Review : The Handyman

The following is a 5th grade style boook review of The Handyman by Carolyn See which I had to read for my writing class:

Now I have not read many non fiction books in the last few years (actually none) so that fact might color this review. That said, I really enjoyed this book. This novel starts by telling you how everything ends up in the future, which may seem odd, but as the author admits, it is necessary to frame the story. The story is about an artist who needs to find himself. To make money and bide time, he moves back to his hometown of Los Angeles and runs errands for people. The errands he ends up doing however, end up changing people's lives and eventually his. Predictably, the novel ends when Bob finds himself and runs off into the sunset with the people he loves and becomes a successful artist.

This book was assigned as a case study in creativity, and it does provide interesting insight into the life of a struggling artist. The book also manages to make lots of social commentary, on issues ranging from feminism and abuse, to AIDS and gay rights. Character development (especially of Robert) was also superb and the story is exciting from cover to cover. Also importantly, there is a lot of sex.

My only to critiques after reading this were first of all, why he does Robert not have any other friends then the people he meets that summer. Robert has supposedly lived in L.A. for over 20 years, yet the introduction an story lead us to believe that he has no childhood, high-school, or college friends. The other issue that I would take with this book is that the ending would be more believable if it was not for the scene where Mrs. Landry walks and on Robert and Millicent. Seriously, that scene should just have been removed. Other than, this was a great novel, and I would recommend it. I suddenly want to be a handyman...