Paul Chowder is procrastinating to finish his poetry book "Misery Hat". He's not inspired. He needs a new outlet, and he's lonely, he's miserable, he needs his inspiration. He's got a fear of getting old and FOMO. He searches his past and reminisces about being a Bassoon player, woulda coulda shoulda a little bit, discusses the trivia around Bassoon, music, cigars, history, politics, Quakerism, and devises excuses to try to get back with his old flame.
Lots of trivia. Interesting but a bit excessive.
Some quotes I enjoyed include from page 201 "Out of worry or trouble or despair must come some enlightenment. Maybe that's what a chord progression can teach us." and also from p 270 "The past washes over all of us. And when it washes over us, it comes and it goes. It's a palindrome of oceanic activity."
He lets you in on Paul Chowder's creative thinking progress, which is relatable for those that are creative.
This book is good for those who are musicians and writers, into trivia or political history. ( )

I liked this one a lot, and more so as I got further in. The protagonist is likable, and the prose is nice. I learned a lot from the book, from different things about classical music to what the really neat traveling sprinkler is. It's an effortless read with plenty to delight. The jacket cover calls it enchanting, and I guess that's about right. I probably should have read The Anthologist first, since Baker first introduces our protagonist in that book. I think I probably picked this one as my first Baker novel because it was the most recent. I feel like I had read some of Baker's nonfiction (I think maybe a review or two in Harper's), and I'm glad to have tried his fiction. I'll be reading more. ( )

This is the second book in the Paul Chowder Chronicles -- my bad for not starting at the first as it might've given this some context. This is a coming-of-middle-age story, as far as I can tell. Paul Chowder, a Quaker attender, a minor poet and now wanna-be song writer shares a sliver of a summer of his life as he turns 55. It reminded me of Seinfeld, if Seinfeld were a poet and not a comedian and lived in New Hampshire and not New York -- "it's a book about nothing" -- Paul has a best friend/former girlfriend Roz and wishes she were his current girl friend, but she is dating a dull doctor. Paul's other best friend Tim is a professor at Tufts and is obsessed with the evil of killer drones. Meanwhile, Paul ruminates through a far-ranging assortment of esoteric topics from classical music (esp. the bassoon and Debussy's Sunken Cathedral) to modern music making and mixing via Logic software, to a thorough knowledge of poetry and poets (including Archibald MacLeish's role in the CIA), to the merits of various cigar brands to the workings and history of traveling sprinklers (the kind with wheels that move across the lawn). He has tons of time to contemplate these topics and indulge these habits amid his daily routine of working out at Planet Fitness and walking his dog and checking in with Roz and Tim. He does have some great lines: "The past washes over all of us. And when it washes over us, it comes and it goes. It's a palindrome of oceanic activity." He is searching for love, meaning, and wants to create something that matters. Despite the accumulated knowledge of half a lifetime, "You still have to feel your way singingly through." I can't say I enjoyed reading this book per se, but it made me look up all sorts of stuff afterward -- one worthwhile investigation: Stephen Fearing's song "I don't want to know about evil, I just want to know about love." The you-tube url is even included! ( )

The old GoodReads used to ask, instead of "What do you think?", "What did you learn?" and I liked that. It stopped those deadly narratives in their tracks. (Well, of course it didn't. People ignored the prompt and went right ahead with "This is a story about a man who is separated from his girlfriend and doesn't want to be.")
This is a delightful story, and funny! and I learned a lot about music and a little about cigars and incidentally what a traveling sprinkler is. I am dismayed about what I learned about Archibald Macleish. There are absolutely lyrical passages on unlikely topics. But I'm afraid my friend Gerry Coleman would not like this book; it is not plot driven. It's actually a sequel but you could happily read this charmer and not know that and not care.
Here's an added bonus: my husband marvels at how accurately Nicholson Baker can depict, can verbalize how men think. It could just be this is how my husband thinks, but I'm willing to trust him as an authority, along with Nicholson Baker. Note to self: look up the Robert Frost quote on p.160
( )

Nothing happened, to a character I never really liked.

I enjoyed "The Anthologist" but this was just one slow, pointless tangent after another.
( )