My Old Man

July 19, 2004
Sex columnist Sohn's second novel mines the same territory as her 1999 debut, Run Catch Kiss
, and her popular columns in New York Press
and New York
magazine—basically Sex and the City
(for which Sohn wrote a companion guide) without the over-the-top glamour or under-the-skin kindness of the heroines. The laughs—which Sohn certainly provides—tend to be of a guilty sort, inspired by too-easy stereotypes (of Brooklynites, "theaterfucks," the French, etc.). Rachel Block, a 26-year-old rabbinical school dropout–turned–bartender in the gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood where she grew up, is having a "quarterlife crisis," looking for love and a new life direction. She thinks she's found both in Hank Powell, a famous indie-film producer old enough to be her dad. As their "relationship" (a series of sexual encounters, each more degrading than the last) progresses, Rachel learns that her father is having an affair with her young neighbor. Sohn describes both pairings with plenty of salacious details, but the book falters under the weight of pronouncements about bourgeois values, family dynamics and May-December relationships ("It's postmodern primal," says Powell. "Your dad's having sex with a surrogate you while you're down here with a surrogate him!"). Rachel, alternately funny, narcissistic and pathetic, can be difficult to root for, and the book's ending long oversteps the bounds of believability. Agent, Daniel Greenberg
.

September 1, 2004
For Rachel, men are trouble. She's lost touch with God and dropped out of rabbinical school. She's too in touch with her controlling father and at arms' length with lover Hank, an unctuous indie-film auteur. In the midst of a "quarter-life crisis," Rachel tries another faith-based profession, bartending, and hears numerous confessions. Her father, suffering a midlife crisis, loses his job and hooks up with Rachel's best friend. Rachel's mother can't handle menopause and needs Rachel at a book club discussion of " Silent Passage" . With too much information from parents, friends, and barflies, Rachel receives completely useless advice from narcissistic Hank. Enlightenment dawns during a murderous tennis game with her father, best friend Liz, and Hank. Full of humorous vignettes set in a charming Brooklyn brownstone neighborhood, and idiosyncratic characters dropped in quirky situations leading them to a realistically untidy but gratifying ending--all of this is more poignant and thoughtful than the typical chick lit novel, and readers will enjoy Rachel's angst-ridden journey to adulthood. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)