The Men's Club: An Expanded Edition [Paperback]

Leonard Michaels (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2000

Seven men, friends and strangers, gather in a house in Berkeley. They intend to start a men’s club, the purpose of which isn’t immediately clear to any of them; but very quickly they discover a powerful and passionate desire to talk. First published in 1981, The Men’s Club is a scathing, pitying, absurdly dark and funny novel about manhood in the age of therapy. “The climax is fitting, horrific, and wonderfully droll” (The New York Times Book Review).

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Leonard Michaels (1933–2003) was the author of five collections of stories and essays—Going Places, I Would Have Saved Them If I Could, Shuffle, A Girl with a Monkey, and To Feel These Things—as well as two novels, Sylvia and The Men’s Club. All of his fiction will be reissued as FSG Classics.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Mercury House; Exp Sub edition (June 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1562790390
• ISBN-13: 978-1562790394
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,664,461 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A truly funny novel that brings news from the gender wars, November 28, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Men's Club (Hardcover)

Seven men, some acquainted and some strangers, meet one night to begin a club. This won't be a working man's club named for a large four-legged mammal or a toney businessman's city athletics and dinner club; instead it's a club dreamt up by a psychotherapist, modeled on the women's consciousness raising groups of the 1970s. Without an agenda, the men immediately focus on one subject -- women. They tell stories of bafflement, need, love, abuse, and marriage. They listen and they argue. They eat and drink and smoke and fight and break things. Their stories are outrageous and they sound true. Most of all, these men pay serious attention to one another. Michaels's masterful prose brings each man to life with gestures and dialogue and unforgettable stories. This is a small novel, but it brings important news from the gender wars. Women should read it, because it is both amusing and horrifying. These are characters you can hate and love just as if you knew them. In fact, you do know them. They are your brother, father, son, husband, lover, or friend.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Evolution of Men's Club, May 2, 2001

By 

Murray Browne (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Men's Club: An Expanded Edition (Paperback)

Originally published in 1981, the Men's Club is set in the Bay Area during the late 70s. A psychologist named Kramer gathers a small group of men in their mid-to-late thirties together to discuss guy stuff. The club starts out, writes Michaels, "trying to recapture high-school days. Locker-room fun. Wet naked boys snapping towels at each other's genitals." There's some drinking and pot smoking before the men migrate into more dangerous territory-a refrigerator stocked full of food for tomorrow's luncheon - a woman's group hosted by Kramer's wife.

Mixed in with the bacchanalia are men talking about themselves. These aren't men talking about sports or power tools, but strange, sometimes sad, stories about their relationships with women - sometimes their wives -- who they've connected with, but are still trying to process. Michaels does a satisfying job tying up the story with a cohesive ending and the writing is terse and engaging.

Also, it's not an especially dated book, because men haven't evolved much in the last 20 years.

2.0 out of 5 stars Beware of books (or movies) with the word "Club" in the title., October 25, 2011

By 

Wobert (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Men's Club: A Novel (Paperback)

If you loved that Cassavettes movie Husbands, you may like this book though. In fact, I bet Michaels was a big fan of Cassavettes and that movie in particular. I thought that there was some good writing in this book, but it was too self-indulgent and kind of childish in attitude. I much preferred his earlier novel Sylvia. But I can see how The Men's Club was a huge influence on lots of macho writers who came later.