Customer Reviews

Nude Men: A Novel

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I read this book quite a few years ago and I LOVED this book. It has stuck out in my head forever. I lost my origional copy and couldnt find it ANYWHERE! And now I have. This book, unlike any others,is a book that I can read over and over and over again. I highly reccomend this book. This is a book you can lose yourself in and come out of with a totally different perspective on life and reality. I would thoroughly love to be able to correspond with the author as i find her utterly compelling her mind must be a vast land of stories and humor. READ THIS BOOK!

This was one title that was a joy to ask bookstore clerks for: "Do you have Nude Men?" I'm reminded of the Monty Python skit where the customer keeps asking for books by Charles Dickens--the one with two "k"s. The looks that the clerks give you at such a question is priceless.

Terrorizing bookstore clerks aside, Nude Men is worthy of attention for all that lies within its covers as well. I first heard about this book by following a thread on rec.arts.books about novels of humor. (This is a reoccurring thread on r.a.b that you can bet on to pop up at least once a year.) The classics (Wodehouse, Jerome K. Jerome, Twain) always get mentioned, but I follow the thread for those one or two books that no one's ever heard of before. In this case, I was especially intrigued by the title and the poster's description of the plot as concerning a fellow who is seduced by an eleven-year-old girl. I thought, "If someone can make this funny, it's got to be good."

Good it is, although funny, it should be noted, is not the main thrust of this book. Yes, there's quite a bit of humor, unexpected and sometimes audacious, as in the seduction scene, but it is the characters--the self-absorbed main character, Jeremy Acidophilus; Lady Henrietta, the painter he thinks he is in love with; her daughter, the precocious nymphet; and his ultra-conservative girlfriend, Charlotte--and their interactions, sometimes funny, sometimes painful, and one whopper of a strange plot that continually surprises, that mark this book as different. It is, of course, a first novel. I say of course because only beginners challenge the status quo of acceptable practice and subjects quite as strongly as this. Even though Nabokov wrote a classic on the subject, this is one area that still is taboo, especially treated as anything other than sexual abuse. While I might find it hard to recommend this novel for its humor potential alone, as a work both strange and comical, it is daring and magical.

I really enjoyed this, it was recommended to me a few years back and I have since recommended to others. everyone has enjoyed it. But I've never met anyone who has heard of it independently. It's one of the few books that has made me laugh out loud. I hope her new book is as good. duncanreallyismyname@yahoo.com

I felt guilty and twisted for being so wrapped up in Nude Men. I found it at a thrift shop and picked it up solely based on the cover, and the name of course! And then to hear it's out of print... what a lucky find! The story is engulfing, the characters come to life with Amanda Filipacchi's comfortable writing style and there wasn't a single page that didn't make my jaw drop in complete disbelief. Throughout the book I was morbidly intrigued by the plot... as said before: Disturbing. Not a book for everyone, but I totally enjoyed it! I look forward to checking out other works by Filipacchi.

I read a Chapter One excerpt of this beguiling novel in an X-Generation writers anthology. From that point, I was hooked. I had to find this book! I was happily surprised when I finally did find this novel about 5 years ago - but greater still was this sense once I had begun to read it! This book is indeed made of the stuff that makes one laugh out loud, that moves one through all the emotions that a tragicomedy could promise....

This is a story in the life of one Jeremy Acidophilus - the tale as told by himself. He's "a man without many pleasures in life, a man whose few pleaures are small, but a man whose small pleasures are very important to him. One of them is eating. One reading. Another reading while eating." So the novel promises, and right from the beginning!

Jeremy is droning along serene-like in his somewhat pathetic existence as a fact-checker for a movie magazine - a career with prospect of infinite peonism, which I could immediately identify with at the time. He's also mosying along in his drab relationship with his "mushy-wooshy" girlfriend, Charlotte. When, all of a sudden, he meets Henrietta. She's an artist, and she recognizes odd & intriguing qualities beneath his bland facade, and so asks him to pose nude for her. This story then, becomes hopelessly, mischievously, and exquisitely twisted as any of the finest (and most controversial) works of art!

Those appalled by Nabakov's LOLITA should step wide and clear of this book, for it involves the extraordinary circumstance of seduction of a grown man by an 11-year-old girl. Yet this is excellent reading for those who have a wry sense of humour - a keen eye for caricature, wit, & ironic play in writing - and an appreciation for a unique and very clever literary voice. Read it and you'll find this wickedly smart novel delivering all that ~

I can't say enough about the beautiful imaginative writing in Nude Men. For a first time novel, the story is a page-turner. I found it to be brilliant, clever and wonderfully surreal. The characters are warm and sympathetic-especially the protagonist, Jeremy Acidopholus (yes, like the active yogurt culture). What more can I say? This book made me laugh out loud. Amanda Filapacchi is a writer gifted with the ability to paint a vivid world of intriguing characters and bizarre situations. I'm sad that this book is out of print.

Review updated 2/25/2007

I picked up Nude Men right after reading Vapor. I was enamored with Amanda Filipacchi and her surrealistic comedy and had to read everything she'd written. I was lucky to have found Nude Men at a bookstore because the book was out of print shortly after. It has been seven years since I first read this book and I still marvel at Filipacchi's dark humor, magic realism and philosophical insights whenever I reread this novel. This is the story of Jeremy Acidophilus, a twenty-nine-year-old loser with low self-esteem, a nagging girlfriend and a job at an entertainment magazine where he gets no respect. Amid his misery, he receives an interesting offer from a beautiful woman he meets at a diner: a painter of nude men, and she wants him to be her next subject. Jeremy thinks he's found the woman of his dreams, but it is Sarah, the woman's eleven-year-old daughter, who ends up seducing him.

The novel is both disturbing and endearing. Disturbing because the author and the interesting characters and world she creates push you beyond the level of your comfort zone. Filipacchi makes you think and see the logic in the illogical. But these things are also endearing because they are told with an irresistibly ironic tone that isn't lost on the reader. Whenever I read her books I feel like I'd like to sit down and have a chat with this author over coffee. She must be a very interesting person. Based on the synopsis, some people may think that this novel is similar to Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, but it is not, it is a story all its own. My favorite parts are the ones in Disney world -- with Jeremy's mother hitting on men and Sarah playing word games. I still laugh out loud after having read this book dozens of times. I also love the ending because it is so dark, ironic and disturbing that it leaves you thinking longer after you've done reading it. And even though some readers may find Jeremy's actions inconceivable or unacceptable, you still feel a great deal of sympathy for the character because the author does an amazing job with character study and mixing things up with keen humor. All in all, I adore Nude Men (no pun intended). This is a must read for those who enjoy comic surrealistic and thought provoking novels. I also recommend the other books by this author: Vapor and Love Creeps. Good luck finding Nude Men at an used bookstore though, or you can wait for a reprint. I still have the same copy I bought by chance seven years ago and I'm not letting go of it any time soon.

I found nude men by amanda filipacchi really interesting, funny and original, I just wanted to ask if anybody could tell me if there is a deeper symbolism to certain events that I might be missing. Is laura's unlikely death meant to mean something and if so what? I hope there are a lot of subtle messages that I haven't fully understood and that people might be able to help me find because it would make a funny/interesting book into a masterpiece if the book had deeper levels that I suspect it might. If people could post their interpretations of certain "surreal" events in the book I'm sure I would find it fascinating and appreciate it.

Nude Men is definitely one of the best books I've ever read. It is intriguing and delightful. The storyline goes much deeper than what it seems like at first. I especially loved Jeremy's character and the way he changed from an uptight, depressed man to what he is at the end of the book. The ending was fabulous...you don't expect it to come, but when it does you realize that it fits perfectly into the plot and there could not have been a better ending. I also loved the way that everything fit together...no character did not have an important part in the book. Each character contributed to the story and how everything happened a lot. I could not put this book down and I read it in one day...

Really a brilliantly funny and intelligent book