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Paperback Writer
Paul James Watson is the writer of mediocre paperback novels. His humdrum life is flat, routine, and generally unimpressive, and his Christian life follows suit. Watson becomes absorbed in the novels he writes and his character, Toby McKenna, a highly successful detective who always solves the crime, heroically putting his life on the line for justice, who is the antithesis of Watson. But there is another Paul James Watson. He is the Watson of his imagination, who is living a life in his mind of new and exciting situations, conversations, and relationships. These three characters and their respective plot lines all become entertainingly and delightfully entwined until the reader is never sure which stories are real and which are from Watson’s imagination.
352 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
2 people are currently reading
49 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Bly
127 books72 followersStephen Bly (August 17, 1944 - June 9, 2011) authored 100 books and hundreds of articles. His book, THE LONG TRAIL HOME, (Broadman & Holman), won the prestigious 2002 CHRISTY AWARD for excellence in Christian fiction in the category western novel. Three other books, PICTURE ROCK (Crossway Books), THE OUTLAW'S TWIN SISTER (Crossway Books), and LAST OF THE TEXAS CAMP (Broadman & Holman), were Christy Award finalists. He spoke at colleges, churches, camps and conferences across the U.S. and Canada. He was the pastor of Winchester Community Church, and served as mayor of Winchester, Idaho (2000-2007). He spoke on numerous television and radio programs, including Dr. James Dobson's Focus on the Family. He was an Active Member of the Western Writers of America. Steve graduated summa cum laude in Philosophy from Fresno State University and received a M.Div from Fuller Theological Seminary. The Blys have three sons: Russell (married to Lois) and father of Zachary and Miranda (married to Chris Ross) and mother of Alayah, Michael (married to Michelle), and Aaron (married to Rina Joye) and father of Keaton and Deckard. A third generation westerner, Steve spent his early years working on ranches and farms.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
January 22, 2018
I hate to give this a negative review, given the author is now deceased, but this book was positively absurd, and not in a good way. I sure hope his other books are better than this.
(At least the title makes me want to break out in song: Paperback writer...)
(At least the title makes me want to break out in song: Paperback writer...)
November 16, 2017
The story idea is very enticing, I liked how it blurred the lines between reality and fiction, but it got rather unnecessarily complicated in some parts. I had to re-read several sentences just because they were unclear.
It dragged on in several places, I had to force myself to read on a couple of times.
Paperback Writer is one of those "meh" reads, it's okay, but I probably won't remember it by next week.
It dragged on in several places, I had to force myself to read on a couple of times.
Paperback Writer is one of those "meh" reads, it's okay, but I probably won't remember it by next week.
June 14, 2012
This was an interesting book. If you've ever questioned what was truth and what was fiction, this is the book for you. I love the fact that Stephen Bly just has us all along for the ride, I like not knowing the ending within the first three chapters of a book, and that's hard to do given that I've read a lot of novels. I don't normally go for action/cop/mystery books, but this one was phenominal. It was also incredibly fast paced, which helped because I often have the feeling that I'm wasting my time reading mysteries because I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere because everything is at such a slow pace. The only drawback was that I had to reread certian sections because I was lost. But all in all I would love to have this novel on my shelf!
August 21, 2008
An absolute stitch! Hard to tell what's real and what isn't...for the simple reason that the protagonist isn't sure either. Great story telling.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 29, 2020
What I loved - the cover! The rings of coffee shine and look so real.
What I liked - learning about Stephen Bly and his career; the parallels of his life/writing in the book / metafiction, the portrayal of Christian marriage as not being boring
What I didn't like - TYPOS!!! (agh - at one point the text says Toby Maguire instead of Mckenna!!); the over-the-top silliness of the story. I think if this had been written with a less melodramatic plot or subplot (whichever is which) I would have really, really liked it.
What I liked - learning about Stephen Bly and his career; the parallels of his life/writing in the book / metafiction, the portrayal of Christian marriage as not being boring
What I didn't like - TYPOS!!! (agh - at one point the text says Toby Maguire instead of Mckenna!!); the over-the-top silliness of the story. I think if this had been written with a less melodramatic plot or subplot (whichever is which) I would have really, really liked it.
June 23, 2014
SRP (Summer Reading Program) Why Bite: What could have been an interesting plot is muddled by a confusing gimmick, repetitiveness, and low reading level.
I haven’t read any Christian fiction since junior high, but I thought I’d give it a shot. Bly is well known in the genre, so when I came across this book in the library, I decided to pick it up. Indeed, Bly is evidently enough of a literary success that he felt justified in the cheesy move of having the main character refer to him as a successful author, tooting his own horn. One of my gripes about current mainstream fiction is that books often contain numerous sexually explicit scenes. I figured Christian fiction would be void of that particular scene, but, if this book is any indication, it also tends to be plentiful of opportunities to preach the faith and talk someone on the fence into full conversion mode. I wouldn’t mind this so much, if it is written realistically. However, I find in what little Christian literature I’ve read, including a series of YA novels of drug addicted street children finding salvation and a book of short stories published by MOPS, that characters paraphrase the Bible often in normal, every day conversations. I’m around Christians all the time. We don’t spend every conversation witnessing to each other, and do not consider every event or complication in life God’s teaching moment, but evidently characters in Christian fiction do. But I digress.
This book has its moments of grandiose preaching, but not as much as I expected. Although, at one point the main character does succeed in converting his fictional creation to Christianity. But even these brief moments would be tolerable if the story was somewhat entertaining. Unfortunately, this book fell well short of that mark. The narrator tells the story of a moderately successful “paperback writer” on his way home from a motel after finishing novel number 55 in a detective series. He has quite the adventurous day, but turns out it’s all make believe. Throughout the novel, the reader is led to believe that some scenes are real and some are not, but the main character, Watson, can’t tell the difference and just keeps going back and forth between the two. Problem is the reader can’t tell the difference either. I’m sure to Bly this seemed like an interesting gimmick to capture the interest of the reader, but all he accomplished was a confusing plot that was extremely difficult to follow. Even at the end of the book, the reader is left wondering what, if any, scenes actually happened, or if it all occurred only in his mind on the drive home. The book seems to be an attempt at illustrating the process of how a writer comes up with ideas and develops a story, and that this particular writer does so as an ordained service to humanity. But really, it would have been far more interesting as a straight adventure story without being enveloped in a convoluted gimmick, even though the action sequences were predictable and cliché, including a couple completely random departures from the plot in which Watson solves the personal problems of friends and deals with his adult daughter’s new boyfriend over the phone. The action seems to have been appropriated from every television action adventure show from the 1980s, including “Magnum, P.I.” which is mentioned multiple times and clearly the inspiration for Watson’s Toby Mackenna. In addition, the passages and dialogue were incredibly repetitive. The main plot points and objectives, as well as Watson’s personal issues, are repeated so often that I started rolling my eyes a third of the way through the book. The average reader is capable of remembering key details without them being retold every few pages.
As it stood, I would have given this book two stars, but I knocked it down to one based on the quality of writing alone. There are blatant typos throughout this specific publication, and in one particular passage the narrator refers to the main character by a different name, Weston, chapters before an imagined FBI Agent Smith mistakenly calls him “Weston” repeatedly. There is no connection between the separate passages and this was clearly a glaring error that couldn’t be overlooked, and one that is perhaps not limited to the publication I happened to read. These easily avoidable errors aside, what truly bothered me was the reading level in which this book was written. It was clearly below what I was used to reading, even though this novel is supposedly classified as adult fiction. I tested a passage from the first chapter, and it scored 3.8 on the Flesch-Kincaid scale. As reference, I tested a passage from a Magic Tree House book, which scored a 3.0, a passage from a Vonnegut novel, which scored a 7.3, and a passage from a Harry Potter book, which scored an 8.5. I found this so interesting that I have decided to research the reading levels of adult fiction further with passages from various novels. But I digress. (In the interest of fairness, this review scored an 12.0). While Flesch-Kincaid is not particularly accurate or scientific in its assessment, it does give a ballpark idea of the reading level of a work. This book’s ballpark appears to be the third grade.
All in all, I was rather disappointed in this book. I feel like I could have gotten more entertainment from a rerun of “Knight Rider.” This novel was dull, uninventive, and flat. Bly tried to write something unique, but failed to write a compelling piece of fiction.
I haven’t read any Christian fiction since junior high, but I thought I’d give it a shot. Bly is well known in the genre, so when I came across this book in the library, I decided to pick it up. Indeed, Bly is evidently enough of a literary success that he felt justified in the cheesy move of having the main character refer to him as a successful author, tooting his own horn. One of my gripes about current mainstream fiction is that books often contain numerous sexually explicit scenes. I figured Christian fiction would be void of that particular scene, but, if this book is any indication, it also tends to be plentiful of opportunities to preach the faith and talk someone on the fence into full conversion mode. I wouldn’t mind this so much, if it is written realistically. However, I find in what little Christian literature I’ve read, including a series of YA novels of drug addicted street children finding salvation and a book of short stories published by MOPS, that characters paraphrase the Bible often in normal, every day conversations. I’m around Christians all the time. We don’t spend every conversation witnessing to each other, and do not consider every event or complication in life God’s teaching moment, but evidently characters in Christian fiction do. But I digress.
This book has its moments of grandiose preaching, but not as much as I expected. Although, at one point the main character does succeed in converting his fictional creation to Christianity. But even these brief moments would be tolerable if the story was somewhat entertaining. Unfortunately, this book fell well short of that mark. The narrator tells the story of a moderately successful “paperback writer” on his way home from a motel after finishing novel number 55 in a detective series. He has quite the adventurous day, but turns out it’s all make believe. Throughout the novel, the reader is led to believe that some scenes are real and some are not, but the main character, Watson, can’t tell the difference and just keeps going back and forth between the two. Problem is the reader can’t tell the difference either. I’m sure to Bly this seemed like an interesting gimmick to capture the interest of the reader, but all he accomplished was a confusing plot that was extremely difficult to follow. Even at the end of the book, the reader is left wondering what, if any, scenes actually happened, or if it all occurred only in his mind on the drive home. The book seems to be an attempt at illustrating the process of how a writer comes up with ideas and develops a story, and that this particular writer does so as an ordained service to humanity. But really, it would have been far more interesting as a straight adventure story without being enveloped in a convoluted gimmick, even though the action sequences were predictable and cliché, including a couple completely random departures from the plot in which Watson solves the personal problems of friends and deals with his adult daughter’s new boyfriend over the phone. The action seems to have been appropriated from every television action adventure show from the 1980s, including “Magnum, P.I.” which is mentioned multiple times and clearly the inspiration for Watson’s Toby Mackenna. In addition, the passages and dialogue were incredibly repetitive. The main plot points and objectives, as well as Watson’s personal issues, are repeated so often that I started rolling my eyes a third of the way through the book. The average reader is capable of remembering key details without them being retold every few pages.
As it stood, I would have given this book two stars, but I knocked it down to one based on the quality of writing alone. There are blatant typos throughout this specific publication, and in one particular passage the narrator refers to the main character by a different name, Weston, chapters before an imagined FBI Agent Smith mistakenly calls him “Weston” repeatedly. There is no connection between the separate passages and this was clearly a glaring error that couldn’t be overlooked, and one that is perhaps not limited to the publication I happened to read. These easily avoidable errors aside, what truly bothered me was the reading level in which this book was written. It was clearly below what I was used to reading, even though this novel is supposedly classified as adult fiction. I tested a passage from the first chapter, and it scored 3.8 on the Flesch-Kincaid scale. As reference, I tested a passage from a Magic Tree House book, which scored a 3.0, a passage from a Vonnegut novel, which scored a 7.3, and a passage from a Harry Potter book, which scored an 8.5. I found this so interesting that I have decided to research the reading levels of adult fiction further with passages from various novels. But I digress. (In the interest of fairness, this review scored an 12.0). While Flesch-Kincaid is not particularly accurate or scientific in its assessment, it does give a ballpark idea of the reading level of a work. This book’s ballpark appears to be the third grade.
All in all, I was rather disappointed in this book. I feel like I could have gotten more entertainment from a rerun of “Knight Rider.” This novel was dull, uninventive, and flat. Bly tried to write something unique, but failed to write a compelling piece of fiction.
January 31, 2019
It was cute and a pretty fun read. My biggest complaint was it got preachy at times.
January 1, 2026
Definitely not my typical genre, but a friend had me borrow it. I will say that it's a fast paced read, but it just isn't my taste.
September 18, 2009
After having read this book I wish I could say that I loved it, but honestly it was rather frustrating. The main character, Paul James Watson, is a mediocre novelist who has a difficult time distinguishing between reality vs. his imagination. Well, I had the same problem. I spent more time trying to figure out which was which than actually reading the book. Throughout the entire book "Paul James Watson" (who by the way is always referred to by his full name...which became annoying) is talking to his lead fictional character, Tobias McKenna. Watson encounters or rather thinks up all sorts of different plots for the next book. But there is very little in the dialogue to distinguish the between what actually happens to Watson and what he imagines.
Truth be told I felt as though I was on a wild goose chase that wasn't going anywhere. Throughout the story the character of McKenna realizes that there is not much as far as the development of his character. Watson tells him that it is in the character outline, but that's about it. I'd have to say the same about the character of "Paul James Watson." Once finished with the book I realized I knew very little about him. I knew he loved his wife and kids, I knew he was slightly crazy, but beside that I'd say he was about as shallow of a character as McKenna. If this is confusing, well...that's pretty much how the book was.
Also, the little contact Watson has with his family caused my eyes to roll. The daughter, who is supposed to be 23 but is written as if she is 12, was annoying. Most of the times she opened her mouth she was "giggling." No 23-year-old talks to her father like that as often as she did. Another thing was there was very little given to the reader about the relationship between Watson and his wife. In the story line there is a little quip where it seems Watson suspects her of cheating on him, but then it's not addressed. So the reader is left to wonder if it was part of his fictional world or not. By the time he gets home everything is just dandy, and him and his wife are portrayed as the "perfect couple." Seriously?
Overall I'd have to say that the dialogue was basic at best and in the end I felt that the book ended with the "and then he woke up," cliche.
This book was promising, but left me seriously disappointed.
Truth be told I felt as though I was on a wild goose chase that wasn't going anywhere. Throughout the story the character of McKenna realizes that there is not much as far as the development of his character. Watson tells him that it is in the character outline, but that's about it. I'd have to say the same about the character of "Paul James Watson." Once finished with the book I realized I knew very little about him. I knew he loved his wife and kids, I knew he was slightly crazy, but beside that I'd say he was about as shallow of a character as McKenna. If this is confusing, well...that's pretty much how the book was.
Also, the little contact Watson has with his family caused my eyes to roll. The daughter, who is supposed to be 23 but is written as if she is 12, was annoying. Most of the times she opened her mouth she was "giggling." No 23-year-old talks to her father like that as often as she did. Another thing was there was very little given to the reader about the relationship between Watson and his wife. In the story line there is a little quip where it seems Watson suspects her of cheating on him, but then it's not addressed. So the reader is left to wonder if it was part of his fictional world or not. By the time he gets home everything is just dandy, and him and his wife are portrayed as the "perfect couple." Seriously?
Overall I'd have to say that the dialogue was basic at best and in the end I felt that the book ended with the "and then he woke up," cliche.
This book was promising, but left me seriously disappointed.
February 2, 2008
This is the first Stephen Bly novel I've read, and since I know his other books are much different (Western/Historical) I am willing to give them a try.
This one was confusing and a little hard for me to follow. Once I stopped trying as much to figure out everything and just read for reading's sake, it was quite interesting. I could identify with having fantasies, because I often imagine talking to people I know (not characters from my stories, though I do write) and being more outspoken than I am in real life.
I laughed a few times and sort of got into the mystery of things, but I was expecting more of an explanation of things in the end.
Maybe if I read it a second time I could figure things out better, but I don't think I want to read it again (for several years, anyway).
At the end, I went back and checked off all the book titles Toby McKenna mentioned to see if he named them all on the list. I think he did, but I missed a few when I went back to check.
It's an original and interesting story idea, but I think it could have been better. I was expecting it to be highly exciting from the reviews on the back cover and inside the book, and while there were moments of excitement, I wasn't so impressed with it as the other writers were.
Interesting how Stephen Bly even mentioned himself/his books in this novel. ;)
This one was confusing and a little hard for me to follow. Once I stopped trying as much to figure out everything and just read for reading's sake, it was quite interesting. I could identify with having fantasies, because I often imagine talking to people I know (not characters from my stories, though I do write) and being more outspoken than I am in real life.
I laughed a few times and sort of got into the mystery of things, but I was expecting more of an explanation of things in the end.
Maybe if I read it a second time I could figure things out better, but I don't think I want to read it again (for several years, anyway).
At the end, I went back and checked off all the book titles Toby McKenna mentioned to see if he named them all on the list. I think he did, but I missed a few when I went back to check.
It's an original and interesting story idea, but I think it could have been better. I was expecting it to be highly exciting from the reviews on the back cover and inside the book, and while there were moments of excitement, I wasn't so impressed with it as the other writers were.
Interesting how Stephen Bly even mentioned himself/his books in this novel. ;)
July 13, 2010
"Paul James Watson Stephen Bly is the writer of mediocre paperback novels. His humdrum life novel Paperback Writer is flat, routine, and generally unimpressive, and his Christian lifepseudo-musings follow suit."
Bly breaks a cardinal rule of writing books by calling his characters by whichever name or nickname he feels. Our MC is Paul James Watson, Paul Watson, Watson, P.J. SO ANNOYING WHAT'S WITH BLY'S OBSESSION WITH MIDDLE NAMES
Never write again. Seriously just, just no.
I can say, with certainty, this is the crappiest book I've ever read.
He makes S. Meyer look competant and interesting.
Bly breaks a cardinal rule of writing books by calling his characters by whichever name or nickname he feels. Our MC is Paul James Watson, Paul Watson, Watson, P.J. SO ANNOYING WHAT'S WITH BLY'S OBSESSION WITH MIDDLE NAMES
Never write again. Seriously just, just no.
I can say, with certainty, this is the crappiest book I've ever read.
He makes S. Meyer look competant and interesting.
May 15, 2012
The first chapter hooked me into the plot line, as the main character's perception shifted from fiction to reality. It became more and more difficult to tell what was reality and what was fiction as the story went along--which mirrored the main character's difficulty in defining the two as well. I felt the Christian theme was very forced onto the plot line--in some parts, it stood out like a sore thumb. I do appreciate how clean the book is and its positive message. Overall, it was entertaining and I would recommend it as not a great piece of literature, but something that can make you think in a good way.
June 30, 2012
Yet another book that reminded me strongly of Cormac McCarthy. (Hint: I don't like Cormac McCarthy.) It was a brilliant premise, and I'm still rather fond of the idea, but it had far too much dialogue for my taste. It wasn't nearly as confusing as the reviews made it out to be- I just assumed that everything was fiction, and didn't worry about what was real and what wasn't, and that made it better. If there had been more real life mixed in, or if it had actually mattered what was real and what wasn't, then I probably would have enjoyed it more. As it was, I was somewhat disappointed.
January 8, 2008
A zany look inside the brain of Paul James Watson, writer of the popular Toby McKenna detective books. After so many years in the world of fiction with McKenna the lines of reality begin to blur for Paul... or did his life suddenly become more dramatic than it has ever been before? Just when you think you've figured out what is going on the plot turns again.
April 6, 2009
This book is really kind of strange, just because of the way it is written. If I recall correctly, an author is living inside his writings or something like that .... I said it was confusing !!!! Overall, I didn't think it was one of Stephen Blys' better books.
April 27, 2013
I was pretty much confused from start to finish. In the end after still not quite figuring out what was fact and what was fiction I eventually gave up and just enjoyed the writing for its' very unique quality.
February 3, 2014
Well this was disappointing. This book sounded so interesting and I was so excited to read it and it turned out to be a huge let-down. All the guy does through the whole book is drive around and have imaginary conversations. OR DOES HE? Yeah, it's exactly as boring and confusing as it sounds.
May 6, 2008
Very interesting. At times it is hard to tell fiction from reality, and make out what is really happening in the story, but that is part of the charm. It is about imagination and a paperback writer.
September 9, 2009
Steven Bly is ridiculously creative and keeps you guessing until the very end.
March 19, 2010
This was just so odd.
July 31, 2015
Sparkling read fiction episode with reality outcome.
February 6, 2016
Very odd little book. Worth reading just for the experience.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews