You or Someone Like You [Hardcover]

Chandler Burr (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 9, 2009

Anne Rosenbaum leads a life of Los Angeles privilege: the wife of a Hollywood executive, Howard Rosenbaum, and mother of their teenage son, Sam. Years ago Anne and Howard met studying literature at Columbia—she, the daughter of a British diplomat from London; he, a boy from an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn.

When one of Howard's friends asks Anne to make a reading list, she agrees and soon finds herself leading a book club for the industry elite. But when a crisis of identity turns Howard back toward the Orthodoxy he left behind, Anne must set out to save what she values above all else: her husband's love.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With this academia-obsessed novel, New York Times perfume critic Burr branches out from his nonfiction scent-based books. Howard Rosenbaum is a Jewish powerhouse in Hollywood with an Anglo-Saxon wife, Anne, whom he met at Columbia University, where they both earned Ph.D.s in literature. Now they live among œpathologically narcissistic people with an œutter disdain for the written word. But when narrator Anne is solicited to compile a book list for Dreamworks CEO Stacey Snider (Burr weaves actual Hollywood bigwigs into the tale), the list becomes a small book club, then morphs into a huge gathering with Anne the literary guru to virtually all of Hollywood. Anne and Howard's only child, Sam, travels to Israel, and Howard's initial delight sours when Sam is rejected by a rabbi in Jerusalem for an intensive study œprogram because he is not officially Jewish and therefore œunclean. A true celebration of intellect, Burr's tale does, occasionally, misstep into a pedantic bog, but ultimately examines the personal decision each of us must make to run from, or embrace, our identity. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

A love story rolled up in literature lessons makes New York Times scent critic Burr's (The Emperor of Scent) fiction debut a truly novel work. The narrator is the incandescent, opinionated, very well read, and professorial Anne. Born in England, the child of diplomats, Anne marries the Brooklyn-born and equally erudite Howard Rosenbaum, and they produce a very precocious son, Samuel. Anne's natural sense of otherness, heightened by her Jewish in-laws' lack of enthusiasm at their marriage, is further stretched when Howard accepts a studio executive position and moves the family to Los Angeles. Anne struggles to find a niche for herself, finally meeting success the moment she sets up a book club at the behest of a couple of Howard's colleagues. Anne's brilliance in running this salon fuels Hollywood's boundless hunger for the next great screenplay. Soon Anne is dividing her book readers by film industry types, multiplying the number of groups, and her business is born. What of the love story? The differences of faith between Anne and Howard surface after their son returns from a trip to Israel, and Anne must work her literary magic to retrieve their love. If only for the lessons in linguistics and literature, this is recommended for all fiction collections.—Sheila Riley, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, DC
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Ecco; 1 edition (June 9, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061715654
• ISBN-13: 978-0061715655
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #976,906 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great selection for a book club!, June 14, 2009

By 

Aileen Cheatham "Aileen" - See all my reviews

This review is from: You or Someone Like You (Hardcover)

This novel will make a great book club selection. First, because it's beautifully written. The language alone kept me turning the pages. If you've read any of his previous books, you know that Chandler Burr can write. His non-fiction reads like fiction and his fiction like poetry. Second, because there is so much that can be discussed. Within the story of Anne Rosenbaum and her book club for Hollywood executives, Chandler Burr manages to weave in many very relevant themes that will encourage great discussion. There is politics, religion, literature, all tied to the question of whether literature can help us deal with the issues of our daily lives. Burr makes literature accessible, fun and relevant. You will learn more than you can imagine reading this novel. It made want to pick up some of those classics that have been collecting dust on my shelf. Be sure to check the website [...] for a great reading group guide.

14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Pretntious and dull, December 26, 2009

By 

Bbel "Bbel" (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: You or Someone Like You (Hardcover)

For some reason I felt like I had to finish this novel once I started it and wasted a good number of evenings doing so. I found the author's continual literature lectures dull and skimmed over most of them. He makes the reader feel foolish and ignorant if you don't know the phrases of the many novels he analyses in the pretence of a story. There really was no narrative and the big event that is alluded to at the beginning is disappointing. I was much more interested in the story of the family and even in the arguments about Judaism being racist through elitism and exclusion but what a DULL book!!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Shiska, find shelter here, but dust off your Norton Anthology first., February 23, 2010

By 

Bored Easily (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: You or Someone Like You (Hardcover)

SHORT REVIEW:

Chandler Burr's masterpiece. English lit majors would love it. Been called a "Shiska" at work or by a boyfriend's family? You'll find shelter here. Though I find the intelligence of Hollywood who's-who a bit inflated. A unique examination into the depths of "forbidden" love through the poetic verse of literary giants.

LONG REVIEW:

This is most definitely, in my opinion, Chandler Burr's labor of love. It is his masterpiece. He obviously put a tremendous amount of work into the development of this book, but beware, if you didn't pay attention in English Lit in college a number of his literary references that require you to read between the lines as to the meaning and relation to the story line will be lost on you. I had to reread a couple of them and a few others I just said, oh forget it, and moved on to the next line. Also, Burr's writing style is hard to follow at times. His unique lack of the use of quotation marks makes for some dialogue hard to separate from narration. However, I feel he chose this style to help develop the lead character's personality, which is highly educated dry English upper-class as well as a person who is more introverted. You may have even met someone like her and found her aloof in real life.

That said, I enjoyed this book. It is very unique. I think those who have either A) lived in Hollywood and worked in the industry, B) worked in a Jewish company or dated a Jewish man and are not Jewish themselves, C) a love and understanding for English literature, or D) any combination of two or more above will find themselves nodding in agreement, or at least appreciation, for the themes in this book.

I agree with one reviewer that the tone is a bit pretentious at times, but I believe that it is meant to be that way as a fleshing out of the main character, who is the narrator. I found it interesting that Burr developed characters who really don't have their own opinions but rather draw their ideas and opinions and relations in life through the words of others. The big crisis that the family endures is also sparked by and through the ideas and opinions of others and not through their own thoughts and feelings, however the conflict brought out for perhaps the first time real raw personal emotion and feelings from the narrator and how she dealt with it. I thought Burr conveyed well the fight for deep, true love, against a very real and controversial crisis of identity. I was a bit disappointed with the resolution of the conflict and the closing of the book, however. I felt like Burr just kind of ended it all. It was fuzzy. I wish he had written another 50 pages or so. Or, maybe we are supposed to read between the lines here as well? I wondered if it was planned or if he'd simply had it.

Overall, I applaud Chandler Burr. He took a leap and he went "there." I'm glad he did. And for those who thought it was bigoted...well...sometimes the truth hurts. I know I found refuge in what may be controversial for some...for those of us on the other side it hits home.