My Old Man [Paperback]

I picked this book up because of the charming John Currin painting on the cover, but was very disappointed. Ms. Sohn is a sex columnist for the New York Press and New York Magazine, and I guess that makes her feel that she is the 2000's version of Erica Jong. "My Old Man" is supposed to be a picaresque, sexy romp but it comes across as cheap and the sex is both graphic and unerotic at the same time.

Main character Rachel Block is unconvincing depicted as a drop-out rabbinical student, whose lack of compassion has actually caused dying man to keel over dead (because she has failed to console him in anything approaching an appropriate manner). Unsure of what to do at this point in her career, she turns to bartending in the Brooklyn neighborhood she grew up in. Having a chance to meet the famous indie filmmaker, Hank Powell, she throws herself at him and they begin a coarse, entirely sexual affair devoid of any tenderness or romance.

Ms. Sohn name drops so much throughout the book (famous filmmakers, painters, actors), that I am certain Power is supposed to be a particular individual (or composite) but I couldn't tell who. His background of indie films sounds very like Woody Allen's, but the character is much younger. Unfortunately, Ms. Sohn chooses to write his dialogue IN DIALECT, which is one of the most irritating things in the entire book -- why Powell and not the other New Yawkers? -- but I guess it's to underscore his crudeness. If so, it works but only on that level -- Powell is so repugnant (ugly, fat, bald, rude, abusive) that no normal woman would ever be remotely attracted to him.

The character of Rachel is so poorly drawn that we have no idea at all why she ever wanted to be a rabbi, nor does she tell us about her feelings about giving up a career in the clergy -- she doesn't even seem to feel particularly bad about the patient she practically "depressed to death". In fact, she has no spiritual leaning at all, which seems odd in someone who went to all the time and expense to attend rabbinical school. This feels like a detail added to the story just to raise the titillation level -- she's not just a typical Brooklyn Jewess but a FORMER RABBINICAL STUDENT, so her descent into meaningless sex will seem all that more "shocking".

Well...it's not. The sex feels really gratuitous and designed to shock or gross out. I can tell the general theme of the book is to be breezy and funny, but it the desperation in it makes it depressing. None of the characters undergo any self knowledge or transformation...it's just crudely linked chapters that veer from one sexual encounter to another.

I don't think that erotic novels need to cover all the basics of safe sex, but I can honestly state I have never read a book, in this age of AIDS and STDs, that apparently comes out in favor of the "withdrawal method" (coitus interruptus) and non-use of condoms! This seems unbelievably irresponsible -- it's one thing if characters are depicted doing something self-destructive, but the author herself seems to be blandly endorsing this. [...]

I could say more, but am demurring due to space considerations. This was one of the more depressing and discouraging books I have read recently -- the kind that makes you want to take a bath afterwards and wash your hands with santizer. And never have sex again.

I read this one first and liked the somewhat immature but biting writing, as well as various insights into May-December affairs. But here, too, Sohn cuts to the sex so fast so often that it becomes difficult to fathom how these folks can be so mindless in their sexual romps.

As another reviewer put it, this book was a chore to read. I don't know why I stuck with it, but I hate to not finish a book. The characters are so poorly drawn that it's impossible to care about any of them. They're also unlikeable for the most part. Others have commented on how Rachel continues to be drawn to Hank in spite of the fact that he's so mean and misogynistic. That's true, but I also can't see what Hank sees in Rachel -- I can't see the appeal. The dialog was completely unbelievable, and the story dragged. In all, a waste of time. In the end I dropped it in the trash, which I never do because I love books. I just wanted to protect other innocents from this drivel.

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