. However, I do empathize with him. Mary, Karen and Mindy I found to be more interesting. And Ethan’s Uncle Sal is a hoot.

There are a couple of funny parts to the book, a couple of happy parts and a couple of sad parts. I sort of predicted the ending midway through the book—actually I think Kokoris hinted at it about midway.

Another way to look at It’s. Nice. Outside. is a dysfunctional family road trip because that’s really what it is.

So, I’ll conclude with being how I described John, wishy washy about It’s. Nice. Outside.  If it’s nice outside, this is probably not the book I’d rush to read. However, if someone recommended it to me (as it was in this case), I wouldn’t turn it down.