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You or Someone Like You: A Novel
“Chandler Burr’s challenging first novel is many a glimpse into Hollywood culture, an argument about religious identity, a plea for the necessity of literature. This is a roman that needs no clefs.” — Washington Post New York Magazine calls You or Someone Like You, “The highbrow humanist name-dropping book of the summer.” The remarkable first novel by Chandler Burr, the New York Times scent critic and author of The Perfect Scent, is funny, smart, and provocative—an extraordinarily ambitious work of fiction that succeeds on many different levels. It is a book David Ebershoff, (author of The 19th Wife ) enthusiastically recommends “for anyone who defiantly clings to the belief that a book can change our lives.”
352 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
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816 people want to read
About the author
Chandler Burr
11 books54 followersChandler Burr is the New York Times scent critic and author of The Perfect Scent, The Emperor of Scent, and A Separate Creation. He has written for The Atlantic and The New Yorker. He lives in New York City.
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February 1, 2024
There is a lot in here about language, Jewishness, literacy, Hollywood, religion, racism, snobbishness, insincerity, elitism, core truth, flock mentality, standing tall for what one knows to be true.
When Howard and Ann’s 17-year-old son goes to Israel for two weeks of Senior year Spring break he learns something about Jewishness. He is recruited by local hard-core types for further education about his Jewish heritage, but is practically kicked out the door when they learn that it is his father and not his mother who is Jewish. Thus they consider him not only not Jewish, but unclean. Shalom!
Chandler Burr - image from his GR profile
Howard is a successful Hollywood executive. Shocked by his son’s treatment in Israel, he experiences a major mid-life crisis in which his early New York Jewish upbringing tugs heavily on his soul.
His wife, Ann, an English lit Phd, is the daughter of a British diplomat. One day she is asked to put together a reading list for a friend and that request blossoms into a major, ever-metastasizing enterprise. No longer merely an appendage to her famous spouse, Ann, through her knowledge of literature, her insight into poetry, and her ability to communicate essential meanings to the Hollywood crowd, has carved out a glittering domain of her own, complete with media coverage and buzz.
You would need a dump truck to manage the weight of real names dropped here, but that is part of the point. Hollywood is connectedness, if not of a religious or necessarily ethnic sort. Well, maybe it is a bit religious, based, as so much of it is, on magical thinking, strings of untruths and power relationships.
The writing is also clearly informed by a knowledge of the inner workings of literature that escaped my readings of the cited works, (well, not all of them) and there are many cited works. Ok, sometimes it made me feel less than decently educated. How do people who live at a very high intellectual level, people who can drop quotes from literature of all sorts into average conversation, people who think critically about major life themes, live? How do they deal with the traumas that affect their lives as they affect the lives of the less gifted, the less wealthy?
Ann is the centerpiece in this stimulating, thought-provoking tale. It is she who must hold the family together, or try anyway, when forces beyond her control interfere and try to wrest her family apart. She is a strong, intelligent, thoughtful woman, confident in her ideas and comfortable in her skin. She is admirable for how she copes with the trials she must endure and brave for speaking out as she does, knowing that it will forever alter her world.
I found the first fifty pages or so a bit slow, but past that I was riveted. It is not merely that much of the subject matter hits very close to home personally, but that gives it a bit more oomph. There is no need for extra. You or Someone Like You has all the oomph any serious reader could ask for. I imagine Burr will take some shots for the views he expresses in this book. Hopefully those attacks will not muddy the fact that this is an exceptional work of fiction.
I proudly received a copy of this book from the publisher. All prejudice in the review is mine alone.
=============================EXTRA STUFF
Links to the author’s personal, Twitter, GR, and Wikipedia pages
When Howard and Ann’s 17-year-old son goes to Israel for two weeks of Senior year Spring break he learns something about Jewishness. He is recruited by local hard-core types for further education about his Jewish heritage, but is practically kicked out the door when they learn that it is his father and not his mother who is Jewish. Thus they consider him not only not Jewish, but unclean. Shalom!
Chandler Burr - image from his GR profile
Howard is a successful Hollywood executive. Shocked by his son’s treatment in Israel, he experiences a major mid-life crisis in which his early New York Jewish upbringing tugs heavily on his soul.
His wife, Ann, an English lit Phd, is the daughter of a British diplomat. One day she is asked to put together a reading list for a friend and that request blossoms into a major, ever-metastasizing enterprise. No longer merely an appendage to her famous spouse, Ann, through her knowledge of literature, her insight into poetry, and her ability to communicate essential meanings to the Hollywood crowd, has carved out a glittering domain of her own, complete with media coverage and buzz.
You would need a dump truck to manage the weight of real names dropped here, but that is part of the point. Hollywood is connectedness, if not of a religious or necessarily ethnic sort. Well, maybe it is a bit religious, based, as so much of it is, on magical thinking, strings of untruths and power relationships.
The writing is also clearly informed by a knowledge of the inner workings of literature that escaped my readings of the cited works, (well, not all of them) and there are many cited works. Ok, sometimes it made me feel less than decently educated. How do people who live at a very high intellectual level, people who can drop quotes from literature of all sorts into average conversation, people who think critically about major life themes, live? How do they deal with the traumas that affect their lives as they affect the lives of the less gifted, the less wealthy?
Ann is the centerpiece in this stimulating, thought-provoking tale. It is she who must hold the family together, or try anyway, when forces beyond her control interfere and try to wrest her family apart. She is a strong, intelligent, thoughtful woman, confident in her ideas and comfortable in her skin. She is admirable for how she copes with the trials she must endure and brave for speaking out as she does, knowing that it will forever alter her world.
I found the first fifty pages or so a bit slow, but past that I was riveted. It is not merely that much of the subject matter hits very close to home personally, but that gives it a bit more oomph. There is no need for extra. You or Someone Like You has all the oomph any serious reader could ask for. I imagine Burr will take some shots for the views he expresses in this book. Hopefully those attacks will not muddy the fact that this is an exceptional work of fiction.
I proudly received a copy of this book from the publisher. All prejudice in the review is mine alone.
=============================EXTRA STUFF
Links to the author’s personal, Twitter, GR, and Wikipedia pages
July 8, 2009
Chandler Burr, perfume critic for the New York Times, one of the best science writers on the planet (based on the astonishing “Emperor of Scent”, http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/....) has turned his hand to fiction. And his debut novel is so damned good I’m starting to wonder if Chandler hasn’t got some kind of Faustian bargain going on in the background. That, or a very ugly painting in his attic. Even if he has mortgaged his immortal soul to get results, we the readers are the beneficiaries.
At first blush, “You or Someone Like You” didn’t strike me as all that promising. The main protagonist (and first person narrator) is Anne Rosenbaum, an English literature scholar transplanted to southern California, where she shares a life of privilege with husband Howard, a major Hollywood power broker, and their teenage son, Sam. Fiercely intelligent, highly opinionated, emotionally fragile and hyper-articulate, Anne seems almost guaranteed to be annoying. But (I don't know how Chandler does this) she’s not annoying at all, quite the opposite - she’s awesome, and her story is riveting. As the novel progresses, events unfold that threaten her marriage and the well-being of the family. She responds with a steely determination and an unwavering clarity of moral vision that totally kick ass. But the best part is that this is a woman who looks for, and finds, the solution to her crisis through literature. Which she shares with us
In only 300 pages, Chandler Burr explores several fascinating themes – how politics that are too obsessively based on cultural identity can end up perpetuating codified inhumanity, the deep breakdown of an apparently healthy marriage resulting from unresolved issues of personal identity (Sam’s exploration of his Jewish heritage comes to an abrupt end when he is ejected from an ultra-orthodox yeshiva while visiting Israel* – an event which precipitates a complete identity crisis in his father Howard), and the ability to find solace in literature. This may sound kind of hokey, but Burr is an intelligent and subtle writer, and he somehow manages to make it work. The result is an affecting and extremely impressive debut novel.
4.5 stars. Somehow I can't bring myself to give the full 5 stars to a novel that is so unabashedly set in the anti-intellectual center of the philistines' den (Hollywood).
* apparently modeled on a similar event in the author's youth.
At first blush, “You or Someone Like You” didn’t strike me as all that promising. The main protagonist (and first person narrator) is Anne Rosenbaum, an English literature scholar transplanted to southern California, where she shares a life of privilege with husband Howard, a major Hollywood power broker, and their teenage son, Sam. Fiercely intelligent, highly opinionated, emotionally fragile and hyper-articulate, Anne seems almost guaranteed to be annoying. But (I don't know how Chandler does this) she’s not annoying at all, quite the opposite - she’s awesome, and her story is riveting. As the novel progresses, events unfold that threaten her marriage and the well-being of the family. She responds with a steely determination and an unwavering clarity of moral vision that totally kick ass. But the best part is that this is a woman who looks for, and finds, the solution to her crisis through literature. Which she shares with us
In only 300 pages, Chandler Burr explores several fascinating themes – how politics that are too obsessively based on cultural identity can end up perpetuating codified inhumanity, the deep breakdown of an apparently healthy marriage resulting from unresolved issues of personal identity (Sam’s exploration of his Jewish heritage comes to an abrupt end when he is ejected from an ultra-orthodox yeshiva while visiting Israel* – an event which precipitates a complete identity crisis in his father Howard), and the ability to find solace in literature. This may sound kind of hokey, but Burr is an intelligent and subtle writer, and he somehow manages to make it work. The result is an affecting and extremely impressive debut novel.
4.5 stars. Somehow I can't bring myself to give the full 5 stars to a novel that is so unabashedly set in the anti-intellectual center of the philistines' den (Hollywood).
* apparently modeled on a similar event in the author's youth.
October 19, 2009
The narrator is detestable. Does Burr realize that? I hope to God he's in on the joke:
"[A:]ll of us who reflexively cringe (and just as reflexively hide it) at the stumbling ineloquence of these black me are not alone....[they:] had witnessed the boy's learning at the Los Angeles forum that we are not all equal."
He can't really expect us to like this racist windbag, or to admire the intelligence of someone who uses a phrase like "the boy's learning at the Los Angeles forum."
He can't REALLY think we'll nod solemnly in approval when the narrator teaches "twenty-five underclass black and Hispanic kids" to achieve power and social standing by saying "not ax but asks, not mumfs but moths--T H, months."
He can't possibly believe we'll spend 313 pages enjoying the company of someone who says, "In Cantonese, interestingly enough, I am utterly invisible. By accent, obviously. Not English at all, purely Cantonese, except for an inexplicable hint of Mandarin (which I don't speak at all) in my slightly Beijing 'r'."
We're supposed to hate this person, right? RIGHT?? I love an angry, deluded, pompous first-person narrator, but only when her creator KNOWS she's angry, deluded, and pompous.
I can't get into detail about the total absence of a plot, or the banality of the literary analysis (which is what stands in for a plot)--it's too depressing.
I'm on page 133, and will keep trudging along. Maybe the stuff about Judaism will save the book.
"[A:]ll of us who reflexively cringe (and just as reflexively hide it) at the stumbling ineloquence of these black me are not alone....[they:] had witnessed the boy's learning at the Los Angeles forum that we are not all equal."
He can't really expect us to like this racist windbag, or to admire the intelligence of someone who uses a phrase like "the boy's learning at the Los Angeles forum."
He can't REALLY think we'll nod solemnly in approval when the narrator teaches "twenty-five underclass black and Hispanic kids" to achieve power and social standing by saying "not ax but asks, not mumfs but moths--T H, months."
He can't possibly believe we'll spend 313 pages enjoying the company of someone who says, "In Cantonese, interestingly enough, I am utterly invisible. By accent, obviously. Not English at all, purely Cantonese, except for an inexplicable hint of Mandarin (which I don't speak at all) in my slightly Beijing 'r'."
We're supposed to hate this person, right? RIGHT?? I love an angry, deluded, pompous first-person narrator, but only when her creator KNOWS she's angry, deluded, and pompous.
I can't get into detail about the total absence of a plot, or the banality of the literary analysis (which is what stands in for a plot)--it's too depressing.
I'm on page 133, and will keep trudging along. Maybe the stuff about Judaism will save the book.
September 11, 2009
Pretentious. It was obviously a male writing a female protagonist, because she came off slightly empty, flat. This was a vanity piece written for the author to tell us that Judaism is an exclusionary religion and that's bad. All the Hollywood name-dropping was irritating and didn't really serve a purpose. The book club meetings were more like lectures where the protagonist spouted regurgitations of literary opinion mined straight out of the pages of the New Yorker. The story was secondary to the author pushing his intellectual agenda, and it showed. The writer can turn a pretty phrase, I'll give him that. But when the phrases are superfluous to the story, then it's like he's just showing off. Probably one of the WORST novels I've read, and I'm including straight-to-paperback genre fiction in that pool.
November 2, 2009
This begins as a smart, savvy book about nothing, really. The story is told by Anne Rosenbaum, a whip-smart, whip-thin, maddeningly articulate polyglot, who possesses an ambiguous posh accent which causes everyone to swoon when she elucidates bits of the vast literary canon she carries in her brain. She is the wife of Hollywood exec, Howard, who is among the power players of an industry that creates and rules pop culture from its shimmering Los Angeles manses. Anne, coddled by a loyal staff, an adoring husband, and by son Sam, a well-adjusted and multi-lingual high school senior, appears to have a life that demands little more from her than cultivation of an exotic garden and participation in her husband's dinner meetings with equally pampered colleagues.
Book groups being so in vogue, Anne becomes a sought after, if reluctant, guide through the world of Western literature. She begins a series of book clubs catered to various Hollywood power sub-groups (what exactly IS a line director, anyway?) and begins to craft a position for herself as a script reviewer and producer.
As the plot forms and takes a darker turn, the layers of pretense fall away. The themes of cultural and religious identity emerge, racism and bigotry are confronted, and the fragility of marriage and the thudding obligations of family are weighted and tested against the desperate desire for acceptance and belonging that we all harbor.
Book groups being so in vogue, Anne becomes a sought after, if reluctant, guide through the world of Western literature. She begins a series of book clubs catered to various Hollywood power sub-groups (what exactly IS a line director, anyway?) and begins to craft a position for herself as a script reviewer and producer.
As the plot forms and takes a darker turn, the layers of pretense fall away. The themes of cultural and religious identity emerge, racism and bigotry are confronted, and the fragility of marriage and the thudding obligations of family are weighted and tested against the desperate desire for acceptance and belonging that we all harbor.
September 2, 2010
I'm surprised that this book was published. It's an interesting premise: what happens to a marriage when the husband returns to his Orthodox Jewish upbringing and leaves his non-Jewish wife behind. The author should've fleshed out that storyline and let us hear more from the husband, Howard, whose voice was nearly absent from the novel. As was the voice of Howard and Anne's son, Sam, whose experience in Israel apparently inspires his father's return to Orthodoxy.
If I read an early draft of this novel--and ultimately that's what the novel felt like, an early draft that should've been re-written several times--I would've recommended that the author minimize the whole "book club to the stars" premise of the book, and spend more time on the relationship between Howard and Anne by having more interactions between the couple (scenes, rather than long tangential memories of when they first met). There is way too much exposition in this book. And many of the scenes with Hollywood executives are implausible.
Also: this novel is deeply critical of Judaism and Israel in a way that made me uncomfortable. It seemed very strange to me that the author didn't spend more time letting the characters who are Jewish actually speak.
If I read an early draft of this novel--and ultimately that's what the novel felt like, an early draft that should've been re-written several times--I would've recommended that the author minimize the whole "book club to the stars" premise of the book, and spend more time on the relationship between Howard and Anne by having more interactions between the couple (scenes, rather than long tangential memories of when they first met). There is way too much exposition in this book. And many of the scenes with Hollywood executives are implausible.
Also: this novel is deeply critical of Judaism and Israel in a way that made me uncomfortable. It seemed very strange to me that the author didn't spend more time letting the characters who are Jewish actually speak.
June 30, 2009
I found this book hard to get into at first; for some reason, I struggled through the first five or ten pages. In retrospect, the events being described make perfect sense, and are later repeated in context. It all seemed melodramatic and strangely undefined, like starting a story in the middle and skipping the beginning. However, the book soon backtracks, provides necessary background, and plunges into a deep investigation of literature, culture, religion, and just how loaded and controversial these issues really can be.
I greatly enjoyed this sophisticated, intelligent novel. I expected the focus to be on Anne's book club, which starts when a Hollywood name politely asks her for a reading list at a dinner, and soon spreads out to include many different elite circles, all of whom have taken a sudden, previously unheard of interest in reading. However, the reading group is secondary, and many of Anne's book choices and lectures consisting of increasingly personal anecdotes relate directly to her rapidly crumbling marriage. Anne, a gentile, had long ago married Howard, who is Jewish, much to the disdain and disapproval of his parents. After a disastrous trip to Israel taken by their son, Sam, problems begin to arise. I found the investigation of religion, culture, and identity to be very absorbing; peppered with poetry and quotes from literature, this is a book I would recommend to anyone looking for a good debate mixed in with a good story.
I greatly enjoyed this sophisticated, intelligent novel. I expected the focus to be on Anne's book club, which starts when a Hollywood name politely asks her for a reading list at a dinner, and soon spreads out to include many different elite circles, all of whom have taken a sudden, previously unheard of interest in reading. However, the reading group is secondary, and many of Anne's book choices and lectures consisting of increasingly personal anecdotes relate directly to her rapidly crumbling marriage. Anne, a gentile, had long ago married Howard, who is Jewish, much to the disdain and disapproval of his parents. After a disastrous trip to Israel taken by their son, Sam, problems begin to arise. I found the investigation of religion, culture, and identity to be very absorbing; peppered with poetry and quotes from literature, this is a book I would recommend to anyone looking for a good debate mixed in with a good story.
July 26, 2009
Burr does a phenomenal job of appealing to readers of all types: those who enjoy easy-read, name-dropping, fast-talking high-profiles-in-busy-cities sort of novels (by putting Howard in the upper echelon of the movie industry in--where else?--LA); those who enjoy books seasoned with literature references (by making both Howard and Anne literature professors and by creating a family dynamic by which these characters communicate with each other and with their son via these references); and those who are seeking insight into cultural and religious institutions (by tackling the subject of Jewish identity). Moreover, the style of the writing is not such that it would put off any one reader, and so each type is drawn into the other two threads of the story almost without choice.
The case concerning Jewish identity is one I can relate to, being born of a Jewish father and a Protestant mother. Yet, I have never considered the potential for this as a basis for struggle or even division. It is one of those matters I have glossed over in my life, perhaps always feeling something was a bit amiss but pushing it to the side, since I know that--being born of a non-Jewish mother--I am not technically Jewish and therefore do not need to know much more than how to answer the question that inevitably comes when someone learns my last name: "you're jewish, right?"
The case concerning Jewish identity is one I can relate to, being born of a Jewish father and a Protestant mother. Yet, I have never considered the potential for this as a basis for struggle or even division. It is one of those matters I have glossed over in my life, perhaps always feeling something was a bit amiss but pushing it to the side, since I know that--being born of a non-Jewish mother--I am not technically Jewish and therefore do not need to know much more than how to answer the question that inevitably comes when someone learns my last name: "you're jewish, right?"
This is a brave novel, as it addresses a subject that will undoubtedly draw criticism and hateful reactions. Just as Anne's character attests, however, literature is meant to show us realities we do not want to face, and that is why so much of the greatest literature was hated in its day. This novel will certainly be hated by some. For my part, I will recommend it to those who I believe can approach the question with open minds and open hearts--and perhaps a love of literature, as well.
January 27, 2013
I am writing this review about a year and a half after finishing the book. I just started thinking about it again today, and I wanted to read it again. This book had many flaws, and it is not one that I would usually give 5 stars. However, it didn't leave me for almost a month after reading it. I wanted many people I knew to read it too. (I would later re-think recommending it to some because I was not ready to have the nearly unavoidable discussions that would follow.) This is a book that I dismissed, loved and wrestled with throughout. But it is a book that I can't seem to forget, and that alone makes it high on my list.
I never go into plot because anyone can read the summary. But the author draws the book lover in with a plot of a wife of a Hollywood exec starting a book club for Hollywood producers and directors. There is a lot of Hollywood name dropping with J.J. Abrams and others. And this is the candy coating of the novel. You mean we get to read about book clubs and movies? Sign me up. Then THE BIG THEME is revealed. The novel ponders the question of religion - Judaism, in particular - and what it means to be part of a religion versus being part of a people or ethnic group. How do we choose religion or spirituality and how is it chosen for us? Not to say the book answers these, but it ponders them. It was clear that it was very personal to the author who discloses somewhere within the books pages that it was inspired by an event that happened to him. However, this should not make it any more important that complete fiction. Along the way, a few of the characters act improbably at times and the writing can suggest a certain pretentiousness at first, but the greatness of this book is in the questions it raises.
I never go into plot because anyone can read the summary. But the author draws the book lover in with a plot of a wife of a Hollywood exec starting a book club for Hollywood producers and directors. There is a lot of Hollywood name dropping with J.J. Abrams and others. And this is the candy coating of the novel. You mean we get to read about book clubs and movies? Sign me up. Then THE BIG THEME is revealed. The novel ponders the question of religion - Judaism, in particular - and what it means to be part of a religion versus being part of a people or ethnic group. How do we choose religion or spirituality and how is it chosen for us? Not to say the book answers these, but it ponders them. It was clear that it was very personal to the author who discloses somewhere within the books pages that it was inspired by an event that happened to him. However, this should not make it any more important that complete fiction. Along the way, a few of the characters act improbably at times and the writing can suggest a certain pretentiousness at first, but the greatness of this book is in the questions it raises.
July 3, 2009
This was a fascinating book. There were lots of subjects to ponder: religion, literature, elitism, culturalism, mid-life crisis, homosexuality of a child, and marriage. I was impressed with the author's courage in promoting the idea that the Jewish community has it's own brand of racism. The main character states at one point that the Jewish culture, both religious and non-religious, consider everyone who is not Jewish to be less, to be unclean, to be held to a lower standard. Gentiles are not worthy nor equal. The character goes on to say that Jewish people are then surprised when they are disliked or even hated by those they consider inferior. It all sounds simple unless you substitute your own belief system in for being "Jewish" and then it gets more complicated. I loved this book because there was so much to think about. I also enjoyed the literary ideas from many authors even though I haven't read Auden, Cheever or some of the others.
September 17, 2009
You or Someone Like You by Chandler Burr. Story of Howard and Anne, who meet getting Ph.D.s in English lit at Columbia. Howard is from Brooklyn Jewish family; Anne grew up in English-American diplomatic family, moving all over the world. Howard builds a powerful career in Hollywood as a liaison with New York book world. Anne raises their son and manages the house and servants and runs a wildly popular book discussion group for the Hollywood elite, who love her strong opinions. Even though the book opens with Howard leaving Anne, then flashes back, I did not see what was coming. In the beginning it felt like very heady chicklit (even tho’ writer is man), but the intensity, both narrative and intellectual, just built and built. Anne's climactic public critique took my breath away. I loved it.
July 18, 2012
When I stumbled across this book in my local library I smiled like a crazy person and couldn't wait to start reading. It was exactly the kind of book that appealed to me. Afterall, what more could a book lover want when they are presented with a book about books and about reading.
At it's basis, 'You or Someone Like You' is a book about Anne, a wife of what appears to be a successful Hollywood producer and much admired and sought after man. She lives life her way, and likes to be kept in the shadows almost - she enjoys the idea of being unknown. That is, of course, until Hollywood's elite begin to take notice of her and the books she carries around with her everywhere and they follow her blindly on a discovery through reading and books when she is pressured almost into creating a variety of book clubs. 'You or Someone Like You' is basically about these book clubs, the books within and the life she lives. How all of these interact and affect our lives.
I wanted so badly to love this book - I truly did -but while reading it, It just didn't do it for me. For starters there narration is odd. Anne annoyed me more than I would like admit, and like the Hollywood elite in the book, we don't really get to see too much of her character - especially in the begining. While she's reading the books, and carrying out her book clubs, we get her interpretations of the books, and life as she sees it - but it's always from the perspective of some she knows. Her parents. Her son. Her Husband. Her housekeeper. Gardner. Assistant. The list goes on. Its like, Burr, didn't really want us to know her. And that annoyed me. Afterall it is written from the first person perspective, but I'm not entirely sure that I feel as though I was ever really 'in' her head.
Furthermore, the begining of the book bored me to tears. I'm not going to lie. I struggled with the first three-quarters of this book so badly that I found myself questioning why I had borrowed it and why I had thought it would be so fantastic in the first place. The story for the most part lacks direction. And its somewhat pretenious. It's as though Burr sought out every literary icon he could and thought of some loose link (read a lot of literary name dropping) and reading of the text to add it in. That, although Anne's character linked back to her family, or some random incident in her life, I didn't feel as though it fit within the story at all. In fact, for a few hundred pages, I found myself getting angry at the format of the novel - book club book quote, barely any discussion of 'Anne's reading' of the text, and then Anne's excitement at her book club, but also her disappointment (it has previously been discussed and looked down upon that the "people in Hollywood don't read!" - and while this may be the case (or it may not be), Anne always situated herself above these characters because of it.)
It wasn't until the last hundred or so pages, that I feel the book, and it's actual story really every started to begin. And boy, once it did, it took off like a rocket and I found myself glued to every sentence and page as I rushed towards the ending, dying to know what happens. The discourse and torment of Anne and Howard's (her husbands) religious sides and the crumbling of their family and marriage, was delieverd unbelievably well. It makes me wonder what Burr was really doing for the first part of the book. I was caught up in their emotions, and the turmoil and for the first time in the book, I could visualise what was happening to every character involved. I cried with them, and rejoiced and felt hollow and panicked when they did. I could see them, and fell them, rather that Burr telling me how to read them, and the stories within the story. It was a refreshing and rewarding change after the first chunk of the novel.
All this said, I am truly glad I read the book, and although I can't say I would read it again, there was a lot I took away from it. The way the religious subject matter of the Jewish nature vs the gentile world was revealed and dealt with made me think about my life, and the past and the world as a whole. And I wondered what I would personal say and do had these things have happened to myself. Likewise, there are some little gems scattered through out the book, that really made me stop and think, and smile at (and with) Burr, because on ocassaion, even during the first half of the book, he got some things right, that I didn't believe capable. For instance, having a BA in English, the idea of Literature both thrils and annoys me (due to unviersity stand points on the issue) and I found a few of Burr's one liners, and paragraphs within 'You or Someone Like you' where able to explain and better sum up something of the things the University aimed and failed to do through the four and half years I studied with them. It was both resfreshing and rather confronting to see these things reflected in a book that I equally hated and loved at the same time.
Below are some of my favourite quotes from the book.
" 'I'd said to them that when we read fiction, we pour our own particular store of emotions - say, the sense of loss we feel for those disappeared from our lives--into the characters set before us. We take the few words with which the writer sketches these characters, teh thing he said, the pain she felt, where they were, and our own emotional stickpile magically creates people. As the human eye fleshes our the pixilated image. Ficitonal Characters are highlighly sophisitcated Rorschach blots, and we, along with their author, are their authors. When you read a fictional character, you too are creating her." (page 182-183)
"And as for literature, literature is not, and George Elliot is not, about politics. Literature, well done, illustrates the reality of human nature." (203)
"Literature shocks not because what it shows about us is inherently surprising. It does the exact opposite. It is shocking because it breaks down what we would be and shows us what we know we are. Dividers of each other into races and groups. Ethnicists. People who hate otehrs via these concepts. And then why this is problematic. Because (this is the way I would rephrase Mann) art's treacherous tendency is to show that we all bleed, and in the long run you will not withstand art's construction of life, which is Shakespeare's construction of life, a construction that ultimately finds all human persons fundamentally human, regardless of religion or biology." (368)
Taking about teenagers:
"We forget that they also mourn incipent loss. High school will soon end, and they are reassuring one another that they will all be friends forever, and they are about to discover that this is false. They cover the sadness and fear. They bluff. The college applications are in, the tests are taken, the doors in sight, the control tower is guiding them to the take-off point, and they absoutely no idea how to naviagte this flight." (185)
At it's basis, 'You or Someone Like You' is a book about Anne, a wife of what appears to be a successful Hollywood producer and much admired and sought after man. She lives life her way, and likes to be kept in the shadows almost - she enjoys the idea of being unknown. That is, of course, until Hollywood's elite begin to take notice of her and the books she carries around with her everywhere and they follow her blindly on a discovery through reading and books when she is pressured almost into creating a variety of book clubs. 'You or Someone Like You' is basically about these book clubs, the books within and the life she lives. How all of these interact and affect our lives.
I wanted so badly to love this book - I truly did -but while reading it, It just didn't do it for me. For starters there narration is odd. Anne annoyed me more than I would like admit, and like the Hollywood elite in the book, we don't really get to see too much of her character - especially in the begining. While she's reading the books, and carrying out her book clubs, we get her interpretations of the books, and life as she sees it - but it's always from the perspective of some she knows. Her parents. Her son. Her Husband. Her housekeeper. Gardner. Assistant. The list goes on. Its like, Burr, didn't really want us to know her. And that annoyed me. Afterall it is written from the first person perspective, but I'm not entirely sure that I feel as though I was ever really 'in' her head.
Furthermore, the begining of the book bored me to tears. I'm not going to lie. I struggled with the first three-quarters of this book so badly that I found myself questioning why I had borrowed it and why I had thought it would be so fantastic in the first place. The story for the most part lacks direction. And its somewhat pretenious. It's as though Burr sought out every literary icon he could and thought of some loose link (read a lot of literary name dropping) and reading of the text to add it in. That, although Anne's character linked back to her family, or some random incident in her life, I didn't feel as though it fit within the story at all. In fact, for a few hundred pages, I found myself getting angry at the format of the novel - book club book quote, barely any discussion of 'Anne's reading' of the text, and then Anne's excitement at her book club, but also her disappointment (it has previously been discussed and looked down upon that the "people in Hollywood don't read!" - and while this may be the case (or it may not be), Anne always situated herself above these characters because of it.)
It wasn't until the last hundred or so pages, that I feel the book, and it's actual story really every started to begin. And boy, once it did, it took off like a rocket and I found myself glued to every sentence and page as I rushed towards the ending, dying to know what happens. The discourse and torment of Anne and Howard's (her husbands) religious sides and the crumbling of their family and marriage, was delieverd unbelievably well. It makes me wonder what Burr was really doing for the first part of the book. I was caught up in their emotions, and the turmoil and for the first time in the book, I could visualise what was happening to every character involved. I cried with them, and rejoiced and felt hollow and panicked when they did. I could see them, and fell them, rather that Burr telling me how to read them, and the stories within the story. It was a refreshing and rewarding change after the first chunk of the novel.
All this said, I am truly glad I read the book, and although I can't say I would read it again, there was a lot I took away from it. The way the religious subject matter of the Jewish nature vs the gentile world was revealed and dealt with made me think about my life, and the past and the world as a whole. And I wondered what I would personal say and do had these things have happened to myself. Likewise, there are some little gems scattered through out the book, that really made me stop and think, and smile at (and with) Burr, because on ocassaion, even during the first half of the book, he got some things right, that I didn't believe capable. For instance, having a BA in English, the idea of Literature both thrils and annoys me (due to unviersity stand points on the issue) and I found a few of Burr's one liners, and paragraphs within 'You or Someone Like you' where able to explain and better sum up something of the things the University aimed and failed to do through the four and half years I studied with them. It was both resfreshing and rather confronting to see these things reflected in a book that I equally hated and loved at the same time.
Below are some of my favourite quotes from the book.
" 'I'd said to them that when we read fiction, we pour our own particular store of emotions - say, the sense of loss we feel for those disappeared from our lives--into the characters set before us. We take the few words with which the writer sketches these characters, teh thing he said, the pain she felt, where they were, and our own emotional stickpile magically creates people. As the human eye fleshes our the pixilated image. Ficitonal Characters are highlighly sophisitcated Rorschach blots, and we, along with their author, are their authors. When you read a fictional character, you too are creating her." (page 182-183)
"And as for literature, literature is not, and George Elliot is not, about politics. Literature, well done, illustrates the reality of human nature." (203)
"Literature shocks not because what it shows about us is inherently surprising. It does the exact opposite. It is shocking because it breaks down what we would be and shows us what we know we are. Dividers of each other into races and groups. Ethnicists. People who hate otehrs via these concepts. And then why this is problematic. Because (this is the way I would rephrase Mann) art's treacherous tendency is to show that we all bleed, and in the long run you will not withstand art's construction of life, which is Shakespeare's construction of life, a construction that ultimately finds all human persons fundamentally human, regardless of religion or biology." (368)
Taking about teenagers:
"We forget that they also mourn incipent loss. High school will soon end, and they are reassuring one another that they will all be friends forever, and they are about to discover that this is false. They cover the sadness and fear. They bluff. The college applications are in, the tests are taken, the doors in sight, the control tower is guiding them to the take-off point, and they absoutely no idea how to naviagte this flight." (185)
July 19, 2022
Gripping. True. Remarkable. Exceptionally average until the end, which threw me against the walls of my mind until the very last page. // 3 stars until the last 1/3, which I would assign 4.25 stars if possible.
May 22, 2019
You or Someone Like You is too many different things at once and ends up being a hot mess. Burr's writing is, at times, wonderfully descriptive, and the main ideas of the novel (self vs other, the problems of religious exceptionalism) are explored in detail. Those are the only good parts.
When I started reading I was immediately annoyed by the lack of chapters and how there are no quotation marks for the main character, Anne's, dialogue—this is highly ironic considering that she has a PhD in English and is very much a grammar nazi (I have never read a novel in which a character is obsessed with predicates and rules for comma usage). Technicalities aside, this isn't a very good book for other reasons.
To summarize: Howard is some fancy Hollywood behind-the-scenes guy. His wife, Anne, starts a book club for their Hollywood friends. Their son, Sam, goes to Israel and has a shitty time because he isn't a real Jew. Oh, and he is also gay. Howard wants to return to his Jewish heritage but ends up alienating his family. Anne does some passive aggressive shit, ruins her book club and her reputation, but Howard comes to his senses and they live happily ever after.
The main reason I dislike this book is because of Anne. More accurately, it's like she and all the other characters are allegories who aren't even trying to be believable people. Anne is boring. She's apparently a highly intelligent, well-travelled, multilingual, extremely beautiful woman, but her servants only trust her with gardening? She doesn't do anything and her only aspiration is motherhood. Has the author even met a real woman before? Every time Anne's book club meets, the reader is treated to boring lectures on (mostly) 19th century literature. As the meetings progress, they become a way for Anne to blab about her stupid life—and later, her religious beliefs—with the thin veil of "literary critique."
One of the major plot points falls apart because the characters aren't believable. When Howard returns to his religion he must forsake his wife and child because they are Gentile. However, the relationship between Anne and Howard is never really explained or developed...they meet in college and get married, but she's basically just his arm candy. They claim to love one another but this is never actually shown at any point in the novel. Sorry, but I couldn't feel sad when their relationship imploded.
Another thing I disliked is how "Hollywood" this novel is. This is probably my own fault for picking up the book in the first place, but I found the names of the different studios, directors, producers, actors, actresses, et. al to be tedious. They basically function as a group of Anne and Howard's acquaintances, so there's really no reason why individuals are name-dropped so often.
Finally, the first three hundred pages of the novel seem like a drawn-out tease for the last twenty pages, which are basically a lengthy diatribe about the hypocrisy of Judaism. At its core, the book is about criticizing Judaism, and, to a lesser extent, religion and tribalism in general. I have no problem with this. In fact, I have always been critical of religion and I completely agree with the points Burr makes. In an interview, Burr is asked why he chose to write a novel rather than a piece of non-fiction. Here is part of Burr's reply:
I agree with him in theory, but the novel he wrote falls completely flat. There isn't much complexity or subtlety. The characters are not "utterly human." The characters are cold, distant, underdeveloped stereotypes. How can a reader empathize with them? The novel is transparently a critique of Judaism...While I don't think that Burr denies that that's what it is, I think that he exaggerates any merit that his novel has.
When I started reading I was immediately annoyed by the lack of chapters and how there are no quotation marks for the main character, Anne's, dialogue—this is highly ironic considering that she has a PhD in English and is very much a grammar nazi (I have never read a novel in which a character is obsessed with predicates and rules for comma usage). Technicalities aside, this isn't a very good book for other reasons.
To summarize: Howard is some fancy Hollywood behind-the-scenes guy. His wife, Anne, starts a book club for their Hollywood friends. Their son, Sam, goes to Israel and has a shitty time because he isn't a real Jew. Oh, and he is also gay. Howard wants to return to his Jewish heritage but ends up alienating his family. Anne does some passive aggressive shit, ruins her book club and her reputation, but Howard comes to his senses and they live happily ever after.
The main reason I dislike this book is because of Anne. More accurately, it's like she and all the other characters are allegories who aren't even trying to be believable people. Anne is boring. She's apparently a highly intelligent, well-travelled, multilingual, extremely beautiful woman, but her servants only trust her with gardening? She doesn't do anything and her only aspiration is motherhood. Has the author even met a real woman before? Every time Anne's book club meets, the reader is treated to boring lectures on (mostly) 19th century literature. As the meetings progress, they become a way for Anne to blab about her stupid life—and later, her religious beliefs—with the thin veil of "literary critique."
One of the major plot points falls apart because the characters aren't believable. When Howard returns to his religion he must forsake his wife and child because they are Gentile. However, the relationship between Anne and Howard is never really explained or developed...they meet in college and get married, but she's basically just his arm candy. They claim to love one another but this is never actually shown at any point in the novel. Sorry, but I couldn't feel sad when their relationship imploded.
Another thing I disliked is how "Hollywood" this novel is. This is probably my own fault for picking up the book in the first place, but I found the names of the different studios, directors, producers, actors, actresses, et. al to be tedious. They basically function as a group of Anne and Howard's acquaintances, so there's really no reason why individuals are name-dropped so often.
Finally, the first three hundred pages of the novel seem like a drawn-out tease for the last twenty pages, which are basically a lengthy diatribe about the hypocrisy of Judaism. At its core, the book is about criticizing Judaism, and, to a lesser extent, religion and tribalism in general. I have no problem with this. In fact, I have always been critical of religion and I completely agree with the points Burr makes. In an interview, Burr is asked why he chose to write a novel rather than a piece of non-fiction. Here is part of Burr's reply:
You can write nonfiction, and it's fine for laying out your truths in one way. But fiction communicates those truths in an utterly different way. Infinitely more complexity, subtlety. It always felt, and feels, so obvious to me that these particular truths can be much better expressed through fiction for a simple reason: they are so deeply, irrationally, viscerally, utterly human.
I agree with him in theory, but the novel he wrote falls completely flat. There isn't much complexity or subtlety. The characters are not "utterly human." The characters are cold, distant, underdeveloped stereotypes. How can a reader empathize with them? The novel is transparently a critique of Judaism...While I don't think that Burr denies that that's what it is, I think that he exaggerates any merit that his novel has.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 7, 2012
I picked this up because Emperor of Scent was one of my favorite nonfiction books of the last few years, and I wanted to give the author's fiction a chance.
I am still trying to sort through the unexpectedly deep thoughts and emotions this book raised in me (which took me completely by surprise). The title and the cover art both suggest, to me, something fluffy and possibly chick-lit, and I've decided I find both totally inappropriate. The cover should be more somber and thoughtful, and the title shouldn't sound like a Matchbox 20 album.
I confess that this book may have hit me a little harder than it would others because of the uniqueness of my experience: I am a girl with (apparently) a very Jewish last name, but I am not Jewish, and I knew almost no Jews growing up. So when I moved to New York, it came as a shock to me that everyone assumed I was Jewish (people constantly gave me helpful tips on where to find kosher food, for example). I also did not immediately understand why, when on a date with a nice boy we'll call Avi, not only did he not laugh when I relayed some stories of my mistaken identity, but the temperature dropped twenty degrees and the date ended shortly thereafter.
I promise, this relates to the book. I found myself contemplating two profound questions by the end of it, one of which was -- to what extent does organized religion, perhaps especially Judaism, rely for its survival on intolerance, on in-group/out-group distinctions that would in other contexts be unacceptable? I get the sense that for those raised in New York this may not be a new question, but for me it was, and the fictional backstory threw the question into sharp and emotional relief for me (the characters, and their marriage, had become quite real to me).
The second question I considered was this: to what extent does Love (capital L, the stuff on which marriages are based) require you to continue loving someone even when they begin to change, even when they are arguably no longer the same person? Is it true that Love alters not when it alteration finds? Or is there some point past which it is simply impossible to apply the same term to what you feel for something/someone so different from that which originally inspired Love? Why don't we talk more about where or what this point is? How much can I change and still expect my husband to love me -- is there an answer to that question? What if I converted to a dramatically different religion, one that changed the way I talked and thought and dressed and prioritized, that changed my friendships and my work and my basic interactions with my family? Am I still the same person? If my husband were the one undergoing this change, can I be confident that I would still feel the same longing for, desire for, connection to, the person he'd become? And if I didn't, what then?
Again, it may well be the case that these are not new questions for others, but they hit me very hard, and I was impressed that this book was the one that brought them to me and forced me to spend long hours considering them.
For literature snobs, there are also a million classics references: Wharton, Tolstoy, James, Shakespeare, and Dostoyevsky are just a handful of the names that come to mind. So on top of everything else, this book also made me want to add about thirty books to my already swollen to-read list.
I am still trying to sort through the unexpectedly deep thoughts and emotions this book raised in me (which took me completely by surprise). The title and the cover art both suggest, to me, something fluffy and possibly chick-lit, and I've decided I find both totally inappropriate. The cover should be more somber and thoughtful, and the title shouldn't sound like a Matchbox 20 album.
I confess that this book may have hit me a little harder than it would others because of the uniqueness of my experience: I am a girl with (apparently) a very Jewish last name, but I am not Jewish, and I knew almost no Jews growing up. So when I moved to New York, it came as a shock to me that everyone assumed I was Jewish (people constantly gave me helpful tips on where to find kosher food, for example). I also did not immediately understand why, when on a date with a nice boy we'll call Avi, not only did he not laugh when I relayed some stories of my mistaken identity, but the temperature dropped twenty degrees and the date ended shortly thereafter.
I promise, this relates to the book. I found myself contemplating two profound questions by the end of it, one of which was -- to what extent does organized religion, perhaps especially Judaism, rely for its survival on intolerance, on in-group/out-group distinctions that would in other contexts be unacceptable? I get the sense that for those raised in New York this may not be a new question, but for me it was, and the fictional backstory threw the question into sharp and emotional relief for me (the characters, and their marriage, had become quite real to me).
The second question I considered was this: to what extent does Love (capital L, the stuff on which marriages are based) require you to continue loving someone even when they begin to change, even when they are arguably no longer the same person? Is it true that Love alters not when it alteration finds? Or is there some point past which it is simply impossible to apply the same term to what you feel for something/someone so different from that which originally inspired Love? Why don't we talk more about where or what this point is? How much can I change and still expect my husband to love me -- is there an answer to that question? What if I converted to a dramatically different religion, one that changed the way I talked and thought and dressed and prioritized, that changed my friendships and my work and my basic interactions with my family? Am I still the same person? If my husband were the one undergoing this change, can I be confident that I would still feel the same longing for, desire for, connection to, the person he'd become? And if I didn't, what then?
Again, it may well be the case that these are not new questions for others, but they hit me very hard, and I was impressed that this book was the one that brought them to me and forced me to spend long hours considering them.
For literature snobs, there are also a million classics references: Wharton, Tolstoy, James, Shakespeare, and Dostoyevsky are just a handful of the names that come to mind. So on top of everything else, this book also made me want to add about thirty books to my already swollen to-read list.
Read
July 8, 2009You or Someone Like You - Chandler Burr
About the title -- at first i read it like a Miranda July title, sort of like You, Me and Everyone We Know or No One Belongs Here More Than You. July focuses in wonder on everyone, a loving awe of the flawed perfection in everyone. In retrospect i've decided the edge on Burr's title is more along the line of 'the replaceable you', the division resulting from institutions based on separateness and isolation.
I really loved this book. This is not a book of action, nothing much different left standing front to back here, it is a book of provocative thought and idea. You may not find that for you. You may feel unprovoked, and find ideas here mere straw-men. I understand this. There are chinks here, but i still think this a fabulous book.
This book is rich in controversial discussable ideas. As a book club read it would run well segmented, another section read and discussed as a sub-part of each meeting. Perhaps there is too much for one discussion.
In looking back i see that Burr intends a considerable level of satire of a literary elite like Anne [main character and narrator:], a paradox that is being missed by most readers. (Which all seems to me fine, books have an existence apart from their authors. Characters do too.)
I also wonder about the extent that this book will become a Jewish Satanic Verses. It's interesting to see how some of the publisher's official spin is that the book is about intolerance in all religions -- some truth there, but it's still spin.
======
As a side discussion - this from the book (pg 157):
In a letter, dated August 30, 1791, Thomas Jefferson wrote to Benjamin Banneker, a black astronomer and mathematician whom he had appointed official surveyor of the District of Columbia: “Nobody wishes more than I do to see such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given to our black brethren, talents equal to those of the other colors of men, and that the appearance of a want of them is owing merely to the degraded condition of their existence, both in Africa and America.”
I read this over several times. Think about it: Jefferson at core believes blacks are intrinsically unequal, that Banneker is an exception, the counter example; that he wants to find reason to doubt the racial inferiority of the African, not the opposite. 'Other colors of men' refers at a minimum to Native Americans, Jefferson's esteem for Native Americans is known, he incorporated ideas from their nations into the U.S. Constitution as example. Even somehow accepting this, to then justify and accept slavery in a relationship between 'superior' and 'inferior' is both immoral and contrary to principles of democracy and justice.
This flaw at the foundation of the nation has disrupted justice ever since. (See my review of Slave Nation.)
About the title -- at first i read it like a Miranda July title, sort of like You, Me and Everyone We Know or No One Belongs Here More Than You. July focuses in wonder on everyone, a loving awe of the flawed perfection in everyone. In retrospect i've decided the edge on Burr's title is more along the line of 'the replaceable you', the division resulting from institutions based on separateness and isolation.
I really loved this book. This is not a book of action, nothing much different left standing front to back here, it is a book of provocative thought and idea. You may not find that for you. You may feel unprovoked, and find ideas here mere straw-men. I understand this. There are chinks here, but i still think this a fabulous book.
This book is rich in controversial discussable ideas. As a book club read it would run well segmented, another section read and discussed as a sub-part of each meeting. Perhaps there is too much for one discussion.
In looking back i see that Burr intends a considerable level of satire of a literary elite like Anne [main character and narrator:], a paradox that is being missed by most readers. (Which all seems to me fine, books have an existence apart from their authors. Characters do too.)
I also wonder about the extent that this book will become a Jewish Satanic Verses. It's interesting to see how some of the publisher's official spin is that the book is about intolerance in all religions -- some truth there, but it's still spin.
======
As a side discussion - this from the book (pg 157):
In a letter, dated August 30, 1791, Thomas Jefferson wrote to Benjamin Banneker, a black astronomer and mathematician whom he had appointed official surveyor of the District of Columbia: “Nobody wishes more than I do to see such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given to our black brethren, talents equal to those of the other colors of men, and that the appearance of a want of them is owing merely to the degraded condition of their existence, both in Africa and America.”
I read this over several times. Think about it: Jefferson at core believes blacks are intrinsically unequal, that Banneker is an exception, the counter example; that he wants to find reason to doubt the racial inferiority of the African, not the opposite. 'Other colors of men' refers at a minimum to Native Americans, Jefferson's esteem for Native Americans is known, he incorporated ideas from their nations into the U.S. Constitution as example. Even somehow accepting this, to then justify and accept slavery in a relationship between 'superior' and 'inferior' is both immoral and contrary to principles of democracy and justice.
This flaw at the foundation of the nation has disrupted justice ever since. (See my review of Slave Nation.)
February 25, 2011
This book has held me enthralled for three days.
Fantasy is very much in vogue right now and this books is the most fantastical I've encountered. It concerns a wildly popular book club with astute exegesis and commentary by the members, who are studio heads, screenwriters, directors, producers, and other Hollywood bigwigs. As the author points out Hollywood runs on phone calls and so verbal skill is highly prized but there is nothing but distain for the written word.
Nonetheless, we suspend disbelief, and follow Anne, a PhD in English from Columbia (as is Howard) as she is asked by a friend to put together a book list for her. She does and the friend asks if she and a couple of others can talk about the books with Anne. As time goes on more and more people ask to be included and eventually her book club becomes fodder for Entertainment Tonight, People, Vanity Fair, and beyond. As I said, total fantasy.
The author's skillful use of book discussions to slowly and subtly display Anne's reserved personality and to tell the reader something he believes strongly about literature: it brings people together. Their son, Sam's, trip to Israel and a bad experience there leads Howard to re-examine his Orthodox roots and his decision to marry a non-Jewish woman.
This was an extremely controversial book with reviews all over the place from negative to well-balanced to tentatively positive. I'm in the tentatively positive camp.
Or perhaps I should say the sometimes positive. I liked - no, loved - the literary thread in this book. It's more like a thick rope as Anne, the Episcopalean wife of Howard, son of Orthodox Jews and now agnostic, communicates to the people around her and eventually to her husband primarily through books. The group reads Lord of the Flies, Bronte, Auden, Edward Lear, and many others. Her discussions of these authors and books are the best part of the novel.
A must-read for English majors and for Christopher Hitchens (who is vociferously anti-religion.) Probably not the thing for those with strongly-held Jewish beliefs and pro-Israel politics. The novel is very critical of conservative Jews but it is not anti-Jewish; the author writes from his own life and that is a Jewish experience.
2011 No 36 Coming soon: Finally, the books about Estee Lauder.
Fantasy is very much in vogue right now and this books is the most fantastical I've encountered. It concerns a wildly popular book club with astute exegesis and commentary by the members, who are studio heads, screenwriters, directors, producers, and other Hollywood bigwigs. As the author points out Hollywood runs on phone calls and so verbal skill is highly prized but there is nothing but distain for the written word.
Nonetheless, we suspend disbelief, and follow Anne, a PhD in English from Columbia (as is Howard) as she is asked by a friend to put together a book list for her. She does and the friend asks if she and a couple of others can talk about the books with Anne. As time goes on more and more people ask to be included and eventually her book club becomes fodder for Entertainment Tonight, People, Vanity Fair, and beyond. As I said, total fantasy.
The author's skillful use of book discussions to slowly and subtly display Anne's reserved personality and to tell the reader something he believes strongly about literature: it brings people together. Their son, Sam's, trip to Israel and a bad experience there leads Howard to re-examine his Orthodox roots and his decision to marry a non-Jewish woman.
This was an extremely controversial book with reviews all over the place from negative to well-balanced to tentatively positive. I'm in the tentatively positive camp.
Or perhaps I should say the sometimes positive. I liked - no, loved - the literary thread in this book. It's more like a thick rope as Anne, the Episcopalean wife of Howard, son of Orthodox Jews and now agnostic, communicates to the people around her and eventually to her husband primarily through books. The group reads Lord of the Flies, Bronte, Auden, Edward Lear, and many others. Her discussions of these authors and books are the best part of the novel.
A must-read for English majors and for Christopher Hitchens (who is vociferously anti-religion.) Probably not the thing for those with strongly-held Jewish beliefs and pro-Israel politics. The novel is very critical of conservative Jews but it is not anti-Jewish; the author writes from his own life and that is a Jewish experience.
2011 No 36 Coming soon: Finally, the books about Estee Lauder.
November 14, 2009
This is delicious revenge porn for all those who value reading and critical thinking over reality TV-deadened cultural ignorance and thuggish, talk radio-induced fanaticism. Heck, it deserves four stars alone for being a most impassioned argument for how book clubs can save the world!
Subtitled (in my mind) "Everything I Need to Know about Los Angeles I Learned from The New Yorker magazine and the Organic Section of Zabar's," this brainy, engrossing, and at times uneven novel was a random choice for me, but a thoroughly satisfying one. Things kick off pleasantly enough (if a bit pretentiously), with a gossipy insider jaunt through the glamorous mechanics of Hollywood power brokering. Sadly, this arch, breezy storyline is derailed and nearly ruined with maddening frequency by grim, boring lectures on grim, boring pieces of literature. Skip the lectures and stick with it, though, because about 2/3 of the way in, up out of the wearying muck of this Robert-Altman-meets-Harold-Bloom schtick blossoms a gripping, emotional novel that argues passionately for no less than the salvation (through books!) of our ever-degrading culture. The hyper-articulate members of the all too perfect Rosenbaum family suddenly find themselves struck down (and struck dumb) when forced to confront what they truly believe about religion, identity, and sexuality. Failing to find any successful means to address these heady issues and grope their way out of the darkness, they turn to, of all things, literature -- and dear reader, it is their salvation.
Subtitled (in my mind) "Everything I Need to Know about Los Angeles I Learned from The New Yorker magazine and the Organic Section of Zabar's," this brainy, engrossing, and at times uneven novel was a random choice for me, but a thoroughly satisfying one. Things kick off pleasantly enough (if a bit pretentiously), with a gossipy insider jaunt through the glamorous mechanics of Hollywood power brokering. Sadly, this arch, breezy storyline is derailed and nearly ruined with maddening frequency by grim, boring lectures on grim, boring pieces of literature. Skip the lectures and stick with it, though, because about 2/3 of the way in, up out of the wearying muck of this Robert-Altman-meets-Harold-Bloom schtick blossoms a gripping, emotional novel that argues passionately for no less than the salvation (through books!) of our ever-degrading culture. The hyper-articulate members of the all too perfect Rosenbaum family suddenly find themselves struck down (and struck dumb) when forced to confront what they truly believe about religion, identity, and sexuality. Failing to find any successful means to address these heady issues and grope their way out of the darkness, they turn to, of all things, literature -- and dear reader, it is their salvation.
April 18, 2010
I loved and hated this book - so tough to review my specific thoughts on it.
At the halfway point, I seriously considered returning the book to the libary. Although an intellectual read (the incredible amount of literary references and evaluations stretched this little accountancy majors mind) and a great potential storyline, I struggled with where it was all going. I'm so glad I stayed with it because the second half of the novel carried a completely different focus and I couldn't put it down as the two parts converged.
In this novel, Anne, the narrator, is married to Howard Rosenbaum, a famous producer in Hollywood. Both Anne and Howard have doctorates in literature, and one of Howard's colleagues asks Anne to come up with a reading list for her. Within weeks, Anne is holding book groups for half of Hollywood and starts unintentionally playing an important role in which projects get made and which ones get shelved.
The focus of the story then changes...still revolving around Anne and Howard but now a new focus on their history coming back full circle. Religion and God and Judaism and the Holocaust. The rules of Judaism, how the religion demands that the world be separated into Jewish and Gentile.
I'll definitely be thinking back on this story for quite some time. Noting a 3 star rating but truly it fluctuated between 3 and 5 stars among the pages.
At the halfway point, I seriously considered returning the book to the libary. Although an intellectual read (the incredible amount of literary references and evaluations stretched this little accountancy majors mind) and a great potential storyline, I struggled with where it was all going. I'm so glad I stayed with it because the second half of the novel carried a completely different focus and I couldn't put it down as the two parts converged.
In this novel, Anne, the narrator, is married to Howard Rosenbaum, a famous producer in Hollywood. Both Anne and Howard have doctorates in literature, and one of Howard's colleagues asks Anne to come up with a reading list for her. Within weeks, Anne is holding book groups for half of Hollywood and starts unintentionally playing an important role in which projects get made and which ones get shelved.
The focus of the story then changes...still revolving around Anne and Howard but now a new focus on their history coming back full circle. Religion and God and Judaism and the Holocaust. The rules of Judaism, how the religion demands that the world be separated into Jewish and Gentile.
I'll definitely be thinking back on this story for quite some time. Noting a 3 star rating but truly it fluctuated between 3 and 5 stars among the pages.
July 30, 2010
Oh the writing in this book is absolutely delicious. I devoured this book like I devour my friend Marsha’s lemon sunshine cake. Seriously. Absolutely delicious writing. Burr’s description of a garden made even me want to take up gardening. That’s a serious accomplishment. For the first, oh let’s say 60% of the book, I was so wrapped up in both the writing and the overall novel that I could barely put it down. But then things changed. Then the plot took a turn that I didn’t see coming and one that pushed far too many of my own buttons. The catalyst for the plot turn was actually something that the author took from his own life so obviously it pushed his buttons too.
Once my buttons had been pushed and once the plot went so very far in the direction that it went it became impossible for me to enjoy the book anymore. The demonetization of something incredibly meaningful and important to me and a naive interpretation of many details about that thing left me absolutely cold.
So what I can say about You Or Someone Like You is that it contains absolutely brilliant writing that I simply adored but I did not love the novel.
Once my buttons had been pushed and once the plot went so very far in the direction that it went it became impossible for me to enjoy the book anymore. The demonetization of something incredibly meaningful and important to me and a naive interpretation of many details about that thing left me absolutely cold.
So what I can say about You Or Someone Like You is that it contains absolutely brilliant writing that I simply adored but I did not love the novel.
September 30, 2011
I really didn't like this book, I had to force myself to finish it and when it was done, I was so annoyed I would have thrown it across the room if it wasn't on kindle. I gave it one star because it was a kindle library book and that made me happy. I think the author had 2 ideas for books but couldn't develop either of them so he just combined them into one book. One idea is about the wife of a studio executive who starts a book club for industry people and influences how movies are made. To me, that's the more interesting concept and I would have liked to read a whole book about that but the author doesn't really get into that idea. He mostly just uses it to name drop people in Hollywood and include long passages of literature. The second idea is about a Jewish studio executive (her husband) having a crisis of faith after his son goes to Israel. I was less interested in this book and in reading long passages about how the narrator (read the author) feels about the attitude of some Jews toward intermarriage.
January 22, 2016
Ostensibly about the intellectual wife of a famous Hollywood producer who starts a book club that becomes "the hot ticket" in LA, it turns into a diatribe against Judaism. Their teen-aged son, who technically in some eyes is not Jewish because his mother is not, returns from a trip to Israel shocked at having been spurned by a yeshiva due to his status. This in turn causes the father to become uber-observant after not having been religious at all. The mother enters into a philosophical war to win her husband back from the "tribalism" and "stupidity" of his new-found ways. The book jacket makes no mention of any of this but instead describes the book club aspect with near Jane Austen-like charm. Apparently based on the author's own experience, the book may have served as some sort of therapy for him, but the rest of us should have been warned that we were being summoned to participate.
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June 29, 2010After winning this book in a Good Reads giveaway, I was very excited to read it! It sounded intriguing and original and I had high expectations and thought I'd love it.
However, I just could NOT get into this book whatsoever. I like to push through and see how a novel will develop and it is rare that I don't finish a book once starting. But once I was 56 pages in and still not really into the characters or the storyline, I decided to move on. This book drops Hollywood names and literary terms left and right and I felt like the author was trying to impress the reader with his knowledge or something. With no previous information or experience with this author, that's the assumption I made.
I'm reading 52 books this year with a friend of mine at bookwormz2010.wordpress.com and it's time for me to just move on- too many books to get through!
However, I just could NOT get into this book whatsoever. I like to push through and see how a novel will develop and it is rare that I don't finish a book once starting. But once I was 56 pages in and still not really into the characters or the storyline, I decided to move on. This book drops Hollywood names and literary terms left and right and I felt like the author was trying to impress the reader with his knowledge or something. With no previous information or experience with this author, that's the assumption I made.
I'm reading 52 books this year with a friend of mine at bookwormz2010.wordpress.com and it's time for me to just move on- too many books to get through!
February 22, 2011
Probably the only serious-minded book that I read this month, although I didn't realize that going in. This book is told from the POV of Anne Rosenbaum, wife of Howard, a Hollywood producer-executive-whatever. She has a literary degree from Columbia and somehow ends up hosting a book club for various Hollywood bigwigs. I was a bit put off by various name dropping ( JJ Abrams, for example) but I suppose it was meant to lend credence to the tale. Also, the method of dialog took a bit to get used to, but ended up being well-paced because of it.
This book examines literature. This book examines life. This book does not always come up with a rosy conclusion. Some comparisons involving race, religion and society may be rather uncomfortable, as it questions why we separate ourselves from others and then rage at those who separate us in the same manner, calling them bigots and racists.
This book examines literature. This book examines life. This book does not always come up with a rosy conclusion. Some comparisons involving race, religion and society may be rather uncomfortable, as it questions why we separate ourselves from others and then rage at those who separate us in the same manner, calling them bigots and racists.
January 16, 2010
Does it speak to my passion for fiction that I devoured this book, in which Burr plants many excerpts from novels, just after I cast aside Nicholson Baker's The Anthologist, in which Baker prolifically scatters poetry? I'd like to think not, but I'm willing for poetry lovers to call me on this. Instead, I believe that Chandler Burr possesses copious gifts for developing smart, empathetic characters; painting scenes that the reader not only sees but senses; and writing so that readers do not see the seams of his creation. Nor does he spare us difficult questions or worry that he's sending us to the dictionary!
July 23, 2009
This novel explores the importance of religion, culture, art and literature and how they relate to our identity. Sounds dull, but the book is a page-turner, with provocative outbursts and accusations and likable characters speaking very, very well. I will be thinking about this story for a long time to come.
It's also remarkable for how well the male author pulls off the trick of writing as a woman in the first person.
It's also remarkable for how well the male author pulls off the trick of writing as a woman in the first person.
July 25, 2011
The author has the main character say that to be effective, literature has to be absolutely ruthless, and in this case he (the author) meets that standard. The story has a wife living out of the literary canon and doing a better job of it than the husband is out of his biblical one. This cool-as-a-cucumber British lady even fights for him. Hang on Sloopy hang on! (But I'd just as soon not crash & burn!) An electrifying read.
August 26, 2009
Tried a little too hard to be erudite. It took great suspension of disbelief to swallow that so many Hollywood players are that well-versed in Trollope, Eliot, etc.! Burr does raise some very uncomfortable questions about Jewish identity, but the direction he took his characters in the last third of the book didn't feel genuine to me.
November 25, 2009
I'm not sure what to say about this book. I started off liking it, then found it slightly pretentious when it got heavy in to the book review/conversations, and then went to disliking it by then end.
I'm not sure what points Chandler Burr was trying to make regarding anti-Semitism, intermarriage, gay children, marriage, etc.
IMHO the book tried to hit too many points and seldom scored.
I'm not sure what points Chandler Burr was trying to make regarding anti-Semitism, intermarriage, gay children, marriage, etc.
IMHO the book tried to hit too many points and seldom scored.
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April 7, 2009a bizarre mashup of literary references, jewish religious education and hollywood inside baseball. a smart book, it'll start a reading list for you with all the lit references. if only i could be so well versed!
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