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The Extra Man

by Jonathan Ames

3.65 · rating details · 697 ratings · 87 reviews

Meet Louis Ives: well groomed, romantic, and as captivating as an F. Scott Fitzgerald hero. Only this hero has a penchant for ladies’ clothes, and he’s lost his teaching post at Princeton’s Pretty Brook Day School after an unfortunate incident involving a colleague’s brassiere.Meet Henry Harrison: former actor, failed but brilliant playwright, and a well-seasoned esco...more

Paperback, 384 pages

Published December 3rd 1998 by Scribner

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Mar 11, 2010

Amanda rated it

Recommended to Amanda by: Fred Northrup

Shelves: book-club

When I moved to New York, fresh from college, double liberal arts degrees in hand and looking for work in book publishing, I ordered a subscription (The Weekender! Natch!) to the New York Times. Reading the Times every weekend was part of my idea of the New York version of myself, something I had mashed together from my just-post-college ambitions and my nervousness, and from reading novels about people in similar situations in the city. I imagined I would read the paper over coffee and a bagel ...moreWhen I moved to New York, fresh from college, double liberal arts degrees in hand and looking for work in book publishing, I ordered a subscription (The Weekender! Natch!) to the New York Times. Reading the Times every weekend was part of my idea of the New York version of myself, something I had mashed together from my just-post-college ambitions and my nervousness, and from reading novels about people in similar situations in the city. I imagined I would read the paper over coffee and a bagel on Sunday mornings.

Of course, it took me a week to read a Sunday paper — the Sunday Times is huge! And I was trying to read all of it for some reason. I do not need to read the automobile section, ever, but I tried to. The papers started to pile up, and after about six months, I gave up. The way things were going those days I was rarely even awake until Sunday afternoon.

We all have these sort of idealized versions of ourselves, constructed from things we see and admire/covet in the people around us, from what we see in films or TV, and from what we read. We affect mannerisms, we pick up words, we adopt entire opinions and forget they aren't our own. We convince ourselves of the verity of things that are at best half-truths. The kind of person that moves to New York, especially, has this optimized idea of what his/her self will be in this place; this place both attracts those kinds of people, and this place has such a presence in literature and film that we are supplied with plenty of models. Louis Ives of The Extra Man is no exception to this tendency; an exaggerated example, to be sure, but good characters need some exaggeration.

Louis, narrator of Ames's comedy of manners, strives to be a "young gentleman." When he decides to move to New York (the "old Times Square" version, circa 1992), he arrives thinking that he will stay in a hotel while he searches for a more permanent home, as this is what the characters in his Henry James novels do. He, of course, finds that in 1992 hotels in New York are prohibitively expensive or alarmingly seedy. Typically, Louis thinks the tweaked-out homeless woman on the stairs is an artisty musician: he is trying to force his surroundings to conform to his own notion of what they will be. So he responds to an ad for a cheap apartment on the UES, which begins his relationship with Henry Harrison: calls-it-in professor, unpublished playwright, couch-sleeper, Ethel Mermen dancer, platonic gentleman friend of older ladies. Louis so desperately wants Henry's approval and friendship despite Henry's practiced distance. Nevertheless, hijinks ensue involving said dancing, said older ladies, transvestites, car crashes, hood ornament theft, caviar, benefit parties, stolen bras, Recession Spankologists, etc.

Louis is young, in a new city -- in THE city -- unsure of so many things: his sexuality, his gender identification, the morals of his new habits, where he is going at all. In the end, he arguably doesn't get very far from where he began the novel, at least not outright. But in the previously mentioned ensuing hijinks, Henry and Louis each get a bit of a peek under the other's facade, and some of the confusion and messiness beneath their gentlemanly airs is revealed. The two men are extreme and desperate examples of the personas we all adopt, the way we shape ourselves to a pastiche of the people and characters we encounter; but there's something familiar about that idealism and that aspiration.

Plus, some of the descriptions are really great; I loved Ames's description of the invisible car owners moving their vehicles from one side of the street to the other every day. Also at one point Louis describes himself as "showered and blue-blazered," which is also in a National song? Coincidence or allusion?

IN SUM! Good, worth a read; it goes quick despite it's length and the characters will probably stay with me for quite some time. However, didn't really inspire me to read Ames's essays or nonfiction.(less)

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Aug 05, 2011

Nicole rated it

The Extra Man, by Jonathan Ames, is classically Ames. I am a huge fan of the author, so it should come as no surprise that I enjoyed this book (almost) as much as Wake Up Sir! and The Alcoholic. (To be frank, I couldn't adore many more books than Sir! It's truly a gift of literature.)

The Extra Man refers to the person needed at a dinner party with old ladies who no longer have a husband; an extra man is always needed to fill the seating gap. Louis Ives is a "young gentleman"...more

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Dec 09, 2010

christa rated it

An obsession with a figure from the lit world does not necessarily mean that I like the object of interest. It just means I'll considering following him on Twitter, but change my mind. Delve into his canon with a cocked eyebrow. Sometimes I develop such a fixation that even I don't know if I hate the object of interest, or if I want to tie the object of interest to my bed for optimal hobbling.

Right now I'm interested in Jonathan Ames. I think I kind of hate him, I probably hate him. Bu...moreAn obsession with a figure from the lit world does not necessarily mean that I like the object of interest. It just means I'll considering following him on Twitter, but change my mind. Delve into his canon with a cocked eyebrow. Sometimes I develop such a fixation that even I don't know if I hate the object of interest, or if I want to tie the object of interest to my bed for optimal hobbling.

Right now I'm interested in Jonathan Ames. I think I kind of hate him, I probably hate him. But I've added two of his books to my Wish List so who the hell knows what I really think. It's such a fine line for me.

Exhibit A: The show "Bored to Death" slays me. A lot of that has to do with Zach Galifianakis, but ultimately it is the creation of Jonathan Ames. It is that kind of funny that is too funny to laugh at every time it deserves a laugh, so I just have to rest my face in an amused position and let it go at that. But deep down I'm squealing.

Exhibit B: An excerpt from "The Alcoholic," as seen in "Best American Comics 2010" is dynamite. I'd totally read that in its entirety.

Which brings us to "The Extra Man," a decade-old novel that is equally as good as it is bad. Louis Ives is a sort of pseudo pretentious fuck who movies to New York City after a shame-filled misadventure with a coworker's bra. He finds a roommate, Henry, a character of indiscernible age and a walking, talking, dancing fountain of one-liners and life philosophies. Henry is a teacher, but supplements the lifestyle he can't afford by hanging out with rich old ladies who feed him fancy food and take him to awesome parties and let him crash in their guest rooms in Florida. He is similarly skilled at needling his way into free theater performances.

Louis immediately becomes enamored with Henry and his lifestyle: hobnobbing with the biggies, but doing his laundry in the shower as he bathes, in something akin to the art of grape squishing with the intent to make wine.

At the same time, Louis is going through a super sexual identity crisis. He has always wanted to dress in women's clothing, look in the mirror and see something beautiful. He starts frequenting a tranny bar near Times Square where he occasionally hooks up with pretty ladies adept at the old tuck-eroo. Afterward, he is a mess of self-loathing, and AIDS paranoia. His curiosity eventually leads him to an extreme tranny makeover, which increases his ugly feelings toward himself. Henry continues to be this peripheral mysterious shouter of one-liners.

This is a case where the main character is an exhausting hot mess of confusion and loathsome personality ticks. How can we like you when you don't like yourself? He's technically a well-done character with a strong, albeit annoying and emotionally stunted voice. But spending time with him is brutal. The sideline character is a co-star who outshines everyone else. I guess keeping him in the background lends to his mystique. Is he gay or straight? What was his life like before all of this? What would he say if he knew Louis was catting around the sexual underworld?

As an almost psychology minor, I suspect that Jonathan Ames has known, and has been hugely influenced by an elderly man of a refined taste and snobdom that is not consistent with his home life. I suspect that Jonathan Ames began jotting down this man's whack daddy musings in a sort of pre-Twitter Shit My Dad Says way. And then I think this old man character creeps into everything that Ames makes. (See also: Ted Danson character on "Bored to Death.") Some of the best lines from the show are first tested in this novel and "Wake Up, Sir."

I'm all for mining your life story for characters and scenes and misadventures. Once. You get one story loosely based on your own life, then you have to be done with it. Purge. Start anew. Otherwise you are just a person with an eye for story potential and and ear for clever dialogue, and the wherewithal to record these and have these pages cinched together with book glue. Unless you call it nonfiction. Then, according to my rule book, you can do this forever and ever as much as you want. Next up: I read Jonathan Ames' nonfiction collections to get a better sense of my feelings toward him.
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Jul 19, 2010

Tanya rated it

It left me a little sad, and confused, because I felt like I only developed a true break through and connection with the characters and then the book was over. They occupy a filthy, muddled, made-up little microcosm of affected mannerisms, inspiring quotations, drunkenness, secrets, contradictory philosophies and repressed affections. But they are still very human, especially because they're so grotesque. The idea of Henry and the state he lives in, the man he's become, is both inspiring and hea...more

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Nov 25, 2009

Nicholas rated it

Shelves: gee

Your highlight at location 531
I kept thinking that he was perhaps of a state of mind beyond eccentric, but there was also this constant underpinning of irony to everything he said which seemed to clearly indicate intelligence and sanity. He was conscious that he was outrageous, but he was also stating his honest beliefs.2b4c8b84B000FC0O5O

Your highlight at location 549
“Most frames are more beautiful than their pictures,” he said. “And less expensive.”2b4c8b84B000FC0O5O
...more

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Mar 19, 2010

YiShun rated it

I've begun to realize that books whose jacket flap copy says they are "hilarious" yet "poignant" or some such variation are not for me.
This seemed to go nowhere forever. The relationship between roommates Henry and ... Chr*st, I can't even remember what the protagonist's name was now, and I just read the thing last night ... doesn't really hit a crisis point until the very end, really. And the protagonist (I can only remember his last name, Ives, and the moniker he use...more

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Mar 03, 2009

Djrmel rated it

Shelves: contemporary, fiction, humor, glbt

Louis Ives loses his job as a teacher in a Princeton, NJ boarding school, because of a minor cross dressing incident, and decides to start over in New York City. He also decides to continue on his path towards being a "young gentleman", using Fitzgerald and Waugh as his guides. Louis shares a rundown apartment with an eccentric elderly man who supplements his teacher's income by being an extra man (a well mannered man called upon to "even up" the male to female ratio at soci...more

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Dec 22, 2010

Kim rated it

This book is so funny and clever. The voice is really unique and the scenes with Louis (the young gentleman) and Harrison (the extra man) are really like glittering jewels. Harrison is so much fun and I often laughed out loud while reading at some of their scenes. And it didn't hurt that Kevin Kline will be playing him in the film and is on the cover of my version as he is pitch perfect casting for this character. I loved how the tone of the novel, the "young gentleman about Manhattan"...more

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Oct 31, 2011

Lola425 rated it

· review of another edition

I really enjoyed the tone and tenor of this book. It was odd and sunny and also a little touching...and did I say odd? Henry is the type of character who seems as if it is impossible that he could exist in real life and yet you have a feeling that he actually might have. Completely implausible, yet ringing of truth. The sex parts seemed a little "Portnoy's Complainty" to me at times (not that I have read that book in 15 years, but it inspired the same sort of impatience in me, so th...more

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Jan 22, 2008

Brent Legault rated it

Recommends it for: no one, not anyone

There's a whole lot of hubbub about Ames but I don't understand it and after reading this book I'm thinking that maybe it's all been an elaborate hoax, cooked up by Brooklyn boosters and NPR affiliates to ruin my weekend.

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Jan 19, 2011

Nickie rated it

· review of another edition

I love Jonathan Ames. For here is a man who adheres to the maxim that a writer should reveal everything that is ugly and shameful about himself. Dalliances with trans-sexuals, bra-stealing, delusions of Gatsby-esque grandeur. At one point during this book, I suddenly suspected that I'd read it before, but it turned out that he was just revisiting some of the same anecdotes from his other books. So... a bit samey, but sod it, that's some same old good stuff.

Ames' stock is clearly on th...more

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Dec 01, 2010

Dan Trudeau rated it

I wanted to like The Extra Man more than I did. There are things about the book I loved but I found myself working to keep going sometimes.

I think one of my biggest issues is Louis, the main character. I found him to be compelling at some points and downright irritating in others. I have no problems with a sexually insecure character in love with the idea of becoming a gentleman. In fact, I was happy he didn't come off as contrived as he could have. There was nothing about him t...more

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Nov 25, 2009

Sara rated it

Shelves: 2009

Although I'll retain plenty of the lurid details from The Extra Man, I just about had an attack when I read the line "showered and blue-blazered" — appropriated for the unbelievably fantastic song "Mistaken for Strangers," by The National. Lead singer Matt Berninger later misattributed the quote as appearing in Ames'Wake Up, Sir!, which seems strange; how does one like a string of words enough to steal it and then forget where it's from?

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Sep 16, 2009

Jgknobler rated it

A very peculiar but entertaining book written with wonderful freshness and candor. Written in the first person, the protagonist is a young man with an interest in transexuals and a sexual need to cross-dress. He moves in with an older, impoverished, eccentric man who schools him in the ways of crashing operas and society functions and taking advantage of lonely, wealthy women. There is an abundance of fascination with the grotesque and pathetic, but also a strangely powerful treatment of issues ...more

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Aug 04, 2009

Elaine rated it

Perfect for a fun read. Brilliantly drawn characters, fleshed out so that they are real humans, not "types" or "character" although they are eccentric or even weird. The writing is bright and witty, but still allows one to empathize with Louis' loneliness, longings, and occasional sadness. Parental warning: X-rated for revealed body part, sex with fluids, trannies & cross-dressers, but never salacious, and never gratuitous (if there is sex, it reveals something about the cha...more

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Oct 30, 2009

Sabra Embury rated it

From the onset of "the Extra Man" I didn't know what to expect. I'd heard of Jonathan Ames's writing being filled with scatological, perverted, self-defacing, yet charming, humor, but I assumed that was mostly in his non fiction essays. Haha...wrong.

"The Extra Man" is about a sweet mid-twenties guy named Louis Ives, who gets let go from his teaching position in Jersey due to curious incident with a bra in a gym bag, mixed with terrible bystander timing.

...more

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May 12, 2008

Kristopher Jansma rated it

Shelves: bookblog

Well, I thought I loved Wake Up, Sir! last week, but this Ames novel has taken the cake. It's ending was far more satisfying and the entire thing much more complex and novely. Novel-ish?

If you'll recall, I was intrigued while reading the last book because the novelist/narrator was working on another book, which sounded a lot like this one. And I thought to myself, "Whoa... meta..." No, seriously, I thought to myself - damn I like this book a lot, but the book he's writing i...moreWell, I thought I loved Wake Up, Sir! last week, but this Ames novel has taken the cake. It's ending was far more satisfying and the entire thing much more complex and novely. Novel-ish?

If you'll recall, I was intrigued while reading the last book because the novelist/narrator was working on another book, which sounded a lot like this one. And I thought to myself, "Whoa... meta..." No, seriously, I thought to myself - damn I like this book a lot, but the book he's writing in this book sounds even better. And it is. I feel strange reviewing these in reverse - as I'm nearly certain that this one came out first. But I think maybe this way is best - I feel the last book would have been a let-down after this one. In reverse, however, it's a unexpected new plateau.

The Extra Man is about Louis Ives, who moves to New York City in the early 90s when he is fired from his job at a Princeton boarding school for stealing a co-worker's bra and trying it on in the teacher's lounge. Yes, Louis is plagued by the same lack of self-control as Alan (from Wake Up, Sir!) but here it is women's clothing and not alcohol that he cannot seem to resist. He decides to venture to New York City based entirely on reading Washington Square (fellow IFP 1 surviors will appreciate the frustration I felt here). Louis comes out very early on to declare that he aspires to be a "young gentleman" of the F. Scott Fitzgerald variety, and so wears a tie-and-jacket everywhere, tries to establish "routines" so people around town will know him as a creature of habit, and while riding the NJ Transit train home from his first visit to New York, imagines he is just coming back from a fine time at his "club" - an experience which I now endeavor to mimic myself at the earliest possible convenience. And he reads Wilde, Wodehouse, Waugh, Mann, and Maum (a reading list you may soon see repeated here).

Soon he moves in with Henry Harrison, an older man who lists a desire for a roommate in The Village Voice and Ives quickly scores the low-rent occupancy in what amounts to a tiny, cluttered roach motel on the very upper edge of the Upper East Side. Harrison is, in many ways, the aging gentleman to Ives's young and he makes a Don Quixote/Sancho Panza comparison very early on. He is a playwright who teaches community college classes and lives in total squalor. Most of his plays have been lost or misplaced in the dense jungle of the apartment, which is filled with dirty cups (some of which he declares off limits, because they may have been peed in), books and records (to which he dances), bowls full of Christmas ornaments, and of course, roaches (and later fleas). Harrison's real life surrounds being an "extra man," that is, a companion to the rich, elderly women of Manhattan, who throw dinner parties and need men to balance the guest-list (because the old men die sooner) or escorts to Broadway, the Met, or the museums. Harrison and Ives both have a taste for all these finer things, though their lives are a constant absurd battle with their self-destructing cars, vermin, and awkward living arrangements. There are moments of true tenderness between them - something strangely between father-and-son and roommates. I won't spoil those, but I will give an early example of the absurd Henry Harrison in action.

"'Do you like Fitzgerald?' I asked... 'Of course,' he said, "His prose is like cocktail music. But there won't be any more Fitzgeralds. You need an all-male environment... the Muslims might produce a Fitzgerald. They're good at separating the sexes.' I imagined for a moment a new type of The Great Gatsby, written in Arabic and making a great sensation over here.

Eventually you find out how he does his laundry (wearing his clothes into the shower and stamping on them on the bottom of the tub) and why he flushes before he finishes urinating (he gets bored waiting for it to be over). It's hard, looking through now, to sum up Harrison well in just little quotes and things - but that's what makes him such a fantastic character and why Ives is so amazed by him - you simply never know what he will do next but it is always believ

The book also follows along with Ives's dirty little secret, that is his sexual confusions that caused him to try on the bra back in Princeton. He begins to respond to ads in the Post for women that spank him, and eventually frequents a transsexual bar in Midtown. His confusions lead to many squirm-inducing adventures as he tries to pin down what he wants and why and how, by going home with a number of the women-that-were-once-men. As in Wake Up Sir I felt that Ames is so sensitive and honest about these encounters and curiosities that Ives is always sympathetic, even when being spanked by a sexagenarian. In grad school I was forced to workshop an endless number of stories written by the other guys that were basically just attempts to out-gross-out the others... stories about having sex with amputees and little girls and animals were somehow considered worthy of serious discussion... but I digress... the thing that always bugged me about those scenarios and stories were they were written solely to disgust, never to understand. The reader (me) was supposed to be thrilled by how grotesque they were able to be, not by how honest they were bold enough to be. Ames stays in a class by himself because Louis Ives is a genuinely lovable and sympathetic guy - not some Fight Club wanna-be. So as thrown as I was initially by all the transsexuals, I stuck with it, and I'm very very glad I did.

The end of the book, as I mentioned, is very satisfying. I expected, after reading Wake Up Sir that he and Henry would split and he'd flee to live with family in New Jersey, as Alan Blair begins things in WU,S! Instead I was pleasantly surprised to find a more satisfying conclusion in the end. My book, incidentally, came with a Reader's Club Guide, which I find very amusing. I'm imagining a bunch of middle-aged readers having a good time discussing "Regression Spankology" and so forth. But it also included an interview with Ames, who commented on his characters and how they differ from himself and each other. "They're like odd cousins or strange brothers. We share many of the same qualities, but they are very much their own persons."

Anyway, highly recommended. I'm sad that there's very little of Ames left for me to read now... but I may move on to the books he listed Ives as reading all the time (the few I haven't read already...)
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Dec 15, 2008

Jennifer rated it

Shelves: didn-t-finish

I picked this up read the first few pages - and lost interest.

Tried again the next day. Picked it up - read the first few pages - and got distracted by something else. Put the book down.

Came back another time, read the first few pages, but didn't get any further.

After a bunch of tries, I just couldn't read it. It failed to capture my interest enough to get me past the first few pages... which is disappointing, because I thought I might like the book if I co...more

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Dec 01, 2008

Cyn rated it

I really wanted to give this 3.5 stars but I can't, that said this book was thoroughly enjoyable despite the fact that the main character is an annoying eccentric. It seems like a lot of reviewers read "Wake up, Sir" first, I read this first and am now reading "Wake up, Sir" so the meta references in WUS are meaningful to me. In any event this is a fun read though a bit gritty, the characters are well developed and never dull.

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Sep 13, 2009

Liz rated it

Good thing Half-Price books was having a 20% off sale on Saturday, cuz my book buying addiction is getting serious... Just started this one today, and am half way done... Why do I find his wacky characters so appealing? Cluttered tiny Upper Eastside apt shared by 2 eccentrics. Transvestite bars. Guilt-ridden sexual escapades. Flying stuffed animal lions falling from the sky. My new favorite phrase: "curious maladjustment". Is Jonathan Ames straight and single? haha.

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Jan 08, 2009

Abby rated it

Shelves: fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 01, 2008

Ara rated it

It's about Louis Ives and he's a closet deviant, but the complexity of his needs slowly dawns on the reader as the story continues. The comedy of the situation is that Louis wants to be a gentleman, in the style of F. Scott Fitzgerald, and he makes an effort every chance he gets to behave that way. While Louis fights within himself over his deviance, his roommate, Henry Harrison, provides the outright ridiculous dialogue that makes the book pure gold. The prose in both the descriptions and dia...more

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Jan 12, 2009

Vance rated it

An old man in a dirty apartment and a virtuous younger man who has an obsession with trannies. It's a "coming out"-style book that never once descends into the bathos that often mars this sub-genre of bildungsroman. It's got charm and a narrator who makes you easily and unashamedly understand that he can be a nice boy and a live an edgy life at the same time -- with no regrets.

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Nov 26, 2008

Murasaki_neko rated it

Shelves: bookclubs

This was a fun book to read. I'm not sure why, since the main character was strange and irritating, but the story was very well crafted and the characters were believable in their idiosyncrasies. I would definitely recommend it, but readers must keep an open mind, as it gets into the world of cross dressing and transsexuals.

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Mar 02, 2010

Stefan rated it

It's hard to find a book that makes me laugh out loud, it's hard to find a book that when I reach near end, I don't want it to. At times you can be critical. I enjoyed this more than any Steven King novel. Ames ignores his reputation and has proceeded to humour me again and again.

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Apr 14, 2009

Heather rated it

The two main characters were definitely interesting and very funny. I'm giving it three stars for that. The overall plot I might give it just two stars. Yes it made me laugh but I think it went in circles too much, repeating the same things just under slightly different circumstances.

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Nov 18, 2008

Stewart rated it

Having loved Ames' brilliant comedic novel Wake Up Sir, I was very interested in checking out his back catalogue. The Extra Man does not reach the same hilarious heights as Wake Up Sir, but it is an amusing, enjoyable reading experience nevertheless. Ames has a tremendous knack for being able to place mad cap characters in rather traditional settings and portray the wonderfully quirky results in convincing fashion. In Louis and Henry, Ames molds truly memorable characters who, for all of thei...more

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Feb 26, 2011

Mike rated it

Just watched the movie last night. Quite loyal to the book. Ames really gets me slowing down my observations of the world. I look for the interesting parts of life that often go by unnoticed. I really loved the commentary during the movie from Kevin Kline and Ames.

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Sep 14, 2010

Lewis rated it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 11, 2011

Arlo rated it

Shelves: favorites

A well written quirky psychological tale of sexual ambiguity and gender roles. The character development is on point and interesting. If I was trained in psychology I could easily diagnose the two main characters by page 50. tbc....

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About Jonathan Ames

Jonathan Ames is the author of the books The Double Life is Twice As Good, I Pass Like Night, The Extra Man, What's Not to Love?, My Less Than Secret Life, Wake Up, Sir!, I Love You More Than You Know, and The Alcoholic (a graphic novel illustrated by Dean Haspiel). He is the editor of Sexual Metamorphosis: An Anthology of Transsexual Memoirs.

He is the winner of a Guggenheim Fellowshi...more

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Books by Jonathan Ames

What's Not to Love?: The Adventures of a Mildly Perverted Young Writer

My Less Than Secret Life: A Diary, Fiction, Essays

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