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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1704737.Willing?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Willing" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/417-o6d3R8L._SL160_.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1704737.Willing?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Willing</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/34300.Scott_Spencer">Scott Spencer</a><br/><br/>
  <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/20179829?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
  rating: 3 of 5 stars<br/>I'm perennially interested in novels about young American men who travel, and I'd never read Spencer before. He certainly is a lyricist, often taking your breath away with that perfectly turned phrase, the exacting metaphor. 
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<br/>The book is about a slight failure of an Avery Jankowsky rent asunder by his younger girlfriend's infidelity. His first-person narration is very seductive--you feel his plight, and identify with his pain. Spencer deftly reveals that much of what is wrong with Avery is in fact his own damn fault, even if it takes Avery a very long time, and some very bad decisions to figure this out. There's also some odd notions about the Oedipus complex and prostitution thrown in for good measure. 
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<br/>Spencer tackles head on some very potent ideas: the commodification of feminine beauty, the violence underlying sublimated masculine exchange, American imperialism, and the sex tourism industry. He never develops these as much as you'd like--I couldn't help but think there were a few great (if difficult) chapters edited out at some point. We're left with a meal just short of filling, as if the waiter informed you they just ran out of your favorite dessert.
  <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/18213?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Ryan's review
rating:
bookshelves: fiction

I'm perennially interested in novels about young American men who travel, and I'd never read Spencer before. He certainly is a lyricist, often taking your breath away with that perfectly turned phrase, the exacting metaphor.

The book is about a slight failure of an Avery Jankowsky rent asunder by his younger girlfriend's infidelity. His first-person narration is very seductive--you feel his plight, and identify with his pain. Spencer deftly reveals that much of what is wrong with Avery is in fact his own damn fault, even if it takes Avery a very long time, and some very bad decisions to figure this out. There's also some odd notions about the Oedipus complex and prostitution thrown in for good measure.

Spencer tackles head on some very potent ideas: the commodification of feminine beauty, the violence underlying sublimated masculine exchange, American imperialism, and the sex tourism industry. He never develops these as much as you'd like--I couldn't help but think there were a...more

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message 1: by Alicia

04/15/2008 11:46AM

"taking your breath away with that perfectly turned phrase, the exacting metaphor"

Ah, yes. I think you said it best here. And it's probably the main reason why I liked anything at all about this novel.