Book Doctor: A Novel

by Esther Cohen

Inspired by the frustrations of writer's block, the vagaries of modern romance, and a deep-seated love for reading, The Book Doctor combines urbane, sophisticated, mordantly funny storytelling with tremendous heart. Smart, independent, quirky, and well-read, Arlette Rosen makes her living helping people write the books they've always dreamed of, and she's quite good at it. She likes this work, likes the freedom of someone else's sentences, likes being able to change, in intuitive ways only she knows, small details here and there. By the time she meets new client Harbinger Singh, she has worked on sixty-four books, chosen from hundreds of submissions. Harbinger Singh makes his living as a tax attorney, but what he really wants to do is write a novel, a grand, sweeping saga he intends to call Hot and Dusty. While the romance that blooms between these two unlikely lovers is more about longing than lust, it triggers something in each that just might be called hope. With uncompromising wit and a fierce tenderness, Esther Cohen has written a modern-day comedy of manners about relationships, writer's block, and the enduring-if elusive-creative spirit.

Genres: Fiction, Books About Books

264 pages, Hardcover

First published December 28, 2004

About the author

Well it shouldn't be impossible for me to write a biography that is honest and satisfying and helpful and maybe even funny. But it is.

I am never entirely sure what to say, what details would be interesting and helpful and useful to you,
The Reader, you reader of these sentences and many others.


I am tallish. And curious. I am getting older.

Today at a shoe sale on 57th Street, because I was a few minutes early for a meeting I didn't really want to have with a woman who is successful, self-involved, and in the end interminably dull, today at a shoe sale I met a stranger, a Brazilian woman who teaches family sociology at Princeton. We had a happy conversation (about families, not shoes) for about 20 minutes.
I'll probably see her again.

Reviews

[Will Tate · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this book out in the library - I like reading (and writing) novels about novels and novelists and writing and the blurb talked it up big, but I was disappointed. The book doctor, Arlette, was an interesting character who could have been made even more so with a bit more thought about her motivations and less on the way she was moulded to fit in with the trendy NYC intellectual set. The novel was let down by the sections narrated by Harbinger Singh, who to me seemed a wholly ludicrous, artificial and unengaging character, and by the overuse of the letters, e-mails, etc from other prospective clients about their book ideas.
Esther Cohen knows how to write about the reasons for writing but not much about devising an absorbing plot.The most memorable parts were really little more than asides about the craft of writing. "You need time not to write, in order to write...Time to consider and time not to think about what you are writing..time for your characters to develop a tone that's consistent." QED methinks.

[Kelsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book gets a solid "meh." I went back and forth between being really annoyed by it and really amused. I like the premise, and the letters from people with books ideas were by far the best part of the book - so good, in fact, that had the rest of the novel been even decent, I would recommend reading it just for the letters. But the main characters and the love story are boring and pretentious and utterly unlikeable.

[Katherine Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another random pick off the library shelf. I liked this book a lot. Characters were quirky and interesting and she did a great job of capturing the "I want to write but it's very hard and not coming out right" feeling. Loved the slow progress as the main character begins to find her way back to her own creativity.

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book started out with promise, but proved to be ultimately unsatisfying. Arlette Rosen works as a book doctor, "helping people write their books. She edited those they'd already written, or helped them begin books they felt they wanted to write." Her long-time relationship with Jake is distant and unsatisfying; she is always questioning whether they love one another. She is full of doubt in most areas of her life - her own ability to write the book of her dreams, her relationship with her parents. It feels like she is perpetually stuck. Jake is a film fanatic and speaks in such intellectual terms of the films he loves, and the one he dreams of creating, that I lost interest every time he opened his mouth. I honestly couldn't understand why they were in a relationship with one another; it seemed one only of convenience & companionship. When she meets Harbinger Singh, a tax lawyer to who wants to write a book to get revenge on his ex-wife Carla, Arlette starts to feel more excited about life, and her own prospects for writing. She thinks Harbinger is the most creative person she has ever met. At first, I hoped a romance might develop between them, as they seemed so enchanted with one another, but after a while I didn't even want that to happen. At first Harbinger seems endearing, but then he becomes annoying, with his constant humming and singing, and the fact that he never seems to actually write his book, but just talks endlessly about the thousands of possibilities with silly titles and characters named for body parts. And the relationship between Harbinger and Carla seemed to mirror the passionless relationship of Jake and Arlette. Though there are some well-written parts, I felt the book went off in too many directions, and as soon as something got really interesting, the author seemed to run in another direction.

I so wanted to see Arlette just drop Jake and get busy writing her book. And I wanted Harbinger to drop Carla and start writing his book! I doubt Harbinger would have ever become a good writer, but I believe Arlette could have.

[Karen Fasimpaur]

This book, though not great literature, was a light, enjoyable read.

I got it with two other library books and saved this one for last, thinking it would be the best. Then when I saw ratings that were much lower than one of the other books that I didn't enjoy at all, I was concerned. But despite the ratings, I liked this book, and it was definitely the best of the three.

After all, how bad can a book about writing and books be, especially when it is filled with charming letters and musings on the human condition?

The ending left something to be desired, but overall it was worth reading.

[Susan Katz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unique style, engaging, great characters.

[Bryan · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book didn't really go anywhere in my opinion. It was higher level reading and involved a lot of references that i didn't really understand. Not my kind of book!

[L. Farmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first Esther Cohen book I read and I enjoyed it. I might have to read her other books now.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn’t like the beginning or the middle, but I kept reading, thinking I might like the end. I didn’t.

[Karen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Could not get into this book. Found the characters flat.

[Colleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 stars are generous. Thought I would like the idea of a book doctor but her story was all over the place.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

A woman has a business helping people write. I didn't like the characters and the writing was stilted.

[Melissa (Semi Hiatus Until After the Holidays) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Arlette Rosen practically fell into the job of "book doctor." A friend in publishing knew about Arlette's love for books and asked for her assistance with an author. This first experience, helping someone flesh out ideas to get a book from the author's mind onto paper, was fulfilling and led to more people requesting Arlette's expertise. She is now one of the most respected book doctors in the business, having an innate ability to discern good ideas from bad ones and translating complicated thoughts into readable prose.

All is not as clear and concise in Arlette's personal life, however. She has spent many years with her boyfriend Jake, never fully committing to a true relationship, preferring to guard her heart and mind. Which leads to Arlette's other problem--she, too, is a frustrated author. She has a myriad of ideas but is completely blocked about how to get them out. When Arlette meets Harbinger Singh, her life begins to change in great and subtle ways. Harbinger is writing a book, a thinly veiled fictional account of his relationship with his ex-wife. A tax accountant by day, the incongruities of Harbinger's life may be just what Arlette needs to kickstart her life.

Book Doctor is an oddly entrancing story. Interspersed with the different query letters Arlette receives about potential books (all quite hilarious) is the tale of Arlette's self-discovery. Arlette is a difficult character for the reader to get to know. Frustrations with her life distance her from those around her, especially Jake. Harbinger's effusive personality gets under her skin and makes her more accessible to her friends and to the reader.

The comedy is what makes this book better and more unusual than one might imagine. Esther Cohen has a fantastic ability to find the humor in every situation, and the fact that everyone has a book to write has the reader turning pages to discover what's next. Marriage to a gorilla? The journey from Auschwitz to Hollywood? The ignoring of brown animals? Arlette receives letters about books on every topic conceivable. The only drawback of Book Doctor is that Harbinger and Arlette's relationship gets a bit...weird, for awhile. It's a necessary part of the story, but it's a little meandering and difficult to follow. All in all, Book Doctor is a rare treat. It's intriguing and highly original--I have never read a book like it. How refreshing to find an unexplored topic that has so many unique angles.

[Yvonne O'Connor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Arlette Rosen earns a living assisting others in fulfilling their dreams of writing a book. She is good at her job and her mailbox is always full of potential client pleas. Arlene has been seeing Jake for some time, but something just seems off. Enter Harbinger Singh, a tax lawyer, who wants to win his ex-wife back by writing a novel (loosely) about her. Arlene is inspired by his quirky ways and begins to change herself. Yes, she ends-up sleeping with Harbinger, but it is only one time and it spells her re-birth. She turns away from Jake and book-doctoring and becomes a writer herself.

I like the concept, but not the delivery. I never really cared about Jake, never understood his relationship with Arlene and didn't care when it ended. Harbinger was weird and his personality totally unbelievable for a tax lawyer. I was happy Arlene could evolve and set her old ways free, but question why Jake was stagnant and no resolution came to Harbinger. The best quality was ending the book back where it started, giving the reader a sense of continuity in an otherwise chaotic tale.

[Pamela Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quirky and bizarre, think Woody Allen, great read for writers and want to be authors; it’s a study on voice, the way your characters speak. I couldn’t get their voices out of my head they were so distinct. It’s about a woman who helps writers with their manuscripts or their ideas for books that aren’t quiet solid. Esther Cohen uses the writers’ letters as illustrations, very funny; anyone who has written a query letter trying to explain your idea will relate. 4 stars for this fiction study on the writer’s life.

[Katy · Rating 1 out of 5]

The jacket summary made it sound way more exciting than it was. I kept reading hoping it would get better, it didn't. Then I kept reading because I was close to being done and knew I would always wonder if there was some amazing ending that I missed because I didn't finish it, there wasn't. Rather blah and unexciting the entire time. Usually I can find at least one redeeming quality about a book, but not this one.

[Sonnet Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a content editor, I admit my heart beat a bit faster at the prospect of a book about a book doctor. I wanted great things from this novel! And some parts of it are great. I love the lyrical prose, I love the written letters from clients (I am sure some of mine are included) throughout.

But there is no tension, and worse, no action in this book. Nothing happens. That made it a tough book to slog through, no matter how beautiful.

[Carine · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I added the book to my list here, I looked at the overall rating and thought "it can't be that bad". But it was. The idea of a book doctor is great but not the story. I could not get attached to the characters, and I just could not wait to finish the book. It is going straight to my inventory on BookMooch!

[Breena · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a delightful book - i.e. filled with delights - surprising language, surprising characters and ideas. It breezed along so that I had a case of hangover after I'd finished. I thought about it more and didn't pick up the next book right away. Clever as all the reviews say. Well-written of course. Soulful is added.

[Ann · Rating 1 out of 5]

A Jewish book doctor meets with an Indian tax lawyer, who wants to write a book to win back his former wife. Everything takes place in NYC's hipper circles. Should be fun, no? Except it wasn't. Too many loose ideas, not enough plot. Some fine stylistic passages here and there, but overall a big yawn. I didn't finish it.

[Kate Davis · Rating 1 out of 5]

The idea of a person who helps people write their books, but it didn't work for me. I jumped to the end of the book to find out if it was worth reading and it wasn't. I like a book with a story, but this is more about character development.Glad I didn't spend the time to finish it.

[Mary Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book's humor and affection. I loved watching the characters dance and change. A tale of relationships and creativity, told with intelligence. I will return to this book when I feel stuck in my creative life, for a dose of laughter and wisdom in equal measures.

[Candice · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very funny. I read other reviews indicating that it didn't hang together right, and in fact I read an advanced uncorrected proof, but the delightful humor, coupled with some serious soul searching, and the characters were worth the read.

[Reese · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was okay it had its ups and downs. It was really well written but the letters to her inside the book were a little confusing. Also I like a book with a happy ending and this one ended with a twist.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the concept of the book and the funny letters that the author inserted into the books, but I could not be sympathetic to the main characters.

[Jennifer W · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't get into it. The main characters were unsympathetic and flat.

[Krista · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fiction: Woman helps writers with their novels, falls in love with a client

[Kerry · Rating 1 out of 5]

never could finish this one.

[Ellie · Rating 1 out of 5]

The title promised an interesting story but I was disappointed.

[Marcia]

Tedious, boring.