Rod Raglin
This blog will touch on the experiences I have as a writer (not to be mistaken for my experience as a writer, i.e. how many books I've written, etc); the pleasure and the pain, the joy and the grief, the satisfaction and the frustration, the magic and the reality - have I left anything out, oh yeah, the rejection, rejection and more rejection, the humiliation and the embarrassment, the jealousy and the resentment - that pretty much covers it, except for why I do it which perhaps I'll realize along the way. Are you totally confused? Good, let's begin.
Seduction as a higher purpose
Guy thinks he's God's gift to women and he just might be.
Handsome, impeccably groomed, fashion forward, buff, sophisticated, a gourmet chef, an exciting career as a talent promoter and wealthy - thanks to an inheritance from his grandmother.
Early in life Guy realized he had this power to attract women, but so what? Where was the challenge? Beautiful women were too entitled and too high maintenance, they were not grateful enough. On the other hand, plain women, say a four out of ten, the ones with the over processed hair, the "full figure" and no sense of fashion, well, they couldn't believe how lucky they were when he focused his many talents on them.
Why not give these women a one in a life time experience, maybe even elevate their self esteem to the point they could make something of themselves. After all, if someone a wonderful as him was interested in them, maybe they weren't the losers they though they were.
Dolores is one of these young women. Guy meets her in front of his beach house (part of grandma's inheritance) applies the "full press" for a week and then when she goes home to go to college never calls or returns hers.
Just another lucky loser, but ungrateful Dolores refuses to go away and the trouble begins.
Author Jowita Bydlowska has created a very memorable character, a chauvist pig for sure, but true to his own moral code. It's hard not to start to like her anti-hero as he struggles with all us lesser mortals wondering why those he interacts with are appalled by his insensitivity when we would feel the same as him if we could only be honest with ourselves.
Written in the first person, Bydlowska nails Guy's voice and her diction and dialogue are edgy, authentic and LOL funny. Her supporting characters are perfect foils for Guy to play off. The plot's fast paced and exceedingly contemporary.
This brilliant novel begins to unwind as it draws to a close The convoluted ending casts Guy out of character, stripped of his superiority, almost needy and with no apparent motivation. Did Bydlowska think her deliciously nasty, sociopathically insensitive protagonist needed redemption?
Too bad.
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