Customer Reviews

Number 6 Fumbles

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

If you are an alumnus(a) of the University of Pennsylvania like I am, reading Number 6 Fumbles would probably be worth your while. The mentions of places like the Palladium, Murph's or Uni-Mart (which are both now out of business), or even the legendary bar "Smoke's", will bring back fond memories of one's college days at Penn. That is often the desired effect of attending Alumni Day and running into your old classmates. (Incidentally, the author, Rachel Solar-Tuttle reportedly was due to attend Alumni Day this past May for her own ten-year reunion. I wonder how much reminiscing was done.) However, it is uncertain if any other readers, who wouldn't get the inside jokes, would get much else out of the story.

The novel reads like a college-aged version of Sex and the City: tales of the romantic exploits of Rebecca "Beck" Lowe and her friends, as they hop from bar to bar and parties attended by all of the hip people. Despite having made a number of new male acquaintances, there is one guy who remains elusive. Freshman Ryan Weiss is Mr. Big as Beck's Carrie Bradshaw: a tall, good-looking guy who knows how to party but is noncommital and emotionally unavailable. Even the final major scene with Ryan...reads...like a Carrie Bradshaw revenge fantasy...The novel succeeds in giving the reader a voyeuristic view into the lives of these people.

The error by the Penn football player, for which the book is named, is supposed to propel Beck into a pseudo-depression and serves as a catalyst for her "soul-searching" journey. The reader is being asked to suspend some disbelief in order to accept this premise. It doesn't work; the Number 6 subplot seems tacked on in order to give the novel a false sense of legitimacy.

Bottom line: if you are looking for a light and somewhat trashy read, Number 6 Fumbles might be for you- to read on the bus/train ride on your way back to Penn for Alumni Day or Homecoming.

1. You enjoyed Catcher in the Rye (please, PLEASE tell me you've read it, it's incredible) I read them pretty much in succession accidentally, but both of the characters are similiar in ways. The author uses the same stream of conscience technique, or whatever it's called.

2. You're not looking for a "light, fluffy" read. It's not dark and scary, but certainly not light or fluffy.

3. You want to read an excellent book.

4. Aged 15-21, give or take a couple years.

I have never read a book that I have identified with more. Beck feels the same emotions I feel, while doing in a setting I know well. The author does an amazing job of getting into Beck's head and letting the reader know exactly what she is thinking. Her friends all add depth to the central theme and I enjoy how she handles herself in all of her situations. One of the best books I have ever read, I wish the author would continue other books with the same main character- I would be interested in finding out how the remainder of Beck's college career finishes. I recommend this book to anyone who has ever doubted themselves or continues to find bits of themselves in unexpected places.

Rebecca "Back" Lowe. Perfectionist. College Student. Party Girl. Heavy Drinker. Beck knows she doesn't have a perfect life but she has a lot of fun. As a Sophomore in U-Penn Beck goes to all the frat parties, and has visited all of the bars in town with the help of her fake ID. Her grades are near perfect because of her amazing ability to write amazing papers under maximum pressure. But everything changes the day she sees Number 6, a college football player, fumble the ball at a football game. Her life is suddenly different. She's questioning everything that she knows and does. Nothing makes sense anymore, the guys she flirts with, the bars she drinks at, her friends... Beck knows she needs to get her life back together but she doesn't know how.

Number 6 fumbles is an entertaining and honest book about college life. But it's not perfect. The main characters are very real but everyone else seems to be flimsy, more like extras in a movie than real characters. The plot is flimsy and although interesting at times at other it seems like the author wants to see how much she can shock us. There isn't even a real ending. The plot isn't really resolved and the characters just go on with their lives. In some books that would work but it this one it seems kind of abrupt. I would recommend this book to some people but not necessarily to people that are looking for a piece of fiction that's moving or meaningful. In the past MTV has put out many books that I would recommend over this such as The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Still this book is decent and if you accept it for what it is, you'll probably enjoy it.

With all of the reality shows on TV, we have multiple opportunities to look into other people's lives - or rather, people's lives as they imagine them to be. In Number 6 Fumbles, the author offers us a gritty, realistic picture of one person's experience of undergrad life. The more I talk to friends about their undergrad experiences, the more universal I discover some of our experinces to be. In this book, a number of those incidents are realistically portrayed. (Even the ones, which to this day, make us cringe).

This book is a great read for those about to enter college or those in college as it captures the essence of what undergrad life is sometimes like.

This could easily be the worst book I've ever read. On the plus side, it only took an hour to finish. On the minus side, it's dreadful. The one interesting thing about it was the alarming thought that it honestly reflected what goes on in the minds of women at Penn. That, and the gratuitous mentions of a lot of campus and Philly spots, though the description of most of them is so poor that only because I've been there was I able to picture them at all. Besides, it's one thing to set a scene somewhere for a reason, it's another to name-drop a place just because.

Worth reading if you went to Penn, but otherwise skip it. The plot is confused and incoherent. It's hard to tell what's going on with the narrator's alleged nervous breakdown, because it's not at all clear how her behavior post-breakdown differs from her behavior pre-breakdown. In a disconcertingly un-feminist stroke, the other female characters are nearly indistinguishable from each other -- but then again, the only thing distinguishing the male characters is their age.

The book did manage to capture a certain vapidity that pervades most of the Penn social scene, though, and for that alone, it was fairly valuable. For the most part, however, "Number Six Fumbles" made me pretty glad I'm not a Penn undergraduate any more.

It's a delicious little pleasure. I actually felt like I was back at college, but this time walking around in a woman's shoes (wouldn't that be a sight?). Solar-Tuttle captured the experience perfectly. I got sucked right back into that little world instantly every time I opened the book and started reading. I also was struck by how different the male and female college experience is. We guys back then really did have a "whatever"
mentality, and it was so interesting to see how women would analyze and try to figure out the meaning behind things that, most times, had no meaning. Bottom line is it was a book that doesn't just immerse you in Beck's world, it punches you in the nose backwards into the deep-end of her pool.

i haven't gotten this into reading a book since the perks of being a wallflower. honest.

This book is a shrine to all that is worth celebrating about those bittersweet college years. As Beck Lowe takes her first fumbling steps toward self discovery, she provides a poignant glimpse of young adulthood through the eyes of an overachiever. She takes the reader on a campus crawl, in search of herself--or better yet, "a plan"--depicting sexual escapades, confict-ridden parental relations and even modern art through that narrow, self-centered lens of a 19-year-old soon-to-be woman. When she tries to widen out the focus--to incorporate the bum in the food court, the battered girlfriend and even Mohammed Ali--the effects are dizzying. Rachel Solar-Tuttle's desccriptions of college life ring true (sometimes with haunting familiarity), and the "soundtrack" moves the novel along at a comfortable pace. An enjoyable read from start to finish and I look forward to more form Rachel Solar-Tuttle in the years to come.

For anyone who is nostalgic about their college days, Number Six Fumbles is a great trip down memory lane. It will also be a real treat for current college students and those on the way. Fumbles' main character, Rebecca Lowe, is a sophomore at The University of Pennsylvania. She is fun. She is relaxed. And, during the few days the reader spends with her, she is a little scared of what her future might hold. As such, she is a heroine to whom many readers will be able to easily relate. While describing the uncertainty that many college students face, through very well-described scenes, this book brings rushing back memories of great friendships, fun parties, scrambles to get to class, and many other events unique to college. It is a truly fun and worthwhile read. With this strong debut, let's hope to hear more from author Solar-Tuttle.