Him Her Him Again The End of Him [Paperback]

Patricia Marx (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2008

Patricia Marx is one of the finest comic writers of her time, as readers of The New Yorker and fans of Saturday Night Live already know. Her fiction debut is an endlessly entertaining comic novel about one woman’s romantic fixation on her first boyfriend.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Marx's unnamed protagonist, a Baltimore native turned Cambridge University graduate student, is struggling with her thesis on West Indian immigration when she meets Eugene Obello, fresh from Princeton and at Cambridge on a philosophy teaching fellowship. Though he's self-absorbed, distracted and cheesy ("I will always feel a great deal of agape toward you, O my everlasting," he tells the narrator) she falls for him. But he soon leaves her for the frequently ill Margaret, and the narrator is once again alone with her incomplete thesis. She quits school, returns to the states and lands a writing gig at a Saturday Night Live–type show, but Eugene lingers in her mind. He, of course, resurfaces in New York, and the two embark on an affair. (He has since married Margaret.) Marx, a former SNL writer and current New Yorker contributor, undermines her main source of tension—the narrator's obsession with Eugene—by failing to present Eugene as anything more than a brainy fop, and though his demise is fitting, it'll have E.M. Forster fans crying foul. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

For those who have spent hours listening to a girlfriend relate the latest about her ongoing obsession, or who have been trapped on a flight next to someone spilling out her life story, this first novel by a former writer for Saturday Night Live will be familiar. The unnamed narrator pours out the hilarious tale of her long-standing obsession with a miserable boyfriend. As with most obsessions, this one is inexplicable both to the narrator's friends and the reader. Eugene, who never fails to remind that his grandfather was a contender for the Nobel Prize for Economics, is an academic who spouts creative pet names ("my orbital core") and periodically disappears--sometimes for years. Despite improbable plot twists, minor plot inconsistencies, and a definitively uncatchy title, there are some laugh-out-loud moments. And when the narrator explains she cannot explain "why I remained so fixed on Eugene. . . . In lieu of explanation, will you accept acknowledgment?" we want to write the line down so that we can use it the next time our own taste is questioned. Rebecca Singer
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Scribner (January 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743296249
• ISBN-13: 978-0743296243
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #172,444 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Funny, not hilarious... and good, not great, February 24, 2007

By 

K. Hinton "avid reader" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Him Her Him Again The End of Him (Hardcover)

While working on her thesis at Cambridge University, the narrator of Him Her Him Again The End of Him meets Eugene, a philosophy major who waltzes in and out of her life over the next decade and whom she obsessively alters even the smallest details of her life to accommodate. Though Eugene routinely walks all over her and steps on her oft-profferred heart, she still comes crawling back with disappointing regularity and puts her own need aside to make room for his. Over the course of the novel she sets aside her thesis, leaves England, moves in with her parents, finds work as a writer for a television sketch comedy, loses work, and through it all the only constant is her obsession with getting Eugene to love her.

The protagonist of Patricia Marx's first novel is in equal measure an amusing, instrospective, overthinking mess and an irresponsible, unambitious, mediocre victim. Whichever part of her you enjoy most seems to skew your overall views of the book. I couldn't get over the way she let Eugene treat her, though I am all for first love and the way it can devastate and influence the way you live your life. Though the book is supposed to be dubbed one of the funniest ever written, I thought the story itself was depressing. It is funny a lot of the time and the narrator herself is amusing a lot of the time without even trying, but the tone and direction of the book weren't at all entertaining. I liked a good deal of this story, but I hated Eugene and as he was the principal male character of the story it made it difficult to enjoy the entire novel. Him Her Him Again The End of Him was funny, not hilarious, and it was most definitely good--not great.

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Him Her....Fun!, December 30, 2006

By 

Tamela Mccann "taminator40" (Nashville, TN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Him Her Him Again The End of Him (Hardcover)

Despite its unfortunate title, which refers to the sections the book is divided into, this book is indeed a fun read, and quite engaging. The author, Patricia Marx, has a unique turn of phrase that will at times bring you to laugh out loud, and will cause you to feel the frustration of our heroine, whose name we never learn.

The plot is basic: our heroine, a student at Cambridge, meets and almost immediately gives both her heart and her virginity to Eugene, a cad of the first order. Despite his many faults, our heroine finds herself literally obsessed with Eugene, even after he dumps her for the sickly Margaret. We watch as, over a period of ten years, our heroine pines for the shallow and selfish Eugene, putting aside her own needs and bouncing from job to job as she searches for whatever it is that will make her life perfect. Eugene flits in and out of her life like an annoying fly, and yet she allows him to dictate almost everything about her existence. It is both frustrating and funny as we follow her non-growth into its eventual climax, cheering her on and hoping that she will experience an epiphany that allows Eugene to get what's coming to him.

Marx has a brilliant writing style, and she uses it to both string the reader along on the heroine's web of obsession and to make said reader laugh as she reveals bits and pieces that bring the story to its end. At times it felt as though our heroine would never reach enlightenment, and the story dragged as a result. But overall this is a gem of a novel, and should be recommended to all who enjoy an author with a gift for comedy.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Funny, but not enough, March 3, 2007

By 

A reader "A reader" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Him Her Him Again The End of Him (Hardcover)

If there is one problem with nearly every SNL skit-turned movie it's that the audience is asked to endure a one-joke premise stretched unmercifully into a feature length film.

This is the print version of same. Smart yet neurotic girl falls for arrogant cad, whines to witty and eccentric friends, tolerates family, comes out a bit wiser. The shallow characters are asked to carry a storyline that doesn't have the interest to last through a novel. There are truly clever moments that had me laughing out loud, but the plot was disappointingly simple.

This has the feel of a Tina Fey hopeful trying to step away from her skit comedy roots -- but only a few steps away. I'd like to read something more ambitious from Marx; she has talent.