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nolan00's review against another edition
3.0
Gripping. True. Remarkable. Exceptionally average until the end, which threw me against the walls of my mind until the very last page. // 3 stars until the last 1/3, which I would assign 4.25 stars if possible.
babyruth510's review against another edition
2.0
I had a hard time getting into this book. Parts of it were thought-provoking as the author explored some interesting issues. However, much of it was tedius.
lisawhelpley's review against another edition
3.0
This was a tough book. Tough to get going on reading it and then I flew through the last third of the book. Tough because of all the varying subject matter. Not sure I could recommend it to anybody.
marthagal's review against another edition
4.0
I chose YOU OR SOMEONE LIKE YOU because it sounded perfect for me, given my nerdiness with books and love of crappy reality TV. In this novel, Anne, the narrator, is married to Howard Rosenbaum, a famous producer in Hollywood. Both Anne and Howard have doctorates in literature, and one of Howard's colleagues asks Anne to come up with a reading list for her. Within weeks, Anne is holding book groups for half of Hollywood and starts unintentionally playing an important role in which projects get made and which ones get shelved.
About a hundred pages into this book, I thought it was going to be a cliche plot - the story about the Hollywood starter wife being traded in for a younger model. Or the story about the wife who has always been in the background, supporting her husband, and then her career takes off the husband gets jealous and steps out on her in order to feel important again. Etcetera. Still, I found the book enjoyable in spite of these perceived cliches because of all the literature that's interspersed and woven into the plot. Anne uses novels and poetry to tell her reading groups - as well as the reader - about her life, about how she sees the outside world.
Then I felt the novel suddenly became a totally different book about religion and God and Judaism and the Holocaust. Though I guess it's not completely fair of me to say that it became a different book - the groundwork for Howard's religious crisis was laid early on. I just never saw it coming, much like Anne.
I found the second part of the book completely fascinating. I had never thought about the rules of Judaism, how the religion demands that the world be separated into Jewish and Gentile - as something racist and wrong. That the outrage over the Nazis singling out the Jews to die in the Holocaust was hypocritical, as it was just the inverse of what Jews have always done by singling themselves out. I found this idea pretty unsettling, actually, and I'm still am not sure what I think about it.
There's a lot in the book. Fun details about how Hollywood works. Name dropping of celebrities (J.J. Abrams attends the book group.). Literature and how it can illuminate life. Religion. Homosexuality. The meaning of life.
I really enjoyed this and would recommend it.
About a hundred pages into this book, I thought it was going to be a cliche plot - the story about the Hollywood starter wife being traded in for a younger model. Or the story about the wife who has always been in the background, supporting her husband, and then her career takes off the husband gets jealous and steps out on her in order to feel important again. Etcetera. Still, I found the book enjoyable in spite of these perceived cliches because of all the literature that's interspersed and woven into the plot. Anne uses novels and poetry to tell her reading groups - as well as the reader - about her life, about how she sees the outside world.
Then I felt the novel suddenly became a totally different book about religion and God and Judaism and the Holocaust. Though I guess it's not completely fair of me to say that it became a different book - the groundwork for Howard's religious crisis was laid early on. I just never saw it coming, much like Anne.
I found the second part of the book completely fascinating. I had never thought about the rules of Judaism, how the religion demands that the world be separated into Jewish and Gentile - as something racist and wrong. That the outrage over the Nazis singling out the Jews to die in the Holocaust was hypocritical, as it was just the inverse of what Jews have always done by singling themselves out. I found this idea pretty unsettling, actually, and I'm still am not sure what I think about it.
There's a lot in the book. Fun details about how Hollywood works. Name dropping of celebrities (J.J. Abrams attends the book group.). Literature and how it can illuminate life. Religion. Homosexuality. The meaning of life.
I really enjoyed this and would recommend it.
crankyisgood's review against another edition
2.0
I never got past the book-club business although I did manage to get past 50 pages, the very-reasonable test suggested by Nancy Pearl. I'm glad this is a library book that I can return, but frustrated that I didn't get to learn anything from the book.
offbalance80's review against another edition
1.0
Tedious people should not write memoirs. What's more, authors should not write fictional memoirs of tedious people.
Despite a premise rife for interest, this book was plodding, the character a dull windbag, and the parts of the story that could become interesting were lost under a pile of badly-constructed prose.
Despite a premise rife for interest, this book was plodding, the character a dull windbag, and the parts of the story that could become interesting were lost under a pile of badly-constructed prose.
gohawks's review against another edition
5.0
I am writing this review about a year and a half after finishing the book. I just started thinking about it again today, and I wanted to read it again. This book had many flaws, and it is not one that I would usually give 5 stars. However, it didn't leave me for almost a month after reading it. I wanted many people I knew to read it too. (I would later re-think recommending it to some because I was not ready to have the nearly unavoidable discussions that would follow.) This is a book that I dismissed, loved and wrestled with throughout. But it is a book that I can't seem to forget, and that alone makes it high on my list.
I never go into plot because anyone can read the summary. But the author draws the book lover in with a plot of a wife of a Hollywood exec starting a book club for Hollywood producers and directors. There is a lot of Hollywood name dropping with J.J. Abrams and others. And this is the candy coating of the novel. You mean we get to read about book clubs and movies? Sign me up. Then THE BIG THEME is revealed. The novel ponders the question of religion - Judaism, in particular - and what it means to be part of a religion versus being part of a people or ethnic group. How do we choose religion or spirituality and how is it chosen for us? Not to say the book answers these, but it ponders them. It was clear that it was very personal to the author who discloses somewhere within the books pages that it was inspired by an event that happened to him. However, this should not make it any more important that complete fiction. Along the way, a few of the characters act improbably at times and the writing can suggest a certain pretentiousness at first, but the greatness of this book is in the questions it raises.
I never go into plot because anyone can read the summary. But the author draws the book lover in with a plot of a wife of a Hollywood exec starting a book club for Hollywood producers and directors. There is a lot of Hollywood name dropping with J.J. Abrams and others. And this is the candy coating of the novel. You mean we get to read about book clubs and movies? Sign me up. Then THE BIG THEME is revealed. The novel ponders the question of religion - Judaism, in particular - and what it means to be part of a religion versus being part of a people or ethnic group. How do we choose religion or spirituality and how is it chosen for us? Not to say the book answers these, but it ponders them. It was clear that it was very personal to the author who discloses somewhere within the books pages that it was inspired by an event that happened to him. However, this should not make it any more important that complete fiction. Along the way, a few of the characters act improbably at times and the writing can suggest a certain pretentiousness at first, but the greatness of this book is in the questions it raises.
lazygal's review against another edition
3.0
A difficult book to read - perhaps it's one that's trying too hard to do too much? What I mean is, there are four things going on, and in some ways they all get short shrift. A marriage disintegrates over religion... a woman finds herself suddenly to be "important" in ways that she doesn't quite expect... a son comes out to his parents... how to understand literature in a world that doesn't quite read any more. Any one of those would overwhelming, and as a group it just feels like there's something not quite There.
Ostensibly this is the story of Anne's book club(s), but the choices she makes for the groups are deliberate Messages Choices. Because we only get her take on the books, rather than the groups reactions to them, there's nothing to counterbalance her opinions. When Howard decides that being a cultural Jew is not enough, we see this through her rather cool, non-Jewish, half-British eyes. There's almost a sense of mocking that this could, for anyone, be important (totally in character for Anne, but still...).
Over all I liked it, but the didactic nature of the dismissal of religion niggled; Anne's voice was not always easy to read, another niggle.
Ostensibly this is the story of Anne's book club(s), but the choices she makes for the groups are deliberate Messages Choices. Because we only get her take on the books, rather than the groups reactions to them, there's nothing to counterbalance her opinions. When Howard decides that being a cultural Jew is not enough, we see this through her rather cool, non-Jewish, half-British eyes. There's almost a sense of mocking that this could, for anyone, be important (totally in character for Anne, but still...).
Over all I liked it, but the didactic nature of the dismissal of religion niggled; Anne's voice was not always easy to read, another niggle.
colls's review against another edition
4.0
Probably the only serious-minded book that I read this month, although I didn't realize that going in. This book is told from the POV of Anne Rosenbaum, wife of Howard, a Hollywood producer-executive-whatever. She has a literary degree from Columbia and somehow ends up hosting a book club for various Hollywood bigwigs. I was a bit put off by various name dropping ( JJ Abrams, for example) but I suppose it was meant to lend credence to the tale. Also, the method of dialog took a bit to get used to, but ended up being well-paced because of it.
This book examines literature. This book examines life. This book does not always come up with a rosy conclusion. Some comparisons involving race, religion and society may be rather uncomfortable, as it questions why we separate ourselves from others and then rage at those who separate us in the same manner, calling them bigots and racists.
This book examines literature. This book examines life. This book does not always come up with a rosy conclusion. Some comparisons involving race, religion and society may be rather uncomfortable, as it questions why we separate ourselves from others and then rage at those who separate us in the same manner, calling them bigots and racists.
mandi_m's review against another edition
I quite enjoyed all the literary references but didn't really warm to the characters. I felt a little let down as I was expecting to really love this one. I think it will be a good read for those who love literature as well as the glitz of Hollywood but I think some of the satire in this one fell a little flat.