Friday, March 20, 2015

Memoirs of A Man / Anon


Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Humor

Approximate word count: 55-60,000 words

Availability    
Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO  Paper: YES
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

Anon is a group of stay-at-home Dads who teamed up to tell the story of a man going through the same experience.

Description:

“Paul Rogers is not a good man, but he’s not a bad man either. He’s a man who, due to a high-earning wife and company lay-offs, finds himself at home looking after his baby son.

His days as a rare and angry male carer take him through swimming pools full of naked mothers to lesbian support groups, telling lies to ex-colleagues about Filipino nannies and leaving obscene comments on parenting blogs. Throughout it all, Paul’s life lurches like a badly-maintained stroller towards a devastating and liberating conclusion: his baby’s first day in daycare.”

Appraisal:

Paul Rogers comes off as a bit of a … jerk is the word that I can safely use that best fits. I didn’t much like him at first. But I kept on reading, because the adventures as a stay-at-home dad he was relating (a mixture of titillating and humorous) were still entertaining, plus I wanted to see how it worked out in the end. As I read on I realized that much of Paul’s story was spin, with fantasies masquerading as truth, stories slanted to make him look better than reality, or a case of sour grapes, claiming he didn’t care or that something was no big deal when in reality it was. As the story progresses, Paul changes for the better, growing into and enjoying his new role, even if he doesn’t want to admit it, sometimes even to himself.

The writing was done well, however, there was one point in the book where the voice changed drastically, from a solid, but more conversational prose style to what I can only describe as literary, with more flowery language and bigger, less common words. Both styles were okay (although the predominate style better fit the book’s genre), however the abrupt change was jarring. Still an interesting and entertaining, if at times exasperating read.

FYI:

Some adult situations and language.

It isn’t clear where the authors are from. Possibly some from the US and some from the UK. It appears the intent was to use US spelling conventions, although a few UK spellings slipped through. However, due to syntax and the frequent use of one expletive with a different meaning and usage in the two countries, I’m fairly certain at least one if not all the authors are from the UK. (Not that this really matters, I just found it interesting.)

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: **** Four Stars

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