A Changed Man

by Francine Prose

“Francine Prose has a knack for getting to the heart of human nature. . . . We are allowed to enter the moral dilemmas of fascinating characters whose emotional lives are strung out by the same human frailties, secrets and insecurities we all share.” — USA Today One spring afternoon, Vincent Nolan, a young neo-Nazi walks into the office of a human rights foundation headed by Meyer Maslow, a charismatic Holocaust survivor. Vincent announces that he wants to make a radical change. But what is Maslow to make of this rough-looking stranger with Waffen SS tattoos who says that his mission is to save guys like him from becoming guys like him? As Vincent gradually turns into the sort of person who might actually be able to do that, he also begins to transform everyone around him, including Maslow himself. Masterfully plotted, darkly comic, A Changed Man poses essential questions about human nature, morality, and the capacity for change, illuminating the everyday transactions, both political and personal, in our lives.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Novels, Book Club, Jewish, Audiobook, Historical Fiction

448 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2005

About the author

Francine Prose is the author of twenty works of fiction. Her novel A Changed Man won the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and Blue Angel was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her most recent works of nonfiction include the highly acclaimed Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife, and the New York Times bestseller Reading Like a Writer. The recipient of numerous grants and honors, including a Guggenheim and a Fulbright, a Director's Fellow at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, Prose is a former president of PEN American Center, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her most recent book is Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932. She lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Jesse · Rating 2 out of 5]

My problem with this book is not exactly that it's essentially a hokey Lifetime movie, a.k.a. a corny cheeseball romantic pseudo drama, so much as the subject matter was toned down to a largely PG incarnation. Granted, movies like American History X are on the opposite end of the spectrum and possibly more violent than reality, but even the middle ground is much more than your average person wants to see or even know about. This book uses that sub-culture in a much too safe way and dare I say, irresponsibly.

A Changed Man is about a neo-Nazi skinhead on the run from his cousin and thugs from a Nazi and bigoted "organization" and goes looking for refuge from its polar opposite: an internationally reknowned peace organization run by a Holocaust survivor. Remarkably, they take him in even though the place is not a shelter or welfare group or anything of that nature. Nope, he just walks in and before he leaves, has a heart-to-heart with the founder and somehow convinces them to let him join.

From then on, the story gets alarmingly predictable. A love interest develops, his past confronts him and everything wraps up all nice and cute and neat at the end. Even the very end you could see coming a mile away.

The thing is that during the entire story, you come to understand that the guy never really bought into the whole Nazi philosophy to begin with and only did it to fit in. It's practically spelled out for you over and over by the author, right from the beginning actually. The other problem is that with the threat of his past catching up with him looming, nothing has been set up to make you think that anyone is in any real danger and as it turns out, no one is. It's an entirely benign sequence of events focused more on the female co-star and their eventual fall for each other than actually depicting a violently bigoted and hateful Nazi-sympathizer realizing how wrong he's been this entire time and doing a 180 and truly meaning it. So in a sense, A Changed Man really cheapens and quite possibly gives people a very wrong impression on what these people are like and are capable of.

This book is basically, "Timid single mother with incredibly low self-esteem falls in love with phony skinhead." Whatever.

[Manik Sukoco · Rating 3 out of 5]

In "A Changed Man" Prose succeeds in doing what every writer hopes in how she takes you into a foreign place and gives you a glimpse of life from another viewpoint. Her book is at once both optimistic and pessimistic: she shows a neo nazi who seems to change for the better and a world known Holocaust survivor who has made a tidy living off of his fame who seems to care little for those closest to him.
I can't quite put my finger on it but her writing is kind of `in a hurry.' Not stripped and raw like a Hemingway novel but more jerky and always moving, like you're always running. The technique works well, though, to keep the story moving, and to keep you in the middle of the confusion surrounding the protagonist. And confusion is in the middle of most of the story: confusion about motive, about relationships, and about telling yourself the truth. In the end, like a made for TV movie, the confusion falls away and everyone finds their place in the world. It's a bit formulaic but works. Ironically I don't really think anyone in the book `changed.' Certainly not the protagonist. His foray into the Aryan Nation was mostly a trade for breakfast and a place to sleep. None of the other characters change, either, except that they all seemed to come a bit more to grips with their innate wants.
Still, it's an excellent read that I really enjoyed.

[Ms. McGregor · Rating 1 out of 5]

Summary: A Neo-Nazi named Vincent Nolan wants to turn around and "save guys like [him] from becoming guys like [him]" by helping World Brotherhood Watch raise money and awareness. At the helm of WBW is holocaust survivor and well-known author, Meyer Maslow, who befriends Vincent. In the process, Vincent bunks up with a single mom Bonnie and her two boys, Danny and Max. This is his "hideout", since his former buddies from ARM (Aryan Resistance Movement) are after him because they "want revenge".

In a nutshell: I don't recommend it.

If you can imagine a cheesy, gooey, unsatisfying ending to this story, it will be far worse than what you can think up. The "change" they blab on and on about in this book is neither dramatic, interesting, or at all moving. And all the stuff before the end is pretty anti-climactic. I wish boredom was the worst thing about this book.

The most action in the first 200 pages of the book is an allergic reaction to a walnut. I shit you not. I couldn't make this up. The big, huge struggle this former Nazi has while trying to assimilate to the "real world" is trying to avoid all the stuff that he's allergic to.

These threatening ARM guys they mentioned Vincent worrying about constantly didn't show up till 3/4 of the way through the book, and even then it was only one ARM guy, and Vincent just beats the crap out of him. Then he hides out for a while, his tail between his legs, and a few days later, emerges triumphantly to "save the day" and deliver the graduation speech at Danny's high school's graduation. Because, he's a really great role-model, beating guys within an inch of their lives and all. Which, by the way, is the "deal" Bonnie and Vincent make to get Danny out of trouble with the assistant principal when he writes a paper about Hitler that the school's administration worries could be "slightly homophobic". During the speech, Bonnie and Vincent realize they love each other and look forward to a new life. Hooey!

Finally, the most annoying thing about this book was that every single character spends a lot of time thinking about what other people are probably thinking about them. It's absurd. It would be okay for the first couple of chapters maybe, while Meyer Maslow, Bonnie, her two kids and the Nazi were all trying to size each other up, but you know, by page 100 or so it gets a little old.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wish there was another, alternative rating system on GR such as Positive, Negative and Neutral. This book would receive neutral. This is my first Prose book and I happened to pick it up on audio at a good price, which is what prompted me to partake in Prose's work.

It is good to read that she has other, better books because this book on its own would not prompt me to be a huge fan of her writing.

This story seemed to be such an interesting concept after reading the quick synopsis on the audio book cover. Once I got into the book though the promise faded and kept fading until by the end I was just glad to be finished.

The reason I would not give it a negative is because I did make it all the way through the end with a desire to know how it might all turn out but I was not sitting on pins and needles until I could get through it.

The story line fades and gets more and more ridiculous and predictable as it goes on. I kept finding myself waiting for more, expecting more and than being disappointed. At the very end of the book I actually rewound and went back a bit to make sure that I had actually heard it all correctly. The ending was the biggest let down of the whole book. The interesting concept just started to become fragmented and lacking in the substance that could have been built around the plot and idea.

This would be classified as a "if you have nothing else to read and this book is just sitting around" read for me.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Such a bummer.

Riding a high after Francine Prose's "Reading Like a Writer", I picked up this book -- which I had been seeing on independent booksellers' tables for a while. I had hoped to enjoy it as much as I enjoyed her book on reading/writing because I thought she offered really keen insights on the subject.

However, I was pretty disappointed by this book. It wasn't that it was a bad book or poorly written. But it was long and sprawling... and just felt a little careless to me. I like writers who seem to think a lot about their prose, whose every sentence or line of dialogue seems well thought-out. And this book just wasn't like that. Even though it probably wasn't, it seemed like it had been written quickly. And... I tried to find in this book the elements she talks about in "Reading Like a Writer" (e.g. well-crafted dialogue) but I couldn't really...

The book felt a bit like some of the other casual sprawling novels I've read recently -- Kate Atkinson's "One Good Turn" and and Ayelet Waldman's "Love and Other Impossible Pursuits". They weren't taut or exquisitely written, but they were entertaining. "A Changed Man" just wasn't entertaining me enough to justify the 20-page-a-night pace I was sustaining.

Moving on...

[Christine Himmelfarb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think what I liked about this book was how funny and honest it was about human goodness. Mostly it seems we are guided by self interest and held from striving for good because of insecurity and complacency. Through the range of lenses, Prose shows us many viewpoints (the single mom, Holocaust survivor, the white supremacist, the high school kid), and in her telling, everyone is misguided. Some of the scenes are just hilarious—Vincent’s peanut allergy debacle paired with the Bulgarian baby reveal was my favorite. Although the scene at graduation is a bit cliched, the conflicting messages about whether people can change or whether it is simply life that changes leave the reader with much to consider. The novel unsettles simple narratives about goodness.

[Sacha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read two other books by Francine Prose (Blue Angel and The Peaceable Kingdom). This was pretty different. Reminded me a lot of Nick Hornby's How to Be Good, but not as funny. The story is basically that an uninspired Neo-Nazi sees the light while on Ecstacy and decides to throw himself at the mercy of and in service to an Elie Wiesel-like character. It feels not nearly as dark as her other stories, in fact it isn't dark at all. I liked it in spite of that.

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I kind of feel the same way about this book as I did about the other Francine Prose novels I have read. Sharp writing, lots of funny/poignant moments, fully realized, idiosyncratic characters ... but I wasn't totally into it, for reasons I can't quite put my finger on. I'm relearning the art of reading on public transportation, and this one made me a bit uncomfortable with its crazy racist characters spouting invective on every page.

[Dirk · Rating 2 out of 5]

In A Changed Man, Francine Prose would have us believe that a young man with Waffen-SS tattoos on his arms can walk into a human rights foundation operated by a Holocaust survivor, with the young man seeking to change his ways and and the ways of other young men like him who may be taking the wrong path. The young man needs shelter from the other neo-Nazis with whom he has lived and affiliated, and the Holocaust survivor convinces his assistant, a recently divorced mother of two young boys, to take the purportedly reformed neo-Nazi into her home, on a temporary basis, while the foundation considers how to publicize and capitalize on his redemption story. Oh, and the young reformed neo-Nazi is kinda hunky, and the single mom's ex has taken up with a younger woman, and, you know, the mom is lonely. Etc.

Maybe, if I had read this book when it was published in 2005, ten years after the Oklahoma City bombing by Timothy McVeigh, who seemed radically and very remotely fringe at the time--instead of now, five years after a woman was run over and killed in Charlottesville protesting against a tiki-torch carrying, stiff-arm saluting, swastika enamored mob; now, when millions of Americans (really?) think that belonging to antifa (that's short for anti-fascist, folks, fascists being among the Axis powers who were the bad guys in World War II, if I'm not mistaken)--I might have been able to suspend disbelief and liked this book, because I have admired and respected Francine Prose for her essays and book reviews in the New York Review of Books and other well regarded publications. But I couldn't suspend disbelief, because I am seeing too many changed men who strike me as bat guano crazy and violently dangerous in the extreme. So, the best I can do is confer a very generous two stars on this novel. It's definitely fiction. Beyond that, I can't say too much.

[Stabitha · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Changed Man begins with an ex-white supremacist walking into a human rights organization’s office to offer his services: he wants to “help guys like me from becoming guys like me.” The subject matter allows Prose to flex her satire muscles, which by this point are quite developed. In this case, the focal point of her attack is a human rights organization. I don’t know how she’s going to one-up herself after this one. Ten years ago, in Hunters and Gatherers, she targeted goddess-worshipping new agey ladies. Five years ago, in Blue Angel, she chose a riskier subject: sexual harassment and p.c. language limitations on the college campus, likely to remain a touchy subject for years to come. And now she’s picked a human rights organization; can a cow get much more sacred?

Prose allows four main characters to narrate: Vincent, the ex-neo-nazi, Meyer Maslow, the wealthy leader of the World Brotherhood Watch and a holocaust survivor, Bonnie, the organization’s (Jewish) fund-raiser who takes Vincent into her home, and Danny, Bonnie’s 16 year old son. The juxtaposition of Meyer and Vincent is excellent. The competitive, yet respectful, nature of their relationship is unveiled at their first meeting. Both men roll up their sleeves to reveal their tattoos: Meyer’s serial number given to him by Nazis and Vincent’s Waffen-SS bolts (Hitler’s elite guard’s symbol). Meyer’s written several inspirational books (which influenced Vincent’s departure from the white supremacist lifestyle, or so he claims), the most recent of which is lagging in sales. Meyer knows Vincent’s presence within the organization could bring much-needed funds to the World Brotherhood Watch, and guiltily thinks that it could also help his book sales. Meyer’s a charismatic leader who can get people to do whatever he wants. Danny thinks his mother’s been brainwashed by him: he’s actually convinced her to let the former neo-nazi live with them until they can find him an apartment. Bonnie is so obsessed with being a “good person” that she submits to Meyer’s demands. Soon, we discover that Vincent has a certain charm that Meyer hates to admit he envies. As Vincent sells his “changed man” story like a brand, the press, wealthy donors, and even Meyer’s wife eat it up. Meyer’s jealousy grows, followed by more guilt. One of my favorite Vincent-Meyer moments is when Meyer steals one of Vincent’s ideas to use in one of his trademark inspirational speeches. The two men form just one of the many interesting dyads in the book.

As we’re getting into the characters, we’re treated to some biting satire. What I like so much about this book is that the characters are so interesting and real and their stories so engaging that you forget the primary purpose of the book is satire. I think it’s more fulfilling and less didactic than straight-up satires that don’t concentrate on character development or pace. I do want to share two examples though. The first one is when Vincent is giving a speech at a fund-raising dinner. When he tells the audience about how he was taught to “hate,” the crowd gasps: hate has become a four-letter word. Prose understands how ideology affects language. (My mom used to send me to my room if I used the word “hate”). Vincent goes on to tell a simple story that’s meant to symbolize his complicated conversion. He and his cousin had gone to a Korean man’s greenhouse, intending to hurt the man. Vincent remembers aloud that they referred to him as a “Korean mother…” and decides not to use the word in such company. He realizes that the audience is disappointed, so he says it: “Korean motherfucker.” The crowd loves it; it’s so transgressive and thrilling. The other example I’d like to mention is when Danny gets in trouble at school for a paper he wrote on Hitler. This harkens back to Blue Angel’s attack on the academic gutting of free speech. After talking with Vincent, Danny writes a paper that suggests Hitler’s suppressed homosexuality may have informed his evil. He is promptly booted from school. Just putting homosexuality and evil in the same sentence is grounds for hanging. I love that she manages to make her points within a solid story.

From the very beginning, we know Vincent’s white power friends could find him at any moment. This point of tension propels the book and I ate it up like a bulimic at a buffet. I think I just puked all over the keyboard. I’ll wrap it by simply suggesting you read it.

[John Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thinking about this book, having finished reading it, kept me awake last night. Is that good or bad I wonder?

Vincent is the ‘changed man’; but is he really? The reader must decide for her/him self. He is a skinhead with tattoos which include the SS lightning bolts and he recently belonged ARM (the Aryan Resistance Movement). He’s also attended anger management classes. Anyway, our changed man walks into the offices of the Brotherhood Foundation which exists to spread love instead of hate, free political prisoners etc. It is headed by its creator, Meyer Maslow a Holocaust survivor. Vincent is here he tells Maslow to “help guys like you stop guys like me becoming guys like me”.

I kept thinking about Dickens whilst reading this as he was the master when it came to exposing hypocrisy, cant and double standards. He would be in his element here: so many egos to trip over. Maslow for me is pure Dickens material and his Foundation is one big ego trip. His minions, who do much of the spade work, include the seriously neurotic Bonnie and the professionally egoistic publicity grabbing Roberta. A cynical lawyer watches in the wings to limit any legal liability which the Foundation may incur by over stretching itself in its pursuit of peace and love.

Vincent is welcomed by Maslow with open arms, recognising his tremendous potential as a born again human being for swelling the Foundation’s coffers from would be donors. It works and the savvy Vincent lodges meanwhile with single mom Bonnie and her 2 teenage boys, sixteen year old Danny and his younger brother Max. Thank G.O.D. for Danny: I feel the human race stands some chance of surviving if there are more Dannies around. There’s teenage angst and anxiety a-plenty there but through his eyes we see all the “creeps” around him (his word, not mine; spot on mate!)

The book is set in a world of political correctness gone mad and Danny is suspended from his school because of his essay on Hitler which his teachers view through their pc prism and find it to be horribly incorrect.

That’s a flavour of what you’ll be getting if you read the book. Telling you more might spoil any fun. There is fun here and some good writing:

" Irene's sort of attractive. She's got that European Marlene Dietrich thing going. Part queen, part drag queen. Your vulnerable dominatrix. Sexy for an older woman.......a smile rehearsed to take maximum advantage of the point to which her face has been tightened . All that money, all that pain, to make former beauties like Irene look like the dolls they played with as little girls."

It is a page turner but it is too long and the phoney world it inhabits is grossly irritating. I hope it’s meant as a pastiche, Dickens style, on the part of Francine Prose. If not, I begin to understand the Donald’s take on fake news!!

[Jane Roper · Rating 3 out of 5]

I admired the way Prose tried to get inside the minds and hearts of four such different characters -- a (former) white supremacist, the neurotic fundraising exec. who hosts and befriends him, her teenage son, the eloquent and sometimes self-absorbed head of the non-profit organization at the center of the book.

However, I'm not sure she succeeds entirely, especially in the case of the white supremacist. I would have liked to go a few steps deeper (and darker) into his history, his motivations, his intentions, etc. The fact that he was only very briefly and almost unintentionally part of a white supremacist group made it easy for him to become "a changed man." And his motives for leaving weren't entirely noble, either.

But we don't ever really get a sense of whether or not he or anyone around him realizes this; that his transformation, while fortunate, isn't a true transformation. Adding that extra layer of complexity, questioning and unconscious denial would have made this a more satisfying read.

[Martha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vincent Nolan leaves the Aryan Resistance Movement and seeks refuge (and a job) with the humanitarian organization World Brotherhood Watch. The rest of A Changed Man follows Vincent's growth and the people around him with mostly internal monologues. The characters' perceptions of each other and themselves play a huge role as these vastly different people try to understand each other.

Francine Prose made these characters into incredibly believable human beings. It is especially impressive when you consider the wide range of personalities--30ish former neo-nazi, 70-year-old Holocaust survivor, 40ish single mother, 16-year-old high school student.

A Changed Man presented flawed human beings from all kinds of backgrounds as they were thrown together in this sweet, funny, and engaging story. Fascinating characters in a fantastic book.

[Maureen · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading Blue Angel, I was disappointed with A Changed Man. It was entertaining and kept me interested, but also kept me wondering what was missing from making it great instead of just OK. Part of it was a matter of believability and another that I found none of the characters wholly likable. That they were all so habitually self deprecating didn't help either.

It did inspire me to ponder what the important part of a person is. Is it the inner person, their thoughts and feelings that they do not share? Or is is all about one's actions, even if they greatly conflict with the inner self? It was Vincent Nolan and Meyer Manslow's characters who embodied this contradiction and made me wonder how differently the other characters would have reacted to them were this contradiction more apparent.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable read that doesn't quite make it all the way. The main problem is that Vincent, the "ex-Neo Nazi," never seems to have been a Nazi in the first place. Just a tagalong. Other than using the word "Rican" he doesn't seem to have a hateful or even non-PC bone in his body. So it's hard to buy into his transformation. Or is that part of the satire? Hard to tell. The other problem is that this novel is set in episodes in the spring and summer of 2001. I kept waiting for 9/11 to roll around. Again, was the timing a deliberate statement, an act of satire? I have to believe so, although I don't think it's a spoiler to say that 9/11 doesn't play an actual role in the novel. But why set the reader up that way?

[Emi Yoshida · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book grew on me, at first I didn't really feel it but the plot was good and sucked me in, and I felt like it got better the more I read. Character development was key here, I felt like I really understood what was motivating everybody and the happy ending was unexpected, yet totally believable.

[Alexia · Rating 3 out of 5]

It would actually be 3.5 stars. The book was not perfect but I liked it and it was a fast read. What really struck me was how Prose examined the good and bad of all of the characters from Vincent to Meyer to even Danny and Joel. I loved the Dickens reference in regard to Meyer. No character was one-dimensional and the book made you think.

[seanat (elka) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was expecting it to be more political and grittier but it skimmed over these issues and spent more time tackling a broken family's dramas and hinting at romance, so a disappointment for me. Perfectly readable but not what I had hoped for.

[Saleh MoonWalker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Onvan : A Changed Man - Nevisande : Francine Prose - ISBN : 60560037 - ISBN13 : 9780060560034 - Dar 448 Safhe - Saal e Chap : 2005

[Sandie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a normal day at a human rights organization headed by Meyer Maslow. He is a Holocaust survivor and now dedicates his life and resources to freeing political prisoners, fighting hate, etc. Bonnie is his right hand staffer, in charge of funding and soliciting contributions. Then in walks Vincent Nolan.

Vincent hasn't made his way in life yet. His most recent incarnation was as a Neo-Nazi, mostly because he needed a place to live and his cousin was willing to let him sleep on his couch but was always looking for more members of his hate group. Vincent got the tattoos but the rhetoric never made much sense to him and he has left the group and his cousin. Unfortunately, he took his cousin's truck and savings but hey, no one's perfect.

Vincent says he is there because he has changed his viewpoint and wants to help Meyer keep other young men from making the same mistakes he did. Meyer and Bonnie are thrilled; here is a publicity event that has fallen in their laps. Vincent doesn't have anywhere to stay because he feels the Neo-Nazis will be after him. Meyer convinces Bonnie to let Vincent stay with her and her two teenage boys in the New Jersey suburbs. Is Vincent just setting up this group or is he really ready for a change?

Francine Prose is a prolific American author. Her works have been well received and listed for many literary awards. I've read several of her books and this one was my favorite. Vincent is a scalawag but you can't help but like him. He helps Bonnie's boys with their various disasters and encourages them to be good guys and there's a hint of romance between Bonnie and Vincent. This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

[Cynthia J · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always like to read reviews of books I've just finished and I noted the many thoughtful reviews of this book. Several pointed out that the main character, while conflicted, was never committed to a neo-nazi world view in the first place so his change of heart was facile and that the actual harm these people can do and have done was consequently trivialized. It's true that Vincent's cousin and his friends had never actually come to the level of violence one might expect but it's also true that the potential was always there and the hideously twisted and rage stoked world view they share was very clearly evinced during Raymond's interior monolog toward the end of the book. Violence and anger are volatile and dangerous especially when fanned into flame by rhetoric and mob behavior. Circumstances and setting make a difference to what actually happens.
I also appreciated the humor in the book. It was genuinely and intentionally funny in a lot of places; something that could not apply if the subject had been a serious exposition of the ugliness and terror of real life thuggery as evinced by people with the world view of ARM.

[Jason Panella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was very pleasantly surprised by this, especially after skimming some of the middling reviews here. It's a pretty chunky book for what adds up to be a handful of scenes between characters, but I didn't feel like anything was wasted.

I really dug the low-level tension that creeps in from early on and stays there. Vincent, arguably the titular character, is a former neo-Nazi...but is he? Or, was he ever really a neo-Nazi? I don't think Prose ever gets fully cynical with the book (which I appreciate), but she really does toy with the idea that real, true change is maybe a bit more rare than people let on. All of the characters have interests and motives that run counter to the story they're selling, and throughout the story some move closer to that projected reality while others move away from it.

I also really admire how well Prose nailed the male voice here, especially Bonnie's two children.

[Mel · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.8***
I am annoyed at myself that I didn’t read the fine cover print when I picked this off the library’s recommended reading shelf. I was annoyed by Blue Angel, and I was annoyed by the characters in this plot. I understand that the author is trying to make us see how superficial our current world is with dramatic media attention relegated to seemingly superhuman moments drummed up by marketing professionals. But, the sheer shallowness of these characters repelled me, only Danny an adolescent trying to make sense of his parent’s divorce and holocaust survivor Meyer’s late revelation that he wants to suffer with an economy class plane ticket (even though he has a golden parachute) to help save those wrongly imprisoned in Turkey struck authentic chords for me.

[Barbara Rhine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, because it is a well-written insightful feel-good book about changing the consciousness of a young man who is a member of the Aryan Resistance Movement (ARM) at the beginning, and after interacting with a famous Holocaust Survivor who runs a nonprofit to save lives, and more specifically, with the administrative head of said nonprofit and her sons, changes his mind.
Who doesn't want to believe this is possible? And this was a credible tale of how it could have happened to one person. Plus, the author has a droll sense of humor and irony about the egoistic pitfalls of the nonprofit world. Entertaining. More deep than shallow. Worth reading.

[Kate Davis · Rating 1 out of 5]

A neo nazi who changes … I wanted it to be relevant to now, but it really doesn’t hold up. A thread throughout is the Timothy McVeigh execution (maybe I was too young, but I had to look up who he was). Partly because of the language used - r-word as an insult. The main conflict doesn’t show up until 2/3rds of the way through. Prose falls back on a romance narrative that is mostly just two lonely people who don’t seem to genuinely like one another with much sincerity, they just like the idea of comfort. I really wanted to see the main characters change (and there were obvious trajectories for them to!), but alas.

[Gretchen P · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plot and characters were entertaining and it was easy to get through quickly. I enjoyed the characters and their imperfectness and relatability, though at times things were cheesy.
Reading this book in 2025, after more recent events of neo-nazis and fascists becoming emboldened, violent, and prevalent, I wanted more of an interrogation of Vincent's racism and ARM's beliefs in general. I don't think this book could have been written the same way today and I don't think the events of the story would have gone over the same way today. Also the ending was kind of a let down and pretty predictable.

[Morgen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vincent has decided to turn his back on his neo nazi friends by stealing their truck, their money and their drugs and allying himself with the charitable organization founded by Meyer Maslow whose escape from Nazis during WW II became his first best seller and led to his interest in peace, in helping those under any kind of attack. Meyer asks his dedicated assistant Bonnie to let Vincent stay with her and her teenaged sons. Everyone helps improve everyone else. Somehow it is touching, entertaining and funny.

[Sherry Hession · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vincent Nolan is a neo-Nazi who decides to walk away from that life by entering the offices of the World Brotherhood Watch Foundation, an organization run by a Jewish man, Meyer Maslow, who survived the Holocaust and telling them that he would like to help them help other young men not take the same path he did. He goes to live with Bonnie (Maslow's assistant) and her two teenage boys.
Told through the perspective of each of the characters, Prose gets inside everyone's head to see how each of them change in their thinking through their interactions with each other.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book drew me in. There is a cynicism in the characters which I totally understand and enjoyed. No one is totally what they seem, from the skinhead who had has awakening to the Holocaust survivor who is big in fundraising and the NGO world. The final denouement definitely has a hokey factor but I found this book amusing and a page turner. This could be a very enjoyable vacation read in that it is quick, not mentally taxing and amusing at the same time.

[Darcysmom · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the premise of this book! The execution left a lot to be desired. For the bulk of the book, I felt like I was reading a novelization of a Lifetime movie. After about the halfway point, the cheese factor became a bit too much for me.
I think that the book could have used some judicious editing to tighten up the story.