Review of Bad Ideas for Living

[Chigo Nwagboso]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Bad Ideas for Living" by Jon Rubinstein.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Bad Ideas for Living by Jon Rubinstein is a fiction novel. This 272-page book has 13 chapters that tell the story of a man's mistakes, failures, and how he struggles to amend his life.

This story is about Alan, a Jewish man in his late forties. Alan and his younger sister, Sarah, had lived with their mum because their dad abandoned them when they were young. He got married to Andrea, believing to have a blissful future with her. Unfortunately, Andrea wants to quit her 12-year-old marriage when Alan lavishes their joint savings on strip clubs and massage parlors. As a result, he became frustrated and considered himself a failure since there was nothing tangible to show for his life. He met Mariana, a sex worker, who offered to help him reclaim his messy life. So, she promised to take him to see a shaman in Colombia. His journey was indeed adventurous. Did he achieve his aim? Or was it a futile journey?

Bad Ideas for Living is an interesting read with a captivating storyline that got me invested and glued to its pages. I also enjoyed the elements of suspense around the plot. It created tension and heightened my curiosity to know what would happen next. And that was the aspect of the book that I liked most because I kept desiring and wanting more.

The descriptions of events are explicit, which will help readers connect easily and paint a clear picture of the events. Characterization is another aspect that readers will appreciate. The author developed unique and relatable characters, and he also gave enough background stories of all of them. Sarah is my favorite character because she's caring, optimistic, and looks out for her mum and elder brother. Readers will also learn some life lessons in this book. They will learn some relationship tips from Alan and Andrea during their session with Doris, their therapist. More so, I enjoyed the sense of humor in Mr. Rubinstein's writing. One of such was when the protagonist was lamenting about his numerous credit cards. He said, "I needed a small-scale miracle: not an impossible cancer remission or a raise from the dead, but more of the water-into-wine variety that could put me in the black."

The only thing I dislike about this book is the author's writing style and choice of words. The language was complex; some readers may like it to build their vocabularies, but I would have preferred that the writing style was simple so as to accommodate every audience.

In conclusion, I'm glad to give this book four out of four stars because the complex language doesn't detract from the book's value. Mr. Rubinstein held my attention throughout my read, and the book seems professionally edited as I found some typos that were not up to ten. I will also recommend this book to adults who enjoy fiction novels about life in general and don't mind finding myriads of curse words in books.

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Bad Ideas for Living
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[WADonnelly]

This seems like an intriguing and enticing story thst I should give a look. Great review!

[Adrian Rondon Salazar]

It seems a bit depressing, but from your review I can tell that it promises to be a good read.

[Reader-247]

The book cover caught my eye and your description was intriguing as well, however, the complex vocabulary can be a drag at times. Thanks for an insightful review

[MsH2k]

It’s interesting to find a book about bad ideas; the cover is a bit of a clue. Also, it’s clever that the book has an “unlucky” number of chapters. Thank you for your thorough review.

[Nqobile Mashinini Tshabalala]

Alan must have done a pretty amazing job of squandering their savings for his wife to consider such an extreme- divorce. I hope he was able to turn his life around. We all make mistakes and I hope he learned from his. Great review!

[El_limitless]

Interesting plot. I will l love to know how Alan gained back control of his life. Great review.

[QveenAthea]

This seems like an amazing story. It review was dim what depressing, but over all great review.

[Novela book]

A thought provoking tale about a man and his life's mistakes. A great book in my opinion which has elements of depression, lonely and many more. Great review.

[Mvjdarling]

I believe there are so many lessons to learn from the life of Alan. He squandered a lot that leads to depression, loneliness, among others. I love forward to reading this book. Nice review.

[Mercy119]

I'm intrigued that the struggling protagonist was helped by a sex worker. The description you provided indicates that the book has an interesting storyline.