Review of IQ Room Temperature

[Chris Alex Powell]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "IQ Room Temperature" by Robert Gottlieb.]

---

5 out of 5 stars

---

Share This Review

---

"IQ Room Temperature" by Robert Gottlieb is astonishing—almost therapeutic. It tells the story of Mr. Sam Weisman, who finds himself falling from grace following a sudden divorce petition by his wife and a partnership dissolution that kicks him out of his own law firm with nothing to hold on to. Sam tries to make the most of what is left and struggles to go through therapy while still remaining strong enough to confront the highly consequential ordeals he is facing. Battling his way to sanity, he slowly begins to not only confront these issues but also look inwardly into his own inadequacies—his independence from his father, his love interest, and seeking what he wants the most. Sam finds out his partner, James, had dubiously altered the contents of their partnership agreement, adding detrimental clauses that left him with nothing in the event of a unilateral dissolution of the partnership. On the other hand, the divorce case in court rages on, with his wife, Cindy, seeking to take everything that he owns. Not only is Cindy very antagonistic, but she is also materialistic and finds it hard to provide for the children, even after Sam sends enough maintenance money. Rather, she splashes money meant for the kids on cats. To make matters worse, he finds out that she has dwindled him of the money he loaned her for the purchase of a new home. Sam Weisman’s ordeals force him to look inwardly and rely on his family and father’s connection to make lemonade out of the lemons thrown at him by life. He begins to seek the answer to the question: What do you want with your life? This sets him down a path where he eventually makes so many decisions. Would it change the course of his life and career?

There are several positives to the book. Robert Gottlieb adopted a first person perspective, which gives his audience a wide peek into the emotional turbulence of the main story. Moreover, as his story revolves around the life-changing events of a falling man, telling this story from a first-person perspective certainly added a raw edge to the story. The book’s hilarious approach also provided so much ease on real-life matters that could realistically be gutted: divorce, unemployment, and betrayal. The book is also fast-paced and does not dwell so much on irrelevant events and scene descriptions. I find that this naturally propelled me to read the book at an equally fast page-turning pace. Also, the author has done a good job having the book proofread and edited. This also helped to make it an amazing read.

The book, however, has some negative sides. Although the book was well developed, it still failed to have a good setup for several of the events and scenes. Some of the scenes seem unrealistic because of the improper development. For instance, Alphonso Lugada, the one man that Sam has avoided throughout the book, appears miraculously at the home of Amelia’s father when Sam comes to visit. Perhaps an earlier Chekov’s gun portraying the relationship between Alphonso and Amelia’s parents would have made this scene more believable. Also, the book did not fully resolve a major plot of the book; I would have loved to see what became of Cindy, Sam, and the children.

Nevertheless, the book was a good read. It provided insight into some life-threatening dynamics while keeping everything at ease. The story itself was a good and enjoyable story of family, romance, and finding peace. This and other reasons made reading the book very fulfilling. I give the book five out of five stars.

I recommend this book to lovers of romance, drama, family stories, and, of course, humorous fiction.

******
IQ Room Temperature
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon