Last week I finished the book, "You Don't Love This Man" by Dan DeWeese. The premise of this book really intrigued me. On the morning of his daughter's wedding, the main character, Paul, finds out that the bank he manages has been robbed and his daughter is missing. The aspect that really grabbed me was the whole "missing daughter" thing. I mean, who disappears on their wedding day, right? Through out the book, DeWeese seamlessly weaves together a play-by-play account of the day with the various character's back stories.I really wanted to like this book, but it sort of fell flat for me. I have sort of come to realize that I do not care for male authors. I realize that is a grand generalization, but I just feel like male authors emphasize events and circumstances differently than women authors. Which makes sense since we think differently. For example, I feel like male authors fixate on things like sex scenes or sexual tension more than female authors do. That was definitely the case in this book. There was some sexual tension between the main character and one of his employees, and I could see where he wanted to go with this story line, but dear God he drug it out for WAY TOO LONG.
My final complaint about the book was that there were no chapters. Instead, the book was broken into 3 parts. I kind of need chapters to break it up a bit...
In general, though, it was an entertaining book. It took a little while to get into, but once I got about 100 pages in, I was curious about how it would all work out. Would he find his daughter? Would she go through with the wedding? Should she go through with the wedding? I also thought that the author's description of the failure of the main character's marriage was well done.
Do you have a preference on male or female authors? What's your opinion on chapters? Are you ambivalent or, like me, do you kind of need a book to be broken down into bite sized pieces for you?
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from TLC Book Tours. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
14 comments:
Not sure I have an opinion about male vs. female authors. However, I do need chapters. Otherwise, I don't know when to quit reading. :)
You know, I have never really thought about the books I read in terms of male vs female authors although I will say that as a general rule I find the male authors are more intense and also vague at the same time... I think I like male authors better when it comes to mysteries and young adult books! (I just realized that the two books I brought with me for this trip? Both male authors, so ask me again next week... ha!)
I'm with you, chapters are nice, though some books broken into parts don't bother me too much.
Interesting comment about male & female authors! I don't think it's that way across the board, but you make an interesting observation! I, too, love chapters!
That's interesting about male and female authors - two of my favourite authors are James Patterson and Sidney Sheldon so I guess I enjoy reading books by male authors - those books are both the mystery/crime genre though so that might make a difference.
Oh, and I'm with you on the chapters. I LOVE short chapters too, like in James Patterson books - they are all 2-4 pages long! Perfect because you can always get to the end of a chapter before you stop reading :)
hmm..I've never really thought about it that way. The latest book I read was "Little Bee" and it was written by a man. Interestingly, it was written from a woman's perspective. I am going to have to pay more attention to the differences in female vs male writers from now on. Also, I love when bloggers do book reviews! Thanks!
Once I got more into this book, I began marking my own chapters by how he switched from present-day to past. I would read one of each and consider that a "chapter"! LOL. Usually, not having chapters (or having loooong chapters!!) bugs me, but I don't think I noticed it too much in this book. Weird.
I don't read too many books, especially fiction, from male authors so this was really my first experience with it. It definitely gives you a different perspective!
I know what you mean about male authors. Its weird, because my book club just read The Unbearable Lightness of Being and had a long discussion about the "flaws" that we thought were there because a male wrote it and didn't enfranchise his female characters enough (I will stop there to keep myself from rambling on about that book, if anyone has read the book though and has comments, I would love to hear them!).
One male author though that I think gets his female voice beautifully right is Chris Cleave. I read the entire book, Little Bee, before realizing that the author was a man! I am currently reading Incendiary and again, he is beautiful.
Oh, and yes, I agree that chapters are needed. I either get annoyed that it draws on forever, or I get completely engrossed in the book and don't realize that hours have gone by! (The second one isn't such a bad thing though!)
There are lots of male authors I love. I think it sort of depends on your point of view really.
Have you tried Nick Hornby, Julian Barnes, or Sebastian Faulks? All brilliant.
NO CHAPTERS? Terrible! I feel like there was something I read lately like that too and I did not like it. I prefer short chapters definitely.
I'm not sure if I like male or female authors better because I haven't really thought about the differences much either... I know I do like both though.
I hate books with no chapters. I actually prefer there to be MANY short chapters. I get bored with books that have extremely long or no chapters.
I'm not sure how I feel about male vs female books yet. But I think I'm leaning in your direction.
Especially if the book contains long, disgusting, over-detailed sex scenes.
There could've been more emotion in that book, from the sounds of it. It'd be interesting if a woman took the plot and rewrote the book? Which...would be impossible due to copyrights....
I need chapters or I go loco. I need little "Goals" to go towards!
I'm sorry this wasn't your cup of tea. Hopefully your next book will be a better fit!
I never thought about male vs. female authors. What an interesting concept... Hmm. Looking over my books (which I just went to do), I must tend to gravitate toward female authors for fiction and mystery. For biography and nonfiction, it is far more mixed. Interesting! (Great title, though!)
I like bite sized pieces but some people put TOO MANY chapters and I don't like that really.
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