Review of Man Mission
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Tyler Titus
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Review of Man Mission
[Following is a volunteer review of "Man Mission" by Eytan Uliel.]
In the novel Man Mission by Eytan Uliel, the main character and his three friends embark on “Man Missions” every year to get away from the realities of life while eating local foods and participating in excessive exercise. The main character is never named and speaks only in first person the entire novel. The story follows him, and his friends, as they learn what it means to “be a man”. They were taught that being a man meant to find a stable and financially rich job, marry a lovely woman, have children, and provide for your family for the rest of your life. The four friends accomplish these goals, but the main character later struggles with being laid off from his company, being unhappy in his marriage, cheating on his wife, and getting an inevitable divorce. Another friend also finds himself unhappy in his marriage and proceeds to go to marriage counseling. A third friend builds a business from the ground up, only for it to go under due to economic challenges and has his fiancée call off their engagement. All the friends learn that the "perfect life” does not need to look like how they were raised to believe. As long as you are happy, your life is perfect.
One aspect of this book that I enjoyed was the common theme of mental health awareness and bringing to light the struggles that men have. Everyone believes that men should be tough and never show their emotions because that would be considered weak. There is a common occurrence in the book where the friends would pass around this pink bracelet and wearer was the one that was considered weak in that moment. Whenever one would whine or complain or not want to participate in a dangerous activity, they were forced to wear the pink bracelet. At the end of the book, it is mentioned that one of the friends is seeing a therapist while the main character is in a support group. The friends tease but ultimately, they see how beneficial it is and they decide that it is ok to talk about your feelings to others.
One aspect of this book that I did not enjoy was the main character’s ex-wife. The book is told over a span of 15 years and through those years, the main character meets his ex-wife Rachel and falls in love. They get married and have three children. Even from the beginning, she was constantly whining about the main character not pulling his weight in the relationship and she never wanted any physical contact with him while she was pregnant and after she gave birth. He was working an office job and she was a stay-at-home mom. She often complained about how her job was harder than his and how she thought he was so selfish to run off on trips with his friends every year like a teenage boy. She made me so angry by never acknowledging his feelings or believing that he wasn’t allowed to have feelings because he was a man. She did not deserve to be cheated on, but I would not be surprised if she was cheating as well.
I would rate this book 4 out of 4 stars . There were no grammatical errors that I found and the vocabulary used in the book was easy to read but academic enough to not be considered childish. I loved how the author centered the story around the central theme of what it means “to be a man” as well as included 15 different adventures the friends went on. Each “man mission” was to a different country and the author described each place in great detail and connected each one into a lesson for being a man.
This novel is recommended for young adults and older. There are many instances in the story where they hint at sexual situations as well as explicitly talk about sex and nudity. There is also a lot of cursing in the book and the repeated use of the “f-word”. There are no descriptive sex scenes but there is an instance in a hot spring where they talk about their sex lives while naked among strangers.
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Man Mission
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes
In the novel Man Mission by Eytan Uliel, the main character and his three friends embark on “Man Missions” every year to get away from the realities of life while eating local foods and participating in excessive exercise. The main character is never named and speaks only in first person the entire novel. The story follows him, and his friends, as they learn what it means to “be a man”. They were taught that being a man meant to find a stable and financially rich job, marry a lovely woman, have children, and provide for your family for the rest of your life. The four friends accomplish these goals, but the main character later struggles with being laid off from his company, being unhappy in his marriage, cheating on his wife, and getting an inevitable divorce. Another friend also finds himself unhappy in his marriage and proceeds to go to marriage counseling. A third friend builds a business from the ground up, only for it to go under due to economic challenges and has his fiancée call off their engagement. All the friends learn that the "perfect life” does not need to look like how they were raised to believe. As long as you are happy, your life is perfect.
One aspect of this book that I enjoyed was the common theme of mental health awareness and bringing to light the struggles that men have. Everyone believes that men should be tough and never show their emotions because that would be considered weak. There is a common occurrence in the book where the friends would pass around this pink bracelet and wearer was the one that was considered weak in that moment. Whenever one would whine or complain or not want to participate in a dangerous activity, they were forced to wear the pink bracelet. At the end of the book, it is mentioned that one of the friends is seeing a therapist while the main character is in a support group. The friends tease but ultimately, they see how beneficial it is and they decide that it is ok to talk about your feelings to others.
One aspect of this book that I did not enjoy was the main character’s ex-wife. The book is told over a span of 15 years and through those years, the main character meets his ex-wife Rachel and falls in love. They get married and have three children. Even from the beginning, she was constantly whining about the main character not pulling his weight in the relationship and she never wanted any physical contact with him while she was pregnant and after she gave birth. He was working an office job and she was a stay-at-home mom. She often complained about how her job was harder than his and how she thought he was so selfish to run off on trips with his friends every year like a teenage boy. She made me so angry by never acknowledging his feelings or believing that he wasn’t allowed to have feelings because he was a man. She did not deserve to be cheated on, but I would not be surprised if she was cheating as well.
I would rate this book 4 out of 4 stars . There were no grammatical errors that I found and the vocabulary used in the book was easy to read but academic enough to not be considered childish. I loved how the author centered the story around the central theme of what it means “to be a man” as well as included 15 different adventures the friends went on. Each “man mission” was to a different country and the author described each place in great detail and connected each one into a lesson for being a man.
This novel is recommended for young adults and older. There are many instances in the story where they hint at sexual situations as well as explicitly talk about sex and nudity. There is also a lot of cursing in the book and the repeated use of the “f-word”. There are no descriptive sex scenes but there is an instance in a hot spring where they talk about their sex lives while naked among strangers.
******
Man Mission
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes
Latest Review: Dagger's Destiny by Linnea Tanner
