Customer Reviews

Losing It

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I gulped this book down in two midnight sessions, to the detriment of my productivity the next days.

Why was I so fascinated by it, and why could I not stop reading it? I think it was the author's probing into the minds of these apparently normal (well, except the mother) people who were all, in their own ways, totally losing it.

The descriptions of the mother, who has advanced Alzheimers, were brilliantly done, but I guess I have to admit they got a bit old as time went on. Mania can be pretty boring. But there weren't so many of those anyway.

Bob was brilliantly funny. We all have our secret fantasies, and it was nice to be plunged into the weirdness of someone else's. The trouble it got him into was delicious. Somehow the author made us just hold onto liking him enough to keep reading. I was actually pleased that he made it up with his wife in the end in spite of the fact that he's a lecherous old professor.

The impossible stress of a 2-year old ("nubbies!") and a senile mum in the same house was wonderful - hilarious and heart-rending.

Brave of the author too to take on the mind of a beautiful, sexy, but somewhat sick Asian-American college student. At her best she was fabulous - I loved the poetry. Not so convinced by her second thoughts after Bob got exposed on the internet in his red leather miniskirt (great scenes!).

The plot was probably a bit lame when I think about it, but the structure of the book leads you on without having to think too much.

Alan, I'm going to look for more by you. Thanks for the thoughtful and sometimes moving entertainment.

I don't know what to add to that. If you like Augusten Burroughs, David Sedaris, or A Confederacy of Dunces - you'll love this book. It's shockingly funny and good and I needed more at the end. Stunning!!!!!

Bob is an English Professor who divorced to marry his student, Julia. They have a 2 year old now and Julia is preoccupied with the child as well as her own mother, suffering from dementia. Robert is captivated by Sienna Chu, another student who is secretly researching cross-dressing and lures Robert into telling her that he has this fetish. Havoc ensues, with the mom missing, Bob caught on a website in full drag, the house burning down and a high school friend of Julia's showing up as the plumber with a thing for Julia. Bob must confess his fetish or risk losing his family, yet has to hide or risk losing his career.

I didn't expect the numerous plot twists, but the author would be a handful for Freud. He is obsessed with breast feeding and the whole Julia and son "nubbies" thing is distracting and useless to the story. All you get out of the book is the sense that if you don't conform to the societal norma, your world will come crashing down as punishment. Sienna's overdose doesn't make sense either - did her jealous girlfriend Ricky cause it? And why does Julia stay in the end? And, what happened to Donny?

I HATED this. I'll give it 2 stars because the writing. .the style, the characters, were all very good. The STORY and the lack of narrative arc were soul crushingly bad. Main characters include Bob, a middle aged English professor, Julia, his substantially younger wife (former student)who is a slave to her demanding toddler, Julia's mother who is addled with Alzheimer's, Sienna, a current student with whom Bob is infatuated, and Donny, a former classmate of Julia's, now home repairman.

The chapters switch in focus from character to character, each written in a style that helps further explain their identity. Unfortunately, this intelligent writing doesn't make up for the fact that the story is AWFUL. It is PAINFUL to experience Julia's paralyzing frustration with her mother's declining mental state. Tragic things happen to most of these people. Donny, who has several chapters devoted to him, ends up serving almost no purpose at all.

The jacket description refers to this book as "tantalizingly erotic", with and "irresistible blend of darkness and humor." It WAS dark, but not darkly funny. And not sexy. I can't imagine what the other reviewers found so amusing in this book.

In the end, there is no resolution. In fact, it feels like the book just ENDS with no closing, as if the last few chapters had gone missing. I fully expected to give this book 3 stars, on the strength of the writing, up until the last page when I realized there would be no resolution.

I absolutely LOVED this book. The descriptions of when poor Bob got in trouble were wonderful. Mr. Cumyn writes beautifully. Can't wait for his next book.

This is a novel about an English professor whose efforts to pursue his sexual longings cause mayhem in his life, and whose efforts to cover up his activities cause him to spend a lot of time in various bathrooms engaged in clean-up operations. Told from the rotating perspectives of five different characters, the novel's first couple pages seem incomprehensible because they come from the prof's demented elderly mother-in-law, but don't let that scare you off--by her next narrative turn, you will understand everything, and the view from inside the brain of an Alzheimer's sufferer whose connection to reality actually declines within the course of the book is very well executed.
The other perspectives: the professor's young wife struggling with the round-the-clock demands of a toddler and her ailing mother, the handyman exploring new-age religion and harboring a secret crush on the wife, a gorgeous undergraduate with malevolent intentions and of course the professor himself.

I was very surprised not to see any customer reviews so far. This book deserves more attention than it's getting.