Customer Reviews

One of the Guys

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I just finished reading "One Of The Guys" and have to say that I thought it was smashing. The little blurb on the front of the book describes it as a "service comedy" and I've read several comments by people saying how hard they laughed. To be quite honest, I didn't think of it as a comedy at all and only laughed once near the end but when I did I howled. I did, however, think that this story was full of irony and biting wit and those are the qualities that made it such a wonderful reading experience for me. There was so much truth in the story: the truth of human nature, the sad truths about the things humans do to other humans and then excuse those actions by dehumanizing the ones whom they abuse and the hopeful truth that even though a human being hits bottom there is always the possibility that he/she can begin anew and become a different person. Not quite the way Miles did it but as a metaphor it was the perfect plotline. And, contrary to what some extremist organizations would have us believe, I think it is important that people know about the terrible and unforgiveable things that are visited upon people in countries as poor as those cited as sex ports in the story. The only way to rid ourselves of immoralities is to look at them straight on and say that this isn't right and it has to stop. To stick our collective heads in the sand and pretend that such things don't exist is not only cowardly but it debases us all.

I can understand why the Navy is upset by this book. It tells too much of a truth to be palatable to them. And to anyone who has ever had to deal with a 19 year old male, I say multiply that one young man by a ship's complement of 600 and try to imagine what you would get. I think, upon reflection, one would have to agree that you would get what is described in this book. To believe that the United States Military is what is portrayed in movies like Operation Petticoat is so naive as to be laughable. Perhaps in the real world things aren't quite as lax as described in this story but I would be willing to bet that Robert Young's account isn't too far off the mark.

If I had to characterize One Of The Guys in one sentence, I would say that it is the story of a man who has been lost for all of his life who, despite running away from what is left of his life and discarding his identity, finds in himself the man he always wanted to be. This is one great story.

Superb piece of modern American fiction, in the best traditions of the likes of early John Irving. The story suerbly develops the main (and subsidary) characters, and you really want to know what is going to happen at the end. It is both humourous, touching, bitter sweet, and yet has an edge and a newness to it, which makes it interesting

This is a most unusual novel. You've got Miles Derry, who begins the book cleaning up the glory-hole video booths at a porn shop. He's an ex-addict, ex-drunk, a father of one child out of wednlock he has never really gotten to know, and has spent his whole life feeling like he is just not "One of the Guys." Well, in one of said booths is a dead naval chaplain, who bears more than enough of a passing resemblance to Miles that Miles can assume his identity. Shipping out with the Navy as a Chaplain, Miles has what I can only call a somewhat surreal journey, which, regardless of a few bumps along the way, kept my interest throughout.

Despite some really foul language (even I was blushing at parts), and a few very tired stereotypes (gay priests yet again, anyone?), the book was very good, and I enjoyed it. It is cynical, and in places outright repulsive in the vivid prose used to describe what is going on about, around, and to our pseudo-chaplain. I also have no grasp at all on the US Navy and its workings, but imagine that Young's representations were extrapolated: driven to an extreme to really show the sides he wanted illustrated. I'm above the 49th parallel, though, so I found a lot of the Navy rules, regulations, and acronyms stupefying, making it much easier to walk this novel hand in hand with Miles.

I caution against reading this book too seriously. I laughed a lot, when I wasn't swallowing a wince or a queasy feeling, and even though I'm finished, I still can't decide how I feel about Miles. It's a thought-provoking book, if you can get past the coarseness and gore. I'd reccommend it, just beware the sea-sickness.

I was in the U.S. Navy for 22 years, stationed at Long Beach before I retired. I can say that this book is as accurate a representation of Navy life as I have ever seen. During my time in the Navy, I deployed to all of the places mentioned in this book, including Subic Bay (the Philippines) and Okinawa in Japan. This book is a realistic account of what went on historically in those places. Tho I also think that his book works on levels of symbolism too. Because what he's saying isn't true just about the Navy. It is true about life. Whenever you have an individual in an institution, there's a tension between that person's individuality and the needs and demands of the institution. It's unfortunate but usually the institution wins. I like this book because in this instance it's the main character who has the last laugh. I would highly reccommend this book to anybody. It is a great read just as a story, in addition to what it is trying to say about human society.

As a woman, my initial concern that One of the Guys might be too testosterone-driven for me to relate to have turned out to be completely exaggerated. I have been reading this book and am every bit as engaged in the final chapters as I was on page one. Marvelous. Truly marvelous. I am enjoying this reading experience on SO many levels, with none of the complaints I usually have about the bulk of fiction out there today. Young writes beautifully, but not pompously. The characters he has created are fleshed out and every bit as complex and challenging as people you might meet face-to-face. Moreover, he gives his characters an actual PLOT to function within, and provides them with intriguing moral and social challenges to grapple with. Too much of fiction leaves me with this hungry, unfulfilled feeling, wondering whether the time invested in reading the thing was really worth it. This book leaves me wanting for nothing. If Robert Clark Young's unpublished novels are anything approaching this caliber, it is a crime that it took this long for one of them to be published.

In what initially seems a downbeat first chapter we meet Miles, the 33 year-old protagonist, who's down. Down on life, down on his father, whose ever-diminishing expectations Miles fails faithfully to live up to, down on his luck. The only salutary note is his daughter, conceived out of wedlock, raised out of sight but not out of mind. Miles is the only living character we meet in this first chapter. A beginning Sartre or Camus would have loved.

And throughout the story (which has been fully detailed in past reviews) we witness the fleshing out of the hollow man - his character develops as he "grows into" the shoes of the dead chaplain he replaces. As his worries of being found out, of not knowing the drill, the acronyms and the Methodist Sunday service are gradually allayed, Miles comed to terms with the lunacy of what he's witnessing at first hand: seamen whose emotional growth is institutionally stunted yet who surge into town on 24-hour liberty passes like testosterone terminators.

The prose is as sparse and apposite as only someone who has (reportedly) received 600 rejections could make it. The author's "take" on every situation seems exemplary. Not one superfluous adjective can be found hiding behind the locker; Young's kit and caboodle are laid out proudly pristine for inspection. It beggars belief that someone who can write like this could have trouble finding a backer.

Perhaps he multi-layered nature of the book is a clue to this. I read it straight through, pausing only to attend to bodily needs, then stupidly lent my copy to a friend. In the month following I mulled over the story, the satire and the symbols and now need a re-read to slake my thirst. It's very rare to find a first novel as complete, as competent and as compelling as this one. Two-thirds of the way through, you sense Miles is taking control of his own destiny and the surge of real pleasure you feel sets you turning the pages faster as the denouement approaches.

OOTG is RCY's first published novel. If he follows the lead of his namesake and mentor NPY, his second will be an all-time masterpiece.

One of the Guys is a deeply symbolic book masked by an outrageously funny tale about a guy trying to find good in himself and finally being comfortable with who he is. If you like quality literature that is superbly written, a book where there's a lot more going on in each scene besides the obvious storyline, or if you just want to read a funny book that'll make you laugh your...[head] off, then buy this book!

a fast, exciting, dramatic read with great characters, creative plot and plot twists. the author has an obvious sense of reality and an adherence to revealing truth, loving justice and believing in the real american way abroad, which is to protect and defend the weak and uphold good, old-fashioned virtues, which would include not abusing children in foreign lands. bravo to bob young for telling us truths we would never hear from the "proper" sources -- the authorities.

I spent six years in the Navy as a Submarine sailor and this book brings back the dark humor so common among military personnel and members of other large institutions. A word of caution to those who are looking too deeply into the book...it's meant to be funny and cynical. Don't read it as an accurate description of military life because it is not. The book has characters whose personalities seem familiar ie. the wacky officers on the ship! So read it with your tongue firmly in your cheek and remember it's all in good fun!

ONE OF THE GUYS is a deeply symbolic, satirical novel that I don't think can be read just on the surface level. This is a book that's for people who are interested in the MEANING of a work of literature, not just the surface stuff like the plot or the "vulgarity" of certain recorded speech. If the Massachusetts reader thinks that the "greatness" of a work of literature depends on having a low incidence of 4-letter words, then she should go back to reading romance novels and not bother her head with a serious work ever again. This book is beautifully written, studded with stunning passages. Does it contain documentary descriptions of naval officers? Who cares? The Florida reader sounds like the kind of guy who would read "Animal Farm" and think it was about horses and pigs! He doesn't seem to understand that in the genre of satire, hyperbole and irony are used in order to make the author's points. I don't think the characters in this book are supposed to represent naval officers, I think the author is trying to say something about humanity and human organizations. But I don't think you'll understand all of that if you just read it on the surface level like some empty-headed Tom Clancy novel or something. Just my opinion.