-
An entertaining read
“This is a book about four friends, Gabe, Jake, Louie and Sammy, following their last years in school/college; however, it is not only a book for teenagers. I think everyone, young and old, will enjoy reading this book. It is a book about growing up, relationships, family problems and teenage social behaviour. The writing style is unconventional - there are no quotation marks used to signify speech, which first seems very unusual, but once you get used to it, doesn't seem that bad. Each chapter is written from the perspective of one of the four main characters, however, the author doesn't make it clear which character is narrating and so you have to work it out as you read. I found this a bit confusing, especially at the beginning of the book when the characters were unfamiliar, but as you get to know each character this becomes less distracting. However, given the way the book ends, it may well be that the author intended some confusion in the way the book was written; after all, the story does centre around the four boys' misuse of various drugs and the mind altering potential of these. I did find the book an entertaining read and would recommend it to anyone looking for a good book to read. There were a few typos contained in the book which kept recurring which is why I am only giving it four stars, otherwise I think it was almost perfect. It reminded me in parts of 'A Catcher in the Rye' with the same loose style of writing. JD Salinger's infamous book is mentioned a couple of times in the novel and so maybe it was one of the author's influences in writing this novel. ”
An amazon user wrote this on 2008-10-23. -
A dark and comic coming of age novel
“Full disclosure: I know Ben Tanzer and have participated with him at a reading in Brooklyn, New York.
An amazon user wrote this on 2008-10-14.
Some books have a way of winning you over. I remember the first time I picked up John Fante's Wait Until Spring, Bandini. It was not Ask the Dust. When the former was written, the author had not developed into the great teacher of Bukowski that can be found in the latter. And yet, as I delved deeper and deeper into Wait Until Spring, Bandini, my perception of the novel changed. While the book is not a definitive example of Fante's greatness as a writer (Ask the Dust is his most memorable book for a reason), it has great heart, it has soul. The scene of Bandini's mother and father laying in bed together in the first chapter just about made me weep. It was a beautiful piece of writing. I was won over.
Ben Tanzer's Lucky Man also won me over. Perhaps because the book starts so unsuspectingly, providing no grand opening or sudden launch into the action. It starts with a conversation -- between the four main characters and the reader who serves as an impromptu listener of their life stories. But I think there is a simpler answer. There isn't an ounce of pretense in Tanzer's writing, something lacking among a lot of my peers. You never get the sense that Tanzer is trying too hard to convince you of his writing skill. His dialogue fits his characters. The situations always feel real. All of this helps the reader settle in and go along with what at first seems like a standard coming-of-age story.
Once the book gets moving however, the story takes flight (as do the characters). Lucky Man reads like a 220-page long prose poem, told by the four main characters who speak directly to the reader in present tense. One often feels like they're reading transcripts of reality show confessionals strung together. This is even taken to an absurd pretense when one of the characters has an unfortunate incident. But it is also the four perspectives of Sammy, Louie, Jake and Gabe that deliver a great sense of seeing the world of Lucky Man from all sides, or rather all camera angles. Along the way, there is a lot of humor and a ton of sadness. But Tanzer never uses the breakups, suicides, adultery, car crashes, drug abuse, or sudden death as cheap thrills. This is life in all its grimness.
Ultimately, the title is a grand joke. And that is what really won me over in the end. Lucky Man can be dark. And anyone who has read my work knows I have a penchant for the dark and strange and cynical. But the last page of Lucky Man nicely turns a dark, cynical outlook into a great punch line.” -
The Final Days of Youth
“A vivid story about when boys become men and move on. I find myself frequently thinking about some of the issues this book brings to mind, such as the doom life can hit a person with. This book does a great job showing how people try to escape facing some of the responsibility of doing what is right or expected of human beings in a visceral way.
An amazon user wrote this on 2008-09-18.
I also enjoyed the way Ben Tanzer captures the essence of time, taste, smell, drugs and thoughts using images of pop culture with a college frat atmosphere. Especially, interesting was the different perspectives of the characters told in first person. ” -
Do ya feel lucky, punk?
“To the extent that Lucky Man is a first-person narrative about young men coming of age, you could say it's fratire. But this is damned serious stuff, making the book much more ambitious, I think, than some of the other puke-on-my-own-shoes books in that genre.
An amazon user wrote this on 2008-03-19.
More ambitious still--there's not one narrator here but four, each taking turns commenting on experiences they share, in interleaved chapters. Sammy, Jake, Louie, and Gabe are confreres passing from high school to college while they get stoned in every way imaginable and have encounters and even a few relationships with women. Note that they're not so much chasing girls as hitting on them (and getting hit on) like bumper cars.
In fact, that's the dynamic of their lives--drifting, smashing, and moving on. The author may have ambition, but these guys rarely make a meal more complicated than a bowl of cereal. None of them finds much direction or purpose at all (one tries religion, briefly). Perhaps they would get motivated if they could only channel their anger, which mostly stems from life's random punishments. But they turn most of their angst in on themselves as they get wasted daily, punctuated by an occasional fistfight arising from little or no provocation.
First-person narration is a bold choice because the main character can't report on events that affect him but he can't see, or might not even hear about. This challenge is partially overcome in this book by Tanzer's telling the story from multiple points of view. Then, it's a challenge to give each of the voices a distinctive character. While these boys each has his quirks, their attitudes, outlooks, and prospects are much more alike than they are different. Maybe it's a generational thing--they've all given up, bowing to the great god of Pointlessness.
This is, as the reader will guess soon enough, a last-man-standing story. In the end, the question is, "What's it all mean?" Tanzer gives no clue, but I do give him a great deal of credit for at least raising the question.
Gerald Everett Jones is the author of My Inflatable Friend: The Confessions of Rollo Hemphill” -
Very Good
“Per the authors request, I reviewed this book. Findings are below...
An amazon user wrote this on 2008-01-31.
In this book, Lucky Man, by Ben Tanzer, I found many grammatical errors, such as commas needed in several places and words missing to complete phrases, such as the/and/a. I found misspellings and words used out of context, such as their/there, and anyways/ any way. For a finished and published work, I am very disappointed with the proofreading and editing on the publishing company's behalf. At times the language can be abusive, but given the situation and the characters I don't feel it takes away from the story. In my opinion, the dialog between characters can be confusing in the way it was written, but did not deter me from reading.
In saying that, I found this book very compelling. Written in the first person point of view, from four different sources is not an easy task to pull off successfully. The characters were believable, and the plot intriguing. Ben Tanzer brings the hardships of four young men into your mind and tugs the heartstrings with each trial of their young lives. Reading it made me feel as if I was delving into a forbidden diary, and brought me closer to the characters. It certainly changes your thinking of an ordinary telephone ring. In retrospect, the ending was superb and had a twist, that even though the author worked up to, I did not see coming. For a debut novel, I am, overall, impressed.
”
