2 out of 4 stars
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Are you looking for an interesting story which follows a near unpredictable anti-hero who doesn't know how to filter his actions or words? Then Call Me Pomeroy is the book for you. When beginning Call Me Pomeroy, I didn't quite know what I expected. The summary of the plot online gave a brief look into the story, but I don't think it truly prepared me for the near rambling nature of it. While reading the book, I sometimes found it hard to follow. The way the plot flowed oftentimes seemed erratic and directionless. The aforementioned reasons and more are why I decided to rate Call Me Pomeroy 2 out of 4 stars. While the book was an interesting read and I often found it hard to put down, there are a few reasons why I believe that this book deserves two instead of three stars.
Call Me Pomeroy is a first-person narrative told from the point of view of the protagonist Edward Beasley, otherwise known as Pomeroy. Pomeroy himself is someone you are meant to hate. He is brash, unapologetic, and quite frankly, a narcissist. The author does a phenomenal job of making the reader cringe at the day-to-day antics of his protagonist. Within the first few pages, it is apparent to the reader that Pomeroy is delusional and self-centered, believing every woman wants to sleep with him. He is a character who you simply love to hate.
The story is in the style of stream-of-consciousness which, as mentioned before, oftentimes makes the narrative seem choppy and perhaps a bit messy. The plot follows Pomeroy as he is originally released from jail and right away the reader understands that he has no impulse control. Throughout the short book, he has innumerable encounters with police which, more often than not, result in him being arrested and thrown in jail. Quite frankly, many of the situations he gets himself into are far-fetched and unrealistic. Pomeroy somehow lands himself in several foreign countries toward the latter half of the book even after several run-ins with the police that should have left him unable to travel internationally.
While reading the book, there were a few grammatical errors. The errors, however, were not enough to bother me while reading the book. Most of the grammatical errors had to deal with the dialogue, which was meant to be rough and informal in most cases. The syntax of the story was grating at times, which lent to the boisterous nature of the main character.
Overall, the book was interesting. Hanna does an outstanding job of creating a character that you can't help but love to hate. The characterization of Pomeroy, in my opinion, carries the story. However, the plot was choppy and many of the situations were unrealistic and laughable at best, which led me to only give it 2 out of 4 stars.
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Call Me Pomeroy
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