Made for Love: A Novel

If you can, try to attend a book reading to hear author Alissa Nutting read from this funny, sharp novel. She provides a perfect voice in your head for this story. This book is a high-wire act set in the near future - it is hilarious and completely unique and raunchy and kind of terrifying. At the beginning, we find out that main character Hazel has bolted from her insanely rich tech-mogul husband. She shows up at her father's house and discovers him in blissful lust with Diane, a perky sex doll who has just made his life worth living.
Oh, it gets better - there might be a chip in someone's head, there is a con man who turns to dolphins for love, and there are also some true-life descriptions of how it feels to be alone in a 'wtf have I show more done with my life' kind of way. I really appreciate how much attention and life that Nutting gives to every character in her story - you will not forget Hazel and Byron and Fiffany and Liver and Diane and Jasper and Ms. Cheese. This is a very different book than Nutting's novel, Tampa. She is a brave and brilliant writer and this book... wow. Best book about love that I've read in awhile. show less

A woman runs away from her techonut husband while her elderly father finds companionship in a sex doll and another man becomes attracted to dolphins in Alissa Nutting's funny, twisted and thoroughly delightful new novel.

Made for Love; what does it mean? Hazel's father's doll was manufactured for sex; Hazel herself becomes an object in the eyes of her husband, there to be used for his experiments; and Jasper has created of himself a character who pretends to love women while he steals from them. But at a metaphorical level, or literal if you're religious, the human soul as made for love is a religious concept that reaches back to the Bible. Pope John Paul II said "A person's rightful due is to be treated as an object of love, not as an show more object for use." All three main characters, and many of the minor ones, have to learn this lesson over the course of this strange and wonderful book.

At the outset, Hazel, a young woman in her thirties, abandons her marriage to Byron Gogol. He is founder of a tech company looking to take over the world, or at least the people in it, through the introduction of more and more intrusive technology. Finally he wants to "meld minds" with his wife, in one-sided arrangement that would give him access to her every thought but give her nothing in return. His incursions start out with low-level technostalking when they first meet and escalate to monitoring her without her knowledge 24/7. She wants out; what started out as a loveless marriage for money has become something frightening and deeply threatening and now, hiding at her father's house, she believes Byron will eventually kill her rather than let her go.

At the same time her father, who is more ill than he lets on, has taken up with a sex doll named Diane and wants to live out his remaining time in a fantasy world of plastic love. He lets Hazel stay with him for the time being, but only if she agrees to buy him a second doll.

Then there's Jasper, a con artist and gigolo who gets a number done on him after an encounter with a dolphin changes him in a way he struggles to come to terms with, first through employment at an aquarium and later through Gogle-sponsored surgery. Eventually all three characters come together, but not in any way I expected.

I'm calling this book science fiction because it is deeply concerned with the ways technology affects our lives, and portrays a current-day or near-future world in which technology is threatening to become hyper-intrusive, a world in which we have literally no privacy, not even the privacy of our own thoughts. The beating heart of the narrative is Byron Gogle's company, the extension of his self with its wireless tentacles stretching out, trying to enclose everyone in his life just as a start. Byron/Gogol's grasping is desperate and needy and belies Byron's blasé, blank affect; there's more going on with him than we see, but the whole point is that he is the one character whose interior life we will never see, and that's the way he wants it. As his tentacles get closer and closer to our protagonists I was feeling a real tension and suspense, wondering how this was all going to turn out.

The ending is quick but satisfying; an otherwise throwaway character saves the day, and those that remain move on to uncertain but somehow better futures. I really enjoyed Made for Love; it was quirky, hilarious, edgy and at times outlandish, but it kept me reading and held my attention, which is saying a lot for audio fiction. Suzanne Elise Freeman's expert narration helped a lot too; she is expressive and charismatic and brought the words to life. If you have a slightly off-kilter sense of humor and are ready for the unexpected, Made for Love is a great choice for you. show less

I'm reviewing this from my own personal copy - I did not receive an ARC for review.

I have to say this is one of the strangest books I've ever read. Okay, maybe not, but it's way up there. Top 20. That's not a bad thing. It was quirky with both likeable and hateable characters, with some squirmy situations - and even some heartbreak along the way.

The scenes were vivid and wild with color. The characters were fully developed, and if it were at all possible, they would've been in 5D. If one were to believe in the technology described in the book, it might've been.

Let's talk a little bit about the characters. The story focused around Hazel, and she was truly the heart and soul of the whole book. As a female, I found myself seeing bits and show more pieces of myself in her, but I have no idea what a guy would see. I'd love to chat with one of my male friends after reading Made for Love.

Hazel is in an untenable situation. After a fairly unhappy home life, she gets into a sterile marriage with a megalomaniac tech billionaire. Byron (her husband), wants her to be a test subject more than a wife, so she finds an opportunity to escape. Escape being the operative word. She finds herself back home with her father, who has issues of his own.

Herbert, (her father), has entered into a relationship with not one, but two - sex dolls. Seventy-six and a widower, Hazel feels like she can't judge him. It makes things uncomfortable, but she moves in anyway, and tries not to cramp his style. She makes an acquaintance in a man named "Liver," and sticks around until Byron's actions from before her exit become clear.

Her life gets much more complicated, and Hazel works to extricate herself. That's a huge story, and it's amazingly entertaining and a long and winding road (to quote the Beatles).

When we get to chapter four, we start reading the saga of Jasper. When it begins, the reader has no idea how it will fit in with the rest of the story. All I can say about Jasper is that he is a piece of work. I hated him, and then I felt pity for him, and it slowly turned to awe as his plans dovetailed with Hazel's.

I was utterly gobsmacked. That's as far as I'm going to go. There are other characters, and so much more to the story, but I want to leave it up to you to see for yourself. I thought the cover was super cheesy, but after reading the book, it's so amazingly fitting, I think I'm in love with it. This book is not a romance, it's not exactly SciFi, it's just a stellar piece of fiction.

Made for Love might deserve more than five stars, and it's making me want to grab more of Alissa Nutting's books to see if she'll astonish me again. I'm hoping the style of this book won't dull my senses to another batch of her surprises. So good! Read it, you won't be sorry. show less

I shouldn’t like this novel as much as I do, but oh man, was this ever charming in the weirdest way possible.

Hazel is married to Byron Gogol, tech multi-millionaire. She lives in his compound, The Hub, pretty much under his complete control and surveillance. When he decides to put a chip in her brains so he can mind-meld with her, she flees to her father's trailer. Her father isn't too happy about his new visitor; he's in a honeymoon period with his new sex doll.
Meanwhile, Jasper has made a living conning women into falling in love with him and giving him all their money which is easy for him to do as he looks like a very handsome Jesus. His life falls apart when he is attacked by a dolphin who appears to want to mate with him.
This is not a book everyone will like. The two protagonists don't even meet until the book is three-quarters done. It show more is also very weird; many of the happenstances are frankly odd and highly imaginative. However, it is extremely funny, and I loved the black humor vibe. It has a lot to say about our society, social media, tech, relationships, and social norms.
The writing is fresh and funny. Thoughts often come as a free association mind drop from either Hazel or Jasper without any filters, often harkening back to past occurrences in their lives. I really enjoyed this book. It was not something I might have picked up on my own, and I'm grateful it was recommended to me. show less

I'm reviewing the the spirit of this book moreso than the book itself; it has the kind of nutso additive quality of a movie made by kids or second album made by a band with too much money/cocaine. Clearly there was no regard to whether the dialogue was realistic or the characters were relatable or whatever. It's a book edited for laughs & language. There are jokes in a scene where the main character tries to kill herself. There must be a German word for this... when you just make the thing you want to make, without self-censorship. The big difference here is that it's written by a woman who cannot possibly be in it for the money. AND it's a quick read. AND it's pretty good. Anyways I loved it.

Really 3.5 stars. In some ways, this covers the same territory as [b:The Circle|18302455|The Circle|Dave Eggers|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1376419833s/18302455.jpg|25791820] and in some ways, it is better. Sometimes it feels like the author was going for weird for weirdness sake, but it did set a distinctive mood.

Worth the read if you are looking for something about the dangers of technology and a little offbeat.