A review of "This Book Will Save Your Life"

This Book Will Save Your Life

by A. M. Homes

I immensely enjoyed This Book Will Save Your Life, by A. M. Homes. It chronicles the midlife crisis of a man with too much money, too many pent up feelings, and too little human contact. The writing style is fresh, and the content meanders all over the place. Here’s a sample from p 209. Richard, the narrator, has just accompanied his new-found friend Nic on a visit with an elderly man in a nursing home:

“I really liked your dad,” Richard says when they’re back outside.

“He’s not my dad. I visit Fred because I can’t visit my dad.”

“Dead?”

There’s a pause. “Sometimes you can’t do things for the people you should do things for, including yourself, but you can do them for someone else, a stranger. Fred is a stranger. He is my stranger.”

There was a part of the book where it tread dangerously close to being a father-son bonding tale. Thankfully, there’s a lot more to the story than that. Well worth reading!

See more about This Book Will Save Your Life