The Handyman

Rating:
Summary: IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A BRAIN, YOU'll LOVE IT !
Review: Sorry, you've got to be either totally brainless or the world's premier class shallow phoney to be able to enjoy and appreciate this mega-bomb. As fantasy, it fails miserably. As art, forget it.

Rating:
Summary: I loved it
Review: Only the most cynical of souls would despise such an inspiring, funny, & sweet novel.

Rating:
Summary: The simplicity of true art with a profound, mature optimism
Review: This is a just plain wonderful book. The writer is a true artist. Each sentence, paragraph,and chapter is carefully crafted. The characters, so deceptively simply, become real people about whom one cares profoundly. Above all, this book is an antidote to the cynicism that seems rife it out times. It expresses a mature optimism. As we know from her autobiography Dreaming, this writer knows that bad things happen in this imperfect word; but she sees hope and the good in the world as well. I am quite surprised by the slashing adjectives some of my fellow reviews have used to describe this book. Perhaps the lesson is, if you believe it is OK to bash a serious literary effort--this book is not for you. It somes from a very humane place, where everyone (even those you do not agree with) has a right to civil consideration on their own terms.

Rating:
Summary: Well someone really hates this...but not me
Review: If there were a monitor at Amazon to look over these reveiws he/she would discover that all the invective that has been thrown at See's novel on these web pages is the work of one person. Every one star review has the same tone, the same vocabulary, the same "message." Only someone who loathes humankind could loathe this book so much. I also note that every single one star review is anonymous. Of course. Only cowards can hate so much. I can't find anything in the pages of The Handyman that would spark such a tirade - other than that here is a novel that finally features characters interacting with each other on the most basic of levels, with concern and compassion, on a level that REAL people seem to have forgotten. I am enjoying this book and the Samaritan acts of Bob are far from treacly. Maybe for the pessimists and the misanthropes this book is an easy target for the pseudo-intellectual pans and ersatz hip review-speak that hatemongers love to dispense. But for the rest of the world - people who understand that to be alive is to care about fellow human beings - here is a book that is a primer for living as we approach a new century. Believe me, as the year 2000 approaches the world needs more handymen and painters like Bob Hampton.

Rating:
Summary: A lovely novel
Review: The Handyman is a lovely novel. Short, sweet, beautifully written. Some may mistake its subtle simplicity for lack of depth, but they would be missing the very heart of this gem - art need not be fancy or 'serious' to move people - and Carolyn See, like her artist hero Bob Hampton, has moved this reader.

Rating:
Summary: SO DUMB
Review: I couldn't put it down - the gooey treacle of the moronic text stuck to my hands. What a crock this novel is. Save your money folks and just catch the afternoon soaps on TV - they're better done.

Rating:
Summary: Admits the possibility of happiness, success & goodness.
Review: I didn't read any reviews, had no hyped expectations, just heard See on a radio interview and liked her attitude. In spite of the intellectual disreputability of thinking some people just might be good, she allows for the possibility and thus engenders much of this vitriol from people who think that despair is the only legitimate response from an intelligent mind. Here's one equally disreputable intellectual who agrees with her.

Rating:
Summary: I immediately wanted to read it again.
Review: I am a selective, indeed picky, reader of fiction. I have no qualms about abandoning a novel if it doesn't immediately grip me. As soon as I finished THE HANDYMAN the first time, I wanted to read it again. Why? Sympathetic and fully portrayed characters, a sense of irony, humor, and fascinating depiction of the settings. To tell the story so convincingly through Bob's eyes is a feat in itself. This will probably join the small group of books I reread every year.

Rating:
Summary: INSIPID AND FAKE FANTASY FOR SEMI-LITERATES
Review: a completely disappointing effort. this is the novel as vanity writing minus talent. fake characters and a hackeneyed plotline. i rate it a d minus.

Rating:
Summary: A profound yet lighthearted look at art and love
Review: I'm not sure what I liked more about this book -- the main story of a young man "learning" how to become an artist (without even realizing that's what's happening) or the wonderful stories within it. This book is filled with quirky, interesting, sometimes desperate people -- all of whom need something from the protagonist -- most of whom end up giving something back to him. Los Angeles in all of its different incarnations is a character in itself -- Carolyn See really knows how to make a girl homesick! I'm passing this one around.