Joy Humphrey – Library Journal: Sarvas, writer of the highly praised literary blog, The Elegant Variation, has written a brilliantly funny and heart-wrenching first novel about one man's struggle to face the truth. Harry Rent, middle-aged, well-to-do, and prone to comical daydreaming, has recently lost his beautiful and practically perfect wife, Anna. Unable to get in touch with his grief, he becomes involved in the lives of two waitresses, Molly and Lucille, at the Caf? Retro. He has a crush on the young, hip, and intellectual Molly and tries to impress her by rescuing the lumbering Lucille from her pathetic life of ingrown toenails, unpaid bills, and jailed offspring. But each act of kindness produces its own set of problems for Harry, and he becomes increasingly mired in a life of dishonesty and fantasy. Gradually, his memories of his life with Anna begin rising to the surface, bringing with them both pain and enlightenment. Harry Rent is of the same ilk as Walter Mitty and Rabbit Angstrom: deeply flawed, likable, and hilariously, touchingly memorable. Highly recommended for all fiction collections.