Customer Reviews

Second Hand

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a really great book. I read it in 24 hours. I have a cabinet where all of my best books go, and this one will join the others there. I did not want this book to end, and I want to know what Richard and Theresa will be doing in ten years. This will definitely be on my top ten books of the year 2000 list. READ IT!

"Second Hand" is incredibly entertaining and funny. It's also chock full of profundity without any trace of pretention -- a neat trick, and one I have seldom seen pulled off before. I loved it, so I loaned it to a 29-year-old friend. She loved it. I then loaned it to a 63-year-old friend. He loved it. Two thirty-something women and a 54-year-old man I know read it and guess what? They loved it. Do yourself a favor -- READ IT.

An original, hilarious and touching portrait of junkers. You will savor Zadoorian's poetic, wry and comic prose. You will laugh.You will feel as if you've entered into these character's hearts, You won't want to leave. Enjoy.

Just finished reading Second Hand by Michael Zadoorian. This book was given to me as a gift, and what a rare gift indeed. Richard, the main character, leads a perfect life as the owner of a "Junk Store". His nickname is "J", short for Junk. As he floats through life looking for inventory for his store at estate sales, yard sales and the occasional Salvation Army, he comes to a crisis in his life over love and the death of his mother. The best chapters are his trip to Mexico. These chapters reminds me of the book "On Mexican Time" by Tony Cohan. Be warned: once you start you can't put this one down. I read it in one day!

What a wonderful treasure is this deceptively simple novel. I found myself reading it slowly, not wanting it to end. Richard and Theresa are not your usual protagonists. Richard is depressed, self-absorbed, and afraid of life. Theresa takes responsibility for the world and is impossible to get along with. Yet I found myself rooting for them, wanting these misplaced people to find their place in the world.

And as a person who loves thrift shops and yard sales, I delighted in the author's obvious love of junk. Zadoorian waxes philosophical about the appeal of the secondhand, the thrill of the hunt. Little did I know how much meaning there was in junk! And of course, the fact that the action takes place in my own backyard, geographically speaking, made it all the more fun to read. A most promising debut.

My wife bought this book and I ended up reading before she did. We are both junkers of different sorts. A few years ago, we had to settle her mother's estate and this book touched on alot of the issues that we faced then. I particularly enjoyed his philosophic approach to junk; it made me think. Although I'm not a native of Detroit, I did enjoy the local references which made the book seem even more real. The book is told in the first person and I kept on forgetting that this was fiction and not an autobiography. One of the better books I've read so far this year.

Like a treasure unexpectedly found at a garage sale, this book hits you in the heart and makes you smile all day. Charming, offbeat, self-effacing-ly ironic, with characters that are unconventional and very real, living perhaps ordinary but not humdrum lives. Narrator Richard's musings on consumerism, death, sex and a host of other topics are often hilarious and always on the mark. Animals lovers and the squeamish, be forewarned: you may want to skim the paragraphs which discuss Theresa's work at an animal shelter, but this is a small price to pay for a delightful read.

The junk descriptions appeal to the obsessive rummager side of me, but the best part of the story does not happen at estate sales. "The things people throw away" including living things, love and each other, make for a poignant, comedic, authentic novel. I highly recommend it.

GREAT BOOK! As a lifetime "junker",I saw myself in alot of these same situations.As a lifelong resident of the Detroit area,I have been in many of the places mentioned in this book.If you have every crept through a dirty dusty shop or barn,looking for a "treasure",this book is for you!

As a fellow junker, aka antique dealer, I could relate to the musing about the fascination with used stuff. It's value is as individual as people are. We ARE a throw away society of objects and living things. I love animals so some of the parts were hard to read. The scene in Mexico broke my heart. I actually cried, a tough thing for a book to make you do.