Customer Reviews

How to Buy a Love of Reading: A Novel

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I think the notion of hiring someone to write your story or having your parents obsessed with finding you a passion is an enjoyable idea to play with.

And while the book is interesting enough, I am disappointed with the characters behaviors overall. The writing is fine if you dig super long sentences (I'm not a fan but I know readers who are). But the characters, they are awful people, and not in a tongue and cheek fun way, and not kids who really have reason for angst and are on a path to redemption for either the reader or themselves. They come across as over privilged whiners that I sort of kind of wouldn't mind if they fall on their faces.

This book is aimed at young adults. With my volunteer work I work with a lot of young adults and I can honestly say I could not in good conscience recommend this book to any of the teens I work with.

The book is told in slow moving layers with loathsome characters who are either absurd, foolish or apathetic. Carly our most apathetic in the beginning of the book does develop into a somewhat more likeable character she does develop some strengths, but is still coddling a "friendship" or "relationship" that would make the most liberal of parents cringe. And maybe the book is really great and I missed it, and maybe the charcters weren't so awful and maybe the point was to foster a relationship I don't understand. But the fact that I reached the end of the book and wasn't sure what the point really had been or how I was supposed to feel or even why I felt empty about the book means - I didn't like it and I wouldn't recommend it.

Tanya Egan Gibson's debut novel How to Buy a Love of Reading is about more than just wealth and snobbery. It's about growing up, struggling with addiction and realizing that "money can't buy happiness" (Egan's character Bree would shudder at such a cliche).

Thought Provoking and Entertaining because...
- The characters start off seeming very one dimensional, yet as the story unfolds a profound depth appears in many of them. And those that aren't granted depth are denied purposefully- they don't deserve it.
- I appreciated the levels of relationship presented in the novel, especially between main characters Carley and Hunter, and the two writers Justin and Bree. They all have faults and do their share to cause havoc, but you can't but to hope that everything turns out okay in the end.
- The writing is quite entertaining; Gibson does a fantastic job satirizing many elements of this wealthy demographic. There is also true emotion that makes you sympathetic to people and things you may not normally feel bad for.
- The story within a story aspect was amusing (the story Bree writes for Carley is set on a reality show set), but also supported the whole reality vs. false appearances theme.

A Few Problems:
- The story is a bit difficult to get into; the first fifty or so pages aren't the best representative of the novel itself. Don't quit, just keep going. Forgiveness is a really important concept in the book...
- Some people are going to protest that the characters aren't realistic; I had no problem with this, since the characters represent more than just themselves.
- There are a few sections that I felt weren't necessary, you'll recognize them when you read them. Luckily there aren't many and they don't last long.

This is a novel for someone who is willing and able to peel back the layers and actually see it for what it's worth.

This is not the average teen angst story. Carley Wells has been enticed to become a reader of literature because she simply does not posses the love for great books. Through the process, she engages in an array of escapades that help her to find herself while at the same time trying to pass her English class and prepare for the SAT. And to top that off, she is head over heels over Hunter Clay, a mega bibliophile who lives, breathes, and sleeps with great literature.

What is unique about this novel is the premise of Carley's predicament and having a novel written personally for her by author Bree McEnroy. The entire process is a smorgasbord of character references from literature, F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Odyssey, as well as American popular culture, Jackie Kennedy and host of others. And the book is supposedly and personally catered towards Carley's interest, which is displayed in the preliminary stages of the plot that resembles an unusual reality show set during Medieval or Elizabethan times but with a present day twist that does not exactly fall within the lines of "Gossip Girl" or a Joss Whedon series. Through an exchange of emails between Carley and Bree, readers see the tedious and agonizing editing of Carley's novel. But the book is drama in itself, which is humorous and satirical, especially for those who are able to read each passage; there is a small tinge of Joycean pattern that journeys to the unconscious mind of understanding.

Overall, HOW TO BUY A LOVE OF READING is an exciting book. One of the interesting aspect of the story is the relationship between Carley and Hunter. Indeed, it is a long and winding road that leads readers through the unpredictable conclusion. The story is almost like the cliché of how literature imitates life, and Carley's novel happens to fall within that category.

This book was misrepresented as containing many of the qualities of Special Topics in Calamity Physics, which was why I chose it as a vine selection. The similarities are faint. Yes, both books contain underachieving, brainiac teens. That is pretty much where it stops. This novel is an enervating journey that includes every literary device in existence (exponentially to the 20th power). It is a parody and a satire (and it will deconstruct their distinguished characteristics). It is meta-fiction, self-referential, and an impaling and dizzying aim at solipsism and philistine pursuits. It skewers the ancient to the (post)modern--the Western canon, reality TV, celebrity, the pursuit of love, and everything in-between. Unabashed product placement (especially French wine), cynicism, class distinction, art, highbrow culture, lowbrow culture, absence of culture--there is even an abundance of overabundance. I was utterly exhausted and relieved when it ended. This Seinfeld meets Updike cum tragicomic odyssey failed to transcend its terminally brilliant insouciance.

In a privileged town on Long Island Sound live an assembled cast of teens and their parents. Carley, an overweight, sullen student at the private Montclair Academy, is doomed to fail her English course due to her insolent responses on a form given to her by her teacher. Her parents, Francis and Gretchen, decide on a "novel" idea. They commission an erudite but obscure authoress to live-in and create a novel to Carly's specifications. Carley's passions include a reality TV show called The Annals of Arion and her best friend (who she is also in love with), the sartorial Hunter Cay. Hunter is popular, gorgeous, prone to every illness in a 50-mile radius, and a genius at literature--his talent for literary allusion equals that of many PhD's. Unfortunately, he has taken on a Fitzgerald-esque persona--when he is awake, he is either drunk or high on Vicodin or both. Hunter and Carley prop each other up and try to fill in each other's blanks and shortcomings. At the start of the novel, Hunter is on a grease skid to oblivion and Carley just keeps gaining weight.

The adults are more immature than their kids. Francis, the pioneer of Marvel Bra (he has never met a pair of breasts he can't improve) is having an affair with his ex-girlfriend, Suzanne. Suzanne, Hunter's mother, is about to get married to someone else, but she frequently takes risks at these posh parties to sneak off with Francis and engage in oral sex. Later (but still during the party), in order to extend the experience, Francis will pick up a long-stemmed flower from one of the floral arrangements and masturbate with it, which results in a pollen-stained penis.

Do you get the idea? This is apparently rollicking and funny. Well, it is sometimes. But there is too much of everything for it to be sufficient to sustain me. I can't engage when it is accelerating at magnum speed and breathlessness. All the cheeky smirks and smug references are suffocating after a while. Part of it is structural--there is too much dialogue without a fair balance of narration, which tires me as a reader. It reads more like TV or a play--granted, with an IQ of 180, but it presents as if jacked up on intravenous caffeine and amphetamines. It creates an experience of gasping over-excitement with its rapid-fire juxtapositions and hyperbolic overdrive. I recommend this to those who have the tolerance for vertiginous brain-drilling.

If you think that this review is verbose and tiring, then you will likely agree with its assertions.

From the description and the cover of this book, I expected a kind of generic chick-lit story of the ugly duckling turning into a swan and getting the guy.

That is not at all what this book is about.

Instead, I discovered a dense, complex literary tale of relationships and self-discovery. Carley Wells lives a life of privilege but is on the outs because of her looks -- 50-plus pounds overweight keeps her from being one of the "beautiful people" at her exclusive prep school. But because of her unlikely relationship with Golden Boy Hunter Cay, she is accepted, though at arms' length.

For her Sweet Sixteen, her parents commission a book from a little-known writer, something that will brand them as patrons of the arts and move Carley from intellectual weakling to college admissions must-have.

Though the creation of the book is billed as the central thread of "How to Buy a Love of Reading," what is really central to the story is the relationships between the characters -- between Carley and Hunter, a pill-popping alcoholic in denial, between Carley and her parents, between her parents themselves, and between many other characters.

Carley is an unexpected heroine, one who grows into her own over the course of the book, discovering who she really is and what she truly wants, separate of her relationship with Hunter. Concurrently Hunter, who seems to have it all, slowly self-destructs despite his apparent golden life.

The strength of this book lies in the ability of the author to create layers of meaning, text, and subtext that the reader must work to decipher. At the same time, I think that's its weakness -- that the actual events of the book are so hidden in the layers of words that sometimes they're missed. I found myself reading certain passages over and over again as I struggled to decode exactly what was happening.

This book brought to mind Jonathan Franzen's "The Corrections" for the way the relationships and characters are more important to the overall tale than any one particular plot point.

Don't pick it up if you are expecting a quick beach read. But if you want a book that looks at the complexities of identity and the role literature can plan in self-discovery, this is a book you can grab with both hands.

"How to Buy a Love of Reading" centers around a situation where someone is trying to do just that -- some wealthy parents decide to pay an author to write a book specifically to appeal to their shallow, anti-literary daughter. Not surprisingly given that set-up, the parents, daughter, and hired author all have significant emotional stuff going on that churns to the fore over the course of the book.

While I could see this book genuinely appealing to readers who enjoy the Gossip Girl / Nanny Diaries genre of "rich people behaving badly", for me it was a dry and irritating read.

Myself, I love reading the most when I actually *like* the people I'm reading about, at least a little -- after all, reading can be like spending time with a new friend, hearing their story. I don't need the characters in every book to sound like wonderful, amazing people who I want for my new BFF, but there does need to be something about them I find appealing. And the reality is that with this book, there was not a one of the main characters who I'd be interested in spending any time with.

I read the first few pages of this book and felt a bit dubious, but decided to plow ahead, only because my parents raised me not to be a quitter and not because this novel showed any particular promise of good things to come. A slow beginning turned into a slow middle, which finally resolved itself into a stuttering *pfffffft* of a slow end.

And did I mention depressing? The blurb on the jacket came nowhere near to what this book is actually about: the premise sounded really funny, and I had the impression I was going to be taken on an Austen-esque ride through the manners and mores of the twenty-first century old and new monied snobs of Fox Glen. I thought that Carley, dismissed by just about every adult around her as being without substance or passion or...brains (like her parents) would turn out to be a girl of rich depth who was comically and tragically misunderstood by all the high-society dopes around her.

Instead, this is a book about teen angst; the inability to overcome addictions to unrequited love, alcohol and Vicodin; petty and elaborate meanness cloaked by what passes for caring in this cast of unlikable characters and no one -- no one at all -- having any true kindness or compassion or understanding of the human condition, all showcased in an overwritten, self-indulgent style that the author's editor should not have let her get away with.

There is little character development. There is even less character growth, unless you want to count Carley's suddenly skipping over four years and becoming a whole new her in the last four pages of the book. The plot is so weighed down by the author's need to turn this mess into something as nihilistic and pretentious as F. Scott Fitzgerald at his boozy worst that you'll feel like you're struggling through Gretchen's monkey puzzle, or maybe the muddy shallows of the Sound.

So! If you're a person who likes reading about the drunken excesses of rich kids, one-dimensional characters, meta-fiction, deconstructionism, suicide and the ugly manipulations of supposed "friends" who "love" each other, "How to Buy a Love of Reading" is your book.

Just keep it away from any young people you know. This is a soulless and ugly book and it will teach them nothing.

Carley Wells, a sweet, aimless, overweight teenager who has never met a book she liked, is best friends with and head over heels for Hunter Cay, the handsome writer wannabe with a penchant for inebriated truth telling and F. Scott Fitzgerald quotes. These overly pampered kids live in the world of the upper class where style rules over substance and wealth is too often mistaken for class. When Carley's new money parents discover that she is in danger of flunking a class, thus jeopardizing her entry into the Ivy League, they buy her an author.

Bree McEnroy is the starving writer contracted to move into the mansion and write a story for Carley that will make her love reading. But her own career is tangled up in her unresolved feelings of inadequacy and conflicted emotions for Rock Star Leighton, an over-the-moon wealthy writer she met in college. And thrown in for good measure are the stereotypically oblivious wealthy people who think poverty is quaint and that partying is the only way to pass the time. People drink a lot, cheat on their spouses, spend money without a care, and strive to outdo the last party/charity event/dinner. Angst and existential musings abound, and some of the characters find some sort of resolution to some of their issues.

Carley seems to be getting it when she realizes about 2/3 of the way into the book:

"For just a moment she could understand why you'd get hooked on words if they did what you wanted. It was a head rush better than getting drunk or high. It was like driving."

The end.

I got this book in mid-March, and it took me nearly 3 months to finish it. I already have a love of reading, but this book really tried my patience. The first 100 pages were some of the most difficult that I have ever forced myself to read. Fortunately, the story and the characters finally picked up, and I was actually starting to enjoy reading this book, when it took another wrong turn in the last quarter or so. I found little to like about most of the characters (perhaps the author was pointing out that people can be unlikeable whether they are rich or poor?). It was sort of like reading a teen love story slash social satire with heaping helpings of a thesaurus thrown in for good measure.

Gibson has a flair for the dramatic and is adept at word play. There are elements of this novel that I appreciated, namely that it does not "talk down" to its readers. And yet, it's missing - for lack of a better word - heart. The characters are so flat that it was difficult to feel connected to any of the emotionally trying things they were experiencing. Ultimately, I didn't really care what happened to any of them and felt like I had finished a grueling marathon when I read the final word.

The cover and synopsis of this books are slightly misleading. Although this sounds like a book about somehow teaching their child to love to enjoy reading, it really is not about that at all...although maybe that is the final outcome of the novel. But certainly not the point.

This book seems to be about adults and children with too much money and time behaving terribly. Set on the Long island "Gold Coast", the families in this novel all seem to be self absorbed and ill mannered boors who cannot seem to rise above the sophomoric level of frat boys and Paris Hilton and her posse at a party school. Their is no real meaning behind anything they seem to strive for.

The Wells family want to "elevate" their daughter Carly's education so they "buy" her (literally )an author in an attempt to give her an interest in passionate to put on her assuredly Ivy League applications. But Carley could not be a bigger disappointment to her mother--she is "too fat" and not bright and sparkly in the way her mother wants her to be. In other words, she is not fake enough.

While Carley seems to be the "main character" (and their is much talk of literary devices and SAT words), her oldest friend in Fox Glen seems to be the real protagonist in the story. Hunter's conversation and chapters are interlaced with Gatsby allusions and quotes, carrying the Fitzgerald novel in his pocket along with a journal, he is the good looking but sickly, wildly popular but sensitive boy who becomes Carley's best friend. She is clearly in love with him, as is the rest of the world, but he cannot return her afffections. And despite his young age, he is a pill popping drug addict and drunk. Still and all, he is truly one of the more likable characters in the book.

So, without giving too much away, the families plan their parties and childrens' lives and their business and political coups and their affairs as well. All of this is done in the ugliest ways possible, reducing the whole of Fox Glen to a town of selfish, whiny, spoiled brats, adults and children alike. Francis and Gretchen Wells, parents to aforementioned Carley contract out a published writer to help Carley "write' a book, culminating in Carley's Sweet Sixteen party.

I'm not sure how to describe this book. The writing is so odd, the characters so(generally) unlikeable, the story somewhat difficult to follow, it really is hard to recommend it. I see the kernel of many great ideas, the author just lost me too many times. I found myself glad when the book ended.

***
This novel is about the world of the wealthy and their children, parents who pay for everything, including trying to instill a love for reading in their daughter. It is a great premise for a novel that unfortunately, only mildly succeeds. The book has moments that are funny and witty. I enjoyed certain parts of the novel that were honest and raw.

Overall though, the overly long sentences, obscure references, and plot digressions made it a tedious read for me. Very, very tedious. The main character is in a really dysfunctional relationship that also wore me out. I was tempted to not finish it, but kept waiting for it to get better; unfortunately, it never did.

Wish I could recommend this, but I can't.
***