I was psyched to see my moms had a copy of Assisted Loving by Bob Morris on her shelf back when I was home in November. I always liked reading Morris' columns in the Style section of the Times and in radio interviews he was pretty fun. My mom lent me the book over Thanksgiving and I just finished it, but only because it was light and easy and I was too lazy to find something better.
The basic premise of the memoir is that Morris and his 80-year old recently widowed father are both dating. The problem with the book is the cover. Really. It's such an obnoxious cover that I think it brings the whole book down. It sets the wrong tone and seems to really exaggerate Morris' father's flaws. Less superficially, I think the book itself is dumbed down---the cute overrides any interesting story. I got to page 50 and thought I could really stop reading this right now because I'm not exactly enjoying it, but then out of laziness I didn't. But I feel like that also speaks to the author. I just can't believe that Morris--a total fashionista/snob--would like the cover. But one would not say no to a publisher who would push such a cover. I also bet his editor pushed him to dumb down the book. Maybe they're hoping Hollywood would buy it and they probably have, but it seems to be to the detriment of the story. The cuteness just doesn't work.
1 comment:
for the record, it was a gift.
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