The narrative style of this book was really different from anything I've read before, and I really enjoyed it. The style felt very personal - like the character narrating the story was a good friend talking directly to you. ( )

The Thousand Hour Club by George O'Har is the meandering story of Tommy Betz. After witnessing the drug deal gone bad murder of his good friend, and trying to hide it from police, friends and family, Tommy embraces his drafting into the Vietnam war by joining the US Air Force. The story follows Tommy's training and subsequent service, along with the making and breaking of his many relationships along the way.

You get the distinct sense that Tommy is really struggling in his search for who he is and what his purpose in life is. In this sense, the meandering of the story line reflects this. At times though, I found this to be quite a tough read in that it was really slow at some points. I did actually have to put the book aside and read something else to give myself a break.

This is not to say that I didn't enjoy many other aspects of the book, such as the many interesting characters that Tommy meets along the way. I didn't connect with Tommy, though, and that started to become a real problem for me. There were many times I just wanted to slap him and tell him to stop feeling so sorry for himself! Things could have been a lot worse for him, and he was quite the whinger at times!

I also felt that all this searching took place and then at the end there was nothing. Tommy never really came to any understanding of himself that I could see. The only thing I felt was that he was at some kind of peace or contentment finally. So, I felt like there was kind of no point to the story and that left me feeling quite let down.

I really feel this book could have done with a lot less meandering & more direction, a decent cut back on length & a decent ending. Otherwise it was an ok read, but just ok.

This review was completed in exchange for a complimentary copy of this book. In no way was tge subsequent review influenced by these circumstances. ( )