O'Brien has a go at the unreliable narrator and delivers in full Nabokovian splendor. (I note that the unreliable narrator is always someone who reveals himself to be increasingly loathsome as the story progresses, rather than the opposite.) For many of O'Brien's characters, their Vietnam experience has indelibly shaped the entire rest of their lives - in this instance, there is a wartime component to the main character's adult psychosis but it is less clear that is the primary driver.
The theme of a sexually predatory college professor being in turn exploited by his undergraduate conquests echoes Philip Roth's "Sabbath's Theater".

Read in 1998. The misadventures of a womanizing linguistics professor.

Entertaining enough to finish, but not my favorite. It reminds me of the series “You” but with more misogyny and less murdering. I found the main character to be unlikeable, which was maybe the point. My understanding of this is that he was meant to be misogynistic and delusional, but the self awareness of the book didn’t shine through quite enough for me to enjoy it. It also doesn’t sit quite right with me that the woman was made out to be the true villain in the end. All that said, I still love O’Brien’s writing style, his wit, and his books.

I love Tim O'Brien- his writing, the conflicted views it presents of the world, human interaction, & (more prominently), war.
He usually writes about Men in War, which is why I was surprised when I began to read what is essentially a romance novel; however, this is a romance novel that is uniquely Tim O'Brien- it has all the elements of his characteristic writing style, but with romance.
The main character is loathsome: a pompous, self-involved boorish professor of linguistics who can't bring himself to get over his ex-wife, even though the split was entirely his fault. He is a tomcat, constantly obsessing over his interactions with other women- hence the title. He constantly corrects other people's grammar.
The characters are flawed, but fairly realistic, which I appreciate. Actually, there are few likable characters in the whole book. The plot takes a while to pick up, but once it does, near the end, it's gripping.
I recommend the book- especially for those readers who are grammar snobs (I won't deny it....).

A Lolita for the land of Hubert H. Humphrey. The Tomcat narrator of the novel dons the linguistic cape of Humbert Humbert whilst tomcatting around a small Minnesota academic town with side trips to Tampa and Vietnam (and Fiji). Thomas Chippering also has one other very remarkable similarity to H.H. - he is as unreliable and self-serving in his narration as Humbert was in his. However this tomcat is interested in slightly older women than H.H. - O'Brien wasn't going to go completely down that pedophile path. He also shares a pathological need to declare his everlasting love to his own Lolita - Lorna Sue, his high school sweetheart, wife and then target of post-divorce revenge. But this love does not stop his tomcatting around even as it drives him to disaster (as he's writing it! - the epigraph is from Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art", so I'm not being all literary). He thinks he is versed in the Art of Loving, but really he is an artist of Losing.

I did not find it as outrageously funny as the blurbs said I would - it is not a guffawing farcical book. However it is slyly built on the dichotomy between the unreliable narrations and what the reader is slowly seeing is really happening. I hope that isn't too much of a spoiler (I don't think it is!), but what would you expect from a novel about a tomcat? A saint?

I picked up this book randomly just because it was on my shelf and I was pleasantly surprised by it. The overall plot was interesting and the writing made it even better. It is mainly focused on all the events that caused the narrator’s heartbreaking divorce and the subsequent events. In the beginning, I felt a little sympathy for Thomas (the narrator) who made it seem like he got screwed over but as the book progressed and reveals all the things he did, I just realized he was a horrible person. The story is told from his POV so sometimes I almost felt bad for him because he spins everything in his favor and this also made the book humorous because he is in the wrong but has such a victim complex. It was an enjoyable read despite the despicable narrator also because of the narration style. He is a professor of linguistics so he uses complex and witty language to describe everything happening to him. His life falls apart but he ends up with a happy ending which I was partially happy about because I like a happy ending but at the same time this guy did not deserve one. I just hope I never meet a guy like Thomas.

تام کت در هزار توی عشق

قلم نویسنده و نبوغ ش خیلی جذبم کرد.
تم کار هم جالب بود، ولی ریتم داستان خیلی کند پیش میرفت و حواشی و زواید زیاد داشت.
اگر کتاب در دویست صفحه جمع میشد و برای پایان ش هم فکر بهتری میشد، میتونست کار فوق‌العاده ای باشه.

قلم نویسنده خیلی جاها من رو یاد یکی از کتاب های محبوبم، یعنی هندرسون شاه باران می انداخت.

نمره واقعی من به کتاب سه ونیمه.

تیم اوبراین در این درام عاشقانه شخصیتی ساخت که غیر قابل اعتماد است چون عاشقی ساده لوح است. شخصیتی که با سن بالایی که دارد اما کودکانه حسادت می‌ورزد و در پی عشق کودکانه‌اش است

I am a Tim O'Brien fan, but I liked this the least of all his books. The Vietnam war figures in every one of his books, in this one perhaps least of all. Ironically, I found the Vietnam parts the most interesting and realistic.

The narrator and protagonist, Thomas Chippering, is a randy inveterate skirt-chaser. Seriously, he can't help himself. He even keeps a ledger of all the women he has had interactions with, no matter how brief and inconsequential the encounter. This ledger in particular, and his overriding predilection generally, gets him into constant trouble. He pines most for his ex-wife and love of his life (who now wants nothing to do with him), and he frustrates and irritates the one woman who truly loves him.

At times I thought the novel very repetitive and almost annoying, but O'Brien did a good job of bringing clarity and closure at the end. He also showed that tomcat Chippering was not always a reliable narrator, or a reliable judge of human character, for that matter.

EXACT RATING: 2.75 stars

Unreliable narrator to the extreme, which was my favorite aspect of the book. Humor was also decent at times, but not really an enjoyable read overall.

good read

Here is the story of a man who literally has to fight off the women. All of the women in his life are seriously and instantly attracted to him. ...Or at least that's how Tom sees it.

To the rest of us, Tom is a mysogenistic narcissist--and has been for years.

When his wife leaves him to marry a man whom he won't even name, but simply calls "tycoon"...Tom's grip of reality starts to falter. From public spankings, black mail, live crying fits/suicide threats on television to his old Vietnam 'buddies' who promised to enter his life again...to kill him--Tom needs some help.

The ONLY thing that killed the book for me was the last 30 pages. I would have preferred a different ending. Regardless, you should read it and see if you agree with me or not.