Matthew Quick’s novel The Good Luck of Right Now centers around characters experiencing and dealing with grief in their own unique ways. The main character, Bartholomew Neil, grieves the loss of his mother and the role she once occupied in his life. Bartholomew may not understand grief or even realize that he is undergoing the grieving process, but it is clear through his “pretending” that he is dealing with loss. The art of pretending has morphed and changed a few times in the novel so far, for many different reasons. When Bartholomew was a child, he was much more naïve and innocent about the uses and reasons why others use pretending. At first, it was just a game he and his mother played. Children often pretend; the roots of pretending in