You Gotta Have Balls: A Novel [Hardcover]

Lily Brett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 27, 2006

"Men have more straightforward relationships. They don't hang up phones in a huff with each other. They don't feud and not speak for months over insignificant issues. Men don't weep at something another man says. Or hate them for years because of it... "Ruth Rothwax likes women, but she wants them to like each other more, and not be so aggressive, so competitive with other females. She's even thinking of starting a women's group: a small group of smart women who'll care about each other and collectively gain more power for themselves and others. And Ruth practises what she preaches: every day she shows support for her close female friends. She's a good friend to have. If only all women were like her.Then her father's sixty-seven-year-old busty blonde girlfriend enters the scene, with a suitcase full of plans. So as Ruth's carefully calibrated life is turned upside down, all her sisterly solidarity, all her "we're here to support and nurture each other" ideals fly out the window. You Gotta Have Balls is Lily Brett's funniest novel to date, and demonstrates in laugh-out-loud prose a writer whose brilliance for tragedy is rivalled only by her genius for comedy.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this frank, entertaining novel, a father and daughter haunted by loss learn to reclaim meaning and passion in their lives. Australian author Brett brings back the cast of Too Many Men, including her heroine, Ruth Rothwax, a 54-year-old Jewish Australian running a successful corporate letter-writing business in New York. Ruth's husband, Garth, is currently away painting for six months, leaving her time to develop a women's support group, kick off a line of innovative greeting cards and hatch schemes to keep her irrepressible octogenarian father, Edek, out of trouble. But Edek has fantastical plans to open an exotic meatball emporium with the help of busty Polish émigré Zofia and her best friend, Walentyna. A Holocaust survivor, Edek is determined to enjoy the last chapter of his life, even if it means taking outrageous risks. For Ruth, years of downplaying her emotions (any difficulty pales compared to the Holocaust's horrors) has led to bottled-up anxiety, but handling Edek's exuberant brand of chaos now forces her to loosen up. Brett allows her very likable characters to wander down winding, comedic alleys, while the novel remains anchored by the serious subtext: the psychological impact of the Holocaust a generation later. The result is lighthearted but substantive novel. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

In this very funny sequel to Too Many Men (2001), Ruth Rothwax, the owner of a successful letter-writing business in Manhattan, can't seem to relax. She worries about everything: her dependence on her husband, a painter who is away for six months; her perception that women, rather than being supportive of one another, are really catty and competitive; her diet of spinach and turnips; and, most especially, her 87-year-old father, Edek, who is driving her crazy by attempting to help out at the office. When Edek comes up with a cockamamy scheme to open a meatball restaurant with zaftig Polish emigre Zofia, Ruth suddenly loses her feminist sensibility, criticizing Zofia's clothing (she "looked as though she was representing Kazakhstan at the Winter Olympics") and her relationship with Ruth's father. However, Holocaust survivor Edek, intent on enthusiastically embracing life, and the amazingly accomplished Zofia pull off the impossible--they get Ruth to loosen up. In this warm and zesty novel, Brett perfectly balances serious themes with witty malapropisms and endearing characters. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1St Edition edition (June 27, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060505699
• ISBN-13: 978-0060505691
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #703,975 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I had to write a review after reding the only other one written!, November 30, 2006

By 

D. West "Bones" (Boise, Idaho United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: You Gotta Have Balls: A Novel (Hardcover)

This is a wonderful book and follows on to the book Too Many Men by Lily Brett. In this first book, Ruth's mother and father served time in a Nazi prison camp and her mother did not survive. Her first novel takes us back to Poland to explore her roots with her very old father. It was a very poignant story. I could relate very well as my mother is from Eastern Europe as well but got out before it turned ugly.

This follow-on book is what happens when her father comes to New York to live and help his daughter in her business. All she can do is complain that he's in the way! It's not about a women's group. It's a hilarious story about the will to live life to the fullest regardless of the circumstances one has been through and its about forgiveness, because the Polish women they met while visiting Poland (though not Jewish) follow Edek to New York must to Ruth's chagrin. Ruth cannot seem to get over what happened to her parents in the concentration camp and Edek teaches her, at age 82 or so, that life goes on, one must not blame everyone for what happened to the Jews, and that forgiveness brings release and a new lease on life.

My father is 83, served in World War II, and lost my Mother 3 years ago. I wish he had half the drive and will to create, as does Edek with his funny accent and eccentric ways. This is a rollicking read, I found myself laughing out loud so many times, my husband and father thought I had lost my mind! And, I did, I lost my mind and my heart to this heart warming, forgiving, and life-affirming novel.

Don't let the other review frighten you. This is a book I will go back to many times and now have it loaned out to my sister-in-law. If she doesn't think it's hysterical, I will be surprised. Regardless of what you thought the book might be about, it was funny. I don't remember any hype about a professional women's group when I bought the book. Should this have happened to my father, I would only dream that he could be so resilient.

The women's group is something Ruth finds so important, but learns throughout the story where the real drama in life can be found. Even though her children readily accept the new woman in Edek's life, it is with some trepidation that Ruth can finally embrace her father's happiness. And, that's what the book is about.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sheer Delight ! ! !, March 7, 2007

By 

G. Becker (Hurst, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: You Gotta Have Balls: A Novel (Hardcover)

I finished this book 5 days ago and still find myself recalling different parts and chuckling out loud.

Edek is a wonderful, one in a million, character.

Ruth, I'm pulling for you !!!

Zofia, I'm in love with you.

Brilliant novel.

3.0 out of 5 stars Funny, but there is a weird inconsistency in the narrative, January 16, 2011

By 

Mary Ann Willis (Columbus, OH, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: You Gotta Have Balls: A Novel (Hardcover)

After reading Lily Brett's novel "Too Many Men," I immediately ordered "Uncomfortably Close" (which was originally titled "You Gotta Have Balls"), which is billed as the sequel. What is very odd is that the main character, Ruth Rothwax, in "Too Many Men," was unmarried but apparently in love with Garth, who was married to someone else. At the end of that novel, one is led to believe that she and Garth will get together when she returns from Poland to New York.

The so-called sequel takes place only a year later, but Ruth and Garth have apparently been married for years and have three grown children. Pretty fast work! It's disconcerting, to say the least, and yet so far I have found any mention of this inconsistency in the reviews. Other than this, the novels are both very funny and poignant.