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17th out of 73 books
—
106 voters
This Book Will Save Your Life
by
A.M. Homes
From the author of Music for Torching-an uplifting and apocalyptic tale set in Los Angeles about one man's efforts to bring himself back to life
Since her debut in 1989, A. M. Homes has been among the boldest and most original voices of her generation, acclaimed for the psychological accuracy and unnerving emotional intensity of her storytelling. Her keen ability to explo...more
Since her debut in 1989, A. M. Homes has been among the boldest and most original voices of her generation, acclaimed for the psychological accuracy and unnerving emotional intensity of her storytelling. Her keen ability to explo...more
Hardcover, 372 pages
Published
April 20th 2006
by Viking Adult
(first published 2006)
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Jun 22, 2009
Kim
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
most cynics
Recommended to Kim by:
Thank you, Michelle
You know, most days I sit around being angry. I’m in the car, I’m doing dishes, I’m waiting at the dentist (25 minutes after my scheduled appointment time.) and the thing is I’m not really conscious of it. It’s just there. It might present itself in my clenched jaw or that weird stabbing that runs right through my chest and out my back (I’ve been meaning to get that checked out, btw.)
So, I’ve been trying to analyze this. It’s like I’m mad about the ‘what might have beens’, or I’m mad that I’m su...more
So, I’ve been trying to analyze this. It’s like I’m mad about the ‘what might have beens’, or I’m mad that I’m su...more
I would rather stick rusty tacs under my fingernails while listening to my mother on speaker phone, in public, as she breaks down just exactly what I'm doing wrong in my life than finish this book.
I listened to the audiobook from Audible.com.
I very much enjoyed this novel. It was laugh out loud funny in places.
Publisher's Summary
Since her debut in 1989, A.M. Homes has been among the boldest and most original voices of her generation, acclaimed for the psychological accuracy and unnerving emotional intensity of her storytelling. Her keen ability to explore how extraordinary the ordinary can be is at the heart of her touching and funny new novel, her first in six years.
Richard Novak is a mo...more
I very much enjoyed this novel. It was laugh out loud funny in places.
Publisher's Summary
Since her debut in 1989, A.M. Homes has been among the boldest and most original voices of her generation, acclaimed for the psychological accuracy and unnerving emotional intensity of her storytelling. Her keen ability to explore how extraordinary the ordinary can be is at the heart of her touching and funny new novel, her first in six years.
Richard Novak is a mo...more
This is the twelfth book I read on my commute. I started it after getting back from vacation in August, and while I was on vacation I read two other books - The Plutonium Blonde and Adventure! Vol. 1 - but those don't count as commute books since I read them on the beach.
This Book is almost a prototype for what I think of when I think "modern lit" - not much of a plot, just slice of life stuff about how ordinary people relate and get by. This Book has some characters who are a little more offbea...more
This Book is almost a prototype for what I think of when I think "modern lit" - not much of a plot, just slice of life stuff about how ordinary people relate and get by. This Book has some characters who are a little more offbea...more
I found this book in the belongings of my best friend who passed away in Nov. of 2006. She kept it around as a joke; she was dying of cancer. I read the book this January, to see what it was all about, noting that it was authored by one of my faves - A.M. Homes. It was ubsurdly unique timing. The book saved my life in a sense, at least saved my spirit. It tells the story of a man lost in the day-to-day routine of his scheduled life, a man who long ago set his feelings aside about things. It is t...more
This Book Will Save Your Life begins with Richard Novak, a wealthy Los Angeleno, having a health scare that sends him to the emergency room. The trauma causes Richard to look at the world and his outward success differently and he begins to make connections with the people he encounters--the man who sells him donuts, a woman he sees crying in the produce section, a neighbor he had never talked to--and with the people that he has spent a great deal of his adult life trying to avoid--his parents,...more
In the latter of her two literary epochs (the first being characterized by gritty, hyper-sexualized works like Jack and The End of Alice), A.M. Homes has written about slightly absurd things that happen to slightly absurd people. This Book Will Save Your Life fits this mold almost too perfectly: a man's nervous breakdown leads to a series of unusual events, each helping him return his life to good 'ol fashioned American normalcy. That This Book Will Save Your Life is one of Homes's most successf...more
this was one of the worst books i'd read in a long time. it was so bad i made myself finish it. as punishment for ever starting it. i boutht the book after seeing her read at B&N.
4 likes · like · see review
Ok. I finished this book. I started out excited about it. I liked the charachter and wondered what was going to happen. It was very easy to read and had a variety of characters. I get the everyday stuff that people go through.....and the feeling that each of them had of just wanting to be normal. But what is normal anyway?? I guess what ruined this book for me was the realationship and character of the son. I was so disappointed at what the author made him out to be that it ruined the book for m...more
2 likes · like · see review
Finally, after a long dry spell of books I either disliked (including an earlier read book by this author) or was just not thrilled by, a book I truly enjoyed. Homes creates characters who are quirky, distinctive, and flawed but all of them are human beings the reader can connect with. All of them grow.
The characters and settings are diverse and brought together under perhaps unlikely circumstances but the story never seems forced or contrived. While the ending it not what I would hope for the...more
The characters and settings are diverse and brought together under perhaps unlikely circumstances but the story never seems forced or contrived. While the ending it not what I would hope for the...more
Wow. Wow. wow. This book sneaks up on you - it starts out really strong, and then only gets better.
We are introducted to Richard Novak, a reclusive, wealthy middle-aged man living in Los Angeles who pretty much doesn't need to leave his house anymore - he has his trainer, his housekeeper and his nutritionist to keep him going. But then he has an attack of pain that causes him to call 911 and to come in contact with a series of people. Next there is a mysterious sink hole in front of his house,...more
We are introducted to Richard Novak, a reclusive, wealthy middle-aged man living in Los Angeles who pretty much doesn't need to leave his house anymore - he has his trainer, his housekeeper and his nutritionist to keep him going. But then he has an attack of pain that causes him to call 911 and to come in contact with a series of people. Next there is a mysterious sink hole in front of his house,...more
Surprisingly effective and affecting novel about a 55-year-old divorced man who has become seriously untethered--from his son, from love, from people, from the world--and his unplanned-for quest to get his life back. A.M. Homes is generous and big-hearted with her characters, and though it's all slightly surreal (and takes place in Los Angeles and Santa Monica), she has discipline enough to never let it drift too far into symbolism-ville. Our hero, with the help of a movie star, rescues a horse...more
The third book in a row I've read about an older man's late-in-life crisis and reawakening--all three men were also (very hopelessly) in love with their exes--so maybe I'm not being entirely fair to it with a three-star rating. Honestly, this is my kind of beach read: A bit camp and a bit chicken-soup-for-the-yuppie-soul. I'd happily give it to a friend who needs a quick read while coming down from, like, Ulysses or something, but I don't think it will, as the Stephen King blurb on the back hope...more
This book is fast, funny, and random. It’s the story of a man who experiences about ten years of life in about three months. He’s essentially catching up with the time he has lost since leaving his wife and son. This is a simple premise that I love, and it makes for an interesting amalgamation of events, people, and feelings. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
I think it should be mentioned that underneath the somewhat unrealistic plot of this novel, which by the sounds of it some people can’t get p...more
I think it should be mentioned that underneath the somewhat unrealistic plot of this novel, which by the sounds of it some people can’t get p...more
Ah so good! It's quite a dark and at times surreal read, especially as it is set in LA, which in my head is like this crazy alien place where anything can become considered normal. But it's also so heart-warming as Richard, the main character and socially-isolated product of capitalist society, himself warms up to the fact he exists and so do other people.
I found myself tearing through this in a few sittings, the prose is easy, relaxed and funny and I couldn't wait to come across each lovingly w...more
I found myself tearing through this in a few sittings, the prose is easy, relaxed and funny and I couldn't wait to come across each lovingly w...more
This was such a quick read for me, due to the fact that i found it very hard to put it down.
The main character has cut himself off from the world. He works and exercises from home, and only has personal contact with his housemaid....
Until, he thinks hes having THE BIG ONE, which then takes him on this rollercoaster of interaction with the real world, and he begins to open up and befriends strangers, such as the movie star up the street, the famous seclusive writter, anhil the donut shop owner,...more
The main character has cut himself off from the world. He works and exercises from home, and only has personal contact with his housemaid....
Until, he thinks hes having THE BIG ONE, which then takes him on this rollercoaster of interaction with the real world, and he begins to open up and befriends strangers, such as the movie star up the street, the famous seclusive writter, anhil the donut shop owner,...more
On my top 5 list for the year. Despite the title, which I think is a great title, it is fiction. I heard the author on NPR one morning. I was intrigued enough by how she spoke and what she had to say, that I decided to see how she wrote. I really enjoyed it. Something about the main character's supposed helplessness within the rigidity of his routine, and how his life changes when things force that routine to unravel? Whatever the reasons, the characters and plot pop up in my mind on a regular b...more
Set in L.A. this book really opened my eyes to things I've put off in the past and thought I was over. A good book to think, "Wow, why does is this story having an effect on me?
When a novel depicts a young person’s coming of age, they call it a Bildungsroman. So what do they call it when the main character is an adult learning to live well? Uncharitably we might call it a mid-life crisis, but A.M. Homes has written Richard Novak as a middle-aged man who is by and large too selfless to wallow in the conventional attempts to deny his mortality. No hang gliding or barely legal hookers, and when he risks his life in an attempt to rescue someone, it is taken very seriously....more
How could I resist this book, given its commanding title? An entertaining, quick, almost-too-easy read. A wealthy modern-day California guy goes through an upheaval; it begins the day he notices a sink-hole in his yard and needs to be rushed to the hospital for heart issues. It put me in the mindset of Iris Murdoch, but then again, I haven't read her for 20 years, so I might be really off...(ok ok, I'll re-read her).
And really, it did kinda make me want to change my life! In a cotton candy way....more
And really, it did kinda make me want to change my life! In a cotton candy way....more
1 like · like · see review
I'd been waiting to get my hands on A.M. Homes' new book, May We Be Forgiven, but the title is in demand right now...so I picked up her 2006 title and I really liked it.
This Book Will Save Your Life is a funny, though darkly funny and at times an almost painful look at how we live now. Set in L.A., it is the story of 55-year-old Richard Novak, financially successful but so disconnected from life that his few human interactions are with people he pays...his housekeeper, his nutritionist, his trai...more
This Book Will Save Your Life is a funny, though darkly funny and at times an almost painful look at how we live now. Set in L.A., it is the story of 55-year-old Richard Novak, financially successful but so disconnected from life that his few human interactions are with people he pays...his housekeeper, his nutritionist, his trai...more
I loved this book. The main character, Richard Novak is a fifty-five year old divored man who makes a living trading stocks from home. He manages his life with a full-time housekeeper, a nutritionist, a trainer, and a masseuse. The book begins when he has an attack of intense pain that takes him to the hospital emergency room. As he begins to notice what is going on around him and come back to life in a sense, many more things begin to happen. A sinkhole starts on the hill outside his house. He...more
Having enjoyed the writing style of another Homes novel, Music for Torching, I was drawn in by the title because, hell, who can afford to shrug off a promise like that? Psshh...next.
Music for Torching had a depressing, cynical bent - adults so involved in their own petty concerns that their children end up neglected and depressed. As such, it was refreshing to see Homes give a more uplifting treatment to this protagonist's upper middle class existential woes. While the cynical tone was still pr...more
Music for Torching had a depressing, cynical bent - adults so involved in their own petty concerns that their children end up neglected and depressed. As such, it was refreshing to see Homes give a more uplifting treatment to this protagonist's upper middle class existential woes. While the cynical tone was still pr...more
On my holiday in Puglia, I gobbled up Richard's life and antics. First he doesn't work so fills his day with what ever comes around...like wasting time. When finally he gets himself open to living, after practically dying, all things happen. I believe in that: open yourself to new things and they will come to you.
I like the recipes - I will follow Sylvia's Breakfast Booster smoothie. But don't like the idea that she has to feed him like Meals on Wheels which he then decides to do in the end. He...more
I like the recipes - I will follow Sylvia's Breakfast Booster smoothie. But don't like the idea that she has to feed him like Meals on Wheels which he then decides to do in the end. He...more
Aug 02, 2011
Becca
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fiction-not-otherwise-specified
This was a light, refreshing read. Populated by surrealist situations and characters just on the near side of believability, This Book Will Save Your Life sometimes erred on the side of being too frivolous. On the other hand, the voyage of Richard was poignant and extremely applicable to modern times. Richard starts the novel as a perfectionist, number crunching, rich business man, who only eats the healthiest, most organic, of foods and has no real connection to other humans at all. Through the...more
Richard Novak is living a stereotypical ritzy L.A. life : a huge yet empty house, ex-wife and son living back in N.Y., a personal trainer, a nutritionist. He’s financially well-off due to his knack for trading stocks online from home (I kept thinking how different Richard’s life would be today), he barely leaves the house anymore, and wears Bose noise-canceling headphones all day so he doesn’t have to interact with anyone. A sudden crippling pain forces him to make an emergency room visit which...more
Richard Novak is a successful man, in his self-made American dream, following a strictly planned regime of exercise and healthy eating. He has money, lots of it. He is also divorced, with a teenaged son that he rarely sees. Aside from this his life appears perfect and polished on the outside, but on the inside there is something missing: emotion. And after a sudden, painful health scare and a chance visit to a donut shop things in his life begin to change, his everyday routine is thrown out of t...more
I read this in a couple of sittings, but I'm on some kind of mad reading binge right now, about a book a day, so that may not mean much.
I liked it and it kept my interest for a good while, but only because I could almost never imagine what was coming next, certainly not because what came next was in any way organic or a necessary outcome of anything previous. The book seemed to become more frenetic and random as it neared the end, and I got a little impatient with it--I had realized by then tha...more
I liked it and it kept my interest for a good while, but only because I could almost never imagine what was coming next, certainly not because what came next was in any way organic or a necessary outcome of anything previous. The book seemed to become more frenetic and random as it neared the end, and I got a little impatient with it--I had realized by then tha...more
1 like · like · see review
Really got into it and enjoyed the reading in and of itself but was disappointed with the ending which was a bit OTT and melodramatic as well as always being kept at arm's length from the protagonist. I liked the character but I didn't feel any emotional connection with him, nor did his experience resonate with me. Granted it is set in LA (which sounds remarkably shit btw)and that means it is peopled with new-age crack pots and other egomaniacs, but there is nothing I can relate to - the hollown...more
this book has not yet saved my life but I will give it the benefit of the doubt because it was pretty darn good.
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A.M. Homes is the author of the novels, This Book Will Save Your Life, Music For Torching, The End of Alice, In a Country of Mothers, and Jack, as well as the short-story collections, Things You Should Know and The Safety of Objects, the travel memoir, Los Angeles: People, Places and The Castle on the Hill, and the artist's book Appendix A: An Elaboration on the Novel the End of Alice.
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“Sometimes you can do things for others that you can't do for yourself.”
—
7 people liked it
“We’re all good when we want to be, otherwise we’re fucking animals. There’s no VIP room in reality, and there is no reality in this city. You can’t Google the answers. People talke about being on the ride of your life—THIS IS YOUR LIFE. Whatever you need to know, you already know. Imagine what it is to be in another country, another landscape—heat, insects, fear. Imagine watching someone right in front of you trip on a wire, step on a mine, blow their body to shreds, in mid-sentences, mid-cigarette. Imagine yourself splattered with human flesh. Imagine talking to that boy for the five minutes when he is profoundly conscious of the fact that he is not goingt to make it home. Imagine the difference between that and being in upstate New York, drinking beer, trying to get laid, and spending the summer as lifeguard at Lake George. Imagine zipping your friends into body bags. Tell me why anyone ever thought this was a good idea. How could anyone not be angry? You’d have to be insane.” --Nic Thompson”
—
4 people liked it
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