Amateur Barbarians: A Novel

Artfully juxtaposing two contrasting personalities (as he did in Inspired Sleep), Cohen explores the terrain of male middle age in a novel that.
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Acclaimed, award-winning novelist Robert Cohen delivers a bold, provocative exploration of the panic of midlife, following two men plateaued on either side of their forties and the unexpected consequences of changing course. Teddy Hastings is a New England middle school principal desperate for transcendence. Meanwhile, Oren Pierce, a perpetual grad student from New York, abandons, somewhat to his own surprise, his search for the extraordinary and begins settling into the humble existence that Teddy seeks to escape.

Amateur Barbarians, by Robert Cohen

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Both were middle-class adventures: They conspired to keep you at home, sitting still, being good. In the middle of sex they'd long for sleep, in the middle of sleep they'd long for sex. Beyond the humour and dozens of small accuracies, Cohen's investigation of domestic ennui is bolstered by probing honesty and lasting wisdom. A welcome but problematic kiss is "all very complicated and inscrutable, very mixed-bag, very adult.

For all their differences, Cohen's men both flee introspection but then find it in their flights. However briefly, Oren learns that maturity is often simply a question of saying yes and no at the right time and with the right consistency. Lurching from one self-inflicted disaster to another, Teddy tries not to confuse "appetites for inspiration.

Amateur Barbarians: A Novel: Robert Cohen: leondumoulin.nl: Books

Despite its varied strengths, Amateur Barbarians sags a little in the middle. The book is a victim of its own success and suffers just mildly from its memorable and accurate characterization. Midway through, the novel continues to tell us who Oren and Teddy are, summing them up in yet another witty comparison or generalization when by then we need to feel their character in action, not have it concluded in description.

A final, merciless edit could have accelerated these characters through their early and delightful sketches into the fully animated drama Cohen eventually provides. With some unexpected helpers, each of these men learns to heal his wounds, both the self-inflicted and the accidental. He teaches creative writing at Dalhousie University.

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