The Celebrants Summary: Steven Rowley’s Living Funerals
The Celebrants by Steven Rowley: Five Friends, One Pact, Three Decades
Two weeks before graduation from UC Berkeley in 1995, five transfer students lose the friend who held their group together.
In their grief, they make an unusual promise: whenever one of them hits rock bottom, the others will gather and hold a “living funeral,” delivering eulogies while the person is still alive to hear them.
Steven Rowley’s The Celebrants follows that pact across nearly thirty years, moving from a cliffside house in Big Sur to Puerto Vallarta, New York City, and back again.
The novel shifts between grief and humor as the friends face divorce, career collapse, long-kept secrets, and terminal illness.
Who Will Enjoy This Book?
- Readers of contemporary literary and commercial fiction centered on friendship.
- Fans of found-family stories that span multiple decades.
- Readers drawn to LGBTQ+ relationship drama and domestic fiction.
- Those who prefer character-driven novels over fast-paced plotting.
- Readers who appreciate bittersweet humor paired with reflections on mortality.
TL;DR: The Short Version
Five UC Berkeley transfer students lose their friend Alec to an accidental overdose days before graduation in 1995.
At a Big Sur house called Sur la Vie, they create a lifelong pact: each member gets one “living funeral” during a personal crisis, so no praise or affection is saved for after death.
- 2013: Marielle, divorced and adrift at forty, calls in the first living funeral.
- 2016: Naomi, grieving her parents’ plane crash, asks for a destination funeral in Puerto Vallarta.
- 2018: Craig, facing federal charges over forged art, receives his ceremony in New York City.
- 2023: Jordan, terminally ill, gathers the group at Big Sur and gives his turn to his husband, Jordy.
The novel’s central idea is simple: leave nothing left unsaid while the people you love can still hear it.
The Celebrants Summary: What Happens in the Book (Spoilers Ahead)
Spoiler warning: the following section describes the plot, including the ending.
The story opens in 2023 with Jordan Vargas, a public relations executive in New York, receiving news that his prostate cancer has returned and spread to his lungs, liver, and bones. He has months to live.
Jordan decides to gather his four closest friends one final time at Sur la Vie in Big Sur. He does not tell them the full reason for the reunion.
The novel then moves back to April 1995. Six transfer students shared a dormitory floor at UC Berkeley: Jordan Vargas, Jordan “Jordy” Tosic, Marielle Holland, Naomi Ito, Craig Scheffler, and Alec Swigert.
Ten days before graduation, Marielle finds Alec dead of an accidental drug overdose in the dorm lounge. The remaining five drive to Big Sur, to an oceanfront house owned by Naomi’s wealthy parents.
After dinner at Nepenthe and a long night on the deck, Marielle proposes the living funeral pact. Each friend may trigger one ceremony during a crisis in their lifetime and hear their own eulogy.
In 2013, Marielle calls in the first funeral. She is turning forty, divorced from her unfaithful husband Max, short on money, and facing an empty nest as her daughter Mia leaves for college.
The friends return to Sur la Vie. They walk the purple sand of Pfeiffer Beach, use an old Ouija board, and argue about flowers before the ceremony on the deck.
Read Also: The Five-Star Weekend Summary: A Nantucket Tale of Friendship, Grief, and Starting Over
Jordan, Jordy, Naomi, and Craig deliver eulogies and prepare a sandwich spread in her honor. Marielle later moves to Boring, Oregon, to run an animal rescue sanctuary.
In 2016, Naomi’s distant parents die in a private plane crash. She invokes the pact and requests a destination funeral in Puerto Vallarta at Casa Kimberly, the former home of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
After a night of drinking and mariachi music, Naomi insists the group go skydiving. In the air, Jordan’s main parachute fails, and his instructor Yolonda deploys the emergency reserve.
Shaken, Jordan tells Naomi on the beach that people have no control over the big things. At sunset, Naomi delivers her own eulogy, releases her need for her parents’ approval, and says she is enough. She stops drinking afterward.
In 2018, Craig faces federal charges after he unknowingly authenticated forged paintings by German artist Jürgen Förg. Marielle triggers the pact on his behalf, and the group gathers at his loft in NoLita.
On the street, Marielle’s twenty-two-year-old daughter Mia runs into the group. Craig learns that Mia is his biological daughter, conceived during one night with Marielle after Alec’s death in 1995.
Naomi hires Tuffy, a punk drummer and prison consultant, to prepare Craig for federal prison. The friends eat magic mushrooms and take a Circle Line cruise around Manhattan.
On the boat, secrets surface, including Jordy’s admission that Alec had tested positive for HIV six weeks before he died. The group holds Craig’s funeral on deck and scatters the ashes of an early painting he had burned, kept in a paprika tin.
Craig accepts legal responsibility, serves seven months in a minimum-security facility, and later moves to Oregon to live near Marielle and Mia.
In 2023, Jordan refuses a living funeral for himself. Instead, he loans his turn to Jordy, who will face the loneliness of losing a husband.
Leaving his own turn unused also keeps the pact technically open, binding the friends together indefinitely. Jordan arranges for Jordy to swim the Escape from Alcatraz race across San Francisco Bay.
Jordy swims through the cold water while the group cheers from shore. Jordan collapses on the beach afterward from weakness, and Jordy carries him to safety.
That evening at Sur la Vie, the friends hold Jordy’s living funeral on the deck. Jordan asks them to celebrate life, support Jordy, and leave nothing left unsaid.
The book closes with an official obituary for Jordan Aarón Vargas, who dies at fifty-one, surrounded by his husband and lifelong friends. It states that he lived a complete life in which love was fully expressed.
Continue Reading: The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip Summary: A Story of Faith & Unlikely Friendship
Characters In This Book
| Character | Role |
| Jordan Vargas | Colombian-American public relations executive in New York and husband to Jordy; orchestrates the final gathering in 2023. |
| Jordan “Jordy” Tosic | Former college swimmer and health club enthusiast married to Jordan Vargas; Alec’s former roommate. |
| Marielle Holland | Mother of Mia, ex-wife of Max, founder of the living funeral pact, and operator of an animal rescue in Oregon. |
| Naomi Ito | Music label executive and daughter of the owners of Sur la Vie; triggers the 2016 funeral. |
| Craig Scheffler | New York art gallerist and archivist charged over forged paintings; Mia’s biological father. |
| Alec Swigert | The sixth member of the college group, whose overdose death in 1995 leads to the pact. |
| Mia | Marielle and Craig’s biological daughter, a Wellesley College student working in Boston city government. |
| Max Dubicki | Marielle’s ex-husband, a former Supreme Court clerk and lawyer. |
| Tuffy (Thom Romero) | Drummer for the punk band Guff and a part-time prison consultant hired by Naomi. |
What Drives the Story
| Theme | How the Book Presents It |
| Grief and Mortality | The group experiences loss at three different stages: Alec’s overdose at twenty-two, Naomi’s parents’ plane crash, and Jordan’s terminal cancer diagnosis. |
| Found Family | Five transfer students meet at UC Berkeley and remain bound for decades through distance, divorces, and career failures. |
| Living Eulogies | The pact requires each member to deliver a eulogy during a friend’s lifetime rather than after death. |
| Aging and Reinvention | The characters move from dormitory life in 1995 to midlife crises involving divorce, empty nests, and criminal charges. |
| Secrets and Forgiveness | Jordy conceals Alec’s HIV diagnosis for twenty-three years, while Marielle and Craig hide Mia’s paternity until 2018. |
Next on Your Reading List: John of John Book Summary: A Return to Repression
Book Details at a Glance
- Genre & Subgenre: Contemporary Fiction; Domestic & Relationship Fiction; LGBTQ+ Drama
- Core Narrative Tropes: Found family, secret pact, living funerals, secrets revealed, nonlinear timeline, terminal illness journey
- Tone & Atmosphere: Bittersweet, witty, humorous, reflective, intimate, emotionally uplifting
- Primary Conflict: Five lifelong friends confront aging, regret, and mortality while trying to save one another from personal crises
- Pacing Style: Episodic and character-driven; non-linear across 1995 to 2023, with each section framed around a living funeral
- Book Structure: Six main chapters plus an obituary epilogue, each chapter named after a Carpenters song lyric
- ISBN-10: 0593540425
- ISBN-13: 978-0593540428
- Pages: 320
- Author Background: Steven Rowley is the author of Lily and the Octopus, The Editor, and The Guncle. His fiction often mixes humor with grief and family bonds.
Quotes from The Celebrants – Steven Rowley
“Life is what you celebrate. All of it. Even its end.”
“Leave nothing left unsaid”
“I’m talking about having our funerals while we could attend. To hear firsthand the impact we’ve had on other people so that we know our own lives are making a difference.”
“We think we have control over everything—we hold on so tight—and the truth is we don’t. We don’t have any control at all. Not over the big things.”
“You profoundly changed my life, Marielle, and I’m eternally grateful for you.”
“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single one, and the life of that candle will not be shortened. That’s what you do for others. You light their candle with yours.”
“In lieu of flowers, Jordan Tosic asks that people honor his husband by telling a loved one the positive impact they’ve had on your life so that they are never left to guess.”
Books Like The Celebrants
- The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer: Follows a tight-knit circle of friends from youth into middle age, tracking envy, talent, and enduring affection.
- The Guncle by Steven Rowley: Shares Rowley’s blend of sharp wit, warmth, and grief within a chosen family.
- The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai: Traces deep friendship, gay community bonds, and the long shadow of loss across decades.
- In Five Years by Rebecca Serle: Centers on deep friendship, sudden life turns, and unconditional love.
- A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara: Follows a group of college friends across decades in New York as they navigate trauma and loyalty.
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid: Uses a reflective, retrospective structure to examine love, identity, and a life recounted near its end.
- Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane: Explores long-term bonds, family secrets, and forgiveness across several decades.
