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The Apprentice: A Novel Paperback – December 13, 2005

by
Lewis Libby (Author)
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Lewis Libby (Author)
2.7 out of 5 stars 49 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 239 pages
  • Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (February 4, 2002)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0312284535
  • ISBN-13: 978-0312284534
  • Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,889,219 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 starsWeird, strange, and odd
By dayna on October 1, 2000
Format: Hardcover
Well, it had potential. (And great cover art.) But, all in all,I'm really sorry I read this book. The writing was very elegant insome places and full of eloquence and all, but at times it just seemedawkward and too blunt. It made me uncomfortable. Heck, the whole bookmade me uncomfortable. I mean, it started out great with all thesepeople stranded at a snow-bound inn and the innkeeper away with onlyhis apprentice in charge. And then there was that great chase throughthe snow and the murder and all... But after that... ugh. Sometimes itwas just painful, physically painful, to read. It all started with theextremely bizarre sexual situations. I still shudder to think aboutsome of the stuff described in that book... And as if that wasn't badenough, the author strings you along, drowning you in suspense,throughout the entire book, making you wonder who killed the man thefirst night and why, and then the end doesn't even explain it! Don'tget me wrong, the ending tries to explain it, real hard, but itdoesn't make sense. You find yourself sitting there, scratching yourhead, and going, "Wha?" I don't think the author even gave areason for some of the stuff. And his explanation of what happened tothe girl? It was weak. The only way I knew what was going on wasbecause I came here and read some of the reviews! None of it madesense. I still have unanswered questions about this book. The lovescenes are another thing. They were ok, I guess, better than some ofthe other scenes, but they were always so awkward anduncomfortable. One particular scene between the Apprentice and thegirl was especially unpleasant. (That's sad, too, because I think theauthor was shooting for passionate there...) I feel sorry for anyonewho paid full price for this book. It has a great plot with some greatcharacters.Read more ›
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1.0 out of 5 starsUgh... that's all I can say...
By chris on January 13, 2007
Format: Paperback
I couldn't even get through this whole book, it was just... so... bad...

Really it was just Lewis Libby writing his own masturbation material, no joke. I stopped reading when he talked, among other things, about bears having sex with ten year old girls.

Beyond being constantly creepy, it's just really poorly written and completely pointless. Don't waste your time, money, etc.
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1.0 out of 5 starsNot the kind of "snowbound evenings" poets have in mind...
By Mrs. Tarquin Biscuitbarrel on November 6, 2005
Format: Paperback
Perhaps I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby thought that by setting his novel in a snowbound inn in northern Honshu, a century ago, his readers would swear that the lavish dollops of voyeurism, bestiality, paedophilia, and corpse-robbery advance the plot. Well, there is no plot. There's a blizzard blanketing a Japanese country inn, a young man called only "the apprentice" who's helping run the joint in the absence of the proprietor, and an overflow of stranded travelers bunking down in tight quarters. The natural hot spring located within the inn means that the nubile and pre-nubile girls can shuck their matted furs so that The Apprentice has something more interesting to look at than fat middle-aged ladies and itinerant "lacquer tappers" with brownish teeth. Libby's writing would be pleasingly spare if it said anything, but the descriptions of the inn, the snow, the dead bodies, and so forth provide meager padding between the sex scenes.

The hair-raisingly prurient parts of this book have been excerpted extensively elsewhere, so I'll not repeat them. However, Libby appears more than approving of the explicit education that the very young girls in "The Apprentice" receive. Not in typical school subjects, no, but from instructors whose teaching tools include caged bears (yes, bears, trained to couple with children), wooden dildos, and incestuous relatives who painstakingly instruct little girls to "satisfy many men in a night."

The fictional output of such Republican luminaries as Bill O'Reilly, Newt Gingrich, and I. Lewis Libby underscore the truth of the proverb, "Those who really have it ["it" meaning sexual prowess] don't talk about it." Some men, such as Libby and Neil Bush, have labored under the delusion that any sexual peccadilloes taking place in Asia will stay in Asia.Read more ›
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1.0 out of 5 starsI read it so you don't have to
By tanyev on July 4, 2006
Format: Paperback
The chief of staff decided to write a book. He wanted to make it mysterious. He decided a good way to do that would be to have lots of characters but only give names to very few of them. He thought that if the reader knew very little about any of them, and had no understanding of their motives, that it would add to the mystery. He felt the best way to tell his story would be in stilted, wooden sentences. And to top it all off, to really set a mysterious mood, he threw in snow. Lots and lots and lots of snow.

My copy is 239 pages long. By page 200 I had finally reached a point where I was somewhat interested in what would happen to the main characters. At page 225 the reader starts getting some information that manages to make a little sense of the amorphous mess that precedes it. But the final conclusion between the two main characters is still very ambiguous.

If Scooter is very fortunate, when President Bush pardons him for the crimes for which he has been indicted, he will also pardon him for his crimes against literature. If we are very fortunate, Scooter will then be hired by a lobbying firm and he will be too busy to write any more novels.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsVery ambitious novel

I tried to go into "The Apprenitce" with as open a mind as possible despite a lot of negative comments. As a story, it was a bit far-reaching in what it tried to do... Read more

Published on July 17, 2014 by Justin Chin
1.0 out of 5 starsOdd and hard to follow (despite gorgeous, literary-looking cover)

If you want lengthy descriptions of snow, snow and more snow (oh yes, a storm with snow in it too), and characters who lack names, and a murder, and not much at all happening (or... Read more

Published on July 15, 2014 by Prof Lesa
1.0 out of 5 starsPuerile.

The dust cover says it is elegant writing. Technically, perhaps. I found the plot and story and details absolutely puerile. Read more

Published on February 15, 2011 by Hammurabi
4.0 out of 5 starsEvocative snow scenes, highly original story

Let's get a few things straight:

1. I'm not American
2. I'd never heard of Libby before reading this book
3. Read more

Published on April 26, 2009 by Sinbad
5.0 out of 5 starsGood winter read...

This was a very interesting book to read. I like to read certain books based on the season, so that I can relate better to the atmosphere the characters are in. Read more

Published on December 28, 2008 by VaNessa
5.0 out of 5 starsWelcome to the Snow Country

Judging this book on its representation of Japan is wrong. In fact, it's stupid. Japan is simply the setting. Read more

Published on August 13, 2008 by sb
4.0 out of 5 starsUnderappreciated

At the risk of conflict between me and almost every other reviewer of this novel, I would have to say that I enjoyed this book immensely. Read more

Published on October 22, 2007 by Madi
1.0 out of 5 starsCreepy!

I couldn't recommend this book less because there is no option for no stars. Forget the bad prose and the total 'orientalism' of the plot (sad! Read more

Published on October 19, 2007 by Amazonian
4.0 out of 5 starsFour stars, you say??!!

Virtually every reviewer has missed the point of this book. The fact that a man in Libby's position, with all his insider knowledge, would write a work of "fiction" is in itself... Read more

Published on October 27, 2006 by Dr. French
1.0 out of 5 starsVanity Press

Now we know what Lewis Libby doodles on his yellow pad when Vice Presidntial staff meetings get too boring. Boyhood dreams of treasure hunts and bad guys. And bestiality. Read more

Published on June 16, 2006 by John Van Wagner

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