Synopsis: This is a story told in first person by Jordan Fineman. It tells the story of a seemingly ordinary American Jewish teenager who evolves into a very troubled and dysfunctional young man.The story picks up when Jordan is on a trip to Alaska.He is in Alaska to do seasonal work since he cannot hold down a steady job. We follow him back to New York where he has a complete mental breakdown and is forced to spend some time in a psychiatric facility.
Jordan has severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and he also has Bipolar Disorder. With the ups and downs of Bipolar Disorder also come fits of rage.He has a very supportive father who must support Jordan both financially & emotionally.Jordan also sees a psychiatrist several times a week.
Review: I wanted so much to like this book because I find the topic of mental illness so fascinating. One of the problems that I found was that the OCD issues & the rage issues were talked about but not fully explored in the way that I was hoping they would be.It didn't feel like the author totally committed to the subject matter. I wanted to like Jordan but I found myself very indifferent to him which was strange considering how likable the author was clearly trying to make him.
I really didn't like the opening of the book.It felt way too wordy and like the author was trying too hard to make it sound interesting.That them of being too wordy carried on throughout the book and that was probably why I couldn't get into it as much as I wanted to. There were also too many misspellings and grammatical errors that a good editing session would fix rather quickly.
This book gets 3 stars from me. I didn't hate it but I didn't love it either.
About the Author
Josh Greenfield is a graduate of both Phillips Andover Academy and Cornell University's College of Arts and Sciences. He holds two masters degrees from the City University of New York, one in History and one in English Literature. He also completed the better part of a doctorate in English at Fordham University. His desire in writing is to tell a entertaining and engaging story, to look for laughs in dark places.
Great review it's too bad the issues weren't delved in deeper it's what I usually like from stories with such serious topics. I hadn't heard of this one before.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking the same thing. It's like I said in the review,I wanted the author to really go for it and it didn't feel like he took the plunge and delved super deep into the subject matter.If he had done that,the book would have been much improved.
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