My Old Man

by Amy Sohn

From the New York Times bestselling author Amy Sohn, one of New York City's most provocative columnists, comes a hip, contemporary novel about sex, sin, and living in the same neighborhood as your parents.
When twenty-six-year-old Rachel Block started rabbinical school, she didn't think she'd be dropping out after a semester and a half. But when a sick man dies under her counseling, she realizes she's not cut out for the rabbinate. To make ends meet, she takes a job as a bartender in her Brooklyn neighborhood--much to her parents' chagrin. It's the quintessential quarter-life crisis, compounded by the fact that she's still living just blocks from her childhood home.
Then Rachel falls in love with Hank Powell, an iconoclastic screenwriter twice her age. Suddenly she's reassessing her values, her surroundings, and everything she's ever thought about the "right" kind of relationship. Meanwhile, her interactions with her father, with whom she's always been close, have become increasingly strange. Is he distraught that she's dropped out of school? Is he having his own, midlife, crisis? Something's up...and Rachel's increasingly convinced it might be her father's libido.
With Rachel's own relationship getting wilder and weirder and her parents acting like teenagers, it seems that everyone in Cobble Hill is going crazy. A fresh spin on Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint, My Old Man is a black comedy about a dysfunctional Brooklyn family coming apart at the seams.

Genres: Fiction

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Amy Sohn is the author of the upcoming novel The Actress, which will be published by Simon & Schuster in July 2014. Her other novels are Motherland, Prospect Park West, My Old Man, and Run Catch Kiss. She has been a columnist at New York magazine, New York Press, the New York Post and Grazia (UK). She has also written for The New York Times, The Nation, and Harper's Bazaar. She has written pilots for ABC, Fox, HBO, and Lifetime. She lives in Brooklyn, New York with her family.

Reviews

[Blanca · Rating 1 out of 5]

My summary in one word, Awful. The justification follows. I typically don't read chick lit, but if this is a typical example, of what this literary canon has to offer, it is in greater peril than I thought.

It is not that this story is not interesting or that it should not be explored. It has been written before, beautifully, with great wit, and literary deftness by Melissa Bank, A Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing.

I wasted time reading those fifty-smutty-something pages, and laboring over this review, but if it helps inform anyone over reading anything else, then it was worth it.

Sohn's story reads like an overly wordy Skinemax storyline without the bad acting, but does include all of the detailed descriptions of rim jobs, fellatio and clitoral stimulus references one expects in a late night cable soft-core movie about a drop out rabbinical student hooking up with a Gentile older, horny screen-writer -- and that's just the first 50 pages!

[Karen Hanson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is about a twenty-something Jewish girl, Rachel, who drops out of rabbinical school and becomes a bartender (to the chagrin of her parents). During this transition phase she carries company with an "educational" female friend, a famous older boyfriend, and her parents who have issues of their own.

I did like this book, however there was a bit of a separation between the first half and the second half. I really liked the beginning of this book... a bit shocking but engaging. By the second half of the book I was baffled as to why Rachel's boyfriend is interested in her at all. She doesn't seem to be anything special and I can't understand why he likes her or chooses to spend time with her. I can understand why he gets angry with her all the time. Of course, I don't think the boyfriend is anything special either and I can't understand why Rachel would be so attracted to him (other than the fact that he's famous). I'm going to stop there so I don't give away too much of the plot. This was a quick, easy read. I'd recommend it as a guilty pleasure type book, so long as you can handle sex and crass language.

[Jennie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I actually bought this book as a joke, because my friends and I spent a beach vacation 7 or 8 years ago reading “Run, Catch, Kiss” by Sohn and were appalled by how slutty and ready-to-be-degraded the main character was. It was once of those, “You have to read this! You won’t believe how utterly ridiculous it is!” recommendations. So, when I saw that Sohn had a similar book, I decided to take it to the beach this year. What I forgot was how unlikeable her characters are and how you find yourself groaning in agony as you read because you don’t think it will ever end, yet you can’t stop reading because you have to see what other insane things the characters are going to do to each other next. So, no, I really wouldn’t recommend it. (And, in case you think you might read it for the slutty parts, the sex scenes aren’t even hot because she always insists on adding in details about how someone’s feet smell or someone just ate a burrito and has gas or something totally unappetizing like that. I’m not even kidding.)

[Carissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was hilarious! I read Amy's other book, Run, Catch, Kiss and loved it so I had a feeling I was going to like this one just as much. The main character Rachel Block, drops out of rabbinical school after someone dies under her watch and takes on a new role as a bartender. She is instantly drawn to screenwriter, Hank Powell who is twice her age and very odd with his behavior. Their "relationship" takes on a strange love fest that is odd and almost sick, which makes it very hard to stop reading even if you find yourself blushing through the raunchy scenes.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I needed a totally brainless book to read. This was very funny and took place in Brooklyn, so it was cool to be familiar with the streets described. I heard it was optioned by focus features and will probably be a highly entertaining movie!

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I laughed out loud throughout the book -- especially at the way the author describes people (her dad with the shirt peenie). But its so slutty and gross I wouldn't recommend it to any civilized people or adolescent daughters.

[Lauren B · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this years ago and I still remember how much I hated it. Absolute garbage. Complete disservice to a May/December romance and the typical situation where the female character gets treated like crap.

[Allisyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

heard amy at the brooklyn bookfair. this book takes place all over cobble hill/carroll gardens. loved it!

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Raw and to the point as Sohn usually is this books takes on multi-generational relationships. A good, if not uplifting, read.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this at the beach and often laughed out loud, I may get it to read again next summer.

[Michelle Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adorable, funny, entertaining and a completely great read. I cannot wait to read more from this author!

[Lindsay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great story line with some comical lines and scenes but a little vulgar

[Jennifer]

Soooo bad. Unreadable.