7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sweet and charming, August 2, 2005
Man Camp is the story of two women who, instead of trying to make men soften up, try to make men become more masculine. When this story opens, Martha is single, and Lucy is in a two-year relationship with Adam, a great guy adide from the fact that, on a camping trip, he has no idea how to build a fire, and he's terrified of the woods.
Frustrated by men of this calibre, Martha sets up First Date, a service in which she meets men to find out what they want from their dating experience and how she can help them better their chances of getting the Second Date. In this delightful story, Adrienne Brodeur brings out the best and worst in both men and women.
Lucy's friend from college, Cooper, is a Southern boy who grew up on a dairy farm. On a visit to New York, he and Martha meet- with predictable consequences. Together, the three of them start Man Camp, a week-long program in which men from the FirstDate program go and live on the farm to get more masculine. There's a host of interesting characters: the boring historian Simon; Kurt, the guy who thinks that every woman should be falling all over herself to date him; Bryce, the Metrosexual; Wallace, the overweight NBC producer; Jesse, Martha brother; and Adam, Lucy's boyfriend. Adam is invited- though not told he'll be a "camper"- to join everyone on this excursion.
Predictably and somewhat unrealistically, Cooper runs into trouble on the farm, and in an act of solidarity the campers jump in to help save the day. Predictably, this book runs into the old "everything will be OK" format that many books get caught up in; but still this does not ruin the premise or the rest of the plot. In all, this a is a very charming book, and its a quick read that will have you turning pages quickly.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Way, WAY too much info on farm animals in this one, November 18, 2005
Kind of corny and predictable, but I've read worse. Redeeming qualities are what the reader (hopefully) comes to realize - that what men lack in one area they make up for in another. The odd part is, this is not spelled out in the novel, but everything else youu could imagine predictably is. If you are going to be obvious about everything, at least be obvious about something as important as that! And it is an important lesson that sometimes gets buried in all of our frustrations with men.
One thing I could most certainly do without and that has NO place in this type of novel is the detailed and in depth desciptions of milking and inseminating a cow. That's better left to a non-fiction book titled "Milking and Inseminating a Cow" than a fiction book called "Man Camp."
Props to the author for mentioning Ulster County, NY in this novel.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fast and Funny: If You Liked 'Hitch' You'll Like This, August 22, 2005
I'm a guy and I loved this book. There are lots of funny scenes in the story, and it was a lot of fun to picture which of my friends most resembled which of the guys who needed to go to Man Camp. The premise, that men have forgotten how to be REAL MEN, is true to a degree, and was just believable enough to keep the book from being too ridiculous.
In any case, at 212 pages the book is a perfect length for what it is. My wife is now enjoying it, and will undoubtedly pass it on to some of her friends.
This book makes a good companion for the movie "Hitch" and covers a lot of the same ground.
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