Rating: 
Summary: An interesting approach!
Review: The book begins with a grant proposal, written in 2027, to study the life and work of the famous painter Robert Hampton. The story that follows is how Bob, the painter wannabe, overcomes a serious case of artist's block to become that painter.I mistakenly expected an Anne Tyler-like story about a quirky, charming misfit. Bob Hampton is none of these. He's a pragmatist. When he goes to Paris to study art and finds he has artist's block, rather than blow all his savings he returns home to Los Angeles. Faced with the requirement of presenting a portfolio in order to enroll in art school, he turns his creative paralysis into action and hangs out his shingle as a "handyman." I was reminded of the James Taylor song "Handyman"--"I cure broken hearts"-- Bob Hampton cures lives and relationships that are out of kilter. As he does so he also cleans houses, does the laundry, and paints a remarkable poolside mural. As Bob writes, "I was beginning to get the idea tha maybe you couldn't change the world but you could paint sadness over, brighten the whole thing up. And maybe the bright stuff would bleed down into the interior and start changing it." There's a lot to this book -- it deserves a wide readership.
Rating: 
Summary: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Handyman
Review: Carolyn See's The Handyman is the kind of book you never want to end. You read a little here, a little there, forcing yourself to put it down so that you can save some for later. It's suspensful, funny, sad, uplifting, and even magical. This book made my heart grow bigger, and changed the way I look at my life.Every woman should have a handyman like Bob, the main character. He's a super hero for the neglected, abused, ignored, and taken-for-granted wives and mothers who can't see beyond the heaps of dirty laundry to find themselves. He's also a young artist in search of inspiration. You'd think he'd find it when he goes to Paris, but he doesn't. Oddly enough, he finds in Los Angeles. He finds it in the aromatic loins of an older woman, in the sadness of a lonely trophy wife, and in the day to day satisfaction of being able to help people who need him. Bob is on his way to becoming something, and we are witnesses. What an original idea Carolyn See has come up with here. Imagine the road to glory as an artist not being an ego trip. The book says lots of great things about the creative process while never sounding pretentious or preachy, but what I loved most about it was that it seemed to speak to me personally, to the single mother who lives in Los Angeles and doesn't have a man around to take out the garbage let alone dance with on a Saturday night. Mostly, though, it reminded me how important human kindness is, and how the artist must be compassionate, and without judgment. It's a book about getting a life. You can't wait around for life to happen to you. You must go after what it is you love.
Rating:
Summary: Best book I've read in a long time
Review: and I read 4-6 books a week. Too many recently-published, well-written books have depressing plotlines that leave one feeling hopeless about humanity. This book is the opposite. The well-crafted paragraphs give interesting insights into the nature of the creative process, in the context of a compelling story that is hard to put down. And, when it was over, I felt happy and sated. As I result, I was deeply puzzled by some of the vituperative Amazon reviews, and can only conclude they were primarily written by a single person with some kind of personal grudge against the author. It is ironic that a book celebrating the power of an individual to positively effect the lives of others is the subject of such unpleasant anonymous attacks. This is a very good book, and I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Love, Art and the Single Guy
Review: Part treatise on what it means to be an artist, part love story, and part comedy of Southern California manners, The Handyman is much more than the sum...through the eyes of aspiring painter (and handyman) Bob Hampton, See shares with us the almost revolutionary idea that becoming an artist is not about suffering, but about relieving the suffering of others (and that nice guys can finish first!) I found all of See's charaters, from Bob's various and sundry roommates, to the rich westside women he works for, to his wacky family, well-drawn, and somehow loveable. In fact, this book is all about Love -- how hard it is to live without it, and the human capacity for finding it, and sharing it. Carolyn See, like Bob Hampton, proves that all truly fine art comes from the heart.
Rating: 
Summary: 1 star is far too kind
Review: Reading this, I felt my mind congealing into a turd. (No digestion necessary!) A TV dinner for the mind--"meat" of unnatural shape and texture (I guess it's meat; I mean, it kinda looks like meat), token vegetables, and laden with sodium-rich artifical flavorings. I literally threw this manuscript across the room, effectively ending my stint as a literary scout. It is crap on so many levels--the "plot," the amatuerish and utterly trite crypto-Christo symbology. Jesus! Imagine my surprise--nay, horror--a year or so later, to see this trash win some critical acclaim. Complete madness. Comte was onto something with his "mental hygiene" hangup. I'd have my eyes seared with hot pokers before reading something like this again. Oh. And how wonderful to see the author on the MFA/ writing workshop circuit. Behold the future!
Rating:
Summary: Interesting Little Book
Review: Interesting book with an enjoyable, though at times somewhat unbelievable and sort of disturbing, plot. Brings up a lot of ideas about the randomness of life, how fate brings people together for unknown reasons, and how we effect each other in very significant ways possibly without ever even knowing it. I found the ending of the book particularly odd and unexplainable. Without giving anything away, I was stumped as to why the main character chose who he chose. (Another friend of mine had the exact same complaint actually.) I never felt I really understood Bob Hampton. Overall though, a pretty fun read.
Rating:
Summary: NO, NO,NO, DON'T BUY THIS BOOK
Review: Don't buy this book, this is the most boring book I've ever picked up!
Rating:
Summary: a feel-good novel with a kinder, gentler view of LA
Review: The time is summer 1996, and the place is Los Angeles. The situation is simple: a young man, Bob Hampton, is lost. Beyond his wish to be a painter, he's keenly aware that he has no direction for either life or career and some doubt that he'll ever find one. Telling himself that he's raising some cash for art school, he hires himself out as a handyman. The clients who enlist his services are people whose lives are a mess. They are even more lost than Bob. And it turns out that he's much better at bringing order and self-sufficiency to their lives than to his own. Carolyn See has a comic vision and a compassion for her characters that is hard to resist. She sends Bob careening from one dysfunctional household to another, fixing things that don't work, painting, gardening, running errands. And in the process, he has his own journey of self-discovery. Unexpectedly, Bob's jobs call for heroics and the patience of a saint. He saves a toddler from drowning, rescues an abandoned wife who can't drive a car or write a check, helps a widow discard her dead husband's belongings and discover a new life, and comes to the aid of two copeless young men, one of them in failing health. In addition to his clients, the cast of characters includes his young housemates, whose transient lives converge improbably under the same roof. There is also his forlorn mother, staring blankly from her apartment window into the street below. The novel captures the bruising heat of summer in LA and the peculiar impermanence of a city where people's attachments are temporary, and creative inspiration can materialize in visions hovering over the traffic on Santa Monica Boulevard or across the concrete surrounding a backyard swimming pool. Finally, The Handyman is a feel-good novel that encourages a kinder, gentler view of the City of Angels and the people who - even temporarily - call it home.
Rating:
Summary: A Loser
Review: This book had it's moments but, overall it is overrated. The author jumps from one character to the next but does not give any depth. The story is implausible. I think the author has something to say about finding your true path, but she hasn't quite figured out how to write this in the context of a novel. I put it down when I got to the last 50 pages.
Rating:
Summary: An artists search for self
Review: This is the story of an artists search for himself. Bob starts to see himself reflected through the process of helping others. This is a hip book with a westcoast eye for place. It is in this environment that Bob begins to find himself, his calling and learns the meaning of love.
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