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Schmidt #2
Schmidt Delivered
Recently widowed, Albert Schmidt has triumphantly rediscovered domestic bliss in the Hamptons with Carrie, the Puerto Rican waitress who is younger than his daughter. Schmidt is content with keeping his own hours and steering his own course, even as he becomes entertained--and increasingly ensnared-- by the odd billionaire Michael Mansour. Among Schmidt's other heartbreaks and delights is the scandal engulfing his detested son-in-law. Where will it all lead? Is Mansour a true friend or just a big cat playing with a WASP mouse? Can May and December remain on the same calendar as the sun sets? Through it all, one thing is clear: Schmidt has found a new life far beyond the deck chair.
With the elegance and mordant wit readers have come to expect of him, Louis Begley has created a magnificent story of how virtue may be rewarded.
With the elegance and mordant wit readers have come to expect of him, Louis Begley has created a magnificent story of how virtue may be rewarded.
320 pages, Paperback
First published October 17, 2000
8 people are currently reading
142 people want to read
About the author
Louis Begley
45 books85 followersLouis Begley is an American novelist.
Begley was born Ludwik Begleiter in Stryi at the time part of Poland and now in Ukraine, as the only child of a physician. He is a survivor of the Holocaust due to the multiple purchases of Aryan papers by his mother and constant evasion of the Nazis. They survived by pretending to be Polish Catholic. The family left Poland in the fall of 1946 and settled in New York in March 1947. Begley studied English Literature at Harvard College (AB '54, summa cum laude), and published in the Harvard Advocate. Service in the United States Army followed. In 1956 Begley entered Harvard Law School and graduated in 1959 (LL.B. magna cum laude).
Upon graduation from Law School, Begley joined the New York firm of Debevoise & Plimpton as an associate; became a partner in January 1968; became of counsel in January 2004; and retired in January 2007. From 1993 to 1995, Begley was also president of PEN American Center. He remains a member of PEN's board of directors, as well as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
His wife of 30 years, Anka Muhlstein, was honoured by the French Academy for her work on La Salle, and received critical acclaim for her book A Taste for Freedom: The Life of Astolphe de Custine.
His first novel, Wartime Lies, was written in 1989. It won the PEN/Hemingway Award for a first work of fiction in 1991. The French version, Une éducation polonaise, won the Prix Médicis International in 1992. He has also won several German literature prizes, including the Jeanette Schocken Prize in 1995 and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation Literature Prize in 2000.
His novel About Schmidt was adapted into a major motion picture starring Jack Nicholson.
Begley was born Ludwik Begleiter in Stryi at the time part of Poland and now in Ukraine, as the only child of a physician. He is a survivor of the Holocaust due to the multiple purchases of Aryan papers by his mother and constant evasion of the Nazis. They survived by pretending to be Polish Catholic. The family left Poland in the fall of 1946 and settled in New York in March 1947. Begley studied English Literature at Harvard College (AB '54, summa cum laude), and published in the Harvard Advocate. Service in the United States Army followed. In 1956 Begley entered Harvard Law School and graduated in 1959 (LL.B. magna cum laude).
Upon graduation from Law School, Begley joined the New York firm of Debevoise & Plimpton as an associate; became a partner in January 1968; became of counsel in January 2004; and retired in January 2007. From 1993 to 1995, Begley was also president of PEN American Center. He remains a member of PEN's board of directors, as well as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
His wife of 30 years, Anka Muhlstein, was honoured by the French Academy for her work on La Salle, and received critical acclaim for her book A Taste for Freedom: The Life of Astolphe de Custine.
His first novel, Wartime Lies, was written in 1989. It won the PEN/Hemingway Award for a first work of fiction in 1991. The French version, Une éducation polonaise, won the Prix Médicis International in 1992. He has also won several German literature prizes, including the Jeanette Schocken Prize in 1995 and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation Literature Prize in 2000.
His novel About Schmidt was adapted into a major motion picture starring Jack Nicholson.
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May 31, 2013
”She wore the smallest of bikinis. Strings around her waist and between her legs that held in place a triangle of red cloth. Two smaller triangles of the same cloth attached to strings covered her nipples. Unbroken, luxurious tan; a salacious invitation to dream of the hours she spent lying in the sun naked. He took her in proudly, noting that even her feet were brown. A savage virgin goddess: no, a temple whore, ministering to adepts of Eastern mysteries. When she untied the cotton kerchief she had put over her head to drive in the open car, her hair, a mass of tiny curls, became a black halo surrounding her face.”
Eva Longoria was kind enough to model something similar to what Carrie was wearing, please look upon this picture from a clinical standpoint.
Yes, Albert Schmidt or Schmidtie as everyone can’t resist calling him is a reluctantly retired lawyer. We first meet him in About Schmidt of which there was a movie made starring Jack Nicholson. The movie bears very little resemblance to the book, in fact the “goddess whore” (Carrie) that Schmidt is talking about in the quote above was left out of the movie. Hollywood, I guess, decided to avoid the potential minefield of a twenty something being attracted to a sixty something. Usually it is cut and dried who is taking advantage of who in a situation like that, but in this book Louis Begley certainly blurs the lines leading one to believe that though the situation is untenable it does seem to be a mutually beneficial situation. The spectre of losing Carrie is always on Schmidtie's mind. His friend Mansour, richer than any person needs to be, and a man that is wiggling his way deeper and deeper into Schmidtie’s affairs, makes a play for Schmidtie’s prize possession. Carrie tells Albert what happened when she stayed over at Mansour’s apartment in the city.
”Please show me your tits.
I had on this black blouse you gave me, you know, short, with little shoulder straps, that doesn’t button, so I lift it up and tell him, Here they are. Say hello. I think he’s going to grab me or lick them, but no, he asks me, What’s Schmidtie going to say? I couldn’t believe it, so I say he’s going to try and break your stupid face...
And then?
In the morning, he comes into my room again and says he’s sorry, he couldn’t sleep all night, he was jerking off thinking about me, and he’ll give me a million dollars if I fuck him. I ask, Right now? So he says, No, not now, I can’t get it up, I’m too worn out, but please soon. Don’t make me wait too long.
Oh Carrie.”
The old saying with friends like this who needs enemies might be appropriate. Obviously Mansour is rich enough to “buy” about any woman he wants. His obsession with Carrie has much more to do with Schmidtie than it has to do with her. I couldn't help thinking, with a wince, what a pathetic scene, any attraction that Carrie may have harbored for Mansour was certainly dashed with cold water. Although the offer of $1,000,000 does prove to be burr for our justifiably paranoid hero.
There is this scene that I’m sure Begley wrote just for me.
”They were in bed, Carrie watching the Knicks game, Schmidt reading. He had abandoned Phineas Redux, for the first time unable to share Trollope’s enthusiasm for Phineas or Lady Glen or Mr. Plantagenet Palliser, to feel that, across time and space, true English ladies and gentlemen were his spiritual comrades-at-arms. In the place of Phineas, he had taken up James’s The Awkward Age, which he pored over sentence by sentence, if not word by word, struggling to make sure that he understood correctly the diabolical chatter over teacups: the virus of corruption spreading from Mrs. Brook’s drawing room and really spared no one, not bewitching Nanda or even mr. Longdon, with whom he would have liked to compare notes on more than one subject. He was also playing footsie under the covers with Carrie.”
Henry James is in Schmidtie’s bedroom.
I’ve read The Awkward Age and there is no way I could even begin to follow the weave of James’s weighted writing with a hot Puerto Rican woman providing distraction.
Schmidtie’s daughter is unhappy with him not only for shacking up with this woman younger than herself, but also because she holds a long list of resentments from her childhood, stretching from not getting the jumper horse she wanted to her Dad banging her Vietnamese babysitter (I mean come on doesn't everybody do that?:-o). Some of it is justified, but the older she gets the less forgiving she becomes, and after awhile she starts to lose the sympathy of this reader especially when she keeps calling this "horrible man" up for MONEY
Schmidtie’s worst fears are realized when Jason enters the picture.
”She can’t get enough of that perfectly formed head and face, with its brush of blond hair, the blue eyes, the pert nose, white teeth, and believe it or not a cleft chin, and this is before you take in the rolling shoulders, pectorals of a discobolus, and Jesus, the biceps.”
He suddenly finds himself competing with a Greek God. His vestal virgin is slipping through his fingers.
”How beautifully they assumed their roles: Schmidt, the fallen ogre; his child mistress, more expert than Hecate and yet as pure as a vestal, her body newly branded with the mark of the invader (a tattoo with Jason’s initials), her hair heavy with musk and the secrets he had whispered in spasms of unendurable pleasure; the blond hero destined to conjure the spell. The boy would kill him.... The method chosen for the execution remained to be revealed, but everything in its own good time. If he explained it all to the boy, made clear the circumstances, it could perhaps be a single blow to the neck, the trick of mercy.”
Sometimes life leaves a few marks.
Poor Schmidtie, he is balanced on the fine edge of having more friends than he needs and having no friends at all. His daughter throws tantrums and stabs dagger after dagger into his back and then as he is bleeding to death like a fallen Caesar...she asks him for money. His vestal virgin teeters on her pedestal as he learns too much about her past. His friends have betrayed him in so many ways; and yet, he finds he must forgive them. I appreciated the way Schmidtie rolled with the punches. Life didn’t turn out anything like he expected, much like my own life and I’m twenty years younger than Schmidtie with many more curves in my road lying ahead. We can plan for one life, but we should be prepared to end up somewhere totally unimaginable. It isn’t always a bad thing.
Click to see my The Awkward Age Review
Click to see my About Schmidt Review
Eva Longoria was kind enough to model something similar to what Carrie was wearing, please look upon this picture from a clinical standpoint.
Yes, Albert Schmidt or Schmidtie as everyone can’t resist calling him is a reluctantly retired lawyer. We first meet him in About Schmidt of which there was a movie made starring Jack Nicholson. The movie bears very little resemblance to the book, in fact the “goddess whore” (Carrie) that Schmidt is talking about in the quote above was left out of the movie. Hollywood, I guess, decided to avoid the potential minefield of a twenty something being attracted to a sixty something. Usually it is cut and dried who is taking advantage of who in a situation like that, but in this book Louis Begley certainly blurs the lines leading one to believe that though the situation is untenable it does seem to be a mutually beneficial situation. The spectre of losing Carrie is always on Schmidtie's mind. His friend Mansour, richer than any person needs to be, and a man that is wiggling his way deeper and deeper into Schmidtie’s affairs, makes a play for Schmidtie’s prize possession. Carrie tells Albert what happened when she stayed over at Mansour’s apartment in the city.
”Please show me your tits.
I had on this black blouse you gave me, you know, short, with little shoulder straps, that doesn’t button, so I lift it up and tell him, Here they are. Say hello. I think he’s going to grab me or lick them, but no, he asks me, What’s Schmidtie going to say? I couldn’t believe it, so I say he’s going to try and break your stupid face...
And then?
In the morning, he comes into my room again and says he’s sorry, he couldn’t sleep all night, he was jerking off thinking about me, and he’ll give me a million dollars if I fuck him. I ask, Right now? So he says, No, not now, I can’t get it up, I’m too worn out, but please soon. Don’t make me wait too long.
Oh Carrie.”
The old saying with friends like this who needs enemies might be appropriate. Obviously Mansour is rich enough to “buy” about any woman he wants. His obsession with Carrie has much more to do with Schmidtie than it has to do with her. I couldn't help thinking, with a wince, what a pathetic scene, any attraction that Carrie may have harbored for Mansour was certainly dashed with cold water. Although the offer of $1,000,000 does prove to be burr for our justifiably paranoid hero.
There is this scene that I’m sure Begley wrote just for me.
”They were in bed, Carrie watching the Knicks game, Schmidt reading. He had abandoned Phineas Redux, for the first time unable to share Trollope’s enthusiasm for Phineas or Lady Glen or Mr. Plantagenet Palliser, to feel that, across time and space, true English ladies and gentlemen were his spiritual comrades-at-arms. In the place of Phineas, he had taken up James’s The Awkward Age, which he pored over sentence by sentence, if not word by word, struggling to make sure that he understood correctly the diabolical chatter over teacups: the virus of corruption spreading from Mrs. Brook’s drawing room and really spared no one, not bewitching Nanda or even mr. Longdon, with whom he would have liked to compare notes on more than one subject. He was also playing footsie under the covers with Carrie.”
Henry James is in Schmidtie’s bedroom.
I’ve read The Awkward Age and there is no way I could even begin to follow the weave of James’s weighted writing with a hot Puerto Rican woman providing distraction.
Schmidtie’s daughter is unhappy with him not only for shacking up with this woman younger than herself, but also because she holds a long list of resentments from her childhood, stretching from not getting the jumper horse she wanted to her Dad banging her Vietnamese babysitter (I mean come on doesn't everybody do that?:-o). Some of it is justified, but the older she gets the less forgiving she becomes, and after awhile she starts to lose the sympathy of this reader especially when she keeps calling this "horrible man" up for MONEY
Schmidtie’s worst fears are realized when Jason enters the picture.
”She can’t get enough of that perfectly formed head and face, with its brush of blond hair, the blue eyes, the pert nose, white teeth, and believe it or not a cleft chin, and this is before you take in the rolling shoulders, pectorals of a discobolus, and Jesus, the biceps.”
He suddenly finds himself competing with a Greek God. His vestal virgin is slipping through his fingers.
”How beautifully they assumed their roles: Schmidt, the fallen ogre; his child mistress, more expert than Hecate and yet as pure as a vestal, her body newly branded with the mark of the invader (a tattoo with Jason’s initials), her hair heavy with musk and the secrets he had whispered in spasms of unendurable pleasure; the blond hero destined to conjure the spell. The boy would kill him.... The method chosen for the execution remained to be revealed, but everything in its own good time. If he explained it all to the boy, made clear the circumstances, it could perhaps be a single blow to the neck, the trick of mercy.”
Sometimes life leaves a few marks.
Poor Schmidtie, he is balanced on the fine edge of having more friends than he needs and having no friends at all. His daughter throws tantrums and stabs dagger after dagger into his back and then as he is bleeding to death like a fallen Caesar...she asks him for money. His vestal virgin teeters on her pedestal as he learns too much about her past. His friends have betrayed him in so many ways; and yet, he finds he must forgive them. I appreciated the way Schmidtie rolled with the punches. Life didn’t turn out anything like he expected, much like my own life and I’m twenty years younger than Schmidtie with many more curves in my road lying ahead. We can plan for one life, but we should be prepared to end up somewhere totally unimaginable. It isn’t always a bad thing.
Click to see my The Awkward Age Review
Click to see my About Schmidt Review
June 4, 2012
Author Begley was a lawyer for a large New York firm before retiring, I believe, at sixty or so. He is a superb writer. This is the second volume of what is so far a trilogy. I’ve yet to read the third volume, just out, called Schmidt Steps Back.
When we last saw Schmidt at the end of About Schmidt he had miraculously secured the favors of a 25 year old beauty for himself (he's in his early sixties), had become estranged from his wacky daughter who has a tendency to make decisions that go against her own self interest, and had been forced from his beloved law firm by Jon Riker, his protege, who after becoming a partner at Schmidt's recommendation, turns against him and squeezes him out before marrying the wacky daughter.
Now we board the Schadenfreude Express. For Jon Riker, who backstabbed Schmidt in volume one, has fucked himself royally and lost all credibility at the start of the current volume. It’s complicated, but apparently Riker gave documents that were under court seal to the opposing counsel whom he had been screwing. But opposing counsel, as it turns out, then screws him when she uses those same documents to prepare submissions to the court. There can be no doubt that her submissions were based upon the sealed documents. The shit hits the fan. Jon has compromised the case of a major client. He Is fired from the firm.
Schmidt tries to resist the Schadenfreude Express, and largely does so, to his credit. Schmidt’s daughter, Charlotte, Jon’s wife, leaves the beleagured Jon now for a man in her office who is separated from his wife. (They both do PR for tobacco companies.) Charlotte takes the jitney out to the Hamptons to ask Schmidt for money —-not a loan but an outright gift — so that she and her new man can start up their own firm. The new man will not invest a cent himself, all his funds will go to supporting his divorced wife and family. But no sooner does Charlotte make this request of Schmidt, then her lover and future partner returns to his wife for the sake of the children. (Always a mistake.) This is the ultimate proof of Charlotte’s horrendous inability to judge people. She has no reliable instincts.
The real kicker of the novel is the relationship Schmidt develops with the billionaire Michael Mansour. Mansour, born of a Jewish family in Cairo, calls Schmidt early one morning — Schmidt is still in bed — and invites him to luncheon at his Olympic venue of a home, also in the Hamptons. Mansour is a piece of work. He is a megalomaniac, very pleased with himself and his billions, who met Schmidt through Gil, the filmmaker and Schmidt’s old college roomie, whose films Mansour now underwrites. Schmidt lunches with Mansour and the dialog here is not to be missed. Mansour proceeds to tell Schmidt everything that’s wrong with his life and what he must do to fix it. Mansour comes on very strong. He’s right there on the border between charming and obnoxious. As I read these pages my jaw was dropping. The exchanges are astonishing and, as they say, alone worth the price of admission.
The relationship between Mansour and Schmidt reminded me very much of the relationship between Charlie Citrine and Von Humboldt Fleisher in Saul Bellow’s Humboldt’s Gift (1975). The tenor of the dialog is so close to that of the presumed model, but Begley makes it entirely fresh, entirely new, and carries his readers delightedly off in other directions. However, like Bellow Begley is able to nail down the big egos. Even the billionaire's name is intriguing, isn’t it? Mansour. Man Sour. It gets the reader’s mind working. Does it suggest a misanthrope?
The last major character to be discussed is Carrie. She is the Latina beauty whom Schmidt steals away from a grim life waiting tables at a local restaurant. She’s a good girl, raised right, but she is also 25 and at the height of her sexually active years. It seems impossible that he has found her, that he has secured her, but Begley makes it believeable. And Carrie’s presence in the book is a purposeful contrast to that of Schmidt's daughter, Charlotte, who, though given everything during her upbringing, is an ingrate and a shrew.
The last third of the book is a killer. I read it through the pain of heartbreak. Schmidt is too old for Carrie. This limitation in their relationship is bound to manifest itself sooner or later. When she informs Schmidt of her affair with Jason, Mansour’s security man who is her own age, one reads on with astonishment as Schmidt comports himself with a level of dignity that should serve as a model for all of us when exiting relationships. The last third of this book is fire and ice. Wow. What a book! What a writer!
When we last saw Schmidt at the end of About Schmidt he had miraculously secured the favors of a 25 year old beauty for himself (he's in his early sixties), had become estranged from his wacky daughter who has a tendency to make decisions that go against her own self interest, and had been forced from his beloved law firm by Jon Riker, his protege, who after becoming a partner at Schmidt's recommendation, turns against him and squeezes him out before marrying the wacky daughter.
Now we board the Schadenfreude Express. For Jon Riker, who backstabbed Schmidt in volume one, has fucked himself royally and lost all credibility at the start of the current volume. It’s complicated, but apparently Riker gave documents that were under court seal to the opposing counsel whom he had been screwing. But opposing counsel, as it turns out, then screws him when she uses those same documents to prepare submissions to the court. There can be no doubt that her submissions were based upon the sealed documents. The shit hits the fan. Jon has compromised the case of a major client. He Is fired from the firm.
Schmidt tries to resist the Schadenfreude Express, and largely does so, to his credit. Schmidt’s daughter, Charlotte, Jon’s wife, leaves the beleagured Jon now for a man in her office who is separated from his wife. (They both do PR for tobacco companies.) Charlotte takes the jitney out to the Hamptons to ask Schmidt for money —-not a loan but an outright gift — so that she and her new man can start up their own firm. The new man will not invest a cent himself, all his funds will go to supporting his divorced wife and family. But no sooner does Charlotte make this request of Schmidt, then her lover and future partner returns to his wife for the sake of the children. (Always a mistake.) This is the ultimate proof of Charlotte’s horrendous inability to judge people. She has no reliable instincts.
The real kicker of the novel is the relationship Schmidt develops with the billionaire Michael Mansour. Mansour, born of a Jewish family in Cairo, calls Schmidt early one morning — Schmidt is still in bed — and invites him to luncheon at his Olympic venue of a home, also in the Hamptons. Mansour is a piece of work. He is a megalomaniac, very pleased with himself and his billions, who met Schmidt through Gil, the filmmaker and Schmidt’s old college roomie, whose films Mansour now underwrites. Schmidt lunches with Mansour and the dialog here is not to be missed. Mansour proceeds to tell Schmidt everything that’s wrong with his life and what he must do to fix it. Mansour comes on very strong. He’s right there on the border between charming and obnoxious. As I read these pages my jaw was dropping. The exchanges are astonishing and, as they say, alone worth the price of admission.
The relationship between Mansour and Schmidt reminded me very much of the relationship between Charlie Citrine and Von Humboldt Fleisher in Saul Bellow’s Humboldt’s Gift (1975). The tenor of the dialog is so close to that of the presumed model, but Begley makes it entirely fresh, entirely new, and carries his readers delightedly off in other directions. However, like Bellow Begley is able to nail down the big egos. Even the billionaire's name is intriguing, isn’t it? Mansour. Man Sour. It gets the reader’s mind working. Does it suggest a misanthrope?
The last major character to be discussed is Carrie. She is the Latina beauty whom Schmidt steals away from a grim life waiting tables at a local restaurant. She’s a good girl, raised right, but she is also 25 and at the height of her sexually active years. It seems impossible that he has found her, that he has secured her, but Begley makes it believeable. And Carrie’s presence in the book is a purposeful contrast to that of Schmidt's daughter, Charlotte, who, though given everything during her upbringing, is an ingrate and a shrew.
The last third of the book is a killer. I read it through the pain of heartbreak. Schmidt is too old for Carrie. This limitation in their relationship is bound to manifest itself sooner or later. When she informs Schmidt of her affair with Jason, Mansour’s security man who is her own age, one reads on with astonishment as Schmidt comports himself with a level of dignity that should serve as a model for all of us when exiting relationships. The last third of this book is fire and ice. Wow. What a book! What a writer!
July 30, 2016
I read and enjoyed the first Schmidt book, but this one, I just couldn't stomach, primarily because I absolutely loathed his awful, awful daughter. I abhor it when adults acts like petulant 14-year-olds. She was absolutely insufferable, and I could not force myself to finish a book that involved her as much as this one did. Ugh.
September 12, 2019
I din’t realize this was part of a series when I started reading this. I really did not like the characters. So many flawed people...I guess that is real life. We all have flaws but I can still like the person. I listened to the audio. The story was interesting enough to keep me reading. Will I read the next one? I mught go to the library, find the book, and skim it to see what happens.
August 26, 2020
Better than the first book overall, yet some of the writing style still makes it a bit harder to read than most other books or styles of writing. Overall the storyline moves along at time very nicely and helps to pull the reader in while there are a few times where the story gets a bit drawn out. Will move on to the last book to finish the trio.
January 19, 2021
A Prof. Gubar recommendation
March 14, 2023
For me, it lacks the originality and charm of the predecessor, “About Schmidt.”
Read
November 6, 2009Everything you need to know about WASPs? It's a bleak picture that Begley paints in both this book and the earlier "About Schmidt". I checked out both from the library at the same time, or probably wouldn't have read the second. Dunno.
It's a very arid moral landscape the Alfred Schmidt inhabits. Retired lawyer, from a "good" firm, living in the Hamptons with a very young girlfriend. Why she stays? One of the mysteries of life, I guess. Schmidt's veneer of good manners, good breeding and moderate (to him, anyway) wealth does not fully disguise what a rotten core he has. Priding himself on his honesty, he conveniently ignores his anti-Semitism, his exploitation of those not of his type, his infidelities, his failed parenting and his other failures.
He's not a likable character at all but Begley's writing kept me reading - even though I really disliked the lack of quotation marks around dialogue. It wasn't always clear whether dialogue was spoken or inner and in the end it didn't matter. Schmidt was only focused on himself.
It's a very arid moral landscape the Alfred Schmidt inhabits. Retired lawyer, from a "good" firm, living in the Hamptons with a very young girlfriend. Why she stays? One of the mysteries of life, I guess. Schmidt's veneer of good manners, good breeding and moderate (to him, anyway) wealth does not fully disguise what a rotten core he has. Priding himself on his honesty, he conveniently ignores his anti-Semitism, his exploitation of those not of his type, his infidelities, his failed parenting and his other failures.
He's not a likable character at all but Begley's writing kept me reading - even though I really disliked the lack of quotation marks around dialogue. It wasn't always clear whether dialogue was spoken or inner and in the end it didn't matter. Schmidt was only focused on himself.
December 27, 2013
There were a couple things that kept me from enjoying this story. First is the fact that there are no quotation marks used in Schmidt Delivered. This made it confusing for me to follow. Sometimes Schmidt would be talking and other times he would be thinking...
Also, the description on the inside jacket begins with the words Albert Schmidt proud gentleman........I guess I should have read a little further. I don't understand how proud gentleman turns into a live in girlfriend younger than Schmidt's own daughter.
Also, the description on the inside jacket begins with the words Albert Schmidt proud gentleman........I guess I should have read a little further. I don't understand how proud gentleman turns into a live in girlfriend younger than Schmidt's own daughter.
September 9, 2014
Although I enjoy Begley on the subjects of money and ungrateful children, his preoccupation with beautiful sexy young women is beginning to jar. In fact, in this novel, he slyly has a late-appearing minor character, a writer, a "prick" and an anti-semite who is "100% Jewish," discuss how all his books except the first are about men screwing young women, I believe he says people find them"unpleasant," but I couldn't find this passage when I went looking, so perhaps it is only me who finds them unpleasant. I did love "Shipwreck," though.
December 12, 2007
You know those books you keep reading because you think it has to get better? Well, this one does, but the ending is not so good as to offset all the time spent reading about a whiny old man, his slutty girlfriend, and his bitchy daughter. Blech.
May 13, 2009
Loved it. Wasn't too sure when I first started it, but I loved the setting although I had never been to the Hamptons and the characters were a whacky bunch. The satire made the book worth reading for me. It reminded me of the Rabbit books by Updike.
July 13, 2012
Even better than About Schmidt because Schmidt begins to grow up and develops some compassion. He also matures in his relationship with his estranged daughter.
It's wry humor wraps around the wisdom that comes from living a flawed life and slowly awakening to personal consequences.
It's wry humor wraps around the wisdom that comes from living a flawed life and slowly awakening to personal consequences.
December 27, 2007
Glad that Schmidtie got a sequel, but didn't measure up.
February 5, 2010
I am looking forward to getting old, part II.
May 26, 2012
The second in the Schmidt series. Another well-crafted Begley effort, with a simpler plot line than his first one, and shorter in length. Schmidt does grow on one, after one gets used to him!
August 26, 2012
A continuation of the wonderful story of middle age angst and life after early or forced retirement.
September 4, 2012
Not quite as good as the first Schmidtie book, but enjoyable nonetheless...I can follow the foibles of Schmidtie for some time to come, he is never boring (even though he thinks he is!)
July 3, 2014
This was disappointing in many ways. I have the 3rd book in this series in my book bag--I hope that one is better.
January 31, 2016
Liked the Schmidt series
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews