Reviews

A Calling for Charlie Barnes by Joshua Ferris

duparker's review against another edition

4.0

A lot of fun and a good read. The twists are interesting and the is it real, is it fiction aspect is enjoyable.

alexander's review against another edition

4.0

it's a testament to ferris' writing that such an unremarkable premise (the front to back life story of some guy) could still be so captivating. my biggest qualm is that the last quarter or so of this book is TOO good. so much so that it kind of overshadows the rest of the book and i worry i won't remember much that happened outside of it.

mldryan's review against another edition

4.0

This book confuses me in terms of whether I liked it or just didn’t care. It’s well-written but definitely fits into the annoying, dysfunctional family genre of narratives. And I find that genre simultaneously annoying and boring. But again, Ferris did a great job writing this one and it’s not without merit. I kept thinking back to a short story of his which I loved that someone read on one of The New Yorker podcasts. This novel was not hysterical and charming like that story, and I kept waiting for it to get there. It never did.

pinkydink70's review against another edition

5.0

I rate simply: 5 = liked it, 3 = meh, and 1 = didn't like it.

myra_c's review against another edition

4.0

Snarky and smart.

sandrinepal's review against another edition

4.0

Cut it out, Joshua Ferris! Your books keep making me feel good about mankind, warts and all. I knew it was good news when, unexpectedly, the audiobook opened with "Read for you by Nick Offerman". And it just kept delivering from there on out.

When 68-year-old, 5-time husband and father Charlie Barnes is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he strives to reconnect with the important people in his life and to right what wrongs he still can in the time he has left. This, it eventually surfaces, is chronicled for us by his son Jake, whose role in Charlie's life will come into increasingly sharp focus as the story progresses.

Charlie's is a legacy of love, shysterism, and the families we build. It's a kaleidoscope of harebrained business ideas, custody arrangements, college credits, odd jobs, and false teeth. This review is really sappy because I'm not Joshua Ferris, so you should go read the book instead.

kategci's review against another edition

5.0

I am lucky to live in NYC (well an outer borough) and be able to attend Pop-up book groups hosted by Jean Hanff Korelitz through her company, Book the Writer. I have met and discussed amazing books with their authors in a small setting in fantastic Manhattan apartments. I signed up for this group not knowing anything about this book. So on vacation in Key West I started reading. And almost stopped. Several times. But I kept going, because this is a beautifully written story of the love between a father and a son. The honesty can be searing and Charlie may not be everyone's cup of tea, but his son Jake shows us why Charlie was worthy of his love, warts and all. This is a very complicated family and not everyone sees Jake's truth as THE truth, but it his story and he is the writer able to tell the story of why Charlie mattered to the larger world. Josh Ferris was a delight and I am ready to dive into his backlist. Go to his author events and his dry wit will leave you with a smile.

cojack's review against another edition

3.0

3.5 stars. This book was bit too meta for me. Part of the problem is that I had to put it down for long periods a few times, so I lost the flow and got confused. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had read it straight through over the course of a week. Ferris is a good writer and many of the passages were gorgeous or outright laugh-out-loud funny. I think he tried to do way too much in this book and it didn't come together well. And while most of the characters aren't great people, many of them were so relentlessly awful at times that I found it hard to read. But overall, there are some great questions about writing, who "owns" the narrative of someone's life, choices we all make in terms of forgiveness or grudges, etc. This could be a good book club read because there's a lot to discuss in terms of the material and the author's approach to it.

Note: I listened to the audiobook. And while I love the narrator Nick Offerman, some of his voices were a little too comically done, especially the women's voices.

michellenet's review against another edition

4.0

3.5 ⭐️ I almost stopped reading this book because the first half was really slow and I wasn’t sure where the author was going with it. I pushed through because I actually won a copy of this book through Goodreads Giveaway and wanted to finish it. I’m glad I did because in the second half I definitely got more invested in the characters. I even shed a few tears here and there with how relatable the moments were. The story was told in a unique way that I haven’t read before and I think I like it?? All the characters were very unlikeable aside from the main narrator but I still wanted to see how the story unfolded. A good quirky, smart book.

52Books2022 Reading Challenge: Household object on the cover

Won a copy through Goodreads Giveaway

caity_'s review against another edition

funny lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5