Review: Good writing but weak, egotistical, narcissistic protagonist ruins the story.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 05 28, 2014
+++++++++++++++++++++=This review has spoilers, so please stop if you don't want to know +++++++++++++++Essentially Jack, the main protagonist, learns his father is dead and he is having a mid life crisis because he is a frustrated writer.  Instead of seeking out a writer's workshop or connecting with other writers or picking up a copy ofThe Elements of Style, Fourth Edition,  he goes back to his hometown and screws his old girlfriend in an orgy of self indulgent pouting for an extended period of time.  He then glorifies his adultery with his new novel that he manages to get published and he doesn't really care that he has decimated his wife and eventually his children when they find out that redeeming his ego at the temple of his old flame was more important than them.  Jack doesn't seem to care about the devastation he causes to people he supposedly loves as long as his vanity is stroked and his importance above everybody else is self-validated.As an attempt to make a narcissistic liar who is a self-centered user of women and friends sympathetic, this story was a huge fail.  I did not care about Jack's naval gazing meanderings and his emo whining.  He lies, he cheats and then he blames everyone around him for his own shortcomings, but hey it is all good in the end 'cause he got his book published.  This is not a romance in any shape or form.  Sadly, it is just another example of a pathetic loser of a man trying to boost his own vainglorious ego because he can't step up and take responsibility for his choices, and he can't bear the thought that he really is nothing special and by his own actions should be dumped like trash on the curbside of life.