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The Handyman: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle), by Carolyn See
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With this brilliant novel about the surprises of destiny and the origins of fame, the critically acclaimed author of Golden Days ("Extraordinary . . . a very, very important book"-Los Angeles Times Book Review) and Making History ("Radiant . . . exciting and imaginative"-Cleveland Plain Dealer) firmly establishes her place as one of the preeminent chroniclers of our times.
The Handyman is the story of Bob Hampton, an aspiring young painter who has had to face the humbling fact that he doesn't know what to paint. And how are you supposed to be an artist in this world if you don't have a vision? Bob trades in his artist's palette for a minivan full of house paints, hammers, and nails, and sets about earning a little cash as a handyman.
Although he turns out to be very bad at fixing the things he's hired to fix, Bob demonstrates quite a knack for fixing the lives of the people around him. In the midst of his jerry-built repairs and inspired home improvements, Bob meets an extraordinary cast of characters--rendered in all their delightful eccentricity and human frailty as only Carolyn See can-each of whom shows Bob the true scope of his own remarkable talent. There's Angela Landry, a housewife with far too much time on her hands, a sexpot of a stepdaughter, and a son in need of attention; Jamie Walker, whose allergy-prone and ADD-afflicted children keep a menagerie of scaly pets that far exceed Jamie's managerial skills; Valerie LeClerc, older, sadder, and certainly wiser than Bob; and Hank and Ben, who leave a narrow-minded Midwest only to find unremitting illness and isolation in the California of their dreams.
Replete with stunning images and all of Carolyn See's trademark humor and wisdom, The Handyman depicts the countless ways in which our lives are intertwined and the profound effects we can have on one another. It is the kind of surprising and miraculously uplifting novel we have come to expect from the woman Diane Johnson has called "one of our most important writers."
From the Hardcover edition.
- Sales Rank: #539739 in Books
- Brand: Ballantine Books
- Published on: 2000-04
- Released on: 2000-04-04
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.56" h x .63" w x 5.56" l, .73 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 220 pages
- Great product!
Amazon.com Review
The hero of Carolyn See's The Handyman has something of the sacred and more than a little of the profane about him. Back in his native Los Angeles after an abortive stay in Paris, Bob Hampton sets himself up as a jack-of-all-trades in order to pay for his art supplies. Soon, however, he's emotionally involved with several of his employers--each of whom is "sandblasted by life" and each of whom he does his best to rescue. In fact, this unlikely savior seems to work quick wonders on these dysfunctional households. What matter if he ends up bedding a few of the females in the process? But more to the point, Bob is roused by his role: I was beginning to get the idea that 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. Carolyn See's story of Bob Hampton's seminal summer of '96 would be intriguing in itself, but she gives it another dimension--and several more layers--by framing it with two grant-application letters, circa 2027. It seems that a certain young researcher wishes to explore the early oeuvre of the eminent Robert Hampton, as well as his relations with the "Testigos" or "Witnesses." These witnesses, as one reads on, are all the people he encountered, changed, and was changed by in 1996; and one of the key pleasures in The Handyman is matching up each individual against his or her sadder, younger self. Like its title character, See's novel is casually inspiring. --Winnie Wheaton
From Publishers Weekly
In a surprising about-face from the apocalypse she predicted in Golden Days, See begins this vibrant and provocative novel with a hopeful vision of a more spiritually atuned, less venal California in the 21st century, and with a positive spin on the role of an artist in transforming society. Bob Hampton is an enormously talented artist whose works convey a mystic view of people living harmoniously with the natural world. In flashbacks from 2027, we discover that the nucleus of his mythic creations, called Los Testigos (the witnesses) and described as a fusion of the ordinary and the divine, is largely created one summer in the late 1990s, when Bob is a floundering 28-year-old, verging on panic because he can't find his artistic identity. In desperation, he sets himself up as a handyman in the L.A. area, operating out of a group home that he shares with other grungy and equally directionless young people. His clients turn out to be needful of more than carpentry repair; each one is suffering marital turmoil or debilitating depression, and Bob becomes an unwitting St. Francis who heals injured psyches and salvages messed-up lives. Without specific intent, he set off chain reactions that bring all his new friends together, in love and salvation. And in each situation he creates vibrant futuristic art to fill a specific need in his clients' lives. One of the unexpected benefits of Bob's handyman summer is the opportunity to hop into bed with nearly every woman he encounters; See writes these scenes with verve and erotic humor. In fact, she has never before created a male character who is so alive on the page; slightly flaky, casually profane, beer-drinking and pot-smoking Bob is the epitome of the guileless person in search of his destiny. This is difficult in 1990s California, where the sun puts a pretty shine on spiritual emptiness and the soul-shrinking excesses of a consumer society. With deft narrative pacing, See follows a scene of slapstick domestic chaos with a searing portrayal of a young man dying of AIDS. In a compulsively readable narrative, she conveys a philosophy of life for the Y2K and beyond: after the millennium, maybe we will make dynamic choices that tap into cosmic energy, and accept the presence of the miraculous and the divine. Witty, insightful and compassionate, this book has a beguiling message and mainstream appeal. Author tour; movie rights to Warner Bros.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Bob Hampton's at loose ends in the hot Los Angeles summer of 1996. While pondering art school in L.A., he earns his living as a handyman?he'll do anything, much of it involving women of all ages. He meets charming Old World widows, shell-shocked about-to-be divorcees, randy teenagers, militant feminists?but he also becomes involved in the messy lives of single unattached men and lost children. Everyone he touches ends up better or happier for the experience. Making a difference in the lives of others, however, doesn't do much for his own problem?he's unable to come up with anything original or noteworthy in his art. Slowly, though, the new pattern of his life becomes interwoven with his creative side. Reaching out to life's losers, he finds himself creating original and complex works. See (Making History, LJ 9/15/91) has written a feel-good novel reminiscent of the best work of Allison Lurie with a dollop of Ann Tyler; it's been bought by Warner Brothers.
-?Jo Manning, Univ. of Miami, Coral Gables, FL
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Most helpful customer reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful.
there's something more than meets the eye
By M. H. Bayliss
It took awhile for this book to make an impact, but what an impact it makes! The reader is a bit thrown off by the opening pages which contain a grant proposal to study the life of the most famous artist of the generation. Once the story is begun, it is so captivating that it's easy to forget the opening and get lost. The plot follows a young aspiring artist who can't seem to find his metier. He goes to Paris but just can't seem to fit in and instead returns to L.A. to try to make his mark. Rather than pursue art, he ends up rooming with an odd cast of characters (one of whom never bathes) and making money as a handyman. Though he's not particularly handy in terms of fixing things, he has a therapeutic effect on everyone he comes across. In short, he ends up fixing egos and lost souls rather than doing a bang up job with the laundry machine. See is such a fantastic writer that everything works -- the prose carries us from one oddball family to another. The beauty of the book is that once you reach the end, you could spend an hour re-reading the first two pages and saying "Ah HAH -- now I get it." The characters are so eccentric and interesting and the main character so compelling that it's hard not to be taken in by this thoroughly charming and well-crafted book.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
I can't believe all these negative reviews!
By A Customer
I just finished this book. Like others here, I kept wanting to save some for later, so I wouldn't eat the whole thing at once. I finally had to stay up till 2 am one weeknight to finish it. So I came here to see what others thought. I was surprised at the negative reviews! So I thought about them, and OK, I agree about the slightly silly way women were portrayed (I've never known anyone who got laid as much as Robert Hampton!). I agree that a lot of the characters were stereotypes (Austen, Hank, June, Mr. Landry). But all that being said, I still adored the book. I think the abbreviated sentences and other literary devices were made to portray Hampton as the person he was...an unlikely hero, a goofy and basically goal-less young man in LA in 1996. Life just *happened* to him, and he's as flabbergasted as any of us about how it all turned out. And the stuck-up grant requests made me howl with laughter after I re-read them on finishing the book. The whole thing is a joke, folks! All these scholarly types running around trying to annotate the life of this "great" artist, when all along he was just a regular schlub like you and me. How could anyone not like this entertaining, rollicking, silly book filled with colors and laughter? I adored it, but I seem to be in the minority here. Go figure.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
Amateurish?
By LA_Filmmaker@yahoo.com
I fear many of my fellow readers haven't the first clue as to what they're talking about. I am shocked to see criticism of this book. Carolyn See is hardly amateurish. She has not yet written a bad novel, and she is well-loved and respected by Los Angeles Book Review readers and many former students.
Her deceptively simple stylings create a minimalistic and realistic narrative that imbues her writings with a sense of character and place that lesser authors (hiding behind big words and complex sentences) would kill for. To dismiss her work because it isn't complex enough is to miss the entire spirit of her work.
But, then, nothing's for everyone!
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