Book Review: Brand New Human Being
Brand New Human Being by Emily Jeanne Miller
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: June 12, 2012
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Meet Logan Pyle, a lapsed grad student and stay-at-home dad who’s holding it together by a thread. His father, Gus, has died; his wife, Julie, has grown distant; his four-year-old son has gone back to drinking from a bottle. When he finds Julie kissing another man on a pile of coats at a party, the thread snaps. Logan packs a bag, buckles his son into his car seat, and heads north with a 1930s Louisville Slugger in the back of his truck, a maxed-out credit card in his wallet, and revenge in his heart.
After some bad decisions and worse luck, he lands at his father’s old A-frame cabin, where his father’s young widow, Bennie, now lives. She has every reason to turn Logan away, but when she doesn’t, she opens the door to unexpected redemption—for both of them.
A deftly plotted exploration of marriage, family, and the road from child to parent, Brand New Human Being is a page-turning debut that overflows with heart and grace.
I think that Brand New Human Being was a well-written book with well-drawn characters that had depth. However, all of the characters, especially Julie and Logan, were so deeply flawed that I didn’t like any of them and spent most of the book wanted to reach in and shake them. I think it’s speaks well of the author when she can cause such a strong reaction in a reader. But when I read a book with those kinds of characters, there needs to be at least one likeable character to balance things out.
I also thought that some things wrapped up a little too neatly in the end, while other things that I was wondering about through the whole book never did. For instance, why was Julie losing weight and not eating – was she sick, anorexic, or what?
This book wasn’t my cup of tea necessarily. However, there are plenty of glowing reviews for it out in the blogosphere so clearly it does have appeal to some.
Buy this book at:
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