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Title: The Sleep-Over Artist: Fiction by Thomas Beller ISBN: 0-393-32171-1 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: May, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3 (13 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Exploring Inner Thoughts
Comment: I found this to be a well written, captivating book. It was so captivating that I read it three times. I normally do not like, or read very much fiction . What drew me to this book was the fact that I like Thomas Beller's non-fiction writing so much. I was therefore very curious to see what his fiction would be like. I started out by reading Seduction Theory, his excellent book of short stories, several of which deal with Alex Fader, the main character of this book. To my surprise, I liked it very much. So I decided to read this book next.
I was not disappointed. I found the writing to be excellent. The character of Alex Fader is well drawn, very complex and very interesting. I found the book to be ultimately very moving. Alex Fader is not always an easy character to like or understand, but his internal conflicts and great vulnerability eventually draw the reader into liking him and being concerned about his fate in life. Mr. Beller has done an excellent job with this book.
Rating: 5
Summary: the best things in life are free
Comment: I found this book in a box labeled "Free" on a college campus, and I was intrigued by the collection of little stories about a guy named Alex Fader who grows up in Manhattan. He starts out as a lost boy and becomes a lost man. But he's not so terribly selfish, just very confused about human relationships, compounded by the fact that his father died of cancer while he was very young and then raised by a single mother.
There are some disturbing misogynistic moments which seem centered around women's breasts -- like the poor classmate Tania whose top is ripped off at a bar mitzvah, no less.
But there are also some touching moments when he loses the woman he truly loves because she feels a need, on her 35th birthday, to finally move from New York -- a move that will not include Alex. I am sure many people can identify with Christine's need to go somewhere new, with Alex's heartbreak at being left behind.
It is not the greatest book ever written, but it is still a good book. It reminds me of Harry, the main character in Adam Davies' "The Frog King". Just everything you suspected about twentysomething guys put into writing, for better or worse.
Rating: 2
Summary: A boy who won't grow up
Comment: The main setting for this novel is the concrete canyons of New York City where the main character, Alex Fader, spends his childhood in a high-rise apartment. Having personally grown up in a small town in the northwest, I have always regarded New Yorkers as being from an alien culture. This novel, perhaps, explains some of that culture.
The novel is written in a narrative form as related by the main character. It is written as a series of related short stories, initially about incidents in his childhood, and then about relationships with a succession of women. He is not exactly a gigolo, but is somewhat a parasite as he camps out with various girlfriends. He drifts through various jobs, including drummer with a rock band (with a girlfriend who makes sheep noises), but is not overly successful at anything.
Just as Alex seems to be developing a serious relationship, it abruptly ends and he is back with his mother. It seemed like there was a chapter or two missing. It is a somewhat interesting novel, but easy to set aside.
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Title: Seduction Theory by Thomas Bellar ISBN: 0446672521 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 01 May, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.99 |
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