The King of Nothing Much

"A bighearted riff on masculine anxiety . . . Weldon's inner monologue is engaging, there are some genuinely humorous moments sending up dude culture."—Booklist

"A brief comic portrait of one version of middle-class 21st-century manhood that’s built around a more serious, emotionally intense core."—Kirkus Reviews

"Jesse Edward Johnson's deft writing is so funny you could overlook its elegance. The King of Nothing Much is a nimble chronicle of a stay-at-home father whose inner life is a flow of witty rumination about the challenges of his kids, his wife, other families, and his own muffled ambitions. Not only is this novel a discovery for readers who appreciate writers such as Tom Perrotta, Zoe Heller, or Joshua Ferris, it is also a marvelous antidote for those among us suffering from Karl Ove Knausgård fatigue. It's a gem."—Katharine Weber, author of Still Life with Monkey and Triangle

"The King of Nothing Much is at turns hilarious, incisive, and uncomfortably familiar. In Weldon Tines, Jesse Edward Johnson has gifted us a highly relatable modern everyman with whom we can laugh, cringe, yearn, and reflect on our own lives.”—Jonathan Evison, author of The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving: A Novel and This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!

"The King of Nothing Much, a novel about a stay-at-home dad on a quest to discover his greater purpose, is a delight. Johnson perfectly captures both the ennui and elation of parenthood and the mundanity and magic of marriage. The humor and tenderness on the pages calls to mind Stewart O'Nan and Jonathan Evison. I love this little book."—T. Greenwood, author of Rust & Stardust, Keeping Lucy, and Where I Lost Her

"The King of Nothing Much is on one hand a wry study of contemporary parenting with a gloriously biting class commentary underneath—at the same time, it's a sensitive story of trust, relationships, and promises made, and broken. Johnson deftly examines the madness of new money flooding Seattle, without offering a reductive parody—always the novel is buoyed by his talent for revealing the humanity of complicated people."—Peter Mountford, author of The Dismal Science and A Young Man's Guide to Late Capitalism