Customer Reviews

A Monk Jumped Over a Wall

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4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
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I love a Monk Jumped Over A Wall! It's very easy to read, laugh out loud funny and captured my attention from the first page. The main character J.J. Spencer feels like an old friend.

I have finally found a great book. I am not one to write reviews, but anything this good deserves some of my time. Jay Nussbaum has sculpted the perfect blend of humor and philosophy which actually can change my perspective on any given, overworked day. This book is one of those rare books which I can actually relate too on numerous levels. The characters are SO REAL, that when the novel was done, I felt like I was saying goodbye to a friend that I just wanted to know more and more about! I can't believe that other "great authors with their great literary works" get airtime, when their novels can't even shine the shoes of "The Monk".
I am getting copies of this for several of my friends for Christmas.

A second home run for Mr. Nussbaum. After reading "Blue Road to Atlantis", I couldn't wait for another Nussbaum creation. Though it seemed like forever, "A Monk Jumped Over a Wall" was definitely worth the wait. It is brilliant, funny, and heartwarming. Filled with great life lessons, there is something in there everybody can relate to. This is by far the best book I have read in a long time. A must read. I hope I don't have to wait too long for Mr. Nussbaum's next Novel.

I really loved this book, and thought it was a very fast read! I especially enjoyed the law school years, but the present day story was so well intertwined the past that I felt like I got two great stories for the price of one. I really hope there is a sequal because I need to know more about these great characters.

I didn't know what to expect from this book. I thought the premise was interesting. Kind of Erin Brockovich from a male perspective. I must admit the title and cover threw me off a bit. But this is one of those books that was a very pleasant surprise. I thought I'd LIKE it but I ended up LOVING it. Isn't it nice when that happens?

A Monk Jumped Over a Wall is a good, solid story. Character development, plot pacing, writing style - it was all absolutely perfect. It was a pleasure to lose myself in the story of how J.J. Spencer got a little closer to figuring out what he was supposed to do with his life.

J.J. is a complex, very likable character. He's smart, quirky, and funny in a dry, sarcastic way. He's always been a bit ill-at-ease in the 'hungry young lawyer' role. Everything comes to a head when he is assigned to represent the investor who has purchased a package of home mortgages for 50-some cents on the dollar, and expects to foreclose on them. J.J. ends up sympathizing with the underdogs - especially financially strapped homeowners Jared and Emily Eagan. When he tries to help them by offering a little discreet legal advice, he gets fired for breaching attorney-client confidentiality and comes alarmingly close to being disbarred.

Thus begins a journey that takes the reader back and forth between past and present as Nussbaum explores J.J.'s past, focusing on his time in law school at Boston University and how it and the people in it relate to his current struggle to make sense of the mess his life has become.

The supporting characters in this story were fantastic. Ira, the fellow attorney who put his career on the line to represent J.J. in the disbarment proceedings. Law school buddy Ed, who graduated first in their class, but is crazy and irreverant, all the while unfailingly loyal to J.J. Josie, the law school professor who went from humiliating J.J. in class to becoming his mentor and best friend. And kind, sweet, hippie Amy, J.J.'s sometimes-platonic-sometimes-not friend from his undergrad days who I so wanted him to end up with. The only downside in terms of character development were the Eagans, whose naivety was a little unbelievable at times.

If, like me, you're wondering where the title came from, it is the name of a complex, labor-intensive Chinese soup full of rare and expensive ingredients that Josie, J.J.'s professor and friend, ordered at lunch one day. Apparently is it so named because an ancient Buddhist monk once leaped over his monastery wall to follow the aroma of the soup cooking, leaving behind the safety of monastic life forever in favor of the promise contained in that enticing smell. Which, it turns out, is an allegory for J.J. Spencer's life.

Jay Nussbaum has written another engaging novel. This one enters the Grisham-world of lawyers; happily, since Nussbaum, like Grisham, was once a successful practicing attorney, his creation of this world is authentic and believable. Nussbaum's story presents a different kind of intrigue than Grisham's books, however--not as harrowing or edge-of-your-seat in its pace and focus, but ultimately more memorable because Nussbaum explores the mystery of the human heart and its desires not just for short-term gratification but for long-term meaning and purpose. His main character's journey is unique and complex, but it is also something to which all readers can relate because deep down, we all want lives of genuine meaning and authenticity, too.

Every so often I read a novel that is not just a quick read, but also more of an "experience." It has a plot that draws me in, characters to whom I can relate, a dialogue intersperse with clever comebacks that have me laughing out loud and that, at the end, has me contemplating my own life. This was my "experience" of reading the recent Jay Nussbaum novel, A Monk Jumped Over a Wall. The novel tells the story of J.J. Spencer a young attorney who is trying to find his place in life. For a while the author tells you two alternating stories. The first set in Boston, is of J.J., the law student, at Boston University and his relationships with classmates, young women, family, a professor and the sport of karate. While appearing to have a plan for his life, in reality he finds himself being led by circumstances and wondering where his path in life is really leading him. The second, set in New York City, is J.J. the new attorney for a large high-powered law firm and the set of circumstances and choices that threaten to have his life spiraling out of control. For a while, you alternate effortlessly between these two separate stories until eventually you begin to join the threads and understand the conflicts that are presented to the older, but not necessarily wiser, J.J.

The title and cover of the book is what first attracted me. Having been interested in Zen and Eastern philosophy I was intrigued by the mental image of a monk jumping over a wall and the visual image of a scale of justice weighted on one side by a male executing a karate kick. The title comes from a Chinese metaphor about a monk who upon smelling the most enticing aroma of Chinese soup floating into his monastery feels compelled change the course of his life by jumping over the monastery wall in search of it. This becomes J.J.'s dilemma. How does he know he is on the wrong path? How does he find his true course and in the process discover himself. The signposts in his life are the circumstances in which he finds himself and the people he encounters. This is about more than finding the right career, but more about your life's purpose.

Each of the characters in the story seems to be on this quest and as a voyeur reader, I observed the choices made and found myself applying the rationale to my own life, seeing similarities and understanding the struggle and the traps.

After finishing the novel, my first action was to locate the author's website and see from his biography that he writes what he knows. I was also pleased to see that he has a first novel, "Blue Road to Atlantis," that I look forward to reading.

If you enjoy a past-faced story, writing that is crisp, and an author who is able to use wisecracking humor effectively, this book will engage you. If you enjoy stories that ask you to look at your choices in life and question some of your decisions, this story will challenge you.

Jay Nussbaum is a great writer. His unique, intelligent and witty take on life is a gift and a pleasure. His books stand head and shoulders above the "paint by numbers" masses that crowd the average bookstore shelves. Jay gives the readers something to chew on that won't rot his teeth. He entertains, he teaches and he hooks the reader as gently but as surely as a finely trained, well-intentioned conjurer. "The Blue Road to Atlantis" and "A Monk Jumped Over a Wall" should top any reader's to-buy list. They are both winners.

I liked this book. It was readable and entertaining and kept my interest to the end. The story involves a young lawyer unhappy with his corporate law existence, with flashbacks into his life as a law student. The author intertwines the protagonist's study of karate into his search for a more integrated life. The only part that made me uncomfortable was the young lawyer's breach of legal ethics as part of an attempt to do a greater good--as a lawyer, this bothered me. However for most, this probably won't be a problem. All in all, an excellent effort.

I had come to this book with a bit of trepidation, inasmuch as I am neither an attorney nor particularly well-versed in taoist philosophy. But Nussbaum does something so unusual in A Monk Jumped Over a Wall, in that he disavows the cliche that a novel designed to inspire introspection cannot also be a fast, funny read. A Monk Jumps Over a Wall is about a young attorney facing a crisis of conscience, but the fact that the protagonist happens to be an attorney is mere happenstance--this book speaks with equal resonance to anyone facing a life she never intended and seeking a way out. It is at once deeply thought-provoking and side-splittingly funny. Of all things, what Nussbaum has achieved here reminds me of Eric Clapton, who managed to render his song, "Laila" it two totally different ways and produced a hit both times. Nussbaum has, with A Monk Jumped Over a Wall, managed to extend the philosophical exploration of his debut novel, Blue Road to Atlantis (one of the true undiscovered masterpieces of 21st century American literature) in an entirely different context, with equally profound results. I highly recommend this book. It's the best thing I've read in years.