Beginner's Greek

Pretentious Malarkey

James Collins is full of himself. Totally and utterly. Dick Montague HAS to be modeled after the author. Keep Webster's close while reading because Collins' verbosity will leave a Harvard grad lost and confused. It's not the fact that his diction is SO high-brow, but he chooses less common words which make reading like driving downtown at rush hour. Stop. Go. Stop. Go.

Also problematic is the underlying misanthropic tone. Does anyone like anyone in this book? If they do, they're more wishy-washy than senator/ex-presidential hopeful John Kerry.

And the timeline of the book is so erratic. In the "Reading Group Guide" Collins reveals that he doesn't share his work with anyone until it is completed and ready to publish. Well, in future novels he should have someone read over the manuscript or at least provide some sort of road map so readers can make it through the book.

This book was not the light, happy summer read i had hoped. With every turn of the page, I felt as if I was reading a combination of Ezra Pound's elitistism, James Joyce's stream of consciousness and e.e. cumming's unconventional orthography.

The book tried too hard to be something it wasn't.

James Collins... come down from your high horse. You should realize that you're not God's gift to American literature.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

ZZZZZZZZ...Ugh...Don't Wake Me Up!

This book really is a testament to the old saying: "Never judge a book by its cover." That's probably the only use it serves. Other than that, what we got here is a crusty, stilted, cliche rag on a flight to nowhere...or maybe to the .50 cent bin.

I found the characters to be flat, the story to be a cliche boy-meets-girl, and the worst part? The writing is so bad and so forced, you will feel like taking a smoke break just to get away. Seriously. At other times, the word use is so pompous and pseudo-intellectual, you'll just doze off to sleep in lala land.

If you want to save yourself some time, don't read this book. I can't believe it was authored by a major editor. His writing is in dire need of an overhaul. Big words, lame characters and a schmaltzy "trying to find the one" plot can't serve any good to anyone. As a professor once told me, you find good writing as you would looking out a window. You are looking out onto a story through the window, and having simple, profound language provides a clean glass to see the story through. This book, on the other hand, is a pretty dirty window, and obstructs (and distracts?) our view.

Had me holding my breath

So much better than a typical romance novel! Just when you think you have it all figured out, there is another plot twist. Very much worth the extra length. I finished this with a smile on my face and a desire to see it made into a movie!

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

I loved this book

I was captivated by the characters and story and feel the resolution was true and not gimmicky. I have given it to both men and women friends.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Was good

I enjoyed this book. It is not an all-time favorite or anything, but was a good read and kept my interest throughout.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Fun, fast read

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I wanted only the best for Peter and Holly and couldn't wait to hear how their journey would end.

A Pleasant Romantic Comedy

Beginner's Greek is a wonderful, sad, sweet, and funny story, which for a pleasant change is written from a man's point of view. I would disagree with an earlier reader review that classifies this as 'chic lit.' Yes, Peter is a romantic, but we get to see him warts and all. We get to know him inside and out--his feelings of self-doubt and also those moments when he can be swaggering and overconfident, and a bit arrogant or hot-tempered. He meets Holly, the woman of his dreams, when seated by chance beside her on a flight from New York to Los Angeles. Afterwards, Holly gives Peter her number, which he unfortunately loses and regrets terribly. Fast forward a few years and he meets up with her once again, but now she is the girlfriend of his best friend, and he is too much of a gentleman to selfishly intervene. Thus begins a comedy of errors, mis-steps and misccommunications and we get such a good look into Peter's head and the clash of conflicts he has with love, friendship, work, and life in general. This was a wonderful debut novel and an author worth watching.

Fun

I enjoyed this book - easy to read, fast and interesting!

A reviewer

Okay, so we've probably read it before, seen it before, and heard it before, but we never tire of stories of romance. All the world loves a lover and most of us love romantic stories, especially this one delivered with a twist via the expert pen of James Collins. Another expert delivery is the narrative voice of actor/writer/director Jerry O'Connell. His trained voice beautifully inhabits the persona of Peter Russell. O'Connell aces the scene, whether Peter is humiliated at a business presentation, as in 'He knew he was putrefying before everyone's eyes.' or being lacerated by his arch enemy Thropp who takes boundless delight in ragging him. O'Connell is equally at home voicing Peter as he contemplates meeting the one person in the world meant for him. or the other characters involved in this romantic merry-go-round. The maxim true love never runs smooth takes on added meaning in this often humorous, always engaging debut novel. Peter does, indeed, meet his heart's desire on a flight from New York to Los Angles. Holly is everything he ever dreamed of finding, and she is reading his favorite book, The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. She gives him her phone number, which is lost. It seems that with the disappearance of the number Holly is also lost to him, but not quite despite the fact that he's engaged to marry Charlotte, a woman he does not love. At this point, Peter has given up on love. It's not that he isn't quite capable of feeling a deep, passionate love, it was just that 'at this very moment he was deeply, passionately, heartbreakingly, searingly in love with someone. That person just didn't happen to be Charlotte.' How in the world could any of this be sorted out? Displaying first rate authorial skills whether writing about bedrooms or boardrooms, James Collins has delivered a delightful story regarding love today and Jerry O'Connell brings it to added life. Enjoy! - Gail Cooke

amusing chick lit romance

Holly and Peter meet on a flight from New York to Los Angeles and are immediately attracted to one another. At some inner level, they each know they met their life mate. Holly writes her phone number on a page from The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann and gives it him. That night he goes to get the page, but somehow he lost it he franticly searches but fails to find the key to his happiness. As he goes through the phases of grief, a sad Holly concludes her Peter did not feel the same way as she does. A few years later she marries Peter¿s best friend Jonathan while he and Charlotte agree to wed in a marriage of convenient losers as she also loves someone else. At the wedding ceremony of Peter and Charlotte lightning strikes Jonathan, which leads to a comedy of relationship errors as the newlyweds, Holly and others try to get their just rewards. --- This is an amusing chick lit romance in which one thing leads to another as if James Collins knocked down the first domino which than took several subplot paths knocking down other dominos. Peter and Holly are terrific as they try to move on from that fateful plane trip, but neither fully can because they know who the other is deep inside their heart. Readers will wonder whether they will get together and what about Charlotte in this fun Greek romantic ¿tragedy¿. --- Harriet Klausner

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