(Originally Published 2013, Paperback Edition 306 pages)
On occasion, I'll start a book which lingers in my thoughts after I've
stopped reading it and my eagerness to finish the story becomes almost
like an addiction. "Truth in Advertising" was that kind of book for me.
It starts out loaded with funny rapid-fire one-liners in a very
believable depiction of a large advertising agency. The humor isn't the
weird kind of silliness you'd find in a Christopher Moore or Carl
Hiaasen work, but more in the lines of Jonathan Tropper's novels. It is
written in the first-person narrative of the protagonist Finbar Dolan.
Finbar is a creative writer for a large ad agency in New York City. He is also nearing 40 years of age and seems ambivalent about his work. Finbar's relationship with his two brothers and one sister is about as warm as the one you have with a customer service rep at the Department of Motor Vehicles. His deadpan sarcastic delivery is almost always on display and had me frequently laughing throughout the book. I found all the people to be interesting, especially his closest friend/co-worker Ian, despite them be less defined characters than Finbar. If Mr. Kenney's book had continued on this trajectory for the remainder of the novel, I'd been a satisfied customer. However, halfway through the book, Mr. Kenney's work unexpectedly but seamlessly morphs into a story about coming to terms with a traumatic childhood. There were aspects of his book that hit emotionally close to home for me and made me wonder about my relationship with my own older brother.
I had a constant smile while reading most of this thing. It's funny, sarcastic, tender, gut-wrenching and thought-provoking. Instead of wrapping the story up in a neat tidy bow, like life, many events don't pan out like you'd expect. In the end, I closed the book feeling good about Finbar's possibilities. That's good enough for me.
Finbar is a creative writer for a large ad agency in New York City. He is also nearing 40 years of age and seems ambivalent about his work. Finbar's relationship with his two brothers and one sister is about as warm as the one you have with a customer service rep at the Department of Motor Vehicles. His deadpan sarcastic delivery is almost always on display and had me frequently laughing throughout the book. I found all the people to be interesting, especially his closest friend/co-worker Ian, despite them be less defined characters than Finbar. If Mr. Kenney's book had continued on this trajectory for the remainder of the novel, I'd been a satisfied customer. However, halfway through the book, Mr. Kenney's work unexpectedly but seamlessly morphs into a story about coming to terms with a traumatic childhood. There were aspects of his book that hit emotionally close to home for me and made me wonder about my relationship with my own older brother.
I had a constant smile while reading most of this thing. It's funny, sarcastic, tender, gut-wrenching and thought-provoking. Instead of wrapping the story up in a neat tidy bow, like life, many events don't pan out like you'd expect. In the end, I closed the book feeling good about Finbar's possibilities. That's good enough for me.
(Meyers - A few years ago, I started writing, under the pseudonym Franklin the Mouse, short reviews at Amazon's web site. This is my most recent review #381)
No comments:
Post a Comment