Rating: 
Summary: Gripping but Ultimately Vaguely Disappointing
Review: I would give this 2.5 stars. It starts out engagingly enough but the protagonist's descent into dereliction and vagrancy comes on really fast. Maybe that's the way that it happens in the real world-I don't know. Anyhoo, the author clearly can tell a fine story. It's just that the ending is a disappointment and a bit too clean. I can't see how he would choose to stay with Angela.
Ultimately this is a entertaining if not very memorable book.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Fun Read!
Review: With the first sentence of this book I was captured. I read it virtually non-stop. I think we can all relate to how life forces us to make decisions (or indecisions) we never thought we'd make, ending up in places or with people we were once determined to stay away from. I recommend it highly!
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Be Turned Off (Or On) By the Title
Review: This is a really good book with a very bad title. I am a big fan of the artist naming his work whatever he/she wants to without the powers that be asserting their influence, but I think in this case the publishers should have made a fuss. Why, you may ask? Because I think the title effectively drives away many a reader who would really enjoy this quirky little novel and attracts an audience who may be disappointed it's not a lot heavier.Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of heavy stuff going on in here--embezzlement, death, domestic disputes, psychosis--but it's actually quite an enjoyable read. The novel follows the exploits of a 20-something after his girlfriend breaks up with him and kicks him out of their New York apartment, leaving him effectively homeless. He manages to scrape by through a series of freak occurrences and emerge at the end a little road weary, but essentially none the worse for the wear. This could be the story of any recent college grad, and that is a little frightening. However, rather than beat you over the head with a bunch of woe-is-me crap, the novel never gets overly depressing and is, in some places, rather optimistic, without being treacly or sentimental. I really enjoyed this novel. It is well-written, interesting, and hard to put down.
Rating:
Summary: Amusing Comedy of Errors
Review: I picked up this book on a lark, and was pleasantly surprised! Well-written and evocative - it takes you to the gritty heart of lower Manhattan in the early 80's - following the exploits of our hapless protagonist. Although it was fun to see what turn the story would take next - in the end, I was left wishing that there was point to it all. An entertaining page-turner, regardless.
Rating:
Summary: A quick and provocative read...
Review: For better or for worse, The Fuck-Up is the kind of novel that doesn't require too much attention or brain-power to absorb. Not far into the book, we get a good sense of what Arthur Nersesian's definition of a "fuck-up" is: the nameless, faceless [anti-]hero of this novel is a perennial loser whose portrait is painted against the backdrop of "normal" society where people have, and are able to keep, their jobs, significant others, and everything else that might mean anything to them. In his gritty and gut-wrenching text, Nersesian documents with disarming candor the ever downwardly spiraling series of events in the life of this everyman with whom we all willingly or unwillingly identify. If not, why did we even pick this book up in the first place? The odd thing is that there is a certain level of frustration that comes with reading this book. This character walks away from opportunity, rebuffs advice, and almost always makes decisions contrary to those we would have made ourselves; yet at the same time, his observations -- which are almost never flattering to humanity -- are the same ones we would make. What is the commonality, then, between how we feel and how we live? Nersesian takes us through a world in which nearly nothing is as it seems. Kindness? Honesty? Strength? No way. In the process, the novel subsequently asks questions that are especially important to its targeted audience: Why does his observation of life seem so radically different from our own? Why is he so oddly up-spirited? Is his honesty refreshing or depressing? And perhaps most importantly, why should we even care about his story? We should care because this novel serves a dual purpose as both entertainment and a critical social commentary that probes the hows and whys behind human beings. We've all heard about the typical "bad day." Nersesian asks us now, is there really any such thing as the "bad life"? The answer to that depends on why you're reading the novel to begin with. As the title might dictate, only certain types of readers would even pick this book up, let alone read it. It is quick and easy to read, very important in relation to this success-oriented society, and refreshing in its portrayal of this particular human being. He could feasibly be any one of us -- it's a sad but true fact. Ideally, this book would get three-and-a-half stars from me because of a ... ending, but on the whole, it is true, honest, and funny. And it certainly needs to be read.
Rating:
Summary: great book
Review: by far this is one of the funniest yet touching books i have ever read.it kept me up all night wondering what kind of crazy adventure would come up next.
Rating: 
Summary: fun word
Review: this book is picaresque! picaresque picaresque picaresque. i just wanted to say so. reading this book sapped my ambition for a couple of days and i wanted to be a [mess]-up too. especially since the [mess]-up (the picaro!) has great fortune all the time. also it's always nice to read something that panders to our longing for authenticity, in this case, being able to sink underneath everything and then start over again. so i guess i liked it. also i wished the sex scenes were longer.
Rating:
Summary: Good novel, bad ending
Review: I loved the book until the last few pages. I just thought that he made the wrong choice. Now, I'm not going to spoil the book for you, but I would like to warn you that you might not like the ending very much. Other than that, it's a great book and I'd definitly read it again.
Rating:
Summary: exploits of a modern day idiot
Review: The first time I read The Fuck-Up, I was 17ish, and I promptly sent it along to another guy at school who didn't do much reading (he said it was the first book he couldn't put down). The next time I read it, though, it was just for the heck of it, while I was simultaneously reading Dostoevsky's The Idiot. I noticed a line ("In a week's time, though, the unexpected occurred: Sarah graduated.") that was written in direct parallel to a line by Dostoevsky. I was smitten. The Fuck-Up is, in fact, a modern-day Russian novel in disguise, perched somewhere (uncomfortably, and maybe a little indecisively) between the grit of reality and the caricature of a soap opera we so often willingly pass off as reality. In the spirit of surrealist literature, our titular protagonist tumbles along without ever actually doing anything. Things just happen to him. Nersesian's plot may bob along at times, but Nersesian knows exactly what he's doing at every instant; he always "gets it" even though his audience might not.
Rating:
Summary: An interesting but not gripping book
Review: I love MTV books, I thought Perks of Bieng a Wallflower was great, but this one just wasn't quite at that level. It is interesting, and it's not at all a bad book, but it's not a very beleivable read and despite that such awful things happen to the guy you never really feel tht sorry for him. Nersessian has a good way of writing, and he does succeed in giving the novel a gritty feeling. His real skill is in the characters, his lesser skill is in the actual plot of the story. I wouldn't tell someone to run out and buy the book, but I would still reccommend it if they wanted something to read.
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