Jim Keeble
Author of My Fat Brother
About the Author
Image credit: Courtesy of the author
Works by Jim Keeble
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Gender
- male
Members
Reviews
Pearl Ruled @ p59
The Publisher Says: Julius Miles is a mathematical genius, but he is hefty of frame, awkward with the opposite sex and struggling to bring his existence into balance. When he stumbles across the girl next door naked and dead on her Victorian tiles, he starts to unravel the one equation that’s eluded him: that of his own life. And so it is that with the most unlikely of assistants – a transsexual Cupid with a penchant for drugs – he embarks on a quest to find the truth show more about love, death, family and how, ultimately, you make your numbers happy.
I RECEIVED AN ARC FROM THE PUBLISHER. THANK YOU.
My Review: Try this on for size:
This is A Confederacy of Dunces plus equations, divided by Ignatius J. Reilly's nasty attitude towards others, times neurodivergent Othering plus fatphobia. There are a lot of characters. They speak, or think, in short bursts. There's a transgender woman playing matchmaker...and called a transsexual. Well, to be fair, this came out in 2012 and that was okay then.
But it just is not doing it for me at all. I am releasing the tree book into the Little Free Library as of now. show less
The Publisher Says: Julius Miles is a mathematical genius, but he is hefty of frame, awkward with the opposite sex and struggling to bring his existence into balance. When he stumbles across the girl next door naked and dead on her Victorian tiles, he starts to unravel the one equation that’s eluded him: that of his own life. And so it is that with the most unlikely of assistants – a transsexual Cupid with a penchant for drugs – he embarks on a quest to find the truth show more about love, death, family and how, ultimately, you make your numbers happy.
I RECEIVED AN ARC FROM THE PUBLISHER. THANK YOU.
My Review: Try this on for size:
Even murder cops get bored. They're as keen as the rest of us to go home and watch television. It's not the gunslingers who solve crime but the pedants and the bores, my old man explained. "The evidence is is always there, son. Most cases are solved by a pig-headed copper going back one last time.
There is one more thing he told me, my cop father. Because it acts as an alibi, and because they get a kick out of seeing the pain and grief they've caused, killers often attend the funerals of their victims.
This is A Confederacy of Dunces plus equations, divided by Ignatius J. Reilly's nasty attitude towards others, times neurodivergent Othering plus fatphobia. There are a lot of characters. They speak, or think, in short bursts. There's a transgender woman playing matchmaker...and called a transsexual. Well, to be fair, this came out in 2012 and that was okay then.
But it just is not doing it for me at all. I am releasing the tree book into the Little Free Library as of now. show less
a bit trite and the pacing is off, too.
this is a book i got at my last book sale visit. it was one that fell into a cohort of others that seemed to speak to me. they all seemed to want to tell a broader, meta-tale across their plotlines so i cannot help but review this within that context. in fact, it’s really the only way i got through the book.
>
this one seemed incongruent until i realized that it does resemble Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity. the main character is a geek of sorts, show more navel-gazing, boy-man, dealing with relationships/losing his girlfriend in the first few pages of the book. Rob was an aficionado of music and an artist as a dj; Steve is an artist with words, a published author. both are steeped in elitist subcultures. however, whereas Rob’s ex was actually really good for him, Steve’s isn’t so much.
there’s also a death involved. but Rob’s is his girlfriend’s father while Steve’s is his own mother.
the thing is, MaOM isn’t nearly as well-written. Hornby is a writer i like to read. his prose keeps me going. his wit keeps me going. this one? not so much. it’s tries too hard to be charming and funny but it does not make it for me. example: stealing a penguin from the London zoo. i simply do not believe it. it’s too ridiculous and the character has not been shown to do such things. it seems like the author wrote this while watching a BBC series version of it. a scene where this uptight writer steals a penguin with his estranged father? hilarious!
not for me.
the author often describes things in bleak, morose terms in an attempt to be funny. punctuating certain scenes or passages with a fart or the penguin shitting again (once, right between someone’s eyes) is common and feels like a 10 year old laughing cause “you said ‘doody’.” i realize that being British has it’s own sense of self-deprecating awareness that he’s attempting to tap but i just don’t find it works. but then i’m an American, maybe i really do not see it.
i was able to read the entire book but there were times when i almost quit. passages would repeat themselves or be redundant or just run on for way too long. the bits about the penguin and Frank the homeless dude are annoyingly trite and contrived. i enjoyed it as a counterpoint to High Fidelity but it just didn’t reach the level of basic enjoyment for me. show less
this is a book i got at my last book sale visit. it was one that fell into a cohort of others that seemed to speak to me. they all seemed to want to tell a broader, meta-tale across their plotlines so i cannot help but review this within that context. in fact, it’s really the only way i got through the book.
>
this one seemed incongruent until i realized that it does resemble Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity. the main character is a geek of sorts, show more navel-gazing, boy-man, dealing with relationships/losing his girlfriend in the first few pages of the book. Rob was an aficionado of music and an artist as a dj; Steve is an artist with words, a published author. both are steeped in elitist subcultures. however, whereas Rob’s ex was actually really good for him, Steve’s isn’t so much.
there’s also a death involved. but Rob’s is his girlfriend’s father while Steve’s is his own mother.
the thing is, MaOM isn’t nearly as well-written. Hornby is a writer i like to read. his prose keeps me going. his wit keeps me going. this one? not so much. it’s tries too hard to be charming and funny but it does not make it for me. example: stealing a penguin from the London zoo. i simply do not believe it. it’s too ridiculous and the character has not been shown to do such things. it seems like the author wrote this while watching a BBC series version of it. a scene where this uptight writer steals a penguin with his estranged father? hilarious!
not for me.
the author often describes things in bleak, morose terms in an attempt to be funny. punctuating certain scenes or passages with a fart or the penguin shitting again (once, right between someone’s eyes) is common and feels like a 10 year old laughing cause “you said ‘doody’.” i realize that being British has it’s own sense of self-deprecating awareness that he’s attempting to tap but i just don’t find it works. but then i’m an American, maybe i really do not see it.
i was able to read the entire book but there were times when i almost quit. passages would repeat themselves or be redundant or just run on for way too long. the bits about the penguin and Frank the homeless dude are annoyingly trite and contrived. i enjoyed it as a counterpoint to High Fidelity but it just didn’t reach the level of basic enjoyment for me. show less
I enjoyed this book. The fictional narrator is Scott Barron, a successful writer, with a gorgeous girlfriend. Scott has a brother, Jes, who, while far less successful than Scott, is happily married and enjoys his life.
They love each other, as brothers do, but are not especially close. But then there is a tragedy in the family, and both of their lives start unravelling. The knock on effect is that they start blaming each other for their insecurities, and old resentments are dragged up.
Despite show more the subject matter, this is a humorous book, although the narrator has a tendency to pity himself, and is not as likeable as you may expect. show less
They love each other, as brothers do, but are not especially close. But then there is a tragedy in the family, and both of their lives start unravelling. The knock on effect is that they start blaming each other for their insecurities, and old resentments are dragged up.
Despite show more the subject matter, this is a humorous book, although the narrator has a tendency to pity himself, and is not as likeable as you may expect. show less
Statistics
- Works
- 6
- Members
- 151
- Popularity
- #137,934
- Rating
- 3.0
- Reviews
- 3
- ISBNs
- 20