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Summary: The perfect beach read.
Review: A great reminder for the groom of what it is to get married. Wonderful passages of a small time band doing the circuit. You'll finish feeling you got to know all these characters as friends.
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Summary: THE WISHBONES
Review: The Wishbones by Tom Perotta was one of the best books that I have ever read. It is about a band that plays at weddings and events like that. It is about all of the problems that they go through, losing members of the band, and relationships with others. The book also deals with topics such as adultery and rash decisions that have a very large impact on the character's lives. Friendships, loyalty, and commitment are all huge themes in the book. The descriptive nature of the writing makes the book very easy to picture and it flows well too. The characters in the story are very believable and react realistically to all of the situations present. The book is over 250 pages but it will go by quicker than some 100 page books. The storyline keeps you immersed in this book until the end. If you are looking to read tis book in a literature class, it may be a better idea to make it an optional read. Some words may be found offensive and the content may not be suitable for all readers. Younger readers especially may want to reconsider due to some sexual content.
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Summary: Predictable doesn't necessarily mean boring.......
Review: This is, essentially, a coming of age story-the fact that most of the primary characters are in their 30's notwithstanding.Tom Perrotta's The Wishbones follows the various travails of Dave Raymond. Though in his 30's, Dave still lives at homes with his rather long suffering parents. Dave also has a long suffering girlfriend of 20 years. Actually, virtually everyone Dave knows well is long suffering--that appears to be the price you pay for having a son/friend who hasn't quite grown up. Saddled with a dead-end day job, Dave's life actually revolves around his Band, The Wishbones, which plays wedding gigs on the weekends. Dave is intelligent and aware enough to recognize his shortcomings--he's a good, not great guitarist with no original music vision of his own whatsoever--but not yet sufficiently emotionally mature=or secure-enough to toss in the towel on his dreams of musical stardom. As event unfold, Dave finally gets up the nerve to propose to his girlfriend--then immediately stars getting cold feet. There is not one single surprise to be found anywhere in this entire novel. Yet, the book is anything but boring. Perrotta has a wonderful talent for developing intricate, interesting and engaging characters, skillfully evokes the sense of Dave's New Jersey neighborhood, has a finely tuned sense of comedic flair and is adept with dialog. This is one of those books that proves that predictable doesn't have to be boring. In point of fact, a lot of surprise and unexpected plot machinations would not have worked anyway, making what is, and was always meant to be, on ordinary, daily life sort of story seem contrived and hokey. The ending is rather anti-climatic even so, and there are some rough passages to be gotten through--Dave's whole flirtation with joining a Christian rock band seems out of place, for instance. But these are minor flaws in an otherwise competent, witty and engaging story. So, tune into the Wishbones and enjoy a pleasant read!
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Summary: Ouch -- We've All Been There
Review: The genius of Perrotta in The Wishbones is his ability to render in fresh and funny guises universal moments. This is a quick, very enjoyable read, and I can't imagine that a single person of the Baby Boomer down to the mid-30's age range will fail to recognize him- or herself in at least one of the novel's characters or predicaments. My personal favorite is a moment within the "wedding on a tight budget" theme when Dave and Julie are arguing over whether to have a band or a deejay at their reception. Dave, who has made a big part of his life, if not his living, playing with his buddies in The Wishbones at weddings, informs Julie that having a deejay instead of a band is like inviting Hitler to the wedding. Julie looks at him astonished and says, "Hitler?! Are you crazy?" Well, yes, of course he is, who's not as their wedding day approaches, particularly with the complications Dave has mounted for himself in his final single man weeks. In the end, I think he does the right thing (other reviewers here seem to disagree) and Perrotta smartly ends his book on a note of uncertainty which manages at once to suggest that the right thing is not automatically a sure thing and marriage is never the end of all things single. Certainly not overly ambitious in its intentions, The Wishbones thoroughly entertains.
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Summary: Dead On, Funny, Real
Review: What more can I say? I've been there...it's all true.
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Summary: A stylish moral comedy
Review: Another fantastic novel by Tom Perrotta! After reading "Election", I knew nothing this man wrote could fall short of engrossing, and I was right. Although "The Wishbones" is an easy read, it is one which still offers a critical reading into the lives and choices of the characters within. However, I'd say that this book is almost deceivingly simplistic. Perrotta sneaks all these mundane scenes in, such as two characters (prospective son- and father-in-law) watching TV together, and you'll probably wonder why you're reading a scene of two grown men who are incapable of communicating with one another on a common level. But with Perrotta, it's all about detail. Pay attention to the small things that aren't so small. Suddenly the scene becomes a farce, a comic tableau of what it means to be family, of how it feels for young Dave, a modern Everyman, to be sitting next to the old guy who recently caught him boinking his 30 year-old daughter in the rec room, with nothing on but a hot pink condom and a pained expression. Here is a young guy who feels as if the huge weight of an impending wedding is bearing down on him, while the TV shows a history program recounting the last days of WWII, complete with snapshots of tankers looming in the foreground. Cut to another part of the world on the small screen and the Hiroshima bomb is spreading out in slow motion. Perfectly executed! "The Wishbones" is just this: the life of a young man spreading out like a bomb, and the effects of it - visually dazzling and beautiful from one perspective, horrific from another. A second must-read from Tom Perrotta.
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Summary: Striving for Purpose and the Peter Pan Syndrome
Review: Perrotta has a knack for portraying extremely credible, sympathetic, seemingly familiar characters. Through his depiction of the daily grind and tribulations of his characters he reveals important and insightful observations on human behavior as well as providing an interesting plot. Accordingly, I found "The Wishbones" readable, rivetting, and thought provoking. This novel's protagonist, Dave, is a type with whom we're all familiar. Likeable and easy going, his life is stymied by a lack of motivation and a reluctance to be pushed outside his comfort zone. "The Wishbones" portrays how he comes to recognize how his tendancy toward denial has held him back -- from adventure and success, and is likely to keep him mired in a mundane, stullifying existence. This is illustrated by his staying in the suburbs, living in his parents' house, remaining with the same girlfriend for 15 years, work in a deadend lackey job, and membership in a mediocre band full of "average" guys, who might be defined as losers. The book explores what is success, whether it and happiness and a "normal life" are compatible. While frustrating and occasionally eccentric, the characters of "The Wishbones" are also exceeding pedestrian, "normal", and quite touching.
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Summary: Accurate and entertaining
Review: Speaking as a band wife, I can say with confidence that Tom Perrotta knows his material. This novel, which follows Dave Raymond and his fellow wedding-band-mates through several months, hits many familiar notes. There's the overly-uptight band manager, the loading, hauling, unloading and setting up of equipment, the camaraderie with other local musicians, and, of course, the Dream of making it big and going on tour. Many of the laughs in this book came from recognizing a character or situation from the world of bands (what do you MEAN Dave's fiancee wants a DJ at their wedding?!?). The characters are very well-drawn and funny as well; they're actually more important than the plot (will Dave or won't Dave marry Julie, his girlfriend of fifteen years -- "On and off. Fifteen years on and off." -- or stay with Gretchen, who he begins and affair with shortly after proposing to Julie). Each character is quirky, although in a recognizable way, and there are so many interesting ones that sometimes you want less of Dave, Julie and Gretchen and more of Ian, Tammi and Glenn. Maybe this has to do with the fact that, although they're both likeable enough, Dave and Julie seem like a bad couple. Dave's fling with Gretchen isn't the first time he's cheated on Julie, and the book gives the reader no reason to assume that it will be the last. Julie, for her part, doesn't seem to understand what music means to Dave, urging him to quit the band once they get engaged. Since music seems to be the only aspect of his life that Dave really enjoys, this can't be a good sign for them as a couple. Still, the book is engaging, funny, and a quick read. And, if you've ever experienced band life up close, you'll be laughing at many familiar situations.
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Summary: One of the funniest books I ever read
Review: I bought this book because one of the blurbs said you would laugh out loud while reading it and I did -- several times. Perrotta captures that suburban aimless angst and his writing is funny and charming. I've recommended this book to everyone I know and no one has been disappointed.
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Summary: sigh
Review: i had high expectations of this book. after all, i'm a hugefan of election (the movie i mean). i would have read the novel,election, but i grew weary of reading the books movies are based on after i've seen the movie. so i decided, out of respect for tom perrotta and his assumed skill, i would read another novel of his. i chose the wishbones because someone or other compared it to high fidelity. this, i'm dissapointed to say, is no high fidelity. it has almost none of the insight. little of the humor. dave is far more pathetic and less sympathetic. just when i thought perrotta was going somewhere with dave's new love, gretchen, he decides to do nothing with it. nothing at all. dave falls in love, loses it, and then goes back to his fiancee, apparently deciding he's happy with her. he doesn't examine that in depth and gives no reason for his newfound satisfaction with his mundane life in new jersey. i continued reading the book to see how perrotta would resolve the seemingly unsolvable dellemma that dave faced, being engaged to one woman and in love with another. apparently perrotta got tired while writing this and elected to end the novel in the dullest, most formulaic way possible. as the wedding approached, i kept thinking something new was going to happen. but then i looked, and there were only about ten pages left to go... if you read this book, stop after gretchen dumps him. then make up your own ending. i'm quite sure it would be better than the actual one.
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