Review by CTdeF -- Randy Love...at your service

[CTdeF]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Randy Love...at your service" by Shay Carter.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Randy Love, born late in life to John and Marjorie Love, doesn’t measure up to his successful older brother and sister. Randy drops out of the university, takes a gap year to the States and works for a temp agency in the sleepy town of Bishop’s Milton. After dodging a lease agreement yet again, Randy decides to move to London. Surely success awaits him there!

Randy Love….at your service by Shay Carter follows a young fellow’s half-hearted attempts to get his life together and make something of himself. Not being British myself, there was a whole new vocabulary to learn as I read. This slowed downed the reading process considerably and probably kept me from enjoying some of the finer humor points. Furthermore, I found Randy’s cluelessness to be irritating rather than endearing.

The descriptions of Randy’s working day were entertaining. I have experienced office life firsthand and could thoroughly relate to his attempts at busywork to make the day go faster. Yet, having always been a reliable renter, I did not empathize with Randy’s constant attempts to avoid assuming responsibility for his actions. It seemed to create quite a bit of extra work as it involved sneaking out in the middle of the night, leaving the house with multiple layers of clothing, stashing possessions behind the bins and making enemies of his housemates.

The gender difference between myself and Randy also made it difficult for me to understand the types of relationships Randy had with women. Middle-aged and nearly elderly women were apparently throwing themselves at his feet. Despite this, he avoided any sort of lasting relationship with women his own age. And yet he still considered himself a prize catch. Perhaps the real issue with Randy is his inability to see himself as he truly is, inconsiderate, irresponsible, egotistical, and often unkind.

It seems as if the author wanted us to shake our heads at the incredible situations Randy gets himself into because he’s such an affable guy, but I didn’t buy it. I did find the situations incredible but not as entertaining as I might have had I liked Randy’s personality foibles. As it was, I considered the book more of a case study rather than humor. Assuredly there are men like Randy who stumble through life much as Randy does. Because of reading this book, I hope to be able to identify them early on and never find myself in any sort of relationship with a man of his sort.

I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars because I found it educational on a variety of levels, although not humorous.

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Randy Love...at your service
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