Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

That’s how I feel about Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss, folks. I won a copy in a Shelf Awareness giveaway last January (remember the catching up I’m STILL doing?) and read it just over a year later; I’ve been sitting on the review because I haven’t been sure how to sum it up. A list, maybe?

Pros:
There are funny bits. And there is genuine caring, if almost always expressed awkwardly. There is also the thread of a family that I did want to follow.

Cons:
None of these characters are as likable as I want them to be. The new age-y attitudes frequently annoyed me (as they did Chandra, some of the time), and if the whole lot of people in the book had been honest and attempted to be kind, well–there’d be less story. I also felt like Chandra’s memories of constant work and his memories of young father moments didn’t always jive with each other OR his children’s attitudes toward him later on.

Ultimately, this was not so much my thing, and yet there were parts I enjoyed and parts I got quite a kick out of. If tales of dysfunctional families (all of whose family members make their share of truly poor decisions) are your thing, than this should be right up your alley. If you want to be able to truly like your characters, than it depends on how forgiving you are.*

*I’d avoid the audio unless accent mistakes don’t bother you, by the way. Possibly ALL of the American characters were from California or Colorado, and yet they were rendered in a New York-ish accent. It was painful.