Tomcat in Love

Tomcat in Love
by Tim O'Brien

3 of 5 stars

Tomcat in Love is what A Confederacy of Dunces would have been if Tom Robbins had written it.

While discusing the Timothy Cavendish sections of Cloud Atlas my friend Todd told me I'd like this book and loaned it to me. It is zany, at times hilarious, and always outrageous. But it lacked a little something. Plausibility, maybe. Maybe not. At times I could believe that a dorky and delusional college professor (Thomas H. Chippering) plotting revenge against his ex-wife for leaving him could think that every coed on campus wants him. Other times I thought, OK, even the craziest whackjob couldn't believe himself a charming good catch after all that rejection.

The most enjoyable aspect of the book was trying to see through Chippering's stories to glean the truth from them. I just wish there would have been someone to root for in the story. My recommendation: Read this book in a fantasy world you've created in order to make yourself look like less of a pedantic jackass.