A Changed Man: A Novel (Hardcover)

by Francine Prose (Author) "NOLAN PULLS INTO THE PARKING GARAGE, braced for the Rican attendant with the cojones big enough to make a point of wondering what this rusted..." (more)
Key Phrases: Brotherhood Watch, Meyer Maslow, Vincent Nolan (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Prose (Blue Angel; The Lives of the Muses) tests assumptions about class, hatred and the possibility of change in her latest novel, a good-natured satire of liberal pieties, the radical right and the fund-raising world. The "changed man" of the title is Vincent Nolan, a 32-year-old tattooed ex-skinhead who appears one morning in the New York offices of World Brotherhood Watch, a foundation headed by Meyer Maslow, a Holocaust survivor. Vincent declares that he has had a personal conversion (never mind that it was triggered by a heavy dose of Ecstasy) and wants to work with the foundation to "save guys like me from becoming guys like me." Meyer takes Vincent on faith—and convinces Bonnie Kalen, the foundation's fund-raiser, to put Vincent up in the suburban home she shares with her two sons, Max, 12, and Danny, 16. Prose tears into this unusual premise with the piercing wit that has become her trademark. Vincent becomes a media darling of sorts, and everyone wants a piece of him: the liberal donors and the television talk shows; Meyer, a figurehead so celebrated that even his close friends kiss up to him; and maybe even divorced Bonnie, who finds herself drawn to Vincent's charms. In more hostile pursuit of Vincent is his cousin Raymond, a member of the Aryan Resistance Movement, from which Vincent stole a truck, drugs and cash. In these circumstances, can a man truly change? And what is change—not only for Vincent but for the other principals as well? Prose doesn't shy away from exposing the vanities and banalities behind the drive to do good. Fortunately, her characters are sturdy enough to bear the weight of the baggage she piles on them. Her lively skewering of a whole cross-section of society ensures that this tale hits comic high notes even as it probes serious issues.
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From The New Yorker
One sun-spangled afternoon at a rave, Vincent Nolan, a palooka who may be the most hapless neo-Nazi on record (he's thrummed up his politics so that his unsavory cousin, Ray, will let him crash on his couch), has a conversion experience: things go all glowy, he sees the error of his nefarious ways, and, soon afterward, he's ascending to the Manhattan offices of the World Brotherhood Watch, to offer his services to its founder, Meyer Maslow. Clearly, Maslow is based on Elie Wiesel, though Prose tries to forestall this assumption by giving Wiesel a cameo role elsewhere. Vince is taken home by Maslow's mousy assistant, a harassed single mother, who manages to overlook the Waffen-S.S. tattoo and fall for him, and, at a benefit at the Met Museum, he becomes a poster boy for the P.C. set. As a sendup, the book is quite fun, but too often Prose's writing falls victim to the very earnestness that she satirizes.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (March 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060196742
• ISBN-13: 978-0060196745
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #784,321 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Stuff, but not Great, October 5, 2005

By	Liz Miller (South Orange, NJ) - See all my reviews

There's a lot of good stuff in this book. You already know the plot by now if you've read the other reviews -- skinhead decides to change his life and walks into the foundation offices of a Holocaust survivor. It's an interesting premise, and Prose does, I think, a good job with some of her characters. I really bought Bonnie as a single mom, particularly her relationship with her kids. I also found Meyer to be a great character, very conflicted about his own motivations.

What I didn't find so compelling: the ending was pretty contrived, in a way that tried to be too meta- about being contrived. I also was not really clear about Vincent's motivations until pretty far into the book.

On the other hand, let's face it, I've read a lot of "summer reading" crap this year and it's miles better than that stuff. So it's worth a look.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Prose but no Depth, April 29, 2006

By	Lorraine M. Weston (TN, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Changed Man: A Novel (P.S.) (Paperback)

When I read the concept of the novel, it sounded like an interesting read to me. But, after reading it, Prose's work left me with little emotion for the characters who (in my opinion) lacked depth.

From a self-claimed Neo-Nazi to a Jewish Holocaust survivor, the male characters do not seem to change, in my opinion, but rather stay dormant and stuck in their attitudes and life.

On one hand, we have Vincent Nolan (a Timothy McVeigh look-alike), who professes to be using the "World Brotherhood Watch" organization to help "save guys from becoming guys like me". He literally uses the premise of the organization to help him survive...they feed him, clothe him, etc. He is in need of a place to live, has no funds to find a place, and decides on a plan, whereby he convinces Maslow that he is trying to do good. He in turn gives Meyer Maslow (the founder and head of the organization, and a Holocaust survivor) the boost that is needed to help promote the organization, and to promote his latest book (which is not selling well). Nolan becomes the poster boy for Maslow's foundation.

Maslow convinces Maslow's assistant, Bonnie, to take Nolan in and give him a roof over his head. Bonnie has two children, and her family is rather dysfunctional. Maslow, himself, contorts the fact that he convinced Bonnie to take Nolan in, by stating to himself (over and over again), and to others, that Bonnie volunteered to take him in.

Maslow is using his Holocaust survivor experience to earn a living, literally, in my opinion. He is not really using the organization to help those in need, but uses any opportunity to promote his own image...that of being a man of honor, trust and a man who is trying to save the world, a person at a time. In actuality, he is extremely superficial, and is using the organization he founded to create himself as a figure of ethics and good values. He even questions his own motives for doing what he does, wondering if it is for the right reason. At one point he claims that material things do not matter to him, because he has experienced the worst of life without them, yet he is married, lives in a mansion, and dresses in Aramani suits (proudly). Nothing but the best for him.

One might assume that this novel is loosely based on Elie Wiesel, but, I see no similarities there, other than the fact that Wiesel survived the Holocaust.

For me, A Changed Man, could have been written with more in-depth characters, and characters of substance. The book had a lot of prose, but no depth.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good read, hurried writting, a little formulaic, May 2, 2006

By	Dennis R. Mitton "tolstoy" (pacific nw, usa) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: A Changed Man: A Novel (P.S.) (Paperback)

In "A Changed Man" Prose succeeds in doing what every writer hopes in how she takes you into a foreign place and gives you a glimpse of life from another viewpoint. Her book is at once both optimistic and pessimistic: she shows a neonazi who seems to change for the better and a world known Holocaust survivor who has made a tidy living off of his fame who seems to care little for those closest to him.

I can't quite put my finger on it but her writing is kind of `in a hurry.' Not stripped and raw like a Hemmingway novel but more jerky and always moving, like you're always running. The technique works well, though, to keep the story moving, and to keep you in the middle of the confusion surrounding the protagonist. And confusion is in the middle of most of the story: confusion about motive, about relationships, and about telling yourself the truth. In the end, like a made for TV movie, the confusion falls away and everyone finds their place in the world. It's a bit formulaic but works. Ironically I don't really think anyone in the book `changed.' Certainly not the protagonist. His foray into the Aryan Nation was mostly a trade for breakfast and a place to sleep. None of the other characters change, either, except that they all seemed to come a bit more to grips with their innate wants.

Still, it's an excellent read that I really enjoyed.