Customer Reviews

Booty Nomad

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I thought this book would be light and funny and at first I was into it. The best scenes are the ones that open the book. Unfortunately, as the story goes on the main character and his puppet show become first tiresome, then irritating. The women especially are just cardboard figures and you wind up not caring who the guy hooks up with. Also the book starts to seem like an endless slog. I have to admit, I finally gave up about two thirds of the way through it. In the end, there just isn't enough wit to sustain an entire book. It's like listening to a standup comedian who has 5 minutes of funny material but won't let you leave the club even though his act has run dry.

I'm not sure the world needs a male version of Bridget Jones. That's especially true when you consider that the Bridget character had more going for her than the main protagonist in this book named David. For that matter, the same could be said for all the characters in this book who are all self-centered, clueless and without ambition.

Of course not all is bad; the book has some excellent insights and can be very funny in spots. The main character's work as a producer for a children's puppet show proved to be a great source for laughs and his infatuation with a co-worker was insightful. Unfortunately, the focus was on David's pathetic lovelife outside of work with a collection of women who he only remembered by nickname.

I'll skip trying to explain the plot of the book because there wasn't one of any substance. This is a book that is about as significant as a television sitcom. It was funny in spots and entertaining every once in awhile, but you could spend your time so much more productively. I'll give this writer another chance because he can be funny, but I hope he will spend some energy on characters who aren't as pathetic.

Scott Mebus joins the roster of authors penning the sad love life of guys (think Bernie Jones rather than Bridget). If you liked Love Monkey, this book's for you. It's funny, contemporary and, at times, poignant. In addition, it's given a reading by Mark Feuerstein that'll make guys want to be his pal and girls offer him comfort.

Protagonist David is a pretty ordinary guy with a job he doesn't particularly like, and a string of relationships that started in high gear and soon ground to a discouraging end. He's not at all sure of his ability to find the right girl for him.......then "The Goddess" enters his line of vision.

She's perfect in every way. But, how to woo her? How to win her? And therein lies this thoroughly enjoyable story. A must for all guys and gals playing the singles dating game.

- Gail Cooke

I read this book to provide a 'listeners' opinion on a BBC radio show review to coincide with its UK launch. Well, I managed to plough my way through it and I admit that there were several parts which I found genuinely funny and perceptive. Unfortunately these were matched in equal number by sections which were both banal and repetitive. This seriously detracted from the books rating, and I think that is a shame. Scott has a generally readable style which, when he avoids the lengthy exploration of the irrelevant, makes me expect that he has a good future as an author.

The characters were quite entertaining and while I thought the device of referring to his girlfriends by a trait or label rather than by name would be annoying, it did actually work quite well.

Anyone expecting pages of unfettered sexual activity will be disappointed as this book, rightly, deals with the passage of relationships and the angst of a young male in the new millennium. But why do we keep eavesdropping 3-way conversations with his parents, why the constant angst about Victoria's Secret, why the unnecessary blow by blow (sorry) account of Puppet Yoga (which was probably the nearest to lurid sex that we get!).

On the flip side one characters tirade when incensed at a family party was a stroke of literary brilliance. I laughed for ages over the poignancy and perceptiveness of that - we all would because we've all wanted to say just that ourselves but never dared to do so.

The radio review spent much time discussing why the cover of the UK edition was different to than in the US. I don't have a problem with the cover design. My feeling is that the back cover is too far away from the front. At 400 pages this book is too long. Judicious editing and the avoidance of irrelevance and repetition could have saved perhaps 80 pages and made it a less arduous read in the process.

On balance, the book is OK, particularly for a first novel and shows promise for the future but could have been better. Yes, it's worth a read because there are good bits just don't expect the earth. There is a film being made - maybe wait for that then read the book to see what Scott originally meant.

This book is just embarrassingly amateurish and awful. Mebus's characters make sitcom characters look like Shakespearean figures, his dirty jokes are vaguely misogynist, his writing ranges from bland to offensive. I'm sorry I bought it.

The book had a few good jokes, but it went on way, way too long and seems to think it is far funnier than it is. Overall, a pretty limp little story with no interesting characters and a very whiny narrator. Nothing special.

I'm a fan of the type of books that have all-too-human characters, the ones you can really relate to. Booty Nomad is one of those books. The moods it goes through are like those of life: extremely happy, annoyingly depressed, absolutely funny. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to feel something different. You won't be disappointed.

I tried to get into this book, but as the narrator whines and fusses and tosses out lame dirty joke after lame dirty joke, I got tired and gave up. Life is too short, and Booty Nomad is too long.

Booty Nomad is sort of like a standup comedy routine you'd see at a Jersey City lounge in 1959. There aren't any original ideas here, the writing is uninspired and I found the none-too-subtle misogyny (all the female characters are boiled down to one trait: i.e., the Eater of Souls, who seems to have been pretty wise to have dumped the narrator, and Bendy Girl) less than amusing. Overall, it's a lot of tired, whiny, schtick. I couldn't finish it.

I read a lot of chick-lit, but I am discovering guy-lit recently, and I have to say, it's so nice to see that guys go through the same emotional stuff that women do. I really liked this book - the main character is totally loveable, the characters are pretty much true-to-life, and his adventures seem possible. I was rooting for him from the beginning, and the book had the same predictable ending as most chick-lit, but it was a nice rewarding feeling anyway. Good book - nice way to spend a few hours.