Reproduction is the Flaw of Love

Rating:
Summary: Realistic and enjoyable.
Review: As he waits for his girlfriend to take a pregnancy test, Joel Miller ponders his life and relationships. Grodstein knows her 20/30-something audience and their life experiences/vulnerabilities. For those tired of fluffy chick-lit, looking for something a little more meaty. Very real, sometimes funny, sometimes sad, astute and enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book
Review: I actually read this entire book in a day. It starts off in the present and then uses the majority of it's length to jump around and tell the stories that have led to Miller being where he is right now. It's an easy enjoyable read, and not too hard to follow. The characters are very real, and you'll find yourself indentifying with them rather quickly. I got a little bored with the problems of his mother, but it doesn't drag on endlessly and it's still more than worth reading through. Grodstein also manages to make you fall in love with Blair just as much as Miller does. You sympathize with the protagonist, and by the end of the book, you just want everything to work out well for him. You find yourself really looking for that happy ending.

Rating:
Summary: Great Read
Review: I am so glad I bought this book. Ms. Grodstein has achieved a wonderful balance between bittersweet and humorous. I immediately identified with the protagonist, despite the fact that he is male and I am female, and quickly began to care about him. I also commend Ms. Grodstein for the clever structuring of the story, interweaving the past and the present. Many authors try this method and it often winds up feeling clunky or simply confusing.

It's nice to see a book about people in their early 30's that isn't chick lit or gossip lit. I look forward to the next effort from this talented writer.



Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful First Novel
Review: I really can't say enough about this excellent, assured first novel. The story of a young man - Miller - in the longest hours of his life, Lauren Grodstein's "Reproduction is the Flaw of Love" treats issues of love and family with a deft touch, and a real feel for narrative. While Miller waits for the results of his girlfriend's pregnancy test, Grodstein moves seamlessly back-and-forth between his present agony, and the events leading up to it.

From a purely prosaic standpoint, the novel is a textbook example of how to perform one of the most difficult tricks in storytelling: the framing sequence. Grodstein does it by firmly grounding Miller's present troubles, and declining the temptation to gild the memories of his troubled family or his enigmatic ex-girlfriend.

It's a wonderful performance, moving and finely crafted. You should read it.

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful First Novel
Review: I really can't say enough about this excellent, assured first novel. The story of a young man - Miller - in the longest hours of his life, Lauren Grodstein's "Reproduction is the Flaw of Love" treats issues of love and family with a deft touch, and a real feel for narrative. While Miller waits for the results of his girlfriend's pregnancy test, Grodstein moves seamlessly back-and-forth between his present agony, and the events leading up to it.

From a purely prosaic standpoint, the novel is a textbook example of how to perform one of the most difficult tricks in storytelling: the framing sequence. Grodstein does it by firmly grounding Miller's present troubles, and declining the temptation to gild the memories of his troubled family or his enigmatic ex-girlfriend.

It's a wonderful performance, moving and finely crafted. You should read it.

Rating:
Summary: A Female Author Contemplates Love From A Man's Point Of View
Review: Reproduction Is The Flaw Of Love is a wonderfully ironic title for a novel precisely because reproduction is, in fact, the point of love. At least biologically speaking. But what draws couples together mostly defies facile categorization and it is the nuances of attraction (and the loss of interest in the beloved over time) that Lauren Grodstein understands so well. That Grodstein wrote this exegesis of lust and longing from the male perspective, and so convincingly, I found truly impressive. In particular, she does justice to the way men experience falling in love and the exquisite vulnerability they may feel once love has taken root. Structurally, the narrative of this cleverly written, entertaining novel has the feel of a series of interconnected short stories which revolve around a protagonist, Miller, who is seen coping with male-female issues at a number of stages of his life. Some segments work better than others but I always have trouble when authors try to accomplish a bit too much with their work. This minor criticism notwithstanding, I thoroughly enjoyed Reproduction Is The Flaw Of Love which I devoured greedily in just a few sittings. I hope that men especially get the opportunity to read it as this novel's honest portrayal of our way of responding to the throws of painful romance holds the promise of opening up a topic or two for much needed consideration.

Rating:
Summary: Obvious plot twists are the flaws of a good book
Review: This amusing, short, easy to read debut novel takes us into the head of a guy waiting for his girlfriend to take a pregnancy test. That head leads us back into his life, through his parents' failed but intriguing marriage, his best-friend's love life, a rich, beautiful ex-girlfriend and "The Great Gatsby" (paging Daisy, anyone?). The wry humor that fills the book (think of using gloves when handling baseball cards or arriving uninvited at a fabulous Hamptons house) makes up for a plot twist that you'll see coming. What is love? Security? Physical attraction? And why can't we love each other the same amount at the same time? And isn't one person's love enough? Occasionally the prose reaches for a false profundity, but overall it's a good, concise read.

Rating:
Summary: The book proves the title?s thesis
Review: This book, about a guy named Miller who reflects on his life and loves while his girlfriend waits for the results of a pregnancy test, has a catchy title. But to assume that it's about how the prospect of parenthood spoils all the fun of a relationship would be to trivialize it.

Try this: the characters in this book - all of whom presumably were conceived in a moment that someone would describe as "love," are what's flawed. But then, aren't we all? And that's what makes this book so engrossing: because it's filled with real people experiencing the poignancy of ordinary existence.

There are many books that thrill us with people and events way outside our frame of reference. This book moves us precisely because it has the ability to evoke in us real thoughts and emotions to which we can relate. And because, in the end, each of us knows that the ultimate adventure is life itself.

Rating:
Summary: The book proves the title¿s thesis
Review: This book, about a guy named Miller who reflects on his life and loves while his girlfriend waits for the results of a pregnancy test, has a catchy title. But to assume that it's about how the prospect of parenthood spoils all the fun of a relationship would be to trivialize it.

Try this: the characters in this book - all of whom presumably were conceived in a moment that someone would describe as "love," are what's flawed. But then, aren't we all? And that's what makes this book so engrossing: because it's filled with real people experiencing the poignancy of ordinary existence.

There are many books that thrill us with people and events way outside our frame of reference. This book moves us precisely because it has the ability to evoke in us real thoughts and emotions to which we can relate. And because, in the end, each of us knows that the ultimate adventure is life itself.

Rating:
Summary: The next new new BIG thing - watch out besteseller list
Review: To say this novel is simple is reductive...and yet it is simple. Simple in premise "man goes out for a pregnancy test" simple, but so layered in meaning and raw existential thought that you can't help but think of Proust's Remembrance of things past..."man eats a piece of cake."

And yet Reproduction reminds me (thankfully!) more of Hornby's High Fidelity than of Proust, The way that Grodstein grabs on to the reader from the beginning, and sends us down a path of remembrance.,,particularly sexual remembrance,,,it has Hornby's edginess with just hints of language that in this day even Proust might've been proud of.

The only problem I see with the novel is that with our deep investment in the radiant players we get to the end confused about what we think is the solution,,,what should we want to happen,,,do we want her to be preganant? Do we want Miller to want chocolate again? Or will he setlle for bread, And if bread has a baby, what would those little tiny muffins taste like? Would you taste the muffins at all, or would you just have to live with all of them in the hell of a single kitchen (sans granite counter-top upgrades) you can barely afford?

Grodstein;s novel ultimately asks the single most important question you can ask in a relationship,,,can circumstance govern your life? Should it? Or can you break free from what you;ve done if you feel it is going to change the course of your life entirely,

And when she gives her answer, you get the greatest suprise of all: surprise that makes sense given the context,,,,not suprise for it;s own sake, but because of what it drives the rich, deep, characters to do, chose, feel,

Abnd THAT is how you write a bestseller. Forget the Da Vinci Code or The Rule of Four...with their endless intellectual brain teasers, just wanting for something more, This one's the one to watch,,,only one puzzle...is she or isn;t she, and it keeps you captivated from page one,