Customer Reviews

The Ringer

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

 

 

Great read for anyone who a) enjoys biting humor and/or b) still has the itch to be a jock. Once you get to know these characters, you don't want them to go away. Tough book to put down.

I bought The Ringer for my husband because I thought he'd enjoy the humor and sports theme. After hearing him laugh out loud for several days, I decided to read it myself. I loved it! It is a moving, poignant tale of vulnerability and self-discovery. It's a fast read, energized with humor, memorable characters, and an unpredictable series of events. A wonderfully entertaining and thought provoking book. I highly recommend it.

First, let me answer my own question--he wrote for David Letterman and Letterman endorses the book on its cover which guarantees at least some sales. What it doesn't guarantee is that the book is well written, funny, or the least bit entertaining. It isn't even marginally any of these things. The Ringer is a few one liners pieced together into a novel consisting of poorly conceived, completely unrealistic, exaggerated characters with nothing interesting to say. "College Boy" carrying around "Bagzilla" avoiding conflict with "the Dirt King" while "Uncle Mort" plays golf in the hospital. Ridiculous, unfunny drivel that amounts to a torturous, unfunny read.

I read about a book a week. In recent times I judge a book by how well it was written and did it hold my interest. The Ringer is both well written and interesting. It is also laugh out loud funny and on top of it all --- original. Any book that quotes Doris from Rego Park has to be a winner. Bill Scheft deserves to be on a lot of other people's top ten lists this year.

Not being a gifted writer as Mr. Scheft is I don't know how to explain what a wonderful novel he has written. I only know that the old adage "don't judge a book by it's cover" could not apply more. I looked at this book and saw something that looked like it would be all about sports and hookers, two things I am not much interested in and although there is a woman of the trade and sports in the novel that is not at all what this brilliant first book is about. It is about people and I was very engaged by the dynamics of their relationships. It's a book for everyone. ... and I loved it. I think you will as well - buy a copy for your friends.

...First of all: The Ringer is hilarious. But not in the way you'd expect from Letterman's head monologue writer(which Scheft is, by the way) -- the characters are constantly shooting off funny lines, sometimes a little unbelievably (can anyway be THAT quick?) but that's not what's funny about the book. What's funny about the book is how utterly blind the characters are to their own stupidities, how much pride they take in the wrong things, how they get through using the same ridiculous rationalizations we all do. In other words, what's funny about the book is what's true.

You'll rarely find a novel -- certainly a first novel -- that's as kind to its characters without being sentimental. Even the Aging Sportswriter, a cliche even before Tuesdays With Morrie, is a bit of a grouch, and it doesn't help his aura of charm that we often see him with his pants around his legs.

It's not Literary Fiction -- it's much more humble, and in some ways therefore more enjoyable than that. While it doesn't have the same Aspirations to Social Acumen as, say, The Corrections, Scheft does have Franzen's gift for making his bit characters involving, colorful, real, touching. It's got a love story that makes you hope the man and woman will get together; understand if they won't; and actually physically smile when they do. (And, get this: the woman is not only older than the man, she's Over Forty. And the smartest person in the book.) It features a protagonist who's utterly hopeless yet you hope for him. And it's got a happpy ending you can actually swallow. What is not to like?

Bill Scheft is a funny man. Just ask him. Or listen to him.

But asking Scheft to write a novel is like asking Shemp to do Shakespeare, you just don't do it.

Don't mistake it. Scheft knows sports, humor, and has a wealth of lifetime experiences. I also must be his target reader: White, middle aged, college educated, sports fanatic, borderline alcoholic. But the one dimensional characters, distracted dialogue, and shallow plot lines, make one trifecta no one should bet.

The humor comes off like an inside joke that you aren't party to, there isn't enough sex to make it interesting, and you end up hoping the characters die before you do -- of boredom.

The novel went from 'can't put down', to 'won't pick up'.

I suggest you don't either.

A stinker of a book, I finished it only because of the many favorable reviews on this site. I laughed 2 or 3 times in 256 pages, or for you mathematicians, 0.01 laughs per page. It has no character development, a weak, boring, and confused plot, unauthentic and uninteresting dialogue, and countless unfunny one-liners. Over-all, it is a downer like the Valium the protagonist is addicted to. Scheft wrote that Letterman made him much funnier than he made Letterman, and if you bother to read this book you'll agree with him in spades.

Kafka's "The Trial", Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow", Melville's "Moby Dick", and now Scheft's "The Ringer". These are all great novels; what makes The Ringer different is that's it's much funnier, and the only one of the four containing a "Match Game" reference. Only a masterful writer like Scheft can merge the worlds of baseball, drug addiction and pop culture into one delightful vision. Plus, Scheft 's ability to construct memorable, ORIGINAL jokes is inspiring. If I were capable of writing one great book it would be "The Ringer." Fortunately, I don't have to write books, only read them -- and Scheft has created an brilliant one.

THE RINGER made me laugh out loud. After a somewhat rough start, I loved this sweet, funny, and generous tale. I enjoyed the company of these characters and was sorry when my time was up. Can't wait for the next one from this guy...