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Amateur Barbarians (2009)

by Robert Cohen(Favorite Author)

3.12 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0743230361 (ISBN13: 9780743230360)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Scribner

review 1: I am on the fence here about this book. THe story is well told, but I have a hapless sense about the narration, not just Teddy--which is decidedly not how the story should go in my mind. I am not sure how this got into the top 50 notable NYT books for 2009, but while it was not a book I regretted reading, it didn't rise to that level for me. It is a book about losing the momentum in your life, and the trouble that can get you into--coupled with a system that allows you to retain an income whilst taking a year off to either figure out where you need to go or to go somewhere else, or find more meaning in what you were doing before--Teddy does two out of three, but he never quite manages the tough stuff, which is that his relationship with his wife is totally out of wack,... more and he never went to her for help in the whole mess. This is good, has some excellent points, and I would recommend it if you read 50 books a year.
review 2: I don't understand how this book made the "best books of 2009" list. To its credit it did make me laugh and had some insightful bits of dialogue. Where it falls flat is any promise of offering up a nugget of knowledge or hidden truth about the drive to keep going in life. We are thrust into the story of two men at two very different stages in life. In one corner we have Oren, a 30 year old that took his time deciding exactly what path his life should lead. He had jumped from major to major in a few upscale American universities. He is well-travelled and has had his adventures abroad and now feels the pull to finally put down some roots. In the other corner we have Teddy; who it seems was born rooted. The principal of a community middle school he has spent his whole life playing the role of upstanding citizen. His family life, career and health seem to be in a period of upheaval which leads him on a strange course to his own new adventure. What I found odd was though I am more around Oren's age I identified more fully with Teddy. It may have nothing to do with age after all. There is lies the rub. Connections were non-existant. I could relate in some small part to all of the characters but they all seem so flawed. I hated the character of Gail. She seemed cold. Teddy really loved her and at a time he needed her the most she ran into the arms of a younger man, namely Oren. Oren was another piece of work. At times disarming but on the whole just self-conscious and whimpering. Is this what a close look at a family unit would reveal? I should hope not. I felt absolutely no love within the Hasting's household. The only emotions were cowardly ones. I could not understand the simmering anomosity contained by the female member's of the tribe against a father that clearly was just trying as hard as he could to retain some sort of family structure. less

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