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The Baggage Handler

by Colin Browne (Goodreads Author)

4.0 of 5 stars 4.00 · rating details · 14 ratings · 9 reviews

Martin White, editor of The Shallow Review of Books, likes his life as he likes his work: shallow. Living in purposeful near-isolation in the middle of a crowded city, he keeps his relationships superficial and his life uncomplicated. His deliberate avoidance of social potholes prompts his colleagues to turn to him for assistance handling their own life and relationship ba...more

Kindle Edition, 250 pages

Published January 11th 2012 by Colin Browne

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Mar 05, 2012 Emma rated it 3 of 5 stars

Martin is the writer of a successful column called The Shallow Review of Books. Instead of actually reading the books, he gives people what they want to hear: which celebrity is reading what. At work, Martin is known as the baggage handler; someone people go to when they want to share their problems and emotional baggage. Being the resident agony aunt has helped Martin realize that baggage is something he doesn’t need. Like his reviews, Martin’s life is shallow. When a new co-worker from Poland...more Martin is the writer of a successful column called The Shallow Review of Books. Instead of actually reading the books, he gives people what they want to hear: which celebrity is reading what. At work, Martin is known as the baggage handler; someone people go to when they want to share their problems and emotional baggage. Being the resident agony aunt has helped Martin realize that baggage is something he doesn’t need. Like his reviews, Martin’s life is shallow. When a new co-worker from Poland catches Martin’s eye, he finds himself wanting to make the effort to get to know her. Unfortunately, his attempts to get to know Kassia always seem to end in disaster. Does the shallow reviewer have what it takes to let someone get to know him on a deeper level?

Great for fans of the male equivalent to ‘chick lit,’ or writers like Jonathan Tropper, Nick Hornby and Matthew Norman. This book follows Londoner Martin, who writes very superficial reviews of books. Martin’s book reviews are a reflection of what his life is like: although he helps people with their problems, he does what he can so he doesn’t have any of his own. Who needs heartbreak and emotional baggage? Once Martin meets Kasia, it looks like he is the once who is in need of advice. This humorous depiction of romance from the male perspective was honest and quite fun to read. Martin has only been in love once but things didn’t end well. Now, he doesn’t like to get too invested in people to prevent himself from getting hurt. While sometimes watching him make a mess of things was frustrating, he was loveable overall. Some of the secondary characters were quite funny and there was, of course, Kasia, Martin’s love interest. In most books and movies, I feel like the main character falls in love too quickly. While this happened with The Baggage Handler, I still liked their relationship (when Martin wasn’t making a mess of things) and could see why he liked her. While these was lots of humour and this book was easy to enjoy, the pacing felt a bit off midway through and I wish there had been more subplots, instead of so much focus on Martin winning over Kasia. All in all, this was a fun book with a very satisfying ending.

3.5/5(less)

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Mar 04, 2012 Tracey Sexton rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read the Baggage Handler because the author suggested I read it. Usually I read crime fiction, mystery and lots of non-fiction publications, and haven't read a "romance" book for a long time. It took a while for me adjust to the plot, I kept wondering when the murder would take place. This book is not the usual romance book.
I don’t think that Martin is unusual when it comes to trying to get the attention of ones we desire, some of us too, have been known to behave awkwardly and do weird stuff...more

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Apr 10, 2012 Barbara added it

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Baggage Handler. From a reading point of view, I found it easy to read and I could identify with the tone and language of the book. It had a light hearted, witty humour. I thought the characters were well worked, and very different from each other, and you always felt as though you could have met any one of them in your own life.
The story line was nice and simple, you wanted Martin to take his foot out of his mouth and make head way with the girl of his dreams bu...more

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Jan 31, 2012 Claudia rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read the baggage handler while I was on holiday and got so absorbed in Martins adventures I could hardly put it down.

Martin White may think he has all the answers, but when Kasia turns up he realises he is as hopeless (if not more so) than most the people who are constantly asking for his advice. He does his best to win the lovely Kasia over but he learns that sometimes life and love, just aren't that easy. There are many twists and turns which produce some hysterical, and occasionally embarra...more

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Aug 31, 2012 LindyLouMac rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My last read was a serious and somewhat sad one so I felt I needed a complete contrast. In choosing The Baggage Handler I certainly found something that made me smile, romance and relationships from a male point of view. Not yet to the standard of Nick Hornby or Tony Parsons but he could be one day as this is after all a début novel.

A pleasant enough easy read but it is not going to be a memorable one as I felt the storyline was all very superficial, never allowing the reader to really get to kn...more My last read was a serious and somewhat sad one so I felt I needed a complete contrast. In choosing The Baggage Handler I certainly found something that made me smile, romance and relationships from a male point of view. Not yet to the standard of Nick Hornby or Tony Parsons but he could be one day as this is after all a début novel.

A pleasant enough easy read but it is not going to be a memorable one as I felt the storyline was all very superficial, never allowing the reader to really get to know the characters in depth. Although all of them were well depicted, there was so much more I would have liked to have known. I almost felt that I read the book too quickly because it was character rather than plot based and therefore a little shorter than it might have been.

I did not really like the protagonist Martin to start with but that may have been something to do with his work and the fact that he came over as such a pathetically weak man. A real loner he keeps everyone including his Mother at a distance whilst on the other hand he is the person that everyone seems to seek out for emotional advice. It is rather amusing though to think that his Shallow Book Reviews based on what books celebrities are reading rather than if a book is worthwhile or not, brings a certain media led trilogies popularity to mind!

The reader soon realises that despite Martin's isolated and simple uncomplicated life style when it comes to relationships he is happy in his own way. At least until he meets Kasia, a young pretty Polish work colleague, that he finds himself attracted to. He discovers that his social ineptitude makes it almost impossible for him to strike up a friendship with her, let alone a romantic connection. This is where the humour comes in as Martin's attempts at romance will have you laughing, yet also feeling sorry and angry for him all at the same time.

Martin discovers that falling in love is far from easy but as to if he is eventually successful or not, read the book to find out.

http://lindyloumacbookreviews.blogspo...(less)

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Jun 26, 2012 Nadine Larter rated it 5 of 5 stars

It's scary when you have a book written by a friend on your bookshelf. To be honest - my pile of books written by people I know is getting bigger and I very seldom tend to it as I am a pure coward. Even if you don't know that friend very well, there definitely exists a bit of tension between yourself and this book that you feel kind of obligated to. I know in some worlds a five star rating for a friend is a given - and I do not disagree with this because I believe that completely unbridled and b...more It's scary when you have a book written by a friend on your bookshelf. To be honest - my pile of books written by people I know is getting bigger and I very seldom tend to it as I am a pure coward. Even if you don't know that friend very well, there definitely exists a bit of tension between yourself and this book that you feel kind of obligated to. I know in some worlds a five star rating for a friend is a given - and I do not disagree with this because I believe that completely unbridled and biased support for a friend is absolutely wonderful and it has its place in holding up the receiver of that support - but I sort of feel unable to offer that kind of support in the book world because it is a world so close to my heart. If you were to create a video game or knit a scarf I might unashamedly brand you flawless - here I cannot do so without feeling like my integrity is being severely compromised. Now... it very unlikely that I will ever give a friend (or an acquaintance)a terrible review because for the most part I am not a soul-destroying art demon. What I do try to do is pull out the things that worked for me and focus on those. I also try to judge work for itself and not for what my particular tastes might be, which is not always very easy because I have such specific taste. For instance, I find YA fiction especially hard to judge because I don't think I relate to run-of-the-mill teenagers very well at all. In fact when I read these books I kind of tend to think of my step daughter and go "will she like this in a few years time?" and go from there. Anyway - the point is that I try to judge a book for what it is and where it fits in as far as the literary world is concerned and then I go from there. But for this book? This book I just gave it five stars because I enjoyed reading it very much. It is 100% *MY* genre for one (can we call it "blokelit"? I love blokelit!)When I give a book 5 stars it is simply because the book has my *it* requirement. I never know when I am going to find my *it* requirement and I have found it so seldom lately but this one just had *it* for me. Keep writing Colin Browne my dear friend. You will be up there with Tony Parsons and Nick Hornby and Mike Gayle in no time. I am so glad I finally got around to nodding along with your book :)(less)

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Apr 16, 2012 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was initially drawn to this book after reading (and loving) Domestic Violets by Matthew Norman and really enjoying the male perspective on love. This book had been compared to it so I was intrigued.

Martin is a likeable character and his backwardness was charming to me. When he fell for Kasia, he fell hard and wholeheartedly. He was trying the best he knew how and I began rooting for him right away. Kasia, on the other hand, had her own issues and made him work for every inch of ground he was t...more I was initially drawn to this book after reading (and loving) Domestic Violets by Matthew Norman and really enjoying the male perspective on love. This book had been compared to it so I was intrigued.

Martin is a likeable character and his backwardness was charming to me. When he fell for Kasia, he fell hard and wholeheartedly. He was trying the best he knew how and I began rooting for him right away. Kasia, on the other hand, had her own issues and made him work for every inch of ground he was to make towards her. Most of the time, Martin would take one step forward and two steps back. In the many times that he tried to make headway with her, I felt Kasia was being too hard on him, but that made him try just that much harder.

The tribulations that Martin went through to win Kasia's love were sometimes funny and sometimes just plain sad. There were times I just shook my head. Ironically, Martin soon became the one seeking advice because, clearly, nothing that he did was working. Being the Baggage Handler and solving other peoples' problems did not prepare or help him in his own life. Along with his neighbor, Rupert, I also enjoyed the character of Isabel, Martin's mother, who would visit from France. Their back and forth bantering was comical and Browne's genius at making her a successful lawyer only made their conversations more combative, but in an insightful way.

All in all, THE BAGGAGE HANDLER is an entertaining read and I did enjoy Martin's character. I truly wanted him to win the girl. That said, near the end, I was starting to grow weary of the push and pull from Kasia, even though she was reacting to Martin's sometimes moronic moves. Poor guy, he just didn't know better. There is a definite message in the story though: No matter how good you think you are at giving other people advice, it doesn't necessarily make you equipped to handle obstacles that appear in your own life. As a debut novel I think THE BAGGAGE HANDLER was a success and I think Colin Browne has a unique writing style that will grow and be better with each new book. He is someone I will be on the lookout for in the future.(less)

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Feb 23, 2012 Richard Mulholland rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

I really loved this book. It was chickfic for dudes. It took me a few chapters to start relating to Martin, the protagonist, but once you're in, you're in. I also think I may be in love with Kasia.

Highly recommended, Nick Hornsby, move over!

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Jul 23, 2012 Aydin Kintziger rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult-fiction, fiction

Thoroughly entertaining; very hard to put this one down. Romantic comedy/drama for guys.

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Q&A with Coli...: Random Randomness	1	3	Apr 16, 2012 02:35pm
Q&A with Coli...: Writers that I love	5	5	Apr 14, 2012 03:14pm
Q&A with Coli...: Welcome! I've been waiting for you ...	4	5	Apr 14, 2012 02:05pm
Q&A with Coli...: About The Baggage Handler	1	3	Apr 14, 2012 04:07am
Q&A with Coli...: On writing and researching	1	3	Apr 14, 2012 04:03am

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About Colin Browne

I don't know where I'm from, but my best guess is that I'm South African though that's really a twist-of-fate rather than a birthright. Born in England, I moved to Belgium when I was two, South Africa when I was 12, Dubai when I was 25, back to South Africa when I was 31, London when I was 40 and these days I call Johannesburg home.

I've done some fun stuff. I helped start a successful business in...more

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“That’s different. The French know that the English are superior to them and they’re appropriate about it. The Eastern Europeans on the other hand have no sense of place. All that communism has them thinking that everyone really is of the same class and we are absolutely not. But they don’t know that.” — 0 people liked it

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