|
|
|
|
|
Poet Scott Barron has a pretty good life. He’s got a beautiful girlfriend, a supportive mom, some great friends, an agent who worships him, and a brand new book on the market. But all good things must come to an end. His girlfriend leaves, he makes a fool of himself on national TV, his agent threatens to dump him, and things just keep falling apart. It’s then that Scott realizes that he envies his younger brother, Jes, an overweight struggling writer with a loving wife.
Men and Other Mammals wasn’t really what I expected. I expected a goofy-but-a-little-bit-touching, male Bridget Jones-y kind of book. Perhaps I was judging the book by its colorful, cartoony cover. But that’s not really what this book is. Sure, it has its funny moments -- especially in the beginning -- but it’s more of an introspective story with a bit of quirk thrown in to lighten it up every once in a while. And then there’s also some strange stuff about penguins, but I’m not going to get into that right now. You’ll just have to find out for yourself -- all I’ll say is that I’ll look differently at penguins from now on.
As I mentioned earlier, this book wasn’t what I was expecting -- so I guess that disappointed me a bit. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy parts of it. As a writer, I loved the stories about Scott’s struggle to be a famous, best-selling poet. And the more serious stuff was often intelligent and insightful -- but there were parts of the book that I found to be just plain bitter and depressing.
So I’m not telling you to avoid this book. In fact, if you do decide to read it, I can promise you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll learn more about penguins, and you may just learn a little bit about yourself. Just know what you’re getting yourself into, and you won’t be disappointed.
|
|
|
|
