Edcel.net - mind games

I bought this book 3 years ago for 50 bucks (really good deal just to inform you). I like the story, maybe because it coincided with the stage I was in. The great thing about it is that I was able to use this book as my reference when I was applying for a job. I explained to the the human resource personnel how this book is somewhat similar to the classic cult “The Catcher in the Rye”; which made the topic even more interesting. Anyway, below is a review I made out of it.
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Ladies’ Man is a glimpse of a life of a yuppie named Kenny Becker who barely has an acceptable girlfriend and a wretched job as a salesman. The story is told in a week’s time; each chapter is separated by a day of the week, so there are seven chapters in all.

As of now, he lost his girlfriend and his job, too. He goes around cruising into different clubs and massage parlors while depressingly awaiting the next days of his life being alone and lonely; set on 1970s in New York. It vividly describes the scene of urban life in the eyes of a washboard abs-obsessed Joe in Manhattan.

The book has a distressing vibe to it, probably because of the situation of the lead character and his experiences in the suburbs after losing his career, his prospect wife and maybe his sanity too. He is searching for ways to straighten out his priorities, finding a spark in life and dreaming of fulfilling his ambitions; when everything seemed idealistic but far from being real.

This book reminds me of the classic, The Catcher in the Rye. The similarities I see with Ladies’ Man and The Catcher in the Rye is that they both have that gloomy tone all throughout since they felt that their lives are miserable. Both are struggling to survive the harsh realities of everyday existence. The only difference I see between the two is its audience; The Catcher in the Rye deals with a troubled boy’s teenage angst, while Ladies’ Man deals more on an anxious man’s unstoppable quarter-life crisis.

After I finished it I asked myself, “That’s it?” You’d wonder if that was the end of the book because it left me hanging in the air. But I guess that’s where its likability lies; as it leaves you grasping for more. For a guy, you’d enjoy the humor and the downright choice of words put in accuracy on living a life without reserve, as it also narrates scenarios of 70s pornography.