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Blood Test: A Comedy
From the winner of the PEN/Malamud Award and “one of our most gifted writers” (Chicago Tribune) comes a comic novel about a divorced Midwestern dad who takes a cutting-edge medical test and learns that he has a predisposition to murder.
In this fresh take on love and trouble in America, Brock Hobson, an insurance salesman and Sunday-school teacher, finds his equilibrium disturbed by the results of a predictive blood test. Baxter, a master storyteller, brings us a gradually building rollercoaster narrative, and a protagonist who is impertinent, searching, and hilariously relatable. From his good-as-gold, gentle girlfriend to the excessively macho subcontractor guy his ex-wife left him for, not to mention his well-raised teenage kids, now exploring sex and sexuality, the secondary characters in Brock's life all contribute meaningfully to the drama, as increasing challenges to his sense of self and purpose crash over him. The final battle—no spoilers, but there is one—couldn't be more delightful, as this quick and bracing novel reminds us to choose the best people to love, accept the ones we love even if we didn’t choose them, and love them all well.
In this fresh take on love and trouble in America, Brock Hobson, an insurance salesman and Sunday-school teacher, finds his equilibrium disturbed by the results of a predictive blood test. Baxter, a master storyteller, brings us a gradually building rollercoaster narrative, and a protagonist who is impertinent, searching, and hilariously relatable. From his good-as-gold, gentle girlfriend to the excessively macho subcontractor guy his ex-wife left him for, not to mention his well-raised teenage kids, now exploring sex and sexuality, the secondary characters in Brock's life all contribute meaningfully to the drama, as increasing challenges to his sense of self and purpose crash over him. The final battle—no spoilers, but there is one—couldn't be more delightful, as this quick and bracing novel reminds us to choose the best people to love, accept the ones we love even if we didn’t choose them, and love them all well.
224 pages, Paperback
First published October 15, 2024
342 people are currently reading
8859 people want to read
About the author
Charles Baxter
94 books429 followersCharles Baxter was born in Minneapolis and graduated from Macalester College, in Saint Paul. After completing graduate work in English at the State University of New York at Buffalo, he taught for several years at Wayne State University in Detroit. In 1989, he moved to the Department of English at the University of Michigan--Ann Arbor and its MFA program. He now teaches at the University of Minnesota.
Baxter is the author of 4 novels, 4 collections of short stories, 3 collections of poems, a collection of essays on fiction and is the editor of other works. His works of fiction include Believers , The Feast of Love (nominated for the National Book Award), Saul and Patsy , and Through the Safety Net . He lives in Minneapolis.
Baxter is the author of 4 novels, 4 collections of short stories, 3 collections of poems, a collection of essays on fiction and is the editor of other works. His works of fiction include Believers , The Feast of Love (nominated for the National Book Award), Saul and Patsy , and Through the Safety Net . He lives in Minneapolis.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 463 reviews
August 7, 2024
This book felt like it was always about to lead up to a hilarious punchline or twist but it never got there. The style was similar to Vonnegut except without being funny. The author was very self indulgent in patting himself on the back for being clever, such as parts like (paraphrasing) "I told you earlier that this character was a sleepwalker but I bet you forgot! Haha gotcha!" It was a frustrating read because the premise was interesting but the promise of comedy never was fulfilled- and as a dark humor fan I felt let down.
October 22, 2024
You’ve probably seen those full-throated testimonials for full-body MRI scans. Medical experts like Kim Kardashian claim that the $2,500 test can detect even the tiniest health problems long before they swell out of control. Now imagine combining that questionable procedure with a few drops of the fraudulent Theranos scheme to produce a genetic analysis that can predict your future actions.
That’s the not-so-absurd premise of Charles Baxter’s absurd new novel, “Blood Test.” Best known for “The Feast of Love” (2000), Baxter retains a firm grip on the bewildering nature of social decay, romantic chaos and life’s compensatory delights.
Brock Hobson, the narrator of “Blood Test,” is an insurance salesman and a Sunday school teacher in the “near-dead” town of Kingsboro, Ohio. By profession and temperament, Brock is profoundly risk averse in a you-only-live-once culture. His life runs according to carefully articulated schedules. His teenage daughter tells him: “You’re as predictable as a metronome.” His ex-wife says: “I can’t remember a single time you ever took a chance,” which may be why she left him for a reckless, muscle-bound contractor.
And yet, even Brock can’t resist the allure of knowing what’s ahead. After a routine diagnosis at a medical clinic, his doctor offers him an expensive test from a start-up company called Generomics — “Genome plus Geronimo, like the Indigenous warrior,” the doctor explains. “It predicts behavior, tells you what you’re going to do before you do it, based on the … arrangements in your....
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
That’s the not-so-absurd premise of Charles Baxter’s absurd new novel, “Blood Test.” Best known for “The Feast of Love” (2000), Baxter retains a firm grip on the bewildering nature of social decay, romantic chaos and life’s compensatory delights.
Brock Hobson, the narrator of “Blood Test,” is an insurance salesman and a Sunday school teacher in the “near-dead” town of Kingsboro, Ohio. By profession and temperament, Brock is profoundly risk averse in a you-only-live-once culture. His life runs according to carefully articulated schedules. His teenage daughter tells him: “You’re as predictable as a metronome.” His ex-wife says: “I can’t remember a single time you ever took a chance,” which may be why she left him for a reckless, muscle-bound contractor.
And yet, even Brock can’t resist the allure of knowing what’s ahead. After a routine diagnosis at a medical clinic, his doctor offers him an expensive test from a start-up company called Generomics — “Genome plus Geronimo, like the Indigenous warrior,” the doctor explains. “It predicts behavior, tells you what you’re going to do before you do it, based on the … arrangements in your....
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
October 20, 2024
Readers who enjoy literary fiction with a hefty dose of dry humor will get a kick out of this book. Its well-crafted characters are a blast to spend time with, and its twisty plot makes it the sort of book that’s hard to put down. Full review at BookBrowse: https://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/review...
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July 13, 2024I really wanted to love this novel. After all, Charles Baxter’s Feast of Love is one of my favorite books of all time.
But I found myself picking it up, putting it down, picking it up again – until I decided that I am not the right reader for this book. The premise is compelling: an insurance salesman submits to a predictive blood test and finds out he possesses the seeds of violence inside him. The writing is fine. But somehow, I didn’t connect.
I owe a big thanks to Pantheon for allowing me to be an early reader. It’s a good book that will appeal to other readers, but not to me. As a result, I am not going to rate it.
But I found myself picking it up, putting it down, picking it up again – until I decided that I am not the right reader for this book. The premise is compelling: an insurance salesman submits to a predictive blood test and finds out he possesses the seeds of violence inside him. The writing is fine. But somehow, I didn’t connect.
I owe a big thanks to Pantheon for allowing me to be an early reader. It’s a good book that will appeal to other readers, but not to me. As a result, I am not going to rate it.
December 9, 2024
Came away ultimately disappointed by this work. There are moments of levity, satire, and humor, but overall, I was left feeling like there were some kernels of a few good ideas there, but like an SNL sketch that doesn’t fully gel, it went on too long and felt tired and the opposite of witty.
December 6, 2025
Charles Baxter says right there on the cover that this is a comedy. I suppose in some ways it is, if you count dry humor. Part one of the book gives us a taste of a Black Mirror episode. When the blood test he’s offered to tell his future comes back only to label him as a thief and potential violent criminal, insurance agent Brock Hobson has to decide whether his future is being told, or he’s being scammed. Part two almost feels like a different story. It’s tangentially related, and delves more into family life than navigating through Brock’s supposed foretold fortune. There’s a few themes in this second part that I felt were a bit heavy-handed, namely the fate of fortunetellers, a weird tirade about the odd names of elementary school teachers, and the Sunday school stories. His relationship with his kids also seems… odd? I don’t have a better way to categorize it. I have two teenage kids, and I don’t think we’ve ever had conversations quite like Brock does. Part two also had heavy religious themes that were not present in part one. There were a number of loose ends, so I’d say if you like everything wrapped up neatly, this may not be the book for you. Overall, it was well written, even if the religious themes didn’t connect with me.
Thank you so much to Vintage Books for gifting a physical copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you so much to Vintage Books for gifting a physical copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
January 12, 2025
*3.5 stars rounded up. Humorous story. I liked the main character, Brock Hobson: a good, God-fearing Midwestern man, dumped by his wife, raising his two kids, teaching Sunday school. He's telling the reader his story which starts out with him being scammed by a company offering a blood test which will predict his future. After that, he makes so many dumb decisions based on that bogus prophecy. Sometimes you can be TOO nice, TOO Christian. I wanted to slap him silly.
November 11, 2024
I assumed the “A Comedy” subtitle would all but guarantee this book isn’t funny, which was mostly correct. Some dry humor, but nothing hilarious and little to say otherwise. It’s fine.
January 17, 2025
I had a whole lot of problems with this novel, which was fortunately short enough, and engaging enough (I guess?), that I avoided DNFing it.
Here are just a few, in no specific order:
*** CAUTION SPOILERS AHEAD ***
1) the blood test and every interaction the main character, Brock Hobson, has with the company that provides it, make absolutely no sense. It's not just that the whole thing is impossible, technologically -- in fact, that's the least of the problems 'coz you just have to think of it as spec fic and go with it. No, it's that Brock holds deep suspicions while he simultaneously allows himself to get repeatedly taken in and, really, bullied by the con. Much is made of Brock's predictable, insurance-adjuster personality profile. These two things don't go together. There's no motivating event for this dip, by Brock, into devil-may-care personal (and financial) profligacy. This is especially true because nothing else in his life changes, even though ...
2) his girlfriend/wife-to-be points out he's changed during a completely bizarre visit to a forest glade where she has a Snow White moment feeding deer and birds by hand while complaining that Brock is not the Brock she used to know. There's no indication of this manifested in his behaviour as described in the novel; we know he is struggling internally with the test results and resisting what they forecast, but this does not appear in any kind of changed behaviour that would be evident to anyone around him. In fact, the opposite is true in that his family point out how he continues to be more likely to clean out the garage than kill someone.
3) two repeated motifs became unbelievably grating: how everyone gets his name wrong (Really? Hobson is so unusual? No. And why?) and Brock's propensity for correcting everyone's grammar -- this last one he mostly gets right but sometimes gets wrong, e.g. he calls someone Dr. Kenneth G. LastnameIdon'tremember, Ph.D. (Dr. OR Ph.D., Brock, not both). And the biggie:
4) the blood test results don't give you an ALIBI. They could potentially give you a reason, a rationale, an explanation, background context, maybe if you stretch it exculpatory evidence ... but NOT. AN. ALIBI.
This bit about the misuse of alibi, repeatedly, by a guy who corrects other people's grammar, pissed me off so much I'm now going to reduce my rating to 2 stars and stop writing this. And I haven't even got to the stupid, non-sensical, and unbelievable "DUAL" -- okay that was a little bit funny, I confess.
Before you lambaste me for reading too shallowly, I get that he was taking on pre-determination versus freewill, but m'eh. The story was too flimsy and ridiculous for it.
Still, I'll keep that second star because there was something a bit charming about Brock -- his innate niceness, kindness, and goodness. He reminded me a little of Bob Comet in Patrick deWitt's The Librarianist.
Here are just a few, in no specific order:
*** CAUTION SPOILERS AHEAD ***
1) the blood test and every interaction the main character, Brock Hobson, has with the company that provides it, make absolutely no sense. It's not just that the whole thing is impossible, technologically -- in fact, that's the least of the problems 'coz you just have to think of it as spec fic and go with it. No, it's that Brock holds deep suspicions while he simultaneously allows himself to get repeatedly taken in and, really, bullied by the con. Much is made of Brock's predictable, insurance-adjuster personality profile. These two things don't go together. There's no motivating event for this dip, by Brock, into devil-may-care personal (and financial) profligacy. This is especially true because nothing else in his life changes, even though ...
2) his girlfriend/wife-to-be points out he's changed during a completely bizarre visit to a forest glade where she has a Snow White moment feeding deer and birds by hand while complaining that Brock is not the Brock she used to know. There's no indication of this manifested in his behaviour as described in the novel; we know he is struggling internally with the test results and resisting what they forecast, but this does not appear in any kind of changed behaviour that would be evident to anyone around him. In fact, the opposite is true in that his family point out how he continues to be more likely to clean out the garage than kill someone.
3) two repeated motifs became unbelievably grating: how everyone gets his name wrong (Really? Hobson is so unusual? No. And why?) and Brock's propensity for correcting everyone's grammar -- this last one he mostly gets right but sometimes gets wrong, e.g. he calls someone Dr. Kenneth G. LastnameIdon'tremember, Ph.D. (Dr. OR Ph.D., Brock, not both). And the biggie:
4) the blood test results don't give you an ALIBI. They could potentially give you a reason, a rationale, an explanation, background context, maybe if you stretch it exculpatory evidence ... but NOT. AN. ALIBI.
This bit about the misuse of alibi, repeatedly, by a guy who corrects other people's grammar, pissed me off so much I'm now going to reduce my rating to 2 stars and stop writing this. And I haven't even got to the stupid, non-sensical, and unbelievable "DUAL" -- okay that was a little bit funny, I confess.
Before you lambaste me for reading too shallowly, I get that he was taking on pre-determination versus freewill, but m'eh. The story was too flimsy and ridiculous for it.
Still, I'll keep that second star because there was something a bit charming about Brock -- his innate niceness, kindness, and goodness. He reminded me a little of Bob Comet in Patrick deWitt's The Librarianist.
May 3, 2024
ARC for review. To be published October 22, 2024.
Kingsboro, Ohio resident Brock Hobson is a divorced dad, an insurance salesman and a Sunday School teacher. Pretty much a good guy. He takes a predictive blood test and gets some disturbing news about his potential proclivities. This begins the drama that turns his life upside down.
And everyone who is a part of his life is involved. There’s his sweet girlfriend, Trey, the paragon of toxic masculinity for whom is wife left him, his ex-wife, herself, Cheryl, who always needs just a little more money from him, and his teenage children, Lena and Joe who are beginning to explore their sexuality. Can Brock come to terms with everything?
From the author of FEAST OF LOVE this is an enjoyable look at fate, middle age and “I think this story has been about love and not about the blood test in the title.” Some great witty moments too, “If you were to ask him where Italy is located on the globe, he wouldn’t know, but he would despise you for asking. Did I mention his hat? No. But you can imagine the hat. I don’t have to explain everything.” Oh, we laughed as we prayed that people did not vote for him! Good book.
Kingsboro, Ohio resident Brock Hobson is a divorced dad, an insurance salesman and a Sunday School teacher. Pretty much a good guy. He takes a predictive blood test and gets some disturbing news about his potential proclivities. This begins the drama that turns his life upside down.
And everyone who is a part of his life is involved. There’s his sweet girlfriend, Trey, the paragon of toxic masculinity for whom is wife left him, his ex-wife, herself, Cheryl, who always needs just a little more money from him, and his teenage children, Lena and Joe who are beginning to explore their sexuality. Can Brock come to terms with everything?
From the author of FEAST OF LOVE this is an enjoyable look at fate, middle age and “I think this story has been about love and not about the blood test in the title.” Some great witty moments too, “If you were to ask him where Italy is located on the globe, he wouldn’t know, but he would despise you for asking. Did I mention his hat? No. But you can imagine the hat. I don’t have to explain everything.” Oh, we laughed as we prayed that people did not vote for him! Good book.
November 9, 2024
Imagine taking a blood test that claims to predict your future behaviors (even criminal tendencies) - would you do it?
In Blood Test, Brock Hobson does, and his hilariously uneventful life in small-town Kingsboro, Ohio, spirals into absurdity as the test results push him to consider what it means to be "predisposed to murder."
Between shoplifting pruning sheers, confronting a nasty ex-wife's boyfriend, dodging surreal life coaching from a sketchy doctor, and nearly shooting his daughter's sleepwalking boyfriend, Brock wrestles with his inner "criminal" in some truly laugh out loud moments.
Yet, the story balances its dark humor with genuine explorations of identity, family, and the limits of predictability.
🙏 Thank you @pantheonbooks for the gifted copy.
⚠️ trigger warnings: mentions of suicidal ideation, homophobic slurs, mental health struggles, gun use, and themes of midlife crisis
✨ fave quote: "It is against nature to know what will happen before it happens. If someone offers to tell you your future, start walking in the other direction."
In Blood Test, Brock Hobson does, and his hilariously uneventful life in small-town Kingsboro, Ohio, spirals into absurdity as the test results push him to consider what it means to be "predisposed to murder."
Between shoplifting pruning sheers, confronting a nasty ex-wife's boyfriend, dodging surreal life coaching from a sketchy doctor, and nearly shooting his daughter's sleepwalking boyfriend, Brock wrestles with his inner "criminal" in some truly laugh out loud moments.
Yet, the story balances its dark humor with genuine explorations of identity, family, and the limits of predictability.
🙏 Thank you @pantheonbooks for the gifted copy.
⚠️ trigger warnings: mentions of suicidal ideation, homophobic slurs, mental health struggles, gun use, and themes of midlife crisis
✨ fave quote: "It is against nature to know what will happen before it happens. If someone offers to tell you your future, start walking in the other direction."
November 1, 2024
Maybe a 4.5 on this one. Great characters and a story that kept moving along.
December 9, 2024
A boring story that explores the minucia of everything except the hook that interested me in the first place. The author chooses to make the plot happen to a truly idiotic, monotonous, unkind man. Most of the book is just following his ho hum pedestrian thoughts on his family. I have a bone to pick with the NY Times for giving this a glowing review. My only praise is that the book is short
October 17, 2024
Blood Test by Charles Baxter, I love a funny book and this one about single dad Brock Hobson was hilarious. I would love to give a brief summary of the book but feel as if I wouldn’t do it justice just know his whole interaction with his wife in the man she left him for his hilarious but I especially like his inner thoughts when dealing with other people like doctors secretaries ET see this is really a super funny book and one I definitely know I will be reading again in the future I think Mr. Baxter did such an awesome job creating a single dad and all his intricacies and nuances, what I didn’t understand is why he kept giving his wife more money? I think there is a thin line between being a good Christian and an absolute fool and I absolutely believe Mr. Hobson was straddling that line. This was a funny book and one I definitely recommend. #NetGalley, #PantheonBooks,#CharlesBaxter, #BloodTest,
November 28, 2024
Charles Baxter brings some interesting questions about human beings to the table in this black comedy: If you are told that you are predisposed to violence while always being the one who behaved well, do you now suddenly have permission to not behave at all? Is a person good just because they believe themselves to be good; just because their actions often look good? (We all know the answer to that one, right?) When faced with the reality of one’s nature, and the tools to act upon that nature, what will one decide? And can you, maybe, find out how to truly live when you stop depending on who you are trying to be?
I’m not going to tell you that Blood Test is a laugh out loud romp. It’s quietly amusing, with dry and dark humor. The outlandish premise tornadoes toward potential disaster, and I’ve never before fretted so much over a character I didn’t even particularly like.
Brock Hobson is such a predictable guy who does a rather unpredictable thing. He drops a huge chunk of money on a blood test that is supposed to predict what he will do next. Who’d have ever thought that the possibility of committing murder was in his future?
The story pokes fun at our reliance on external sources to tell us who we are, as well as the general vibe of surveillance that many of us fear, uncomfortably joke about, and try to shrug off.
I initially thought Blood Test’s ending was anticlimactic. It sort of fizzled out after I’d been bracing myself for an explosion. But that very anxiety inside of me needed what that finale provided, so after much thought, I’ve concluded the ending was just right.
I’m not going to tell you that Blood Test is a laugh out loud romp. It’s quietly amusing, with dry and dark humor. The outlandish premise tornadoes toward potential disaster, and I’ve never before fretted so much over a character I didn’t even particularly like.
Brock Hobson is such a predictable guy who does a rather unpredictable thing. He drops a huge chunk of money on a blood test that is supposed to predict what he will do next. Who’d have ever thought that the possibility of committing murder was in his future?
The story pokes fun at our reliance on external sources to tell us who we are, as well as the general vibe of surveillance that many of us fear, uncomfortably joke about, and try to shrug off.
I initially thought Blood Test’s ending was anticlimactic. It sort of fizzled out after I’d been bracing myself for an explosion. But that very anxiety inside of me needed what that finale provided, so after much thought, I’ve concluded the ending was just right.
October 22, 2024
Brock Hobson’s worst trait is correcting your grammar. He’s an upstanding, uptight insurance salesman and Sunday school teacher, single dad and full time father to his teenagers Lena and Joe, a loving partner to girlfriend Trey, and financial support for his ex-wife and her deadbeat husband.
It’s a lot.
When he wakes up plagued with back pain and sees his doctor, he’s convinced to take a blood test. A blood test that will predict behaviors, tell you what you’re going to do before you do it. Predict your predilections.
Turns out Brock is about to go on a crime spree culminating in murder.
And he kinda leans into it?
As the story progresses, as Brock begins to subtly change, to question things he’s accepted, his purpose and sense of self falter.
The rich supporting cast round out this madcap story that reminds you to hold fast to what you believe, choose wisely who you love, and never fall into the grasp of corporate greed.
There is humor, to be sure, not the least of which comes in the form of a final battle, one I won’t spoil but which is weirdly funny and perfectly imagined.
It won’t be for everyone but if you enjoy humorous fiction that questions the America we live in, you might enjoy this!
It’s a lot.
When he wakes up plagued with back pain and sees his doctor, he’s convinced to take a blood test. A blood test that will predict behaviors, tell you what you’re going to do before you do it. Predict your predilections.
Turns out Brock is about to go on a crime spree culminating in murder.
And he kinda leans into it?
As the story progresses, as Brock begins to subtly change, to question things he’s accepted, his purpose and sense of self falter.
The rich supporting cast round out this madcap story that reminds you to hold fast to what you believe, choose wisely who you love, and never fall into the grasp of corporate greed.
There is humor, to be sure, not the least of which comes in the form of a final battle, one I won’t spoil but which is weirdly funny and perfectly imagined.
It won’t be for everyone but if you enjoy humorous fiction that questions the America we live in, you might enjoy this!
Read
January 29, 2025dnf @ 24%
December 29, 2024
Loved this book. I could hardly out it down. When I get my thoughts together, I will have a more detailed review. Until then.…Read. This.….Book!
Here’s one of my favorite quotes of the book. There are many. It describes this book wonderfully.
“ The best stories are the ones you almost can’t believe because they’re so true, the truth that surpasses plausibility.”
Here’s one of my favorite quotes of the book. There are many. It describes this book wonderfully.
“ The best stories are the ones you almost can’t believe because they’re so true, the truth that surpasses plausibility.”
October 21, 2025
I should have followed my gut and quit. My bad.
October 23, 2024
Just finished reading and I don't think I would really need a lot of time to think this through. hated the main character and for me I think there was a lot of unnecessary details and thoughts going on that it was sometimes exhausting and *guilty* as charged that I skipped a few pages just to get to the end. The end was anticlimactic though. Being a self-proclaimed thriller fan, the ending was just that.
December 20, 2024
Heavy on the dry humor. Deeply interested in the first half but somewhere along the way I started to wonder what I was actually reading.
Didn’t hate it or love it but I did like the writers voice so I’ll give his other books a try.
Didn’t hate it or love it but I did like the writers voice so I’ll give his other books a try.
April 17, 2025
My least favorite kind of satire: broad, dialogue never uttered by any human being ever, kind of reactionary and unclear in what it's trying to say, and -- worst of all -- NOT funny.
February 1, 2025
People on here seem not to be loving this, but I adored it. It really, really recalls Portis's Dog of the South to me, so much so I'm somewhat surprised that none of the reviews I've found have mentioned that similarity. We've got a finicky narrator, prone to all sorts of persnickety observations on the world (our man Brock Hobson constantly corrects people's grammar) with a weirdly aggressive, critical dissent from the acceptances that grease daily life; multiple oddball philosophical systems at play, including some sort of Scientology parody (crossed with QAnon, I suppose) and a local public intellectual Brock randomly runs into who is absolutely stuffed with conspiracy theories about the royal family, penguins, and why elementary-school teachers have weird names. There's a bit of violence and gunplay, a convenient banana peel, and even a duel of sorts.
Seriously, reading the opening paragraph of Portis and compare it with the first page or two here: very similar mordant vision of people and America, combined with what can only be called an extremely idiosyncratic take on daily life. Since Dog of the South is one of my favorite books, it stands to reason that this one, which engages much more with the broader indigenous berserk, to steal Roth's phrase, of contemporary America, was aklso going to work for me. You could read it as a take on the late-capitalist idiocy of contemporary culture, with the main plot at times, at least, concering a hard-determinist biotech firm that may all be a scam and a whole subplot about low-end straight-to-video movies (he buys, and his family watches, some absurdity about a robot Pope) and other products you can find at whatever lurks below Dollar General, say (the description of Ol' Farmhouse sauces is a masterclass in pinpoint hilarity); you could also read it as an indictment of the kind of person who ends up in a cult, and the culture that produces and sustains this (bonus points for the Scientology-like top-of-pyramid Clear in this case being an "Autonomous Falcon," a perfectly, preeningly, hilariously stupid distinction); or maybe it's an actual Christian allegory about faith being tempted and surviving despite all the ambient idiocy and masscult appropriation of those narratives.
Sentence to sentence, this made me laugh over and over, whether it's Brock's determination to correct every single person's malapropisms (save the one time he recognizes that discretion may be the better part of love), his off-kilter take on the world, the spot-on imagined absurdities that could well be real, or just a beautifully lucid image ("Bobby the rat has been overeating and suffers from morbid obesity....The glazed expression on his rodent face is that of an unambitious and sated Thanksigiving guest"). My favorite book of the year so far.
Seriously, reading the opening paragraph of Portis and compare it with the first page or two here: very similar mordant vision of people and America, combined with what can only be called an extremely idiosyncratic take on daily life. Since Dog of the South is one of my favorite books, it stands to reason that this one, which engages much more with the broader indigenous berserk, to steal Roth's phrase, of contemporary America, was aklso going to work for me. You could read it as a take on the late-capitalist idiocy of contemporary culture, with the main plot at times, at least, concering a hard-determinist biotech firm that may all be a scam and a whole subplot about low-end straight-to-video movies (he buys, and his family watches, some absurdity about a robot Pope) and other products you can find at whatever lurks below Dollar General, say (the description of Ol' Farmhouse sauces is a masterclass in pinpoint hilarity); you could also read it as an indictment of the kind of person who ends up in a cult, and the culture that produces and sustains this (bonus points for the Scientology-like top-of-pyramid Clear in this case being an "Autonomous Falcon," a perfectly, preeningly, hilariously stupid distinction); or maybe it's an actual Christian allegory about faith being tempted and surviving despite all the ambient idiocy and masscult appropriation of those narratives.
Sentence to sentence, this made me laugh over and over, whether it's Brock's determination to correct every single person's malapropisms (save the one time he recognizes that discretion may be the better part of love), his off-kilter take on the world, the spot-on imagined absurdities that could well be real, or just a beautifully lucid image ("Bobby the rat has been overeating and suffers from morbid obesity....The glazed expression on his rodent face is that of an unambitious and sated Thanksigiving guest"). My favorite book of the year so far.
October 18, 2025
If you want to get lost in a book for a couple hours, this is the one. It’s hilarious, bizarre, relatable, and lighthearted. It’s like an exaggeration of everyday life. I laughed, I scrunched up my face, and I shook my head. Off the walls with humor! I received a copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
August 24, 2025
Unfunny.
November 10, 2024
Perhaps some people would find this book funny but it fell flat for me. I did not find the primary character to be relatable or witty or incisive. The book is not a wacky Terry Pratchett/Neil Gaiman adventure tale told with cleaver, tongue in cheek. instead, it’s a pretty straightforward con with a pretty straightforward ending. If you’re looking for a clever, send up of our modern society, I don’t think you’re going to find it here If you’re looking for a thoughtful and incisive look into modern technologies it’s absent. If you’re looking for a love beats all theme (suggested on the hardcover jacket flap) it’s a muted takeaway.
October 25, 2024
had its funny moments but for me something was missing
December 20, 2024
Men really aren’t that funny. The sentences are fine.
February 4, 2025
Hilariously funny, yet had me on the edge of my seat for much of the time. Also, unpredictable in the best way.
February 11, 2025
This book was like reading a silly sitcom. It was not believable like most sitcoms. The saving feature was the description of a small town in Ohio. I think I grew up in the identical one but in Pennsylvania. There was a lot of dry humor.
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