Customer Reviews

A Gentleman's Guide to Graceful Living: A Novel

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

In A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO GRACEFUL LIVING, Michael Dahlie presents us with a rather unique central character by the name of Arthur Camden. Arthur sounds perfect on paper. He is from old money. He has had many things handed to him, and lives what looks like an enviable lifestyle. Inherited wealth which allows him to be a member of New York society, nice homes, expensive clothes, the ability to dine in the best restaurants and to travel wherever he pleases. On the surface, Arthur seems very, very lucky.

However, Arthur's life is in crisis. His wife wants to divorce him for reasons he does not quite understand. He's ruined the family business and a vicious relative treats him with contempt in front of his son. His inherited membership in the very exclusive fly-fishing club called Maidenhead Grange is terminated because he broke an important rule of the club and ended up causing a fire. There are more than a couple of situations that turn out to be completely hilarious! Truth is, Arthur does not understand how any of these things happened. He always meant well and tried to do the correct thing and play by the rules. He searches his mind and memory to try to discern how all of the events came about, but again, he's not always sure how he could have done anything differently, but he wants to change.

In spite of the fact that Arthur does blunder along through life, it's true that he's a nice guy and means well. The real indication of a good story is when the reader personally cares what happens to the characters. With each page, I was cheering for Arthur and hoping against hope that he would not do what I could sense might be coming along in the next paragraph. The author takes the reader into the unforgettable life of a man who does his best to always be a gentleman. I believe that I have met an Arthur or two before in my life, but thanks to Michael Dahlie, now I may understand them a little better!

A very pleasurable read!

This book has the wonderful quality of being sad, funny, and intriguing at the same time. As I got further in, I dreading finishing it and then having no more pages to turn. I am looking forward to Dahlie's next book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. It's a page turner as the story unfolds of the misadventures of the protagonist Arthur. He's sort of a blue-blooded 'everyman' who faces one personal disaster after the next in his pursuit of peaceful, retirement years. I cringed at some of his pitfalls (the same way I cringed at the actions of the David Brent character in the BBC version of "The Office"). You can't help but cheer this guy on as he embattles his own damaged psyche and various foes. I especially enjoyed Arthur's ill-fated trip to see a childhood friend in France (things go wrong to say the least - well pretty much everything goes wrong for Arthur).Thanks to the author for a very enjoyable read with good laughs along the way.

I have no idea how to categorize this book. It seems to be almost a stream-of-consciousness relating of a year in the life of a recently divorced, recently unemployed, middle-aged (and wealthy) man. There is very little detail about scene, events, people, places, etc. but a great deal of attention paid to what the main character is thinking. Most of the time he is thinking about his own problems, what to do about them, how they came about, and what could have been done differently. Even though he was obviously born with a silver spoon in his mouth, he's also very much an Everyman. He has the same insecurities and feelings of inadequacy that the average man (or woman) on the street does. He's not a particularly effectual person, but he has character, a moral code, and a good heart. As he thinks his life through over the course of approximately a year, he comes to realize what he does value, and the difference between true friendship/affection and merely superficial acquantanceship or polite tolerance.

This was a very quirky book, and probably wouldn't be to everyone's taste, but I loved it. There was something almost voyeuristic about being 'inside' the head of a very wealthy man who was living a life that most of us can only dream about, and realize that he's all-too-human and that money most certainly does not buy happiness. Even though Arthur (the main character) spends most of his time either moping or worrying, this is not a serious book - there's always an undercurrent of humor although that may just be because the handling of the story is so quirky and different. I'd highly recommend this to anyone who likes quirkiness or who would like to get inside the minds of the 'other half'. I almost never give out 5 stars, but this was a gem!

How much of Arthur resides in all of us we may not know, but if the main character of Michael Dahlie's new book, "A Gentleman's Guide to Graceful Living" is any indication, it might be more than we think. Or at least it was with me. Dahlie presents a tour de force in his portrayal of Arthur, the sixty-something recently-divorced loner who, unsteadily but unsparingly, goes about picking up the pieces of his midlife crisis. To be sure, there are those who help him along the way, but there are those whose roadblocks to empowerment are sometimes so strong that Arthur seems bewildered about how to respond or make a move.

The author's narrative is riveting in its simplicity and his feel for Arthur never wavers. It doesn't take long for the reader to know that we're all in this life with Arthur, cheering him on, picking him up, urging him forward and hoping for the best. Through it all, Arthur maintains a special individual integrity accompanied by gin and tonics, scotches, wine, lobster, the Catskills, France and Manhattan and more than one woman. While it might be nice to have money or have had it, Arthur is always on the edge, and so is the reader.

One wonders how Arthur would have fared if he had been truly alone...no family, fewer friends, widowed or perhaps even gay. That's a sequel for the author to consider. But in "A Gentleman's Guide to Graceful Living", Michael Dahlie has set a high standard of entertainment and desire with just enough of a trampoline cushion to keep Arthur afloat and all of us happy...and wanting more.

Once I started reading this book, I couldn't stop. As I approached the end, I slowed my reading as much as possible in order to squeeze as much time as possible with the hapless, and totally likeable, Arthur Camden. I lost track of the number of times that I laughed out loud. A highly entertaining debut from a talented writer. Looking forward to reading more from Mr. Dahlie.

This novel reminded me of an old Monty Python sketch called "Ralph Melish (Nothing Happened)." Do a search with your favorite search engine and you will get the point. The script can be read online.
Start with an entirely wretched character, then ensure that absolutely nothing interesting whatsoever happens to him; repeat ad nauseum.

I have rarely discarded a book, and this will be the first in more than 40 years that I have put aside out of utter boredom. Fortunately, I bought this as a Kindle book, and it seems less odious to delete it than to discard a book made of paper. As another consolation, the Kindle edition cost less than half the price of the lattés that the reviewers at Publishers Weekly and the New York Times enjoyed this morning. Their enthusiam puzzles me, so I can only guess. Perhaps they aspire to the lifestyle the protagonist enjoys (if not the problems), and this seems like a primer. Just wild speculation, really.

If you own a Kindle, take a flyer (as long as the price stays low), and judge for yourself. Otherwise, move on - nothing to see here, folks. Really.

One of the best works of modern fiction I've read in a while. This book was both hilarious and poignant---I often found myself crying and laughing at the same time. The author treats his foolish main character (he's a bit like an older Bertie Wooster without a Jeeves to help him out) with so much understanding and compassion that you can't help but care desperately about what happens to him. Strangely, I found myself identifying strongly with Arthur at several points in the story---I guess anyone who's ever found themselves in a bit over their head would. A totally satisfying read.

I totally enjoyed reading this well written book. At times I wanted to kick Arthur Camden and tell him to get a backbone and at other times I empathized with him. The author did a great job in making you feel Arthur's emotional pain. It is not often that I have read such a heart wrenching story told from a male perspective. I look forward to reading the next story by this author. Congratulations on a tale well told.

Arthur Camden is a well-to-do, middle-aged New Yorker in a bit of a bind. His wife left him (after having affairs through most of their marriage) because he wasn't aggressive enough, he's run his family business into the ground and he doesn't quite know what the next step in his life should be. And bursting into tears in front of other members of the exclusive Hanover Street Fly Casters is probably not the best way to put on a brave face.

Michael Dahlie's book tells the story of a man whose life is collapsing around him and how he finds the strength to carry on. And it's far from an easy path--from getting back into the dating scene, trying to save face with relatives angry with him for botching the family business and wanting to reconcile with his ex-wife despite the fact that she's about to remarry.

A Gentleman's Guide to Graceful Living is an enjoyable social comedy. Arthur's misadventures and how he copes with them are alternately funny and heartbreaking, and Dahlie's characterizations of Arthur's peers are spot-on. If I had any issue with the book it's that, like Arthur's ex-wife, I wished he was a bit more aggressive as everything was falling down around him and people were ripping him to shreds. But that might not have made his character as memorable.