Philosophy Made Simple by Robert Hellenga rounded up to 2 stars

[Karin]

Before I start, I can't fathom why two people have shelved this as contemporary and I am apparently the first to shelve it historical fiction when--wait for it--it was published in 2006 and is set in the 1960s! Okay, I cans see that some people use contemporary for books written in our time, but it just goes to show you that this book has not been shelved nearly enough times.

In short, a 60 year old widower is given a book called Philosophy Made Simple which he reads through this novel even as he makes a huge life change by selling his house in the mid-west and buying an avocado orchard in Texas while arranging for the wedding of one of his daughters. He contemplates these philosophies as well as his life, etc, though the book while various and sundry other things happen.

This is one of those books that started off strong for me--I was leaning to 4 or more stars, but later went downhill. This isn't Hellenga's writing, but because he did a great job of tying the story into the philosophy the protagonist was reading about at various times through the novel. Being familiar with the philosophies in question I could see this, but it meant also that things about this story went downhill, particularly later on. There are many other philosophers not discussed (there are so very many), but unlike Genesis by Bernard Beckett there wasn't anything about this that made me feel that it was very worth my while to have read it and that it was fabulous enough to give it lots of stars despite this sort of thing.