Customer Reviews

Return Policy

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was a little hesitant to read Return Policy. I loved Russell Fink and the characters Michael Snyder created so much that I was a little afraid that he couldn't quite do it again.

Return Policy is a very different book. Same unique lad-lit voice, similar deeply flawed and broken characters, same creative and capable wordsmithing, but very different. This time Snyder uses three first person points of view to tell a series of separate stories that end up connecting in a somewhat unbelievable spider web. I saw a few connections unfolding early on, but a couple snuck up on me right before the t's were crossed and the i's dotted.

Snyder's strengths are in excellent characterization. I grew to care about these people and kept reading to find out what would happen to them, hoping they would find good things at the end of the book. Snyder also manages to write almost heartbreakingly poignant scenes that scream with the unfairness of life and the tragedies that seem to wait around the corner ready to pounce on the unsuspecting and innocent. Gifted with a bizarrely charming sense of humor, Snyder laces his prose with quirky thoughts and situations. The spiritual skeleton in Return Policy is buried under the subtle layering of muscle and skin and becomes the frame on which the story is hung. Bottom line, someone not looking for a religious read may not even notice that Jesus has entered the story.

Not everyone who reads Return Policy is going to love it. Fans of action packed page turning novels will likely get frustrated with the introspection and pace of this novel. Those who read only G-rated and scripture laced fiction may have issues with some of the situations, a few words and the fact that there are no conversions in this story. Discussions, yes, but. Toward the end the pace hurried a bit, and the final strings were tied very neatly, maybe a bit too neatly. I didn't have any trouble following the changing POV, the sections and scenes are marked.

Overall, I'm a solid Michael Snyder fan and look forward to his next novel which I hope is in the works.

When I read for pleasure, I judge the success of the book on several things. My personal criteria are: How well does the book challenge me to do better in my own life? How well do the characters and their story move me spiritually and emotionally? Am I challenged to look at situations or questions I might otherwise find uncomfortable (something Geroge MacDonald and C.S. Lewis do very well). Do I end the book feeling like I am a better human being for having read it?

Generally, I'm happy if I get one or two of those things in a book. The really good ones fire on all those cylinders.

Return Policy is such a book. Although it took a few pages to get my mind set to the unique and interesting way Michael Snyder has chosen to have his characters tell their own stories, it was well worth the effort.

Return Policy is a great addition to the library of anyone who likes interesting characters, unique settings and a great ending that ties up all the loose ends.

Strong characters, hard questions, and superbly detailed settings all contribute to the sometimes heartrending, sometimes thought-provoking, and always amusing tale of a wanna-be writer with a bad heart, who's just waiting out his life. Strong narrative voices, firm plot arc, and a stunning finale. This is the author's strongest offering yet.

Willy, Ozena and Shaq: three very different characters whose lives intersect in unexpected fashion. This is hardly a new concept in a novel, but in the case of these three people and the supporting characters, the intersection is served with a twist.

Willy Finneran is teaching college English, somewhat of a has-been pulp fiction author, counting the number of heartbeats remaining in his transplanted heart. He is faced with a problem......an espresso machine that refuses to die, sitting on his kitchen counter, reminding him daily of the infidelity of his ex-girlfriend.

Ozena Webb works in customer service at Javatek, maker of said espresso machine. Willy charges her, almost daily, with the task of destroying his espresso machine, and for reasons she can't really explain, she takes this on as her personal mission.

Shaq...just Shaq...lives in an inner city mission, and until Willy has the misfortune of hitting a beloved mascot badger, one can only imagine how Shaq's story will interconnect with the other two. When Willy is sentenced to live at the mission for six months community service, the story coalesces into one that brings four unlikely people together, transcending the usual lines that society places on them.

It makes for compelling reading. There are a couple of episodes that seem contrived and surreal, such as the visit from Willy's girlfriend one afternoon. It may have been the author's intent to create this disconnect, but as a reader I found it a bit intrusive and jarring, though it made more sense as I continued to read. For the most part, I enjoyed this story of three well-drawn and very different characters. Trying to figure out how all the scattered pieces would connect kept me guessing at times, but also kept me reading.

It is interesting that the publisher of this book is Zondervan, known as a Christian publishing house. Although that is my own belief system, I often find so-called "Christian fiction" to be cloying and overbearing. Not the case with "Return Policy." In fact, the characters in the book question their own beliefs, grapple with grace and God, yet behave with kindness toward one another in spite of their uncertainties. In other words, they seemed real, and their actions presented a picture of true Christian behavior, rather than a heavy handed sermonette with a story wrapped into it. It's a theme that is a quiet undercurrent throughout the book, but never overtly so. The story spoke for itself, allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions.

I loved this book - it was deep, well-written, and had multiple story lines going, but it never felt like I was trying to stay on top of it the whole time. Loved the characters, loved the humor, loved the exploration of the odd behavior we are all driven to when our heart is broken. I will definitely be reading more of this author.

In Return Policy, Michael Snyder creates three extremely different, but equally compelling characters. The novel is told from the point of view of Willy, a failing novelist and English professor, Ozena, a call center representative with a disabled child, and Shaq, a mentally disturbed homeless man. Through a series of incidents that are contrived and quickly glossed over, Willie meets Shaq when he is forced to move in to a homeless shelter by court order. His relationship with Ozena begins when he calls her company for help (of a sort) with his espresso machine.

The relationships between all the characters are lovely and humorous, and the interactions between Willie and Ozena, as well as between Shaq and a little boy left in Willie's care are extremely poignant. I absolutely loved the entire middle of this book. Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, I found the beginning highly contrived, as if the author could not think of a good way to get his characters together, so he made up something ridiculous and unbelievable. Similarly, the ending held just one too many miraculous coincidences for me to truly appreciate it. The unlikely beginning and ending would have been fine if the rest of the book was as unrealistic and fantastical, but since the bulk of the novel was much more realistic, I thought it was dragged down by the inconsistency. I'd still recommend it to anyone looking for an amusing and uplifting book, but I hope the author does a better job on his next attempt.

Willy Finneran, ex-history professor who's still mourning the loss of his wife has an espresso maker that he wants to return because it works. Ozena Webb is the customer service rep who gets Willy's complaint call and Shaq is a homeless man who can't remember much. The three of them are strangers who take turns telling this contemporary slice of life story. It's part tragedy, part comedy, and a very interesting read.

These characters are brought to life by author Michael Snyder's great writing skills. He creates funny situations in the midst of the everyday miseries of real life. His characters are people whose protective walls are maybe more obvious than most, but he unveils their history in a way that keeps you reading. You'll root for each of them to be able to put their demons to bed, to heal and to move on.

I found a few plot situations a little predictable and there were times when I wanted things to move more quickly, but overall, this is a very good book. I always love it when I feel like a book's characters are my friends and they are friends I'd love to hang out with. This is such a book.

If you enjoy the quirky characters who reside in the books of writers like Carl Hiaasen and Christopher Moore with a dash of Nick Hornby thrown in for good measure, then Michael Snyder's RETURN POLICY should be right up your alley. Snyders writing style is at once comical and lyrical and his use of metaphors is akin to poetry. For example his description of sunset is characterized as "the most romantic, pastel time of day" with colors described as "bruised citrus and sherbet".

The four central characters concocted by Snyder are an eclectic group whose individual lives intersect through a bizarre chain of events. Their stories while appearing to connect only peripherally paint a larger, and occasionally heart-wrenching, picture for the reader to study and savor.

RETURN POLICY takes its readers on a journey from the ridiculous to the sublime. It is a tribute to the author that the novel is so hard to categorize.....it is a mystery of sorts, a love story too, also a tale of devotion, hope and redemption, as well as an in-depth character study of the book's inhabitants. To advance a metaphor of my own let me state that RETURN POLICY is very much like a stalk of celery..... take the time to peel away the tougher outer stalks you are left with the soft and tender center to
delight in. 4 1/2 stars.

This book is really about nothing. Not that it's worth nothing to read, because that is the farthest from the truth. This is the type of novel that remains in my top favorites long years after I've put it down. The type of book that you carry bits and pieces of with you and then later recall in other situations. This is a character examination fiction book. The author examines and details each of the above mentioned characters until they are very well known. Since I am a character driven reader, and prefer to get to know people contrived and pulled out of thin air by talented writers, this book really pleased me on a deep level. Willy Finneran is a bit kooky at first, but then you begin to realize his past experiences have led him to his current beliefs, behaviors and actions.

This book does not have a lot of action and is not plot driven, but it does build characters in your mind for you to spend time with, wonderful pleasant often comedy ridden time. I read aloud a few of the passages in this book to my husband, and now he's reading it. Those passages were enough to snag his interest.

This is a book best read when you know little to nothing about it, except please know this. If you love to get to know the people within the pages of a book, this one is for you. Go grab a copy and get to know them...you won't be sorry.

Michael Snyder tells a story of brokenness and healing, and he does it with grace, with sensitivity and, surprisingly for this first-time reader of his work, with humor.

His novel "Return Policy" is the story of three broken people, each searching for wholeness and healing. Willy is a writer and college teacher, who can't deal with his wife's abandonment from years before and spends time trying to destroy what belonged to her, like the espresso maker, while he desperately misses her. Ozeena, a customer representative at the espresso maker manufacturer, was abandoned years earlier by her husband after he allowed their child to almost drown in the bathtub; she struggles to raise her brain-damaged son and competes for a promotion at work. And Shaq, a homeless man with large gaps in his memory (large as in almost total), is searching for his wife Patrice and searching for what is missing from his mind while almost fearing he's going to find it.

Each of the three successively narrates the story. And as they do, the reader comes to understand that there is more here to these broken lives than is immediately apparent, that the individual stories are converging in ways both expected and unexpected.

The novel in the hands of a less skilled writer could have easily decayed into a depressing or angry polemic about homelessness or personal responsibility. But Snyder avoids that, largely through the use of humor and skillfully creating characters who are recognizably human and individual. The settings play a similar role: Willy's house, a place haunted by memories and loss, is adroitly juxtaposed with the homeless shelter where Willy must live and work, a place where memories and loss go to live, while Ozeena's workplace, which teems with ambition, contrasts with the apartment where she lives with her son, a place where the only ambition is to win board games.

"Return Policy" is about healing broken lives, and about faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is love.