Customer Reviews

This Book Will Save Your Life (Sound Library)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The title might be a bit presumptuous, but this novel, in the most captivating way, makes you think about stopping to smell the roses. In a way, it does throw out a lifeline. The book is charming, funny, outrageous, and just might be a long, modern day parable for good living.

When Richard feels incredible, real pain, he seems to "wake up" from his repetitive, meaningless life. By opening up, he allows himself to meet, and befriend, a cast of intriguing, genuine, although slightly eccentric, characters. From the donut maker, the crying housewife, the movie star, and my favorite, Nic the writer, Richard's eyes are opened to life as it could be, maybe should be. As Richard starts remembering who he is, and what really matters, the most incredible things are going on around him.

I tried to read this book straight through, although my life kept getting in the way (school, sleeping, family) but believe me, once I started, I didn't want to put it down. Now I'm going to lay it down, recommend it to my friends, and go love on my cat, call my kids, and do something nice for someone.

This chapterless marathon through one mans isolated existance in modern Los Angeles is brimming with optimism and hope. Richard Novak is a wealthy day trader living in the Hollywood Hills with a sink hole in his back yard, and a famous actor next door. When he calls 911 while experiencing what he believes is a soon to be fatal heart attack, the course of his life radically begins to change. For me, the book was almost fable like in it's telling with events transpiring that are both fantastic and nearly unbelievable. Yet the underlying message of making a simple connection with your fellow man sustains successfully without slipping into Hallmark sentimentality. On a side note, being an Angelino, the book captures the city and it's inhabitants with razor sharp precision.

A friend who also has read this book said it was Cheever as if written by Bill Hicks: savage, funny assault on suburban life. (If he stole that line from someone else then he's now double damned.)

Still, it may not be as cynical and savage as Bill Hicks would have it. Hicks wanted LA to fall in the ocean so he could live oceanside in Arizona Bay. Though that does come close to happening here, no one is laughing manically about it. In fact, there are no villains in This Book Will Save Your Life. (At least not among the main characters). There is no one out to destroy another person to make their own life better, and there is no one who cares nothing about other people.

There is however an abundance of surreality that does not seem far removed from life in Los Angeles. The possiblity that a saber-tooth tiger is loose somewhere in the Hollywood Hills doesn't seem as far-fetched as it could, when coupled with the rest of the book's car wrecks, kidnappings, artisan donuts and kindness of strangers.

It's a book about helping other people, trying not to be selfish, and seeing what's going on around you. And despite my decription and the book's title, it's not mushy feel-goody pablum. It is not chicken soup for anyone's soul. It's a good read though.

Read the reviews by the people who read the book and ignore the critics. They are so full of themselves that they can't just enjoy a good read.

This book belongs to a wider and worn out end of the century postmodern literature.

The plot is full of generally known situations, such as nutrition obsessed wealthy people, often ridiculous. The characters are interesting but numerous and sometimes irrelevant to the story.

I also found the book poorly balanced, the first part is nearly insignificant. The slightly humorous book has its climax towards the end.

Often the narration is tasteless, a bit thick and lacks originality.

However, this book is well written and succeeds to deliver a message of redemption and change.

I loved this book. It was just incredibly fun and very entertaining. That is not to say it did not have serious moments, because it did. I am usually not a fan of Hollywood/L.A. scene books, but enjoyed this one. I did not find it that bogged down in stereotypes as other reviewers did. Sure, some were there, but often the stereotype would surprise you and do something very "unstereotypical." I read this book in a day. I loved Richard's journey and all his friends, Nic, Anhil, Cynthia, Ben, Malibu and The Actor, Tad, even the sink hole investigator guys; and the 911 receptionist. It was kind, hopeful, made me laugh and on more than one occasion made me celebrate life and the people in it, quirks and all. It also made me laugh at some of the ridiculous things people are into, and why. The book pokes fun at a lot of new-agey L.A. stuff, but in a way that is not dark ~ just seemed to see the humor in it all. If you want a fun, entertaining time, this book is great for that. It may not be Pulizter material, but you'll probably enjoy yourself. I was truly bummed when it ended. Everyone I've recommended it to has thanked me.

I have always been a big fan of Homes writing. It's funny and sly and filled with the unexpected. She is wildly satirical and her renditions of modern life are right on the mark and, despite the characters' numerous oddities, very believable.

So what happened here? I liked "This Book" but not as much as I have liked her writing in the past and not nearly as much as I wanted to. There were some brilliant moments, especially in the first hundred pages. But it seemed tamer that anything Homes has written in the past, like a TV version of the A.M. Homes I like so much. I felt she cleaned things up so that it would be accessible to a wider audience, which left me feeling like I was reading Homes Lite. Even the title set me off somewhat, since I was constantly changing my mind while reading the novel wondering if Homes seriously meant it or whether it was goofing on itself. There was not nearly enough of the ironic, sarcastic rule breaking Homes present in this book, so I kept thinking, Homes must actually mean that she wants people to think this book will change their life or her publisher did. Don't get me wrong, it is enjoyable and fun, but there is much less of an edge than you may be used to.

The novel was a parabola, with the last half being pulled earthward by gravity. I have no idea why Homes decided not to slash some of the later passages. It would have been a leaner, meaner novel, with some of the old ambiguity we all loved so much. The desire to resolve all the sub plots is not a bad thing, nothing wrong with it. It's just not the A.M. Homes I know. I was hoping for more with less.

Gives you an exuberant rush for the first half and a bit of a deep-breathing, near-angynic fit of panic for the second. Wonderfully realised, as someone might say. Enjoyed it quite a bit.

A.M. Homes has been a favorite since "Music for Torching". She has a gift for satyrizing stereotypical characters confronted with atypical situations, while keeping it all on the precipice of believability. "This Book..." opens with Richard (don't call me Dick) Novack - divorced, middle-aged and financially free - experiencing an epiphany after a scare with a mystery illness. Richard has spent his past several years glued to his computer screen managing his investments, while his housekeeper, nutritionist, and personal trainer manage his personal needs. He is as removed from social intercourse as anyone in LA could manage to be, until the illness and an emerging sink-hole on his property change his life. A chance meeting with a woman crying in the produce department at Ralph's, the rescue of a horse from the sink-hole, a stop at an out-of-the way donut shop, a trespassing trash-picker, and a stray dog all lead to funny and lasting relationships which Richard greedily invites into his empty life. Offstage, Richard's estranged teenage son Ben is en route for a visit with the father he despises for his neglect. The book plays in your mind like the multilayered movies about LA life - Crash, Laurel Canyon, for example - and could easily be adapted to screen. But enjoy it in your mind - it's a trip worth taking.

I thoroughly enjoyed this satirical look at Los Angeles and the culture of the misguided wealthy. As an L.A. resident, I often think about the collapse of the city - all these people and their money crumbling from an earthquake or burned by one of our enormous fires - but in Homes' book, the destruction is more than physical (geological?). Richard, the protagonist, takes the falling apart of his house to be a call to change his life. And so he does with a cast of quirky characters who provide him with the human touch he'd been avoiding for so long. What I enjoyed about this novel besides its unpredictability was how redemptive a story it really was. In an age of irony and cynicism, it was refreshing to read about a character who really does change for the better, who really does redeem himself in many ways. That is not something you get very often with modern novels. I highly recommend this book!