Customer Reviews

Swagbelly: A Novel for Today's Gentleman

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

 

 

Ok, let me get this off my chest right away. This guy is sleazy! He dates a new model every night, treats women as though they are disposable, and tries to buy and intimidate everyone within reach. Even the waiters at his favorite restaurant dislike him, despite the hundred dollar tips.
However, for all of that, Levien manages to make him likeable. This poor guy is totally smitten with his ex-wife (now dating someone else), loves his son dearly but is driving him away, and can't even keep one of his model girlfriends happy enough to want to be with him. To top it off, this alpha male pornographer has become impotent.
While I wanted to hate him, I kept rooting for him throughout the book. I wanted this sleazeball pornographer to reach his son, get back with his ex-wife, and finally find a way of making his life meaningful again. Does he succeed? You'll have to read the book.
But Levien certainly succeeds in making a human and surprisingly likeable character. The book moves fast, and some of the scenes had me howling with laughter.
I would have given it five stars, but I was left wanting more at the end! Levien, if you are reading this, I want a sequel!

A Swagbelly is a large overhanging belly. It's also the name of the adult magazine that the character Elliot Grubman owns in DJ Levien's book. "Swagbelly" has brought Elliot a bevy of beautiful women, the best clothes that money can buy, a private table at a chic restaurant and, of course, has made him very rich -- but it didn't buy him happiness, for at the same time, he's lost his wife and is losing touch with his son.

Much of the book takes you through his life after his divorce, as he tries to flaunt his money ($100 million!) and buy some class. He is a firm believer in the Golden Rule: "the one who has the gold, makes the rules." He demands respect from others, and wields his money as power like a sword, waving it around for all to fear. He takes pleasure in seeing others weaken before him, just to feed his hungry ego. He has a new girlfriend (is she 20 or 13?) and new enemies, and a new problem. He is finding that nothing arouses him any longer (no pun intended). As we learn more about what got him to this point, we start also to see where this is going: he needs to, as he always needed to, spend more time developing meaningful relationships.

The book, 231 pages, is organized by locale or situation, such as "New York", and briskly moves between now and connected memories. It is extremely explicit, in a distracting and unnecessary way; he could have easily had many other professions and the story would have been the same. Elliot suffers from anti-Semetic paranoia, which is heightened by his son's desire to convert to Catholicism. But, ultimately, the story focuses on his growth as a man (simultaneously as his son grows up), although, we are unsure that he really ever "gets it".

"Swagbelly" gets deep and profound, where you can both feel his angst and be repulsed by the fact that he truly believes that he can buy his way into and out of any situation. As he starts to realize that he craves a real connection and to expose his innermost feeling, he understands that he doesn't know how to build relationships. The reader is way ahead of Elliot in recalling the real Golden Rule: treat others how you'd like to be treated.

I wasn't expecting much of this book, certainly not that it would be this smart, funny and literate. Levien's characters feel real as life, and his prose simultaneously elegant and prosaic. Eliot Grubman is as repellent a capitalist pig as ever had his soul laid bare in print, but you'll enjoy every page you spend with the schmuck.

author d.j. levien has struck a raw but accurate nerve in his description of elliot grubman, striving middle aged man from the near-poor upbringing of brooklyn, where he became, and remains fixated on the need to garner self respect. He throws cash around like autumn leaves in New England in order to buy into the high life. And he's got a lot of it from a successful pornography business he built from nothing. Elliot knows what people want and is under no illusions as to what they will do to get it. He just can't connect--his past is catching him and his fears abound.

A good job by a very incisive author.

Okay, the main character of this book is a total pig but with some true endearing qualities. In fact you almost want to feel bad for him. Strong emphasis on the want here. This book is extremly racy but in a woody allen sort of way. For someone like me, a native new yorker, this book gives me a slice of home that I can't get anywhere else. You see, Swagbelly, is really the story of a middle-aged man going through a mid-life crisis; the porn angle is only used as a vehicle to establish his life. If you can get past all the porn, there actually is a really good book here so let go of your consertative self and give it a chance.

This is a funny and sometimes raunchy look at modern times. Our hero is a pretty decent guy under all the oprn. Levien shows a deft comic touch. The story is funny and the end is a bit pat. However, I enjoyed the story and laughed a great deal. Fun book!

Swagbelly is a magazine for men, pron really owned by Elliot Grubman and so the story goes. This is a peek into to mid life crisis(?) or his life, as good as money can by. Hard to feel sorry for him but you do. Worth the read. David Levien can right. RECOMMENDED

SWAGBELLY is a hilarious romp into the world of pornography. Far better than TRACI LORDS "UNDERNEATH IT ALL."

David Levien doesn't pull literary punches, and wouldn't, even if Alphonse Capone himself was asking. Instead Levien portrays Elliot Grubman as he really would be--crass, bruised, brusing, alone--human. But this book is no mordant study of the human condition. It is dark, vicious comedy inspired by the best of Roth, Joyce and Miller.

At first you may wonder why someone would read, let alone write, a book about a shallow, self-centered, womanizing porn king. However, as you read this book, you will see that it is more of a story about a man coming to understand his own mortality as well as a realization of those things that are of the greatest importance to him. While most men can not order custom made suits and a new pair of socks every day, most men, I'm sure can relate to some of the feelings and issues that Elliot Grubman is experiencing, especially those who have been divorced. Like any male or even woman who has been rejected in some way, Elliot is dealing with a bruised ego. Elliot deals with it in the only way that he knows how; by having many beautiful women and using them for sex in order to make himself feel better. The perspective in this book is very interesting, as we are made aware of Elliot's innermost thoughts in response to vaious situations and experiences. Many of these thoughts are very humorous, and help the reader to understand his character more. This is a great book for both men and women, and it is nice to see things from a male perspective for a change.