Seduction Theory [Import] [Paperback]

Thomas Beller (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 205 pages
• Publisher: Abacus; First Edition edition (1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0349106541
• ISBN-13: 978-0349106540
• Shipping Weight: 8.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Thomas Beller was born and raised in New York City. He has worked as Chief-of-Inventory at H&H Bagels (Broadway and 80th Street) and a staff writer at the New Yorker, the two jobs briefly overlapping. Other jobs include Bike Messenger and contributing writer to Elle, The Cambodia Daily, Spin, and Travel and Leisure Magazine. He founded and co-edited Open City Magazine for its twenty year run, and created a website, Mrbellersneighborhood.com, devoted to the urban sketch. He lives in New York and New Orleans, where he teaches at Tulane University.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love this book & am amazed by the backlash, April 18, 2000

By 

Peter Lee (Manchester ,United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Seduction Theory (Paperback)

I've had this book now since it was released in the UK several years ago and I have to say that I love it. Thomas Beller was a name I'd never heard of so I bought it on a whim and ended up so glad that I did. I've read it now six or seven times and each time I enjoy it as much as the last, maybe even more. Simple but beautiful writing, "real" stories of "real" lives, humorous in the right places and to see so many people criticizing the book because of Beller's appearance or how he was at school etc. amazes me. Who cares what an author looks like or who he or she is? If a book is good, it's good - period, and I for one wouldn't part with my copy. I give this one an unreserved 5 stars, and I look forward to reading more of his work.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars addicted, June 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Seduction Theory (Paperback)

i loved this book. i read it in one night. i loved the stories about peoples lives, the way they interact with each other. i found this book simple and poignant. READ HERE: if you did not like this book, why attack the author? it is fine to just say you didn't like it!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars provides a clearer understanding of the publishing business, June 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Seduction Theory (Paperback)

I picked up "Seduction Theory" down at the Blue Pear book store on Attalee Street. The summary compared the author to Salinger and promissed the reader an interesting view of New York through the eyes of a struggling college graduate.

Right away, this raised two red flags for me. Whenever a new author is compared to a previous one, the connection is almost always languid or non-existant. But more importantly, who wants to see anything through the eyes of a college graduate?

But I read on hoping to be pleasantly suprised. The book was not good and it was not bad. The prose was vapid to be certain, but was still a few levels above excerable. Poe once remarked that the only successful criminals are the gifted or the insane. I'm afraid the same is true of artists, and particularly so of authors. Unfortunately, the content and Style of Herr Beller's work is meaningless.

When Pushkin first published Eugene Onegin, his readers complained that it was bland and pointless. But soon even the most severe critics admitted that they saw a little bit of Onegin in everyone. Eugene Onegin was supposed to be dull. He represented a personality that was typical of late Imperial Russian society. But Pushkin was a genious and Beller is Beller.

I think his book was published because it attempts to stamp New York on every page. Beller gave his purile prose a geographic identity and his publisher thought it might go somewhere. Ah well...