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My Problem with Doors
Jacob's life changed in a single moment when, as a toddler, he walked through his bedroom door only to find himself in the office of a British officer in Capetown, 1870. This would begin a thirty-year journey which would take him from ancient to future civilizations, and innumerable places and times in between. Through all of his travels, Jacob seeks for the purpose of his predicament, the significance of his life with all of its joys and suffering, loneliness and impermanence.
290 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
286 people want to read
About the author
Scott D. Southard
9 books314 followersScott D. Southard fell in love with books when he discovered Middle Earth and Narnia as a child. That beginning grew into a passion for classic literature and any story that he can get truly lost in. He is the author of seven books, including A Jane Austen Daydream and Permanent Spring Showers. For many years, he was heard on National Public Radio as a regular contributor to WKAR's Current State where he would discuss new and classic novels and literary events. He can be found online at "The Musings & Artful Blunders of Scott D. Southard" at sdsouthard.com.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 24, 2014
This book pulls you in, I was constantly wondering where Jacob would end up next. Once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down and read it in one sitting.
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October 3, 2011You wake up with a scream, frantically scanning your surroundings, looking for proof that the world you just narrowly escaped was only a figment of your vivid subconscious. How many times have you emerged from a life-like nightmare only to realize that it would be great fodder for a book? Lansing-based author Scott D. Southard’s new novel “My Problem with Doors” began forming in his mind when he experienced a unique and horrifying dream: “I was at home and walked through a door and ended up in another’s house in another time. I remember that fear of the realization and the shock and depression of knowing that I couldn’t go back to the life I had left behind.” Southard saw his vision through to create a big and entertaining story.
The novel’s protagonist, Jacob, has composed a plea for help, hoping that his potential readers would be able to find a way to solve his problem, even though he himself has had no luck with it at all. “I loved the idea of picking up a book that seemed to talk directly to me,” the author muses, “like a secret only I could hear.”
It all began when our hero was quite young, barely old enough to reach the knob of his nursery’s door. He stood on tip-toe and clumsily pushed it open, only to find himself transported to late 19th century British-occupied Cape Town, where he was brought up by a kindly lieutenant before being transported once again some years later. Of course, there are certain exceptions to his condition. Not every door will transport Jacob to a new time and place. In fact, only about 1 in 20 offers passage of this kind; it’s all in the luck of the draw.
Many adventures await Jacob on his quest; he truly needs to be prepared for anything when he crosses through: pirates, gladiators, samurais, the desolate future of humanity, love, a place to belong… Jacob even comes across some well-known historical figures, like Percy and Mary Shelley, Lord Byron and Jack the Ripper. When asked to neatly sum up the story’s complex tapestry of plot, characters and settings within a single sentence, Southard described “My Problem with Doors” as “the story of Jacob who is lost in time; these are his adventures, struggles, battles, loves and trials in trying to find a way back home.”
The author set out to create a work of fiction that could not be neatly categorized as a single genre or for a single audience. “I felt if I created something that fit many modes, not only would it have something for everyone, but it also will be that much more unpredictable and surprising,” says Southard. He hopes that the book’s crossover into sci-fi, action-adventure, historical fiction, martial arts and romance will offer something for most readers.
Reading through it, I have become convinced that “My Problem with Doors” lends itself very well to young male readers—an often under-approached readership. Adolescent and young adult boys will love living vicariously through Jacob as he uses his wit and battle skills to conquer foes, commandeer a pirate ship and even fall in love. Through a yearning for adventure, these readers will also learn a bit of history and be compelled to contemplate the deeper meaning that exists within the story’s action-packed pages.
Jacob is a “man looking for meaning in his plea, he is calling to a maker for guidance”, Southard explains; “the voice and the hope in it changes, it begins as a plea, it turns into a confessional and, by the end, it is almost a journal or philosophical introspection for Jacob.” Though he did not set out to write a humanist work, the end product’s themes resonate in this way with the author, who cites Joseph Campbell, Kurt Vonnegut and Joss Whedon as influences.
If you’d like to learn more about “My Problem with Doors” or other works by Scott D. Southard, you can visit him on Twitter, Facebook or on his Amazon.com author’s page.
Yearning for some more Scott D Southard? I'll be reviewing his novel, Megan, soon. Keep checking back.
The novel’s protagonist, Jacob, has composed a plea for help, hoping that his potential readers would be able to find a way to solve his problem, even though he himself has had no luck with it at all. “I loved the idea of picking up a book that seemed to talk directly to me,” the author muses, “like a secret only I could hear.”
It all began when our hero was quite young, barely old enough to reach the knob of his nursery’s door. He stood on tip-toe and clumsily pushed it open, only to find himself transported to late 19th century British-occupied Cape Town, where he was brought up by a kindly lieutenant before being transported once again some years later. Of course, there are certain exceptions to his condition. Not every door will transport Jacob to a new time and place. In fact, only about 1 in 20 offers passage of this kind; it’s all in the luck of the draw.
Many adventures await Jacob on his quest; he truly needs to be prepared for anything when he crosses through: pirates, gladiators, samurais, the desolate future of humanity, love, a place to belong… Jacob even comes across some well-known historical figures, like Percy and Mary Shelley, Lord Byron and Jack the Ripper. When asked to neatly sum up the story’s complex tapestry of plot, characters and settings within a single sentence, Southard described “My Problem with Doors” as “the story of Jacob who is lost in time; these are his adventures, struggles, battles, loves and trials in trying to find a way back home.”
The author set out to create a work of fiction that could not be neatly categorized as a single genre or for a single audience. “I felt if I created something that fit many modes, not only would it have something for everyone, but it also will be that much more unpredictable and surprising,” says Southard. He hopes that the book’s crossover into sci-fi, action-adventure, historical fiction, martial arts and romance will offer something for most readers.
Reading through it, I have become convinced that “My Problem with Doors” lends itself very well to young male readers—an often under-approached readership. Adolescent and young adult boys will love living vicariously through Jacob as he uses his wit and battle skills to conquer foes, commandeer a pirate ship and even fall in love. Through a yearning for adventure, these readers will also learn a bit of history and be compelled to contemplate the deeper meaning that exists within the story’s action-packed pages.
Jacob is a “man looking for meaning in his plea, he is calling to a maker for guidance”, Southard explains; “the voice and the hope in it changes, it begins as a plea, it turns into a confessional and, by the end, it is almost a journal or philosophical introspection for Jacob.” Though he did not set out to write a humanist work, the end product’s themes resonate in this way with the author, who cites Joseph Campbell, Kurt Vonnegut and Joss Whedon as influences.
If you’d like to learn more about “My Problem with Doors” or other works by Scott D. Southard, you can visit him on Twitter, Facebook or on his Amazon.com author’s page.
Yearning for some more Scott D Southard? I'll be reviewing his novel, Megan, soon. Keep checking back.
November 8, 2013
Jacob has a problem with doors. From time to time, when he walks through one, his life changes in a flash, transporting him across time and space, interrupting the flow of a normal life with the juxtaposition of extraordinary characters and challenging experiences. Just as he gets used to one life, one period in history, just as he builds relationships that are meaningful to him, so is he snatched away by some mysterious hand of... Well, of what? Of fate? Of God?
It's a really interesting premise for a novel, that of a wanderer through time whose destiny and purpose is uncertain. He encounters somebodies and nobodies, revealing the truth behind some of the most notorious characters in history, and the smaller but no less significant stories of every day individuals. Indeed, in some senses this is a novel of two halves. While it begins as a narrative romp through history, told by Jacob himself who is scratching out his memoirs a candle at a time, it becomes increasingly a reflective existential analysis. What is the point of all this diversity of experience if I can't change anything about my own life, let alone anyone else's?
And therein lies the novel's strength and, for me, its weakness. There is a richness of imagination in Southard's telling of Jacob's tale, of the places he sees, the events he witnesses, the characters he meets and falls in love and in hate with, is helped and hindered by. He witnesses some extraordinary periods in history and it would be a remarkable novel if that were what it chose to focus on as story-telling and imaginative odyssey, contrasting the values, people, places, morals, the continuity of human emotion and experience and the differences. And there is some fine, well-constructed story-telling, particularly the sections featuring the Shelleys and Byron, though less so those with Jack the Ripper. There are though some contrivances around Jacob's increasing desire to explain why he is enduring this journey, including his desire to change the course of one particular event in recent American history which feels a little unnatural in the course of the novel. There are so many events in the history of the nation, and given that we are never really sure of Jacob's nationality for he is not explicitly, patriotically American but rather a citizen of time and space, why does he choose to focus on that event rather than the Holocaust, for example, as a means of finding out whether his ability to move in time could change the course of history?
There is a love story too at the centre of this, and perhaps it is the most compelling theme in the novel, for it is this aspect of his life which transforms Jacob and changes him from a travelling storyteller into a journeyman of a different kind. Yet perhaps, like Jacob, we too end up with more questions than answers. I found myself wondering why Southard had chosen the events he had for Jacob's story, why those famous historical people, why I felt dragged in and out of the story, sometimes utterly absorbed and sometimes jerkily aware of the story's construction in equal measure. This is such an original idea for a novel which is at times really well executed but which at other times left me frustrated and wishing for more fulfilled potential.
It's a really interesting premise for a novel, that of a wanderer through time whose destiny and purpose is uncertain. He encounters somebodies and nobodies, revealing the truth behind some of the most notorious characters in history, and the smaller but no less significant stories of every day individuals. Indeed, in some senses this is a novel of two halves. While it begins as a narrative romp through history, told by Jacob himself who is scratching out his memoirs a candle at a time, it becomes increasingly a reflective existential analysis. What is the point of all this diversity of experience if I can't change anything about my own life, let alone anyone else's?
And therein lies the novel's strength and, for me, its weakness. There is a richness of imagination in Southard's telling of Jacob's tale, of the places he sees, the events he witnesses, the characters he meets and falls in love and in hate with, is helped and hindered by. He witnesses some extraordinary periods in history and it would be a remarkable novel if that were what it chose to focus on as story-telling and imaginative odyssey, contrasting the values, people, places, morals, the continuity of human emotion and experience and the differences. And there is some fine, well-constructed story-telling, particularly the sections featuring the Shelleys and Byron, though less so those with Jack the Ripper. There are though some contrivances around Jacob's increasing desire to explain why he is enduring this journey, including his desire to change the course of one particular event in recent American history which feels a little unnatural in the course of the novel. There are so many events in the history of the nation, and given that we are never really sure of Jacob's nationality for he is not explicitly, patriotically American but rather a citizen of time and space, why does he choose to focus on that event rather than the Holocaust, for example, as a means of finding out whether his ability to move in time could change the course of history?
There is a love story too at the centre of this, and perhaps it is the most compelling theme in the novel, for it is this aspect of his life which transforms Jacob and changes him from a travelling storyteller into a journeyman of a different kind. Yet perhaps, like Jacob, we too end up with more questions than answers. I found myself wondering why Southard had chosen the events he had for Jacob's story, why those famous historical people, why I felt dragged in and out of the story, sometimes utterly absorbed and sometimes jerkily aware of the story's construction in equal measure. This is such an original idea for a novel which is at times really well executed but which at other times left me frustrated and wishing for more fulfilled potential.
January 28, 2015
I won this book in a giveaway (yay!) and was asked to review it in exchange, so here goes:
This is the story of Jacob, who has a "condition": whenever he walks through a door (well, one in about twenty), he finds himself somewhere else in time and place on the other side. He doesn't know why and does his best to survive.
I found the story original and interesting. Although it's not the kind of book I'm likely to re-read and it didn't exactly move me to my core, it was an enjoyable read. I easily "fell" into the book and was always wondering what was going to happen next, where Jacob would end up, if he would ever find an explanation for his problem... The historic details are also really interesting. Jacob was well written as a character, while still being just mysterious enough. The author has a good style. The only thing I'm not fond of was the use of calligrams or "shape writing" throughout the book... I didn't see the point.
All in all, I would most definitely recommend this book!
This is the story of Jacob, who has a "condition": whenever he walks through a door (well, one in about twenty), he finds himself somewhere else in time and place on the other side. He doesn't know why and does his best to survive.
I found the story original and interesting. Although it's not the kind of book I'm likely to re-read and it didn't exactly move me to my core, it was an enjoyable read. I easily "fell" into the book and was always wondering what was going to happen next, where Jacob would end up, if he would ever find an explanation for his problem... The historic details are also really interesting. Jacob was well written as a character, while still being just mysterious enough. The author has a good style. The only thing I'm not fond of was the use of calligrams or "shape writing" throughout the book... I didn't see the point.
All in all, I would most definitely recommend this book!
February 26, 2013
My Review: This is a most compelling book. It pulls you in to a fascinating concept from the beginning Jacob at the age of three goes through the door of his bedroom to another time and place. This starts him on a life long journey through time as another door opens time and time again. He has many trials and few good times. He finds his Love only to loose her as another door opens to another time and place. He finds many dangers. The author does an excellent job of working great historical detail into Jacobs life. From his influence on Lord Byron and the poet Shelley to the events on September 11 at the world trade center. It is a fascinating and original concept. I Give this book 5 stars.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews