My Old Man

Rating:
Summary: Could Amy Sohn Be Our 21st Century Edith Wharton?
Review: "My Old Man" is a far better sophomore literary effort from fellow Brunonian Amy Sohn, perhaps best known for her sex advice columns in The New York Press and now, more recently, New York Magazine, and her literary debut "Run, Catch, Kiss". Although it covers some of the same terrain with respect to characters and situations as her earlier novel, "My Old Man" shows that Amy Sohn is becoming a more sophisticated, yet still witty, observer of sexual relationships between men and women; and though it is set in an upper middle class Jewish community in Brooklyn, New York, her observations may have a universal quality to them. I found this almost impossible to put down, and read this short novel in the short span of two nights (I am also delighted that the work of one of my favorite contemporary painters, John Currin, is depicted on the novel's book jacket.).

Rabbinical school dropout Rachel Block finds herself tending bar and falling head over heels for distinguished screenwriter Hank Powell, who is nearly her father's age. And her father, "The Old Man" of the novel's title, is secretly cheating his wife - Rachel's mother - by having an affair with Liz, Rachel's upstairs sex-crazed neighbor. This is a moving, often intriguing, examination of dysfunctional sexual relationships, wrapped in a sexy literary valentine of affection to Brooklyn's Cobble Hill neighborhood. I can't help but wonder whether Amy's vicarious exploration of the foibles of sexual relationships may yet yield poignant literary observations as memorable as Edith Wharton's of her Gilded Age Protestant Waspish Manhattan society; indeed Amy may yet become a 21st Century Wharton chronicling the loves and lives of upper middle class Jewish New Yorkers, yet working in themes which will resonate as well with Gentiles such as yours truly. In her descriptions of the people and neighborhood of Cobble Hill, Amy reminds me mosly of Jonathan Lethem's own memorable depictions of this neighborhood in his novels "Motherless Brooklyn" and "Fortress of Solitude". Without question, Amy Sohn is certainly a writer to watch, whom I believe is truly destined for greatness.

Rating:
Summary: Schtuppin' in the Borough
Review: Amy Sohn's "My Old Man" is funny and smart! Sohn made a neighborhood in Brooklyn (cobble hill) into a main character of the novel against the backdrop of love and family. The books is about different generations finding love and themselves. The hilarity of a dysfunctional family is written with warmth and comedy.

Rating:
Summary: It's not Chick Lit, it's Great Lit (by a Chick)
Review: Finally. This is the kind of book I love. I am so unbelievably sick of chick lit and how it has become the new Harlequin. It's gotten so that you have to beware of any book written by a woman for fear it'll be inconsequential crap.

Not this one. You can tell by the art on the cover that this book understands itself and it's place in history. I say history because I think Amy Sohn is actually a pioneer of women writing about sex. Why? BEACUSE SHE MAKES IT REAL.

It's sort of like Lolita, a couple years later, from Lolita's point of view. Sure old men lust after young chicks, but what do young chicks see in Old Men? This book explains it in the hottest, sexiest, funniest ways.

It's dark, it's light, It's so dang bold, it's spiritual, it's frivolous, it turns you on and most importantly it's one you can't put down. I love when that happens. I just went on vacation and this book became my best friend and secret lover. I read it sitting in the sun by the pool but also stayed up late at night even when I was tired before bed because I had to know what happened next.



Rating:
Summary: May-December Stuff for the Dirt of it
Review: I read this one first and liked the somewhat immature but biting writing, as well as various insights into May-December affairs. But here, too, Sohn cuts to the sex so fast so often that it becomes difficult to fathom how these folks can be so mindless in their sexual romps.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good
Review: I thought this book was great until I got to page 88. The racial overtones in this book just left my skin crawling. For example: "They find it hard to distinguish, so they just see us in broad categories. Men look at women the way black people look at white people." How would this Jewish girl know how black people look at white people? It does not even make sense. This quote alone has upset me just enough so that I will be unable to finish reading the book in a joyful manner. I do not get offended easily and maybe I am overreacting, but I can not let it go. The sexual stuff does not even bother me. I admit that I have not finished the book yet, but I will try to finish it without vomiting.

Rating:
Summary: good
Review: this book really helped me think about and deal with my own parents divorce