typical of his style, leery husband trying to write and womanise. Fun

I chose to read this because I had just finished a very intense novel and needed something light and/or funny for a change of pace.

This book is amusing at times, thoughtful at times, and narcissistic throughout. The story reminded me of what happens when you stand between two mirrors facing each other; your reflection inside itself into infinity. I understand that the narcissism of the main character was the vehicle for most of the humor. It just became very repetitive.

I will definitely give this author another try in the hope of finding something that I get. ( )

Een schrijver met een writer's block gebruikt zijn eigen leven ter inspiratie voor een nieuwe roman ( )

Jacobson delivers again with a fun romp around Cheshire and London poking fun at the literary world and modern living in general. Misogynistic? Perhaps, hilarious? Definitely. ( )

Howard Jacobson writes a novel about a writer who is writing a book about a writer in current day London. The protagonist in both books is utterly unlikable in every aspect except that he makes acute, hilarious and smack-dab smart observations about reading/readers, literature, art and the publishing world. He also hilariously hits nearly every single single self-absorbed narcissistic thought that every writer/artist has ever had about himself/herself and their craft, but wishes they hadn't, which makes reading it sometimes painful. Jacobson hilariously dives into the shadow of living as a writer. Not liking someone has never been so thought-provoking and laugh-out-loud funny. The ending is tremendously surprising and hopefully without adding a spoiler, the protagonist seems to (possibly) be growing as a feeling and ethical human being, or at least is considering it. It's dirty. Some say for the sake of being dirty, I say, it's essential to what he's trying to accomplish in exposing the underbelly of being an artist, because most art is highly self-absorbed, and his protagonist's literary heroes were overtly sexual males as well. It is splendidly twisted. ( )