The Right Man for the Job: A Novel by Mike Magnuson  (13)
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Mike Magnuson's Lummox: The Evolution of a Man is a highly entertaining memoir of a bright twentysomething guy floating through life in small-town Wisconsin. The character Mike Magnuson (the book is written in the third person) sees light at the end of the tunnel but is in no hurry to get there. And why not? He has no worries so long as he has a job, beer, drinking buddies, and women to help pass the time. Magnuson climbs the dwelling-space ladder (if only a few rungs) from living at home, to crashing in a closed school's music room that he rents to practice drumming (but mostly holds parties for underage girls), to renting a basement space from the main lesbian power base at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, to shacking up with a long-term girlfriend. In addition to changes in his living situation, Magnuson changes menial jobs, friends, and--after an amusing incident lands him in jail for a holiday weekend--his philosophy and outlook on life, at least for a short while. Magnuson writes an easygoing memoir with wit, hilarity, a liberal dose of scatology, and self-deprecation that never turns to self-pity. You can't help but like this Lummox. --Michael Ferch
From Publishers Weekly
This quirky, charming memoir of a young guy trying to find himself and figure out his place in the world during the Reagan years is both enlightening and entertaining, without ever resorting to the sentimental or the sensational. Magnuson (The Right Man for the Job), who teaches creative writing at Southern Illinois University, has taken the bold step of writing his memoir from a third-person point of view, and presents readers with a completely convincing (and unflattering) portrait of himself as a crude, vulgar, confused and mostly unlikable heterosexual guy, "guided in life by his dick." His father was a school superintendent, his mother taught him about classical music and his intelligence was high. Even so, Magnuson left home and lived illegally in a closed school building, played the drums, drifted between jobs, drank far too much and coasted in consecutive sexual relationships because it was easy. Magnuson paints a credible characterization of male aimlessness and convinces readers that Mike is sincere even in the height of his obnoxiousness he truly thinks that farting loudly will impress his pick-up from the night before. At times Magnuson is so determined to prove Mike's lummoxness that one may have trouble imagining that this is the man who grew up to write this memoir. There are moments of unusual insight Mike spent a summer living in a lesbian collective, which taught him much about relating to women and ultimately Magnuson brings readers beneath the gross, frightened surface of his younger self to show a depth and vulnerability that is both touching and vibrant. (On-sale Feb. 5)Forecast: If Magnuson is as captivating in person as he is in print, the marketing campaign (which includes national broadcast interviews, a national radio campaign and author appearances in the Midwest) will help his book get off its fat a** and into buyers' hands.
See all Editorial Reviews
Mike Magnuson's Lummox: The Evolution of a Man is a highly entertaining memoir of a bright twentysomething guy floating through life in small-town Wisconsin. The character Mike Magnuson (the book is written in the third person) sees light at the end of the tunnel but is in no hurry to get there. And why not? He has no worries so long as he has a job, beer, drinking buddies, and women to help pass the time. Magnuson climbs the dwelling-space ladder (if only a few rungs) from living at home, to crashing in a closed school's music room that he rents to practice drumming (but mostly holds parties for underage girls), to renting a basement space from the main lesbian power base at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, to shacking up with a long-term girlfriend. In addition to changes in his living situation, Magnuson changes menial jobs, friends, and--after an amusing incident lands him in jail for a holiday weekend--his philosophy and outlook on life, at least for a short while. Magnuson writes an easygoing memoir with wit, hilarity, a liberal dose of scatology, and self-deprecation that never turns to self-pity. You can't help but like this Lummox. --Michael Ferch
From Publishers Weekly
This quirky, charming memoir of a young guy trying to find himself and figure out his place in the world during the Reagan years is both enlightening and entertaining, without ever resorting to the sentimental or the sensational. Magnuson (The Right Man for the Job), who teaches creative writing at Southern Illinois University, has taken the bold step of writing his memoir from a third-person point of view, and presents readers with a completely convincing (and unflattering) portrait of himself as a crude, vulgar, confused and mostly unlikable heterosexual guy, "guided in life by his dick." His father was a school superintendent, his mother taught him about classical music and his intelligence was high. Even so, Magnuson left home and lived illegally in a closed school building, played the drums, drifted between jobs, drank far too much and coasted in consecutive sexual relationships because it was easy. Magnuson paints a credible characterization of male aimlessness and convinces readers that Mike is sincere even in the height of his obnoxiousness he truly thinks that farting loudly will impress his pick-up from the night before. At times Magnuson is so determined to prove Mike's lummoxness that one may have trouble imagining that this is the man who grew up to write this memoir. There are moments of unusual insight Mike spent a summer living in a lesbian collective, which taught him much about relating to women and ultimately Magnuson brings readers beneath the gross, frightened surface of his younger self to show a depth and vulnerability that is both touching and vibrant. (On-sale Feb. 5)Forecast: If Magnuson is as captivating in person as he is in print, the marketing campaign (which includes national broadcast interviews, a national radio campaign and author appearances in the Midwest) will help his book get off its fat a** and into buyers' hands.
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See all Editorial Reviews
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