You or Someone Like You

I've had to consider this book for a few days before sharing my opinion and I am still not exactly sure how it will go. I was so enamoured with the premise that I bought You or Someone Like You only to receive a copy from the publisher a few days later. With my schedule rather tight it took some time for me to squeeze it in only to discover it was not what I had expected at all.
Less a story and more an extended lecture, You or Someone Like You is a satirical rumination on literature, philosophy and religion. Laced with irony and purposefully inflammatory it is interesting to read but as a novel is just barely held together by what I felt to be a shallow plot that is simply a coat hanger for much bigger ideas.
There are so many ideas in this book, the value of literature, religious belief, cultural identity, morality and the author is deliberately provocative. I was fascinated as he pulled at the threads of hypocrisy and challenged to consider the viewpoints he explores.
Literature is a key feature of the novel and the book extensively quotes from classic works. The constant references seem a little pretentious to me though that may well be the point, but for the protagonist Anne, literature is her means of articulating herself and her ideas and understanding and interpreting her experience. Taken at face value, the author seems to be lamenting the degradation of literacy. Burr emphasises that literature is a mirror that reflects the truth but I think I detect a thread of subtle warning, that it's interpretation has an ambiguity that we need to question in relate to our own life and experience. For me this is most clearly illustrated as Anne's relationships disintegrate.
Cultural, religious and racial identity is another major theme of You Or Someone Like You. As an agnostic who lives in a country without a strong national or cultural identity I found this to be the most interesting thread of the novel. Burr uses Judaism to illustrate the inherent conflicts and hypocrisies of identity but I feel you could substitute any almost any religious or cultural group that believes in some manner of exclusion and it still be relevant. Judaism is simply the example Burr uses to communicate and explore the complications of society.
You or Someone Like you was not an easy read, it is slow and dense and I never particularly warmed to Anne but there are some very astute observations hidden amongst the overblown language and deliberate controversy. This novel needs to be approached with a critical eye to what lays beneath the surface. I can imagine it would certainly make for a fiery book club discussion but You or Someone Like You will not be for everyone. ( )

I don't feel equal to the task of reviewing this book. Some may view this remark as a conceit on the book's topic.

Without wishing to be too simplistic, the book is essentially about discrimination. Oh yes - and change.

So, why don't I feel equal to the task? Because when one takes a point of view, one must be prepared to justify it. I think this book is great. The bees knees and the ants pants. But I don't feel I have the qualifications/knowledge/authority to say, this is a great book. I feel like one of those klutzes that hears great music and says "That was fantastic!" - but can't articulate why.

I confess I am quite intimidated by the central character. Now she would be qualified to review this book! I loathed her to begin with. To be really simplistic, she seemed like a pretentious snob. Oh but how carefully, Mr Burr pulls us in to her world, her point of view. She changes, in our mind, from being some crackpot who talks to her husband in literary allusions into a woman going through an annus horribulus.

But I am being too simplistic again. Everytime I attempt to describe this book it morphs and changes into something else...thus becoming what it is describing. First I think it's a book about racism. Then about parenting. Then about loving. Then about writing or language.

I'm a bit of a luddite when it comes to matters of philosophy but I think Burr is attempting to wrestle with the essentially Western way of viewing the world - possibly inherited from Greek philosophers and I am happy for others to leap in here and give guidance....the notion that we tend to see things in terms of a dialectic - black/white, yes/no, us/them. For one thing to exist, the other must not type of thing.

Literature gives us the opportunity to see things from a different perspective - the outsider looking in. What is great literature? Heck I certainly haven't read enough of it. I was however heartened to see that Edward Lear and A.A. Milne made Burr's list. When it comes to matters of philosophy, I'm a firm believer in nonsense.

But enough about me....what do you think...of me? Is the fundamental question of this book. Ask it of yourself... ( )

There are many threads in this book; Anne becomes more independent, Howard questions his decision to be a secular Jew and their son, Sam, reveals his sexual identity. All of this takes place against the backdrop of the movie industry in Hollywood. Both Anne and Howard have doctorates in English Literature and are well read, to put it mildly. Anne forms book groups at the request of Hollywooders who want to read and the book is full of literary quotes and references. The book would have had better balance with less quotes. I connected with the principle characters but found there to be too much background noise ( )

Buss is best know for being the perfume critic for the New York Times.This book is about prejudice, racism and love - being on the "inside" and being on the "outside". British vs American, Jewish vs non-Jew. ( )

You or Someone Like You, by Chandler Burr, is a novel that is strong in detail, and strong on message. If you have an aversion to extremely unambiguous content, then I suggest you pass this book by. Burr does not soften or sugar coat any aspect of the story line or word visuals.It intensely deals with many issues, from the literary aspect and the Hollywood upscale settings, to religion and religious/racial purity, to the marriage of Anne and Howard Rosenbaum. Their marriage is a religiously mixed one, she being a gentile, he being Jewish and formerly Orthodox. They live in an environment of affluence and within circles powered by monetary fulfillment.

The superficial factors of our lives do not make us individuals of strength and character. Those attributes come from our truthfulness and our honest projections of ourselves…the projections that show the individuals in our personal environment that we care, that we are concerned about them, and concerned about the world as a whole. I think that is one of Burr’s messages. We need to treat each other, no matter where we reside on this planet, as we want to be treated. We need to show compassion and empathy to everyone, and try to be sincere and honest, and do good, as best we can, with whatever our capabilities allow us to do so. We need to dust ourselves off and get out of the perceptive rut we are in, and open our minds and hearts to our surroundings.

It is not an easy read. Burr’s words caused me to reflect on and question my thinking on certain issues. I feel You or Someone Like You is an important literary contribution that elicits the reader to ponder the issues regarding the dogma, ideals and facets of religious-based racial purity, and to question the theme of religious ethics, and also moral responsibility for humankind. ( )