Customer Reviews

Househusband

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I live in Las Vegas and am an avid reader of westerns, mob books, history of Las Vegas and war books. I guess you might refer to me as a macho sort of character even at sixty-four years of age. Getting to the book Househusband, a friend of ours and his wife gave us this book as a present, they are close friends of the authors parents. I told my wife, nice of them, but this looks like a book for you, but certainly not for me. My wife told me, as much as you read, you better read this one because you know who will ask you what you thought and you best know what you are talking about or your buddy will not be happy with you. I am so thankful my wife made that statement, as I then started reading the book, by the third chapter I was hooked. Some four hours later I finished the book, what a delightful and enjoyable book and even though it is fiction there is so much truth in it about todays world and role reversal and the love a macho father who made the decision to do what he felt best for his family. A must read for all women and the macho man who is not afraid of his other side.

I bought this book thinking it was going to be a very sarcastic spoof on househusbands. Never did I expect it to have serious undertones.

Nevertheless, the book was thoroughly enjoyable and I read it in one sitting (I was down with the flu). The story revolves around Linc, who has just moved his family cross-country so that his wife can take a new position. He decides to settle his family into their new life and becomes a househusband.

Linc struggles with depression as he searches for a new balance in his life. He seems to seek some sort of control which he finds in domestic duties. Between running a perfect house, cooking gourmet meals and raising a perfect daughter, this guy is supermom!

Thoughtful and funny, the story is a good lesson in life change for all of us. By the way, the recipes in every chapter are scrumptious!

Having a 4-year-old child myself, it was fascinating to read about what I've been through the last few years, but from a male perspective. You can tell the author has lived this world of potty training, whipping together dinner fast and trying to keep up your self esteem in a world that measures people by job titles and career tracks. Add to that the gender issues and assumptions that we put on men and women, this novel has surprising depth while being very funny. I found myself examing my own knee-jerk reaction to househusbands, that they must be sponges who live off their high-earning wives. Yet I'd never think that of a housewife. Yikes, I'm a sexist and didn't know it!

On a lighter note, I just loved how he ended a number of chapters with a recipe for the dinner or lunch Linc had prepared in that chapter's scene. I have made the tortellini and the spring rolls and they are both easy and delicious.

Don't read this if you either think only women can be homemakers or think housework is a snap. I think this book makes a lot of true points, about gender and about the unrecognized value of a homemaker, and I think the readers giving reviews are influenced by whether they agree with these points. However a good message doesn't necessarily make a good book. The points could have been made in a 5,000 word position paper. Or this story could have made a tight novella. But, despite the well-written prose, the situation is unchanged for most of the book: Linc is unhappy as a househusband despite the rewards, yet he's trapped. The book failed to engage me in whether he has an affair with his neighbor, or with what happens to his mother on the run, or how he will deal with an inadequate nanny. I enjoyed the individual scenes but overall the trip to the end took too long.

And I thought that the Nanny Diaries was an entertaining look at "parenting"? This book is for real and actually made me feel great about what I spend 16 hours a day doing. Hudler has a style and insight that made me want to agree out loud at what I was reading. This book was truly fun to read and I will absolutely pass it book along to friends. (After my husband is finished with it!)

This marvelously funny tale of domestic role reversal throws new light on the roles everyone plays -- the career forger, the caregiver, the best friend, the neighbor. Even The Child is seen from a new angle. The writing energizes, entertains, enlightens and leaves the reader feeling better about the human race, especially the men portion of it. Despite the hilariously depicted foibles and neuroses of our hero Linc, he and his wife are decent, unselfish, intelligent folks trying to make the world a better place for each other and for their child. What a pleasure to read about these kinds of people for a change. What a pleasure to read writing with such descriptive zest. Can't wait for his next book!

linc menner is a self-described househusband, a landscape architect to the stars who decides to stay at home with his three-year old, violet, while his wife takes a high profile job as the COO of a large rochester hospital. hudler's book outlines menner's foray into full-time parenting. cut off from all adult contact, he can chart the progress of time only by the growth of a passion flower plant. as he becomes more and more paranoid about his worth as a man and a husband, he also becomes more controlling about his "kingdom" - how violet is cared for, how the laundry is done, etc.

this book is certainly funny, but it also touches on deeper issues of gender roles, acceptance, and insecurity. there is also much mulling about food, and the book includes many of linc's recipes. i haven't tried any yet, but they tasted good in my mind.

i was pleasantly surprised by how cleanly this book is constructed, and how well hudler was able to expose linc's shortcomings while still keeping him likable. most impressive is the way that hudler develops linc, subtly but surely. this is light reading, but a more worthwhile book than most.

Amazingly, this first time author just gets it so right. Told from the viewpoint of a born and bred Yuppie, transplanted Californian, master landscaper, father, husband, and son, the story becomes a pleasant surprise quite quickly. Feminine nuance and sublety and ever present guilt are humourously overacted. But important issues are tackled with the tongue firmly in the cheek. Certainly a bit over the top, but the exciting thing is that Househusband GETS IT. Lincoln (named after the car in his out-of-touch father's dealership) makes gentle suggestions for misbehaving children (Violet is spoiled, but she's mannerly about it), business affairs for the spousal unit, as well as dealing with a charmingly/alarmingly runaway mama of his own. And the icing on the proverbial cake are the yummy sounding, healthy recipes laced through the book. I'm thinking this should be required premarital reading.

I'm a stay-at-home mom, and boy does this author understand this life. I'm guessing that the readers who don't like this book are either men or women who are working full time and suffering from some big "mommy guilt." Hudler understands the situation and psyche of the stay-at-home mom better than anyone I've yet encountered. If you're a stay-at-home parent, you'll love this book because you'll feel vindicated and not so alone anymore.

I found the book frustrating rather than humerous. I enjoyed how Linc highlighted the plight of the stay at home parent, it certainly is a job that is overlooked and undervalued and completely nailed the response we get as we attend functions with our spouse. However, he managed to spoil it for me with his subtle digs at those who do stay home and dare let the kids watch rugrats or take a breath once in a while as the kids entertain themselves.
He manages to put down those in the park that take a moment on the bench and those who don't fill in every moment with pasta art and museum visits to find shapes in Monet and even those who dare to give their kid a cheeto are once again villanized. He is, however, fine with keeping the awful nanny who his gut is telling him is no good in order to get a break going out to the coffee shop a few times a week...if only some of us had that break it would be a miracle!

If his intent was to show how hard it was to be a stay at home parent he should not have created a character who would then, in fact, put down all who struggle with the job every day, in fact he says that again only a man could do this job well.

His wife too is criticised for her role and as with all mothers, can't win no matter what you do. The neighbors are sad characters in the story, again women who are unable to cope with their children, and the only one I enjoyed with his Mother as she took off on an adventure although she even became a tad over the top with emailing her son of her sexcapades!

I was dissapointed, what was a great opportunity to reveal a stay at home fathers life through humor as well as the realities of the job was tainted by the underlying messages included within.