Domestic Violets

There is a new book making the rounds at the bookstore...DOMESTIC VIOLETS by Matthew Norman.

          


First J. read it, and she has been telling everyone to read it. "It's kind of like a Jonathan Tropper book," she told me. Who she knows I love. Tropper's books are funny, his main characters are in almost cataclysmically bad situations, and the main characters often don't make good life decisions. And they are very funny. Like THE BOOK OF JOE. In it, the main character has written a novel about a town, people and incidents he borrowed and borrowed heavily, from his own hometown, exposing secrets about residents and not casting them in a very favorable light. His novel is then made into a very popular movie. Joe has never intended to ever go home again...until his father has a stroke. As you can imagine, he is not welcomed back very warmly. It's great.

"It's like a Jonathan Tropper book," she said, "but this main character doesn't get into quite such awful situations, and some of it is kind of sweet. And insightful. You should read it," she told me.

And so I did.

One of the first things we learn about Tom Violet is that he is having problems with his penis. The first few pages being about penis problems put me off at first, not being as fascinated with that particular part of the male anatomy as so many men seem to be.

But I got past that. And I'm glad I did. Not only is Tom having problems with his manhood, he works as a copy-writer for a soul-sucking corporation. He is also a writer, whose father is an incredibly successful, Pulitzer-prize winning author, so living in THAT shadow has been hard. He also kind of has a crush on a co-worker, and his penis problems have precipitated problems in his marriage. Or his marriage problems precipitated his penis problems. Poor Tom.

DOMESTIC VIOLETS was not only a fun read, it kept me engaged, despite the penis troubles (and by the way? if you are having trouble reading this blog post because of the word "penis", then you probably want to pass on this book.) Some of the plot points were kind of predictable, but many weren't, and I really liked the ending. Good read!

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