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Tomcat in Love
Book by O'Brien, Tim
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
80 people are currently reading
1,500 people want to read
About the author
Tim O'Brien
130 books3,160 followersTim O'Brien is an American novelist who served as a soldier in the Vietnam War. Much of his writing is about wartime Vietnam, and his work later in life often explores the postwar lives of its veterans.
O'Brien is perhaps best known for his book The Things They Carried (1990), a collection of linked semi-autobiographical stories inspired by his wartime experiences. In 2010, The New York Times described it as "a classic of contemporary war fiction." O'Brien wrote the war novel, Going After Cacciato (1978), which was awarded the National Book Award.
O'Brien taught creative writing, holding the endowed chair at the MFA program of Texas State University–San Marcos every other academic year from 2003 to 2012.
O'Brien is perhaps best known for his book The Things They Carried (1990), a collection of linked semi-autobiographical stories inspired by his wartime experiences. In 2010, The New York Times described it as "a classic of contemporary war fiction." O'Brien wrote the war novel, Going After Cacciato (1978), which was awarded the National Book Award.
O'Brien taught creative writing, holding the endowed chair at the MFA program of Texas State University–San Marcos every other academic year from 2003 to 2012.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 314 reviews
September 8, 2014
Tomcat in Love A Novel
Tim O Brien
This is a test! There is no right answer.
If you find that funny, you will love Tomcat in Love. If you think otherwise, you may find the book less pleasing in direct proportion to the depths of your otherwise.
Sometimes I try to imagine what a book might be like if it was made into a movie. Would I like the movie? Do I like raunchy PG-13 movies? Did I like Cheech & Chong? Enough said.
What do others think? On the front cover of the book is this quote:
With the help of Google, I find the actual 1998 review. And, in fact, the quote is accurate. But, as it has been said elsewhere: “…no accounting for taste…” and “… everyone has a right to their own opinion…” I would add, “Do not believe reviewer David Nicholson.”
There are 1254 ratings on GR that yield a less than scintillating 3.32 average. Now, I can relate to that. A bit high, I think, but no accounting for taste. About the same number give it two stars as give it a five. Put me in the two column. [Three years later there are more ratings, 2369, but still only a 3.38 average. I am decreasing my own rating to one star since I figure that is what a book ought to get if you are unable to get beyond halfway after two tries.]
In my era the term Tomcat was associated with the male cat on the prowl. Can a cat exhibit promiscuous activity? Amoral sex is common in Tomcat in Love. Not lyrical enough to be erotic, not graphic enough to be pornographic and not funny enough to be ribald or farcical. The shortest self-description by Tom: “I was no simple Lothario; I was complicated.” A longer description by a woman: “If you ask my opinion, you’re a sick, dangerous, compulsive skirt chaser. And a sneak. And a liar.”
The book started out with humor. I was believing its own book cover raves about itself. I like words and thought some of the “linguistic” aspects were clever. But then I just got tired of it. My recommendation: read Tim O Brien’s The Things They Carried and In the Lake of the Woods.
Tim O Brien
This is a test! There is no right answer.
He had the appearance, if I may say so, of an ostrich attempting to swallow a toaster.
If you find that funny, you will love Tomcat in Love. If you think otherwise, you may find the book less pleasing in direct proportion to the depths of your otherwise.
Sometimes I try to imagine what a book might be like if it was made into a movie. Would I like the movie? Do I like raunchy PG-13 movies? Did I like Cheech & Chong? Enough said.
What do others think? On the front cover of the book is this quote:
Tomcat in Love is a wonderful novel, laugh-out-loud funny, one of the best books I’ve come across in years…-- Washington Post
With the help of Google, I find the actual 1998 review. And, in fact, the quote is accurate. But, as it has been said elsewhere: “…no accounting for taste…” and “… everyone has a right to their own opinion…” I would add, “Do not believe reviewer David Nicholson.”
There are 1254 ratings on GR that yield a less than scintillating 3.32 average. Now, I can relate to that. A bit high, I think, but no accounting for taste. About the same number give it two stars as give it a five. Put me in the two column. [Three years later there are more ratings, 2369, but still only a 3.38 average. I am decreasing my own rating to one star since I figure that is what a book ought to get if you are unable to get beyond halfway after two tries.]
In my era the term Tomcat was associated with the male cat on the prowl. Can a cat exhibit promiscuous activity? Amoral sex is common in Tomcat in Love. Not lyrical enough to be erotic, not graphic enough to be pornographic and not funny enough to be ribald or farcical. The shortest self-description by Tom: “I was no simple Lothario; I was complicated.” A longer description by a woman: “If you ask my opinion, you’re a sick, dangerous, compulsive skirt chaser. And a sneak. And a liar.”
The book started out with humor. I was believing its own book cover raves about itself. I like words and thought some of the “linguistic” aspects were clever. But then I just got tired of it. My recommendation: read Tim O Brien’s The Things They Carried and In the Lake of the Woods.
June 16, 2007
On page 172, it becomes crystal clear that Thomas H. Chippering, the protagonist of Tim O’Brien’s darkly outrageous new novel, Tomcat in Love, is presidential not only in his appearance but in his actions, as well. More on that in a moment.
First, it helps to remember something philosopher-writer William Gass once wrote about the words that are his stock and trade: “When a character looks out through a window, or occasionally peeks in through one, it is the word ‘window’ he is really looking through.” Put another way, there is no reality in fiction outside of ink on the page. The words resonate inside of us even as much as the actions they describe.
Words in and of themselves constitute a kind of reality for Chippering, too. A professor of linguistics, he is undergoing what he calls—with breathtaking understatement -- “a certain subtle frenzy” in his life. Deserted by his wife and childhood sweetheart Lorna Sue, he is stalked by memories of their life together. In turn, he stalks Lorna Sue, along with her new husband and her brother Herbie, all the while ruminating on the history that has brought him first to the edge of, and then completely over, the cliff of breakdown.
“The world shrieks and sinks talons into our hearts. This we call memory,” O’Brien’s narrator tells us. And for him, memory is contained entirely within a short list of words, like “Tampa” (where Lorna Sue cuckolded him), or “Pontiac” (upon which they first consummated their love), or “turtle.” All the mystery of words seems to be wrapped up inside of “turtle.” “I cannot encounter that word without a gate creaking open inside me,” Chippering admits. “Turtle for the world—turtle for you—will never be turtle for me.”
Altogether reasonable. And sympathetic. But it quickly becomes apparent that Chippering is another of O’Brien’s notoriously unreliable narrators. On the one hand, he tells us that he resembles “a clean-shaven version of our sixteenth President”; on the other, he insists on being irresistible to women. By page 172, it is apparent that the professor is not simply vainglorious (though often hilariously so) but dangerous. That’s when we learn about the ledger, where, since adolescence, Chippering has recorded his history with women: “Hand-holdings: 421. Nuzzlings: 233. Valentines: 98. Marriages: 1. Meaningful gazes: 1,788. Home runs: 4. Near misses: 128.” Chippering defends the book as “a professional’s daily log,” and so absurdly reveals himself to be the worst kind of sexual predator: one who seems to be entirely unaware of himself and who continually uses language to finesse and justify his actions.
First, it helps to remember something philosopher-writer William Gass once wrote about the words that are his stock and trade: “When a character looks out through a window, or occasionally peeks in through one, it is the word ‘window’ he is really looking through.” Put another way, there is no reality in fiction outside of ink on the page. The words resonate inside of us even as much as the actions they describe.
Words in and of themselves constitute a kind of reality for Chippering, too. A professor of linguistics, he is undergoing what he calls—with breathtaking understatement -- “a certain subtle frenzy” in his life. Deserted by his wife and childhood sweetheart Lorna Sue, he is stalked by memories of their life together. In turn, he stalks Lorna Sue, along with her new husband and her brother Herbie, all the while ruminating on the history that has brought him first to the edge of, and then completely over, the cliff of breakdown.
“The world shrieks and sinks talons into our hearts. This we call memory,” O’Brien’s narrator tells us. And for him, memory is contained entirely within a short list of words, like “Tampa” (where Lorna Sue cuckolded him), or “Pontiac” (upon which they first consummated their love), or “turtle.” All the mystery of words seems to be wrapped up inside of “turtle.” “I cannot encounter that word without a gate creaking open inside me,” Chippering admits. “Turtle for the world—turtle for you—will never be turtle for me.”
Altogether reasonable. And sympathetic. But it quickly becomes apparent that Chippering is another of O’Brien’s notoriously unreliable narrators. On the one hand, he tells us that he resembles “a clean-shaven version of our sixteenth President”; on the other, he insists on being irresistible to women. By page 172, it is apparent that the professor is not simply vainglorious (though often hilariously so) but dangerous. That’s when we learn about the ledger, where, since adolescence, Chippering has recorded his history with women: “Hand-holdings: 421. Nuzzlings: 233. Valentines: 98. Marriages: 1. Meaningful gazes: 1,788. Home runs: 4. Near misses: 128.” Chippering defends the book as “a professional’s daily log,” and so absurdly reveals himself to be the worst kind of sexual predator: one who seems to be entirely unaware of himself and who continually uses language to finesse and justify his actions.
December 5, 2013
I'll admit it -- I loved the first half of this book, and progressively lost interest in the narrator's voice. After finishing May We Be Forgiven, I realize there are dozens of similarities between these two, and Homes' novel got me where I wanted much faster. I'm sure there's a thesis or at least a really good book review in comparing these two titles, but I'll let someone else do it. I love that O'Brien took such a risk in writing in a tone so different from what we usually expect from him, but I love him for his Vietnam work, and The Things They Carried remains my favorite of his, and one of my favorite war stories of all time.
June 24, 2007
I am not very discerning when it comes to my love for this book. Anything that involves pretentious know-it-alls, Jesus complexes, and manic revenge vacations basically has me at its very first loquacious and inverted explanation.
In this way, I almost appreciate it more than The Things They Carried because it is so desperately and unapologetically frail. It doesn't have the force of O'Brien's other works, but rather pulls the smaller train wrecks of neuroses out of the ordinary. The narrator is a linguistics professor, which is how the text allows tangents to form so easily, but as long as those rambling trains of thought lead to actions like taking a vacation with his girlfriend to his ex-wife's state to execute revenge plots, I'm not complaining.
In this way, I almost appreciate it more than The Things They Carried because it is so desperately and unapologetically frail. It doesn't have the force of O'Brien's other works, but rather pulls the smaller train wrecks of neuroses out of the ordinary. The narrator is a linguistics professor, which is how the text allows tangents to form so easily, but as long as those rambling trains of thought lead to actions like taking a vacation with his girlfriend to his ex-wife's state to execute revenge plots, I'm not complaining.
January 18, 2016
Tim O'Brien has created a masterpiece of a comic protagonist in his character Thomas Chippering. The brilliance of "Tomcat in Love" is that it can so easily be misread by the inattentive reader. I think O'Brien wanted it that way.
The narrator (Chippering) is as unreliable as a narrator can be, and his whole character highlights the idea that the world is nothing but perceptions, and that perceptions vary for everyone. The power and flexibility of words is a key theme in this text, and I found myself stopping often while reading it to think about the connotations I place on certain words and how my life events have shaped those views.
Chippering is not perfect, polite, or even that self aware, but he is intelligent, wounded, and wants to be loved. He is an amalgamation of so many human emotions, and he desires what most of us want. As he says in the book, "Each of us I suppose, needs his illusions. Life after death. A maker of planets. A women to love, a man to hate. Something sacred." The tragedy of Thomas Chippering is that he has placed value on all the wrong things. Now that his world is crumbling, he begins to see (although O'Brien hints that Chippering will never be fully self aware) that he has wasted much time in self delusion.
This is a comic text, but the themes are deadly serious. "Know thyself" the philosopher said. Sadly, so many of us, like Chippering, don't.
The narrator (Chippering) is as unreliable as a narrator can be, and his whole character highlights the idea that the world is nothing but perceptions, and that perceptions vary for everyone. The power and flexibility of words is a key theme in this text, and I found myself stopping often while reading it to think about the connotations I place on certain words and how my life events have shaped those views.
Chippering is not perfect, polite, or even that self aware, but he is intelligent, wounded, and wants to be loved. He is an amalgamation of so many human emotions, and he desires what most of us want. As he says in the book, "Each of us I suppose, needs his illusions. Life after death. A maker of planets. A women to love, a man to hate. Something sacred." The tragedy of Thomas Chippering is that he has placed value on all the wrong things. Now that his world is crumbling, he begins to see (although O'Brien hints that Chippering will never be fully self aware) that he has wasted much time in self delusion.
This is a comic text, but the themes are deadly serious. "Know thyself" the philosopher said. Sadly, so many of us, like Chippering, don't.
May 28, 2014
O'Brien always seems to dig into these nooks and crannies of the psyche that go unexplored by most authors. Here, the awful, awful titular character dwells on the unique characteristics words take on when coupled with experience. It's unnerving in a way that I'm having trouble describing (just like some parts of The Lake of the Woods chilled me in some fundamental way that I still can't unpack, years after reading it).
Anyway, this is a really well-written book, and as loathsome as Chippering is, I think O'Brien turns a mirror around a bit to point it back at the reader. The satire works, too, though I can't figure out how some reviewers pegged this as a straight-up ha-ha comedy. It's a comedy in the classic Greek sense, I guess....
Anyway, this is a really well-written book, and as loathsome as Chippering is, I think O'Brien turns a mirror around a bit to point it back at the reader. The satire works, too, though I can't figure out how some reviewers pegged this as a straight-up ha-ha comedy. It's a comedy in the classic Greek sense, I guess....
April 3, 2016
O'Brien is amazing.
September 11, 2019
تام کت در هزار توی عشق
قلم نویسنده و نبوغ ش خیلی جذبم کرد.
تم کار هم جالب بود، ولی ریتم داستان خیلی کند پیش میرفت و حواشی و زواید زیاد داشت.
اگر کتاب در دویست صفحه جمع میشد و برای پایان ش هم فکر بهتری میشد، میتونست کار فوقالعاده ای باشه.
قلم نویسنده خیلی جاها من رو یاد یکی از کتاب های محبوبم، یعنی هندرسون شاه باران می انداخت.
نمره واقعی من به کتاب سه ونیمه.
قلم نویسنده و نبوغ ش خیلی جذبم کرد.
تم کار هم جالب بود، ولی ریتم داستان خیلی کند پیش میرفت و حواشی و زواید زیاد داشت.
اگر کتاب در دویست صفحه جمع میشد و برای پایان ش هم فکر بهتری میشد، میتونست کار فوقالعاده ای باشه.
قلم نویسنده خیلی جاها من رو یاد یکی از کتاب های محبوبم، یعنی هندرسون شاه باران می انداخت.
نمره واقعی من به کتاب سه ونیمه.
June 27, 2013
Having heard good things about this author but not wanting to read his devastating and sad books about Viet Nam (friends of mine died or suffered there), I thought this "light-hearted" book of humor, romance, and revenge would be a good choice. Not.
The main character is a literature professor, and proud of his august tenure, reputation, and erudition. So then, how could he be so stupid? He believes every female finds him irresistible and begins perusing him after 2 nanoseconds, and shortly thereafter begins to plot against him. It's supposed to be funny that even a 4 year old girl first selects him for cuddling, then schemes and manipulates to entrap him. Every waitress, old woman on the bus, and student seeks to engage him and it's not his fault. This becomes tedious (as planned) but really, it's tedious.
What saves this book from my "wish I hadn't read" shelf is that eventually, one hated "betrayer" (childhood friend who first seemed diabolically dangerous and sociopathic) is revealed to be a protector and truth-teller. Also in the end, two narcissists learn something about healing from the past and dealing with loss. I don't recommend this book unless you are a male whose life is beset by women who chase and then entrap, and you are a victim of your own good-hearted intentions, good-looks, boundless charm, talent, innocence and intellect, and yet you can't recognize love when it's gone or when it's present.
The main character is a literature professor, and proud of his august tenure, reputation, and erudition. So then, how could he be so stupid? He believes every female finds him irresistible and begins perusing him after 2 nanoseconds, and shortly thereafter begins to plot against him. It's supposed to be funny that even a 4 year old girl first selects him for cuddling, then schemes and manipulates to entrap him. Every waitress, old woman on the bus, and student seeks to engage him and it's not his fault. This becomes tedious (as planned) but really, it's tedious.
What saves this book from my "wish I hadn't read" shelf is that eventually, one hated "betrayer" (childhood friend who first seemed diabolically dangerous and sociopathic) is revealed to be a protector and truth-teller. Also in the end, two narcissists learn something about healing from the past and dealing with loss. I don't recommend this book unless you are a male whose life is beset by women who chase and then entrap, and you are a victim of your own good-hearted intentions, good-looks, boundless charm, talent, innocence and intellect, and yet you can't recognize love when it's gone or when it's present.
November 12, 2009
Another oblivious, delusional crotch-led loser stumble-raving through an otherwise interesting story. Funny and too pathetic.
June 21, 2018
I like the rhyme scheme but my mom would never leave me.
February 5, 2020
Just silly. I love Tim O’BRIEN, but this is not worthy of him.
May 1, 2010
Like all of Mr. O'Brien's works, this book deals with the Viet Nam war, but in a different way... it is a flat out comedy about a loser looking for love. I laughed and laughed at both the situations Thomas Chipperling found himself in but also just at the way O'Brien puts words together. He is an amazing writer.
It's light, but also deadly serious. Whenever someone asks me to recommend a funny book to them, this is at the top of my list. It's very absurd, but also, too damn real. And that's a tricky way to write and he does it beautifully!
To borrow a term from Tomcat in Love, anybody can be "squid-like" and spray ink on a page, but not just anyone writes as well as Tim O'Brien. This is a book that I cannot recommend to all of my female friends because the protagonist of the story is such a freaking womanizer. But, for the truly unfaint of heart who consider great prose above social etiquette, I can wholeheartedly point to this book and call it genius.
We follow Thomas Chipperling through a rather trying year of his life following the breakup of his marriage. It is at once a bleak portrait of man's obsession with woman and a fantastical story of revenge going awry.
O'Brien is an amazing wordsmith, and I was really touched at times by the humanity of Thomas. In the end, all actions are more than understandable, and I would encourage anyone who felt stuck in the story tellers quicksand to hang in with the book. It rewards in the end. I think that comedy can be trickier to create than drama, and so, this comic novel does deserve high praise, indeed. If you want to laugh and you admire linguistic acrobats, then this is a compelling read.
It has been several years since I read it but I keep thinking about it...and it's just great. Highly recommended. And if you want to get into O'Brien, I would suggest this or The Things They Carried.
It's light, but also deadly serious. Whenever someone asks me to recommend a funny book to them, this is at the top of my list. It's very absurd, but also, too damn real. And that's a tricky way to write and he does it beautifully!
To borrow a term from Tomcat in Love, anybody can be "squid-like" and spray ink on a page, but not just anyone writes as well as Tim O'Brien. This is a book that I cannot recommend to all of my female friends because the protagonist of the story is such a freaking womanizer. But, for the truly unfaint of heart who consider great prose above social etiquette, I can wholeheartedly point to this book and call it genius.
We follow Thomas Chipperling through a rather trying year of his life following the breakup of his marriage. It is at once a bleak portrait of man's obsession with woman and a fantastical story of revenge going awry.
O'Brien is an amazing wordsmith, and I was really touched at times by the humanity of Thomas. In the end, all actions are more than understandable, and I would encourage anyone who felt stuck in the story tellers quicksand to hang in with the book. It rewards in the end. I think that comedy can be trickier to create than drama, and so, this comic novel does deserve high praise, indeed. If you want to laugh and you admire linguistic acrobats, then this is a compelling read.
It has been several years since I read it but I keep thinking about it...and it's just great. Highly recommended. And if you want to get into O'Brien, I would suggest this or The Things They Carried.
April 11, 2019
یک رمان آمریکایی جذاب به دور از کلیشههای مرسوم
.................
بهنظرم همهی ما به توهم او نیازمندیم. به زندگی پس از مرگ. به سازندهی سیارات. به زنی برای عشق ورزیدن. به مردی برای تنفر داشتن. به چیزی مقدس.حیف...
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ما در جهانی زندگی میکنیم که همهچیزدانها و بدگوها و سطحینگرها و پاسبانان بیسواد هر روز بیش از پیش اشغالش میکنند.
.........……
شانزده ساله که بودم، در باد پاییزی ذرتزار، عشق را روی کاپوت پونتیاک سبز پدرم یافتم. فولادی را که پوستم لمس میکرد یادم هست. تاریکی را و باد تند را و خشخش ذرتزار را هم.
پونتیاک یعنی آیا این وضعیت بهتر خواهد شد؟ و آن کلمه سرخپوست زینتی رو کاپوت. آیا آن حرامزاده پایم را گاز گرفت؟ صدای خندهای شنیدم؟
..................
جهان جیغ میکشد و چنگالش را در قلبمان فرو میکند. این را میگوییم حافظه.
..................
بالای تنسی فهمیدم که سیالیت “نه” مثل سیالیت احساس است. انکار به انزجار میانجامد. امتناع به تردید. زنی میپرسد: دوستم داری؟ تو در جواب میگویی : نه. اما بعد از رفتن او بعد از شش ماه زندگی مجردی، وقتی با ماشینش از کنارت میگذرد، شاید جیغ بلندی بکشی که: “نه! نه! “
...................
در جهان متمدن، خیلی راحت یادمون میره که آدم برای همیشه زنده نیست. به نظرم به همین خاطره که اینقدر جنگ رو دوست داریم. چون مثل اینه که.....خودت خوب میدونی....این خاطرهی خوب...
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وای از این قدرت ترسناک کلمات. واژهها جنگ را میآغازند. عشق را میکشند. من خودم در یک مهمانی رسمی استادان دانشگاه، هزینه گزافی پرداخت کردم. (به قیمت از دست دادن پنجمین جایزه هیوبرت اچ همفری تمام شد.) و سر چه موضوعی؟ حرف اول یک کلمه را جابجا کردم. اگر جای “ر” کلمهام را با “د” شروع کرده بودم، الان جایزه مال من بود. چون به رییس دانشگاه گفتم: “قیافهتون ریدنیه.”
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راوی یک استاد زبانشناس است و بازیهای زبانی جالبی در داستان دارد که در ترجمه هم تاحدی خوب از کار درآمده است.
.................
بهنظرم همهی ما به توهم او نیازمندیم. به زندگی پس از مرگ. به سازندهی سیارات. به زنی برای عشق ورزیدن. به مردی برای تنفر داشتن. به چیزی مقدس.حیف...
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ما در جهانی زندگی میکنیم که همهچیزدانها و بدگوها و سطحینگرها و پاسبانان بیسواد هر روز بیش از پیش اشغالش میکنند.
.........……
شانزده ساله که بودم، در باد پاییزی ذرتزار، عشق را روی کاپوت پونتیاک سبز پدرم یافتم. فولادی را که پوستم لمس میکرد یادم هست. تاریکی را و باد تند را و خشخش ذرتزار را هم.
پونتیاک یعنی آیا این وضعیت بهتر خواهد شد؟ و آن کلمه سرخپوست زینتی رو کاپوت. آیا آن حرامزاده پایم را گاز گرفت؟ صدای خندهای شنیدم؟
..................
جهان جیغ میکشد و چنگالش را در قلبمان فرو میکند. این را میگوییم حافظه.
..................
بالای تنسی فهمیدم که سیالیت “نه” مثل سیالیت احساس است. انکار به انزجار میانجامد. امتناع به تردید. زنی میپرسد: دوستم داری؟ تو در جواب میگویی : نه. اما بعد از رفتن او بعد از شش ماه زندگی مجردی، وقتی با ماشینش از کنارت میگذرد، شاید جیغ بلندی بکشی که: “نه! نه! “
...................
در جهان متمدن، خیلی راحت یادمون میره که آدم برای همیشه زنده نیست. به نظرم به همین خاطره که اینقدر جنگ رو دوست داریم. چون مثل اینه که.....خودت خوب میدونی....این خاطرهی خوب...
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وای از این قدرت ترسناک کلمات. واژهها جنگ را میآغازند. عشق را میکشند. من خودم در یک مهمانی رسمی استادان دانشگاه، هزینه گزافی پرداخت کردم. (به قیمت از دست دادن پنجمین جایزه هیوبرت اچ همفری تمام شد.) و سر چه موضوعی؟ حرف اول یک کلمه را جابجا کردم. اگر جای “ر” کلمهام را با “د” شروع کرده بودم، الان جایزه مال من بود. چون به رییس دانشگاه گفتم: “قیافهتون ریدنیه.”
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راوی یک استاد زبانشناس است و بازیهای زبانی جالبی در داستان دارد که در ترجمه هم تاحدی خوب از کار درآمده است.
September 6, 2021
Look, I love Tim O'Brien. And there are sections of this novel where his prose sparkles -- with the unreliable narrator of Thomas Chippering. But O'Brien can't do comedy. This is leagues worse than a genuinely hilarious academic satire like Richard Russo's STRAIGHT MAN or Ishamael Reed's JAPANESE BY SPRING. I was prepared to forgive O'Brien for a lot of his misfires (a great author should always try new things!), but he also has the temerity to make nearly every woman in this book a complaisant doormat. And, yes, I get that we can't trust Chippering and this is probably his male ego talking. But what is the ultimate point of this exercise? A married woman with a husband in jail fawns over this arrogant prick. A student blackmails Chippering into writing a thesis for a hacky story that leads (predictably) to Chippering losing his job. And then there's the casual kink-shaming. It's clear that O'Brien has no direct experience of the kink world. And the depictions here are borderline misogynist and insulting. This novel falls apart by the 200 page mark as we read Chippering's downfall and really don't care. Points to O'Brien for writing outside of his usual zone. But he can't stick the landing.
August 29, 2007
Tomcat in Love is what A Confederacy of Dunces would have been if Tom Robbins had written it.
While discusing the Timothy Cavendish sections of Cloud Atlas my friend Todd told me I'd like this book and loaned it to me. It is zany, at times hilarious, and always outrageous. But it lacked a little something. Plausibility, maybe. Maybe not. At times I could believe that a dorky and delusional college professor (Thomas H. Chippering) plotting revenge against his ex-wife for leaving him could think that every coed on campus wants him. Other times I thought, OK, even the craziest whackjob couldn't believe himself a charming good catch after all that rejection.
The most enjoyable aspect of the book was trying to see through Chippering's stories to glean the truth from them. I just wish there would have been someone to root for in the story. My recommendation: Read this book in a fantasy world you've invented to make yourself look like less of a pedantic jackass.
While discusing the Timothy Cavendish sections of Cloud Atlas my friend Todd told me I'd like this book and loaned it to me. It is zany, at times hilarious, and always outrageous. But it lacked a little something. Plausibility, maybe. Maybe not. At times I could believe that a dorky and delusional college professor (Thomas H. Chippering) plotting revenge against his ex-wife for leaving him could think that every coed on campus wants him. Other times I thought, OK, even the craziest whackjob couldn't believe himself a charming good catch after all that rejection.
The most enjoyable aspect of the book was trying to see through Chippering's stories to glean the truth from them. I just wish there would have been someone to root for in the story. My recommendation: Read this book in a fantasy world you've invented to make yourself look like less of a pedantic jackass.
December 29, 2008
Well, I loved it! The main character, Thomas Chippering, is a linguistics professor and the Tomcat from the title. He is such an offensive, buffoon of a man - you can't decide whether to hate him or invite him over for a glorious day of conversation. Loved the way the story was told - there are two sides to every story! And generally it's not the way that Thomas C wants you to believe.
February 4, 2017
Tomcat is a delusional linguistics professor who fancies himself a ladies man who is happily married to his childhood sweetheart. But she's left him and he's pathetic plus he represses everything from a lifetime of bad behavior, and PTSD from combat to boot. I think I might have been ok with this in short story form, but it was way too schlocky yuk-yuk for me at 368 pages.
November 23, 2013
Wow, I've had several books lately that I could not finish, and now another one. This writing was so scatter shot that I just couldn't get my mind into it. All reviews said it was so-o-o funny and I didn't find this to be the case at all. Anyway, I gave up.
April 29, 2020
Laugh out loud funny!
September 14, 2017
O'Brien has a go at the unreliable narrator and delivers in full Nabokovian splendor. (I note that the unreliable narrator is always someone who reveals himself to be increasingly loathsome as the story progresses, rather than the opposite.) For many of O'Brien's characters, their Vietnam experience has indelibly shaped the entire rest of their lives - in this instance, there is a wartime component to the main character's adult psychosis but it is less clear that is the primary driver.
The theme of a sexually predatory college professor being in turn exploited by his undergraduate conquests echoes Philip Roth's "Sabbath's Theater".
The theme of a sexually predatory college professor being in turn exploited by his undergraduate conquests echoes Philip Roth's "Sabbath's Theater".
Read
May 27, 2024DNF.
Comprei este livro há anos, numa feira do livro, mas ficou na estante, "para ler depois".
Bom, por causa de um desafio, finalmente peguei nele e infelizmente deve ter passado tempo demais para eu ter paciencia para ele, porque não consegui apreciar o que li. Cheguei à página 157 quando decidi que não ia continuar, afinal tenho mais que ler! :)
Do que li, posso dizer que até achei o estilo do autor interessante e astuto, mas o conteudo é que me perdeu, que enredo mais confuso e trivial e com um protagonista irritante!
Comprei este livro há anos, numa feira do livro, mas ficou na estante, "para ler depois".
Bom, por causa de um desafio, finalmente peguei nele e infelizmente deve ter passado tempo demais para eu ter paciencia para ele, porque não consegui apreciar o que li. Cheguei à página 157 quando decidi que não ia continuar, afinal tenho mais que ler! :)
Do que li, posso dizer que até achei o estilo do autor interessante e astuto, mas o conteudo é que me perdeu, que enredo mais confuso e trivial e com um protagonista irritante!
January 12, 2025
This book gets a half star for the punchy title, and another half star for my enjoyment of Tim O'Briens other books. Everything else about this novel was absolutely horrific. The main character is a vile pervert who wins in the end? I question your sanity Mr. O'Brien. Don't read this confuddling nonsense.
January 30, 2022
Hated it. The humor eludes me.
March 8, 2020
I prefer to LIKE the protagonist in a story. In this book, I had a difficult time sympathizing with this character. However, Tim O'Brian's use of language and how he has incorporated it into the story was fantastic. I'll read more by him because of it. Worth the time, for sure.
September 20, 2022
I am a huge O'Brien fan. This is Tim swinging & missing.
The concept is a bit juvenile and the telling of it, while brilliant and funny at times, is loaded with sophomoric, cartoonist behavior from the main protagonist and no redeeming co-star to save the mess.
When somebody writes great sentences you can abide with a few bad paragraphs, when that creeps to bad pages, then to bad chapters, you are best to call it a day, which I did halfway through.
The concept is a bit juvenile and the telling of it, while brilliant and funny at times, is loaded with sophomoric, cartoonist behavior from the main protagonist and no redeeming co-star to save the mess.
When somebody writes great sentences you can abide with a few bad paragraphs, when that creeps to bad pages, then to bad chapters, you are best to call it a day, which I did halfway through.
August 15, 2023
I am a Tim O'Brien fan, but I liked this the least of all his books. The Vietnam war figures in every one of his books, in this one perhaps least of all. Ironically, I found the Vietnam parts the most interesting and realistic.
The narrator and protagonist, Thomas Chippering, is a randy inveterate skirt-chaser. Seriously, he can't help himself. He even keeps a ledger of all the women he has had interactions with, no matter how brief and inconsequential the encounter. This ledger in particular, and his overriding predilection generally, gets him into constant trouble. He pines most for his ex-wife and love of his life (who now wants nothing to do with him), and he frustrates and irritates the one woman who truly loves him.
At times I thought the novel very repetitive and almost annoying, but O'Brien did a good job of bringing clarity and closure at the end. He also showed that tomcat Chippering was not always a reliable narrator, or a reliable judge of human character, for that matter.
The narrator and protagonist, Thomas Chippering, is a randy inveterate skirt-chaser. Seriously, he can't help himself. He even keeps a ledger of all the women he has had interactions with, no matter how brief and inconsequential the encounter. This ledger in particular, and his overriding predilection generally, gets him into constant trouble. He pines most for his ex-wife and love of his life (who now wants nothing to do with him), and he frustrates and irritates the one woman who truly loves him.
At times I thought the novel very repetitive and almost annoying, but O'Brien did a good job of bringing clarity and closure at the end. He also showed that tomcat Chippering was not always a reliable narrator, or a reliable judge of human character, for that matter.
October 30, 2009
Tim O'Brien's non-The-Things-They-Carried novels (the ones I've read, anyway, and I've read three) all astonish me with their twists, the blend of realism and surrealism--the believability of apparently half-insane characters. I truly dug it when, a few chapters in, I realized that Thomas Chippering, narrator, was a mold-breaking blowhard, not just a slightly pompous guy with a broken heart. The depiction of Lorna Sue, self-mutilating ex-wife, is handy, too. There are some pretty uncomfortable moments--DAMNED uncomfortable moments; O'Brien in ALL his work imagines stuff that, if it occurred to me, I would immediately dismiss from my mind as a bad place to explore. O'Brien's got writerly guts, and I admire that.
February 18, 2010
Here is the story of a man who literally has to fight off the women. All of the women in his life are seriously and instantly attracted to him. ...Or at least that's how Tom sees it.
To the rest of us, Tom is a mysogenistic narcissist--and has been for years.
When his wife leaves him to marry a man whom he won't even name, but simply calls "tycoon"...Tom's grip of reality starts to falter. From public spankings, black mail, live crying fits/suicide threats on television to his old Vietnam 'buddies' who promised to enter his life again...to kill him--Tom needs some help.
The ONLY thing that killed the book for me was the last 30 pages. I would have preferred a different ending. Regardless, you should read it and see if you agree with me or not.
To the rest of us, Tom is a mysogenistic narcissist--and has been for years.
When his wife leaves him to marry a man whom he won't even name, but simply calls "tycoon"...Tom's grip of reality starts to falter. From public spankings, black mail, live crying fits/suicide threats on television to his old Vietnam 'buddies' who promised to enter his life again...to kill him--Tom needs some help.
The ONLY thing that killed the book for me was the last 30 pages. I would have preferred a different ending. Regardless, you should read it and see if you agree with me or not.
October 11, 2022
I was on a long-distance drive recently, and, not surprisingly, the idle time and the tedium of the drive got me to thinking about a lot of things, most of them incongruous and possibly hallucinatory. Including, inexplicably, a passage in this book where the narrator grudgingly recounts a card game he lost in which an eight-year-old girl (he petulantly says) cheated, and then mocked him. And the memory of that scene made me laugh hard, and I was able to focus on the road again for - I don’t know - like at least another a mile or so, and I’m grateful for that. It’s a small passage in my favorite book by Tim O’Brien, and while I know he’s written literary masterpieces, and I’ve read them and loved them, this is the only book of his I’d want to read again. And I have.
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