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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
My Present Age Review,
By A Customer
This review is from: My present age: A novel (Unbound)
This multiple award winning, unforgettable, Canadian novel is a fictional story about one man's downward sloped life. Ed, a unwealthy yet educated school teacher in his late 30's, had hopes of persuing a virtuous life living with his wife Victoria while seeking employment in the writing business. However, after a short marriage, the wedded couple separated. This seems to a milestone in Ed's life as he now spends countless hours trying to track down his ex-wife, whom is bearing his only child.He resides directly above an elderly and irritating individual named Mr. McMurtry that seems to devote his entire retired life to pestering Ed. It appears that he will not halt until Ed has lost all mental health from listening to numberless hours of his poor choice in music or has been kicked out of the apartment complex all together. Nevertheless, Ed continues his search for Victoria. Risking his flourishing profession, friends, and both mental and physical health to re-unite himself with what he feels is his only achievement in life, Victoria. This novel is a surprising dark, yet amusing drama written in first person. The use of a complex mixture of both brief and elaborate sentances strongly describes the setting and mood of every scene. The use of setting well defines Ed's true living style and previous life experiences as the author explains in extreme detail everything from room odors, to what Ed is wearing on his feet. This truly helps to define each environment that Ed is placed in, and only adds detail that helps us be transposed into Ed's environment. A development of a theme is well exemplified when Ed is in perusal of Victoria. He starts out by calling all close relatives in hopes that they may lead him in the direction of his dreams. However, due to previous mishaps, nobody wants to assist him, and keep all information from him. This only adds to Ed's slowly declining downfall. He is then found roaming the streets in his damaged, loud, out of style, yellow, Italian vehicle. This development of theme only increases thorough the novel. The author uses the same techniques in many points in the book as we learn about the life of Ed. There are few situations where neither humor nor irony is greatly used in the novel. In some most instances, the novel takes on a serious tone, as Ed goes from one crisis to another. However, in some instances the author incorporates humor, such as when Ed seeks help from his intelligent friend Benny. Ed rudely interrupt's a business meeting and pretends to mishear Benny when asked to leave, as an invitation to sit down. Ed continues the escapade for several minutes until Benny can take no more nonsense and escorts Ed to the door with no more that a few words of wisdom. I feel that a notably strong point in this novel is it's remarkable description in detail. The author soundly sets the scenes with numberless amounts of fine points. This however does not seem to bore the tone of the novel, as each itemized account is required for true understanding, and interruption of the novel. Despite all this detail, it only applies to scenery. I felt that character development was poor, as only Ed, the main character, can truly be analyzed due to lack of detail in sub characters. For example, we hear little about Victoria, Benny, Max, nor Mr. McMurtry, as more focus is on Ed himself. Despite this however, I feel My Present Age was an excellent novel, a great story, and something I hope to remember.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
a novel about losing your way in life,
By "anonymous1979" (Edmonton, Alberta Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: My Present Age (Paperback)
This book takes the characters and themes of the last two stories in Man Descending (a collection of short stories by Vanderhaeghe) and expands them into a full length novel. As his protagonist pursues an obsessive and hopeless quest to reunite with his ex wife, Vanderhaeghe explores the themes of disquiet, losing your way in modern society and a life that peaks too early. The uniqueness of My Present Age is that it features a character who should, by all means, be a very successful member of society and yet is living a life that is slowly deteriorating out of control. It is an often overlooked character type, unknown to those who assume that intelligence engenders success. Vanderhaeghe uses a straightforward, yet elegent, writing style to show that it is easy to lose your way in the modern world if you have never truly learned how to live in it. A good balance is struck between examining where individuals fail and where the sometimes ludicrously absurd nature of our society fails.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting reading,
By Lola Brown (Los Angeles CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: My Present Age (Hardcover)
This is my first exposure to any work by this author.I found the humor quite irresistible and laughed out loud more than once. Ed is quite the character: he's a slob and an underachiever and wallows in self-pity constantly yet you can't help admiring him for his loyalty to his wife, even after she leaves him. He truly loves her. I thoroughly enjoyed the dialogue but wish there was not so much swearing, totally unnecessary and off-putting. Plus a happy ending would have made it a masterpiece. (Please look away now if you have not read the book.) What if Ed and his wife had reconciled and he had shaped up and taken care of her until she was back on her feet? With all three of them (his wife is pregnant) living together in contentment? Things like that can happen, you know, and it would have make this book a real winner. Ed deserved to win. That is how I will think of the ending in my own mind. Finally: was the baby Ed's? I got the impression it was Anthony's? (How do you know?) Did Ed end up in an asylum? Who was the black guy who came in at the end, another fantasy/hallucination or was it a hospital attendant? I think I will read more of Guy Vanderhaeghe's work.
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