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norahbringer's review against another edition
4.0
The book is a bit snarky, yet mostly touching and funny. At one point, I was annoyed with myself for reading another book about an adult man who just wouldn't grow up and kept messing up everything around him. But unlike other books in that overpopulated genre, the main character actually moves forward in this book, and in the end, I found it well worth reading. I would definitely recommend this one!
karroll's review against another edition
1.0
This book grew on me a little towards the end but most of the time I just didn't feel as sorry for Fin as I should've. There are parts here and there that are written beautifully and make for good quotes. Overall, the book was a little slow for my taste and didn't have enough humor or drama to keep me engaged. In its defense, I'm not one for the normal, everyday person's story. People who enjoy Nick Hornby or authors like him will most likely enjoy this one.
jacki_f's review against another edition
5.0
This is a book about figuring out who you are and what makes you happy. Finlay Dolan is nearing 40 and works as a copywriter in NYC. He has never been married, although he was engaged until he called it off 8 months ago. He likes his colleagues but feels ambivalent about his job, and his father, who he hasn’t seen since he was 12, is dying.
I worked in marketing for many years and so the advertising world is very familiar to me, but even if you don’t know what an animatic or a brand manifesto are, most of us are pretty savvy about advertising. Initially I thought this was going to be a fun, slightly sardonic read with the benefit of making me feel hip because I got the little jokes. But gradually it segues into something more soulful, akin to an "Up in the Air" set in the world of advertising. In fact, I could imagine George Clooney as Finbar Nolan all too easily. I also loved the secondary characters, especially Ian and Pam and Phoebe and Keita.
Probably 5 stars is too generous. Probably 4 is more accurate. But I just loved this book, period.
I worked in marketing for many years and so the advertising world is very familiar to me, but even if you don’t know what an animatic or a brand manifesto are, most of us are pretty savvy about advertising. Initially I thought this was going to be a fun, slightly sardonic read with the benefit of making me feel hip because I got the little jokes. But gradually it segues into something more soulful, akin to an "Up in the Air" set in the world of advertising. In fact, I could imagine George Clooney as Finbar Nolan all too easily. I also loved the secondary characters, especially Ian and Pam and Phoebe and Keita.
Probably 5 stars is too generous. Probably 4 is more accurate. But I just loved this book, period.
alanburch79's review against another edition
4.0
Not at all what I expected, and that's a good thing. A semi-sentimental, semi-comical look at a man's life as he contemplates what we all have, at one time or another. Is this all there is to my life?
nixieknox's review against another edition
3.0
Had I not just read several books I liked - so the competition is tough! - I might have given this four stars. Could have lived without the WWII apology, but other than that I found the characters & the ending believable and likeable. Definitely worth a winter weekend read!
davidngillespie's review against another edition
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
smrankin5's review against another edition
3.0
I read this book completely out of order. I really liked the story, I just felt it was hidden behind a bunch of superfluous clutter.
blevins's review against another edition
2.0
Wow I didn't like this book by John Kenney and evidently others do quite a bit..I'm baffled. I enjoy some satire, in fact, I kind of like it, but Truth in Advertising was a huge swing and miss for me. The satire of the advertising world is so utterly forced, heavy-handed and dare I say phony [even though Kenney used to work in this world] that I never believed that these people trading endless barbs and one-liners to one another were anything other than complete fabrications. The key word in that sentence is "endless." I was exhausted by the end of the book by the amount of snappy one-liners that EVERY character had to say to each other on EVERY single page. There sure are a lot of witty people in advertising I guess. The book wallows in a hollow, superficial quality that began to grate on my nerves early and never let up. The protagonist, Fin, is truly one of the most irritating people I've spent 300 pages with in a long long time. No amount of snappy dialogue is going to change my mind on that. In fact, the whole book is just irritating to the core. But, it's getting a lot of hype and positive word of mouth. As I said earlier, I'm baffled.