{"id":3256,"date":"2026-06-21T17:07:46","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T17:07:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=3256"},"modified":"2026-06-21T17:07:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T17:07:46","slug":"best-selling-author-and-west-roxbury-native-john-kenney-on-getting-lost-and-having-good-friends-on-the-cape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=3256","title":{"rendered":"Best-selling author and West Roxbury native John Kenney on getting lost and having good friends on the Cape"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Best-selling author and West Roxbury native John Kenney said he is looking forward to a book tour for the paperback release of his popular 2025 book \u201cI See You\u2019ve Called in Dead.\u201d The 63-year-old former ad executive, who was a longtime contributor to The New Yorker magazine and who has written three novels and four books of poetry, will do a book signing at Word on the Street in Marlborough at 7 p.m. on June 27. Kenney called writing books \u201csuch a privilege\u201d and said that he enjoys meeting his readers on book tours. \u201cThe thing I am in awe of is that the irony of fiction is that when it\u2019s done well, it\u2019s true [and how] these strangers in cities all over the country felt these things you tried to get on the page,\u201d said the University of Massachusetts at Amherst graduate. \u201cThere\u2019s something so beautiful about that to me \u2026 so universal.\u201d Kenney said it is \u201csuch a thrill\u201d to talk with people \u201cabout grief and death and what makes for a meaningful life.\u201d His novel follows obituary writer Bud Stanley, who doesn\u2019t feel that he\u2019s living his best life, Kenney said. \u201cHe\u2019s fallen into a funk after a divorce, he\u2019s not doing his job well, he\u2019s giving up on dating, and he\u2019s about to be fired for accidentally publishing his own obituary\u201d after a night of drinking, he said. \u201cAs Bud awaits his fate at work, he does the only logical thing: He goes to the wakes and funerals of total strangers to learn how to live again.\u201d We caught up with Kenney, who lives in Larchmont, N.Y., with his wife, Lissa, a therapist, and their two teenagers, to talk about all things travel. <\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Watch: Matt Damon goes full \u2018Odyssey,\u2019 sneaks onto \u2018Kimmel\u2019 in a mini Trojan horse<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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If you could travel anywhere right now, where would you go? <\/b>Two places come to mind. The first is Japan. I\u2019ve always wanted to go to Japan. Not Tokyo, but Osaka, Kyoto, and Kanazawa. I feel like they might know a secret we don\u2019t. The other is Switzerland. Ride the Bernina Express. As it is, I\u2019ll likely just travel to Trader Joe\u2019s later today and hope they have Sea Salt Brownie Bites.<\/span><\/p>\n

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