Official Review: degree of exposure by eric newman
Posted: 12 Aug 2017, 12:07
[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "degree of exposure" by eric newman.]
3 out of 4 stars
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The book, Degree of Exposure by Eric Newman, is an unrestrained satirical composition glazed with doses of humor throughout its narrative. The novel is considered to be a work of fiction, first published in 2007 by AuthorHouse.
Jack Baxter is an aspiring writer, this, of course, serves as his primary motivation for signing up for Frank O’Malley’s creative writing class. Frank’s teaching approach and blasé attitude of “writers write” has Jack doubting his qualifications for the course. What’s worse, his lecturer seems to have an undefined romantic relationship with his stunningly beautiful classmate, Janice Mitchell, who, unfortunately also happens to be Jack’s object of affection. As a result, he finds himself rather contemptuous and dismissive of Frank. A class assignment to “write something funny” inspires him to amuse his crush by featuring her name and likeness as the heroine of his comic book; this gives him the much-needed confidence to challenge his instructor in more ways than one.
The author chose to refer to the main divisions of his book as ‘classes’ rather than ‘chapters,’ I thought this to be clever as it flowed with the narrative and setting of the story, with each class (chapter) beginning in a classroom setting. What I found to be stimulating is the novelist’s decision to incorporate a parallel plot within a plot, this technique worked well and succeeded in keeping things interesting.
I liked that some of Jack’s comic book characters dealt with real life struggles as this made them more relatable. What’s even better is that the writer used humor to narrate their stories and interactions. An odd factor in the book is when Ken Arnstruther (one of Jack’s comic book characters) stumbles on to Janice’s car and immediately decides to wire it so that he can drive the car to town without permission. What is more strange, was Janice’s’ reaction as she appeared cool and unbothered by the fact that this man that she was just getting to know, took her car (actually her brother’s) without asking! In my opinion, this doesn’t seem like a normal reaction most people would have which made the characters feel a little less realistic keeping in mind that, that bit of the story had no comical effect.
The plot, characters, and setting of the story fit in well together. Going in my expectation of the book was quite high, thanks to the blurb. The novel did manage to make me laugh, however, not as much as I had anticipated. I’d recommend the novel to fans of satire and ‘British’ humor. Overall, I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars.
******
degree of exposure
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3 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
The book, Degree of Exposure by Eric Newman, is an unrestrained satirical composition glazed with doses of humor throughout its narrative. The novel is considered to be a work of fiction, first published in 2007 by AuthorHouse.
Jack Baxter is an aspiring writer, this, of course, serves as his primary motivation for signing up for Frank O’Malley’s creative writing class. Frank’s teaching approach and blasé attitude of “writers write” has Jack doubting his qualifications for the course. What’s worse, his lecturer seems to have an undefined romantic relationship with his stunningly beautiful classmate, Janice Mitchell, who, unfortunately also happens to be Jack’s object of affection. As a result, he finds himself rather contemptuous and dismissive of Frank. A class assignment to “write something funny” inspires him to amuse his crush by featuring her name and likeness as the heroine of his comic book; this gives him the much-needed confidence to challenge his instructor in more ways than one.
The author chose to refer to the main divisions of his book as ‘classes’ rather than ‘chapters,’ I thought this to be clever as it flowed with the narrative and setting of the story, with each class (chapter) beginning in a classroom setting. What I found to be stimulating is the novelist’s decision to incorporate a parallel plot within a plot, this technique worked well and succeeded in keeping things interesting.
I liked that some of Jack’s comic book characters dealt with real life struggles as this made them more relatable. What’s even better is that the writer used humor to narrate their stories and interactions. An odd factor in the book is when Ken Arnstruther (one of Jack’s comic book characters) stumbles on to Janice’s car and immediately decides to wire it so that he can drive the car to town without permission. What is more strange, was Janice’s’ reaction as she appeared cool and unbothered by the fact that this man that she was just getting to know, took her car (actually her brother’s) without asking! In my opinion, this doesn’t seem like a normal reaction most people would have which made the characters feel a little less realistic keeping in mind that, that bit of the story had no comical effect.
The plot, characters, and setting of the story fit in well together. Going in my expectation of the book was quite high, thanks to the blurb. The novel did manage to make me laugh, however, not as much as I had anticipated. I’d recommend the novel to fans of satire and ‘British’ humor. Overall, I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars.
******
degree of exposure
View: on Bookshelves
Like ritah's review? Post a comment saying so!
Thank you for your review.
I appreciate you reading my review, you ought to read the book too, laugh a little and let me know what you think.