The Tuvache family is not the happiest of families on earth. Better yet, husband, wife and their two children are kind of depressed and negatively minded all the time. It’s not that they are bothered by this fact, it’s just the way they are, the way they like to be and even the way they attempt to be. They own a suicide shop that has been in the family for generations. They sell only the best stuff for killing yourself and they even give advice about what is the best way for you to do it. The world isn’t that great a place, so why not help the people who cannot find their way.
’Problems’ begin with the birth of the youngest child, Alan. He is smiling in his crib, something that is unheard of in the family. He grows up as the incurable optimist and the Tuvache’s don’t know how to handle this constant perkiness. They try everything to get him depressed, but nothing works. There must be something to his way of viewing the world, there really must be.…..

I really enjoyed myself reading this book. It has enough humor and pace to keep reading chapter after chapter (…oh, just one more) and before you know it you have read the last word. (Try not to get too depressed about that or anything else for that matter.)

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Eric has a great idea: going on holiday with his wife and two teenage children. The children will be leaving the nest soon and Eric wants one last vacation with all four of them together as a family. So off they go to the Trallee and caravan park. Eric decides to keep a journal of this last trip with his whole family to keep the good memories for future times. What Eric didn’t know was that all the things he has to write in his journal aren’t happy times, but are situations that go from bad to worse. And just when he thinks there isn’t any worse to come, he gets disappointed again, because there seems to be no limit to what he has to endure. It surely turns out to be a hell of a vacation!

Nicholson has written a very black comedy. Now, I’m a person who can see the humor in it, even when sometimes the story gets too ridiculous in misery, but I guess this book isn’t for every one.

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Mike Smith is a handsome but rather talentless creature. After his university days he works at a bookstore as an archivist, when a guy he knows from college, Gregory Collins, has an announcement. He has written a book, but wants Mike’s photo to go on the back cover. Mike is not too enthusiastic about the idea, but after Gregory convinces Mike that it would be a good joke, he agrees. When Gregory is then invited to do a book reading and Mike has to pretend to be him, the ball really starts rolling. He gets the opportunity to be assigned as a writer-in-residence in a mental institution and after discussing this with Gregory, he accepts the position. And while being there with the strange patients and even stranger staff, the plot thickens and thickens until finally the bomb explodes.

A great read. It really has everything a reader (meaning I) wants in a book: great story, interesting characters, depth, suspense and some humor. And all of that in a perfect mix.

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Sherman McCoy has everything: a top job on Wall street, a great apartment on Park Avenue, a wife, a beautiful daughter and a mistress. In short: he is “the Master of the Universe”. Until one evening, he picks up the mistress from the airport and gets lost in the Bronx; not the best neighborhood for two wealthy people in a Mercedes on a late night. The Mercedes is stuck on a ramp and two colored men come up to them with the question if they need any help. Sherman feels attacked and hits one of the men. The mistress gets behind the wheel and runs over the other man. Then, together with Sherman she drives away. They decide to not inform the police and that is the start of the way down of Sherman. His whole ‘empire’ starts to crumble away underneath him and his life will never be the same.

I found it very hard to get into the story, for there were a lot of characters to know and at first they didn’t interact with each other. But once all these people got together the story became very interesting and grabbed me. The book is really worth a read.

The Weblog Review Please contact leg…@theotherbookreview.com so we can take legal action immediately.
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