Customer Reviews

Lifers

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I read this book in a weekend, it was so fun to read. I felt like I'd met people just like the characters, and really appreciated the whole story. I've felt the same things these characters have felt. Mr. Somers has written an entertaining book that I'm loaning to a friend of mine, which I don't often do. I loved the narrator, Dub - his attitude was very funny! Definitely a recommended read.

This book didn't so much wow me with it's plot as put me completely in the narrator's head. I usually don't like books that are more about the characters than the plot, but Somers was able to make me really care about the characters. The quiet desperation of three guys doing their one time crime and trying to redefine themselves in that act felt true. The characters are incredibly realistic, to the point that you can't completely like them, as their faults are too apparent, but instead simply empathize with them, as their actions and emotions are everyday ones.

It's hard to believe that this is the same author who wrote The Electric Church. Just as good, but for very different reasons.

Three of the most fortunate people the world has ever known - healthy young white American males with Manhattan jobs and apartments- who feel bored and discontented. This can certainly happen but needs more comment than the author gives it. The only reasons for their despair are that they don't like their jobs (one of them loses his job but finds temporary work) and would like more money and are frustrated writers. I wanted to understand more. They party and drink and plan a not-very-major crime (stealing some office furniture). There are some good confrontations (with the professional criminals they ask to help) and funny episodes. (For example: They realize that the truck they are going to use has a standard shift and none of them knows how to use it. They have ask a girl-friend to give them emergency driving instruction). The whole thing read like an amusing half hour television sitcom. Good entertainment but not much more than that. I felt there was more important novel in there trying to get out.