Customer Reviews

The Sweep of the Second Hand

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

 

 

Dean Monti's The Sweep of the Second Hand is hilarious. If you enjoy laughing and if you like well-paced novels with vivid, quirky characters, you'll love this book. It's like that dish of peanuts on the coffee table - you can't leave them alone until they're all gone, and then you wish there were more. I hope that Mr. Monti is typing as fast as he can on his next book. I'm looking forward to a second helping.

This is an excellent book. I loved reading about Malcom's daily encounters and how he deals with his inability to sleep. This is a definite page turner because you want to find out if Malcom ever gets to sleep, find his watch, or figure out what to do with the women in his life. Monti has done an excellent job with this book and I hope that he continues to write more.

The humor in The Sweep of the Second Hand builds from the first page. Author Dean Monti carefully develops the character of Malcolm, a sweet progressive insomniac who manages a small Chicago art theater with a stunning lack of pretense. Malcolm pragmatically and sleepily stumbles through his existence waiting for life to happen to him, which it does in laugh-out-loud events with a variety of women. Monti's treatment of each of these supporting characters is spot-on as well. Men will especially enjoy Malcolm's outlook, body functions, and the ultimate meaning of life as he finds it. The story would make a fantastic guy movie, by the way--a studio should snap it up. I highly recommend The Sweep of the Second Hand to all.

I thoroughly enjoyed Dean Monti's first novel. His writing is superb, the story of Malcolm is extremely funny and quite believable, which makes this an easy read ... once you start you can't put it down. Monti uses nice transitions from chapter to chapter, so there is a good flow to the story. Almost everyone can identify with at least some of Malcolm's neuroses. I'm anxiously awaiting another Dean Monti story!

I laughed... some of it the kind of nervous laughter like that part in swingers where Mikey kept calling his ex-girlfriend and leaving messages. You just want to grab Malcomb and tell him to stop. I can totally picture the theater, 2-flat apartment and characters in this story. Really enjoyable. Thanks!

Monti has done amazing work with this book. I am anxiously awaiting more! Everyone, young and old should read this book...it is excellent!

I read the manuscript of "The Sweep of the Second Hand" about ten years ago, when I was just out of grad school and working in a literary agency. I LOVED IT; the agent did not. Though I lobbied hard, she was not about to expend the effort based on my opinion. So, this is one of those books where, when people say "did you ever pass up on a great book that went on to get published to great acclaim, etc?", I can finally say YES.

The story is hilarious. Though it was years ago, I still remember it clearly: Malcolm's neuroses; the bees in the wall; the band called the Circadian Rhythm Section; Malcolm's movie theater, where he only showed depressing Bergman films to keep people away; the girl at the concession stand... Laugh-out-loud funny and so well written.

I give this 4 out of 5 stars because, after editing, it is not the exact same version that I read.

Mr. Monti, if you read this, congratulations on finally getting your wonderful book published!!

Watch out if you go on vacation with this book. I took Monti's book along with me on a trip. I ended up laughing out loud on the plane - more than once. And I don't usually burst into laughter while traveling alone. Every time I picked up the book I was glad I did, because Malcolm always ended up in an amazingly awkward situation. Sweep of the Second Hand is very refreshing and clever because the author described Malcolm's life in such a real way. I can't wait for Monti's next work. Who knows what he will think up next!

This book is a pretty good read. The story moves quite quickly, and I share the character's disdain for bees. The main problem I had with the book is that it feels like the author is trying too hard to reach for the next level of prose. It read quite natural, but sometimes, you just find yourself in a passage feeling that the words just do not fit. All in all, an enjoyable read.

I picked up The Sweep of the Second Hand looking forward to a funny, modern story. I was sorely disappointed. Despite many reviews and synopses using words like "hilarious" and "humorous," I found the book to be slow and rather boring. Not once did I laugh - neither to myself nor out loud.

The author's writing leaves much to be desired. I may have read an early edition of the book, but there were several awkward sentences and misplaced punctuation. At one point, something that was said by one character was even attributed to another.

The story is from the first-person perspective of Malcolm, the owner of a theater which shows only movies he likes - which tend to be depressing foreign films. Malcolm is an insomniac who's convinced he's losing one minute of sleep a night. He also has an overbearing landlady, an ex-girlfriend getting married, other troubles with women, and yellow jackets living in his wall. These problems might be entertaining if they centered around an interesting person, but Malcolm is far from interesting. None of his problems are extraordinary and he seems to spend more time moping around than actually doing anything.

It's not as if I only enjoy a book that's action packed. I think this book could have been excellent as a character study of Malcolm. But it never quite gets there. Malcolm doesn't really grow or change and the ending - well, the book tries to wrap everything up neatly, but it actually just kind of stops.

Honestly, I only finished the book because I'm one of those people who can't walk out on movies or leave books unfinished. After the first few chapters, I was only reading it to get through it - I had to make myself read. Clearly people have enjoyed The Sweep of the Second Hand, but I was not one of them.