Madison's Reviews > The Book of George

I really, sincerely loved this book. George is a mess, no doubt about it, but he has redeemable qualities. He is self-aware and “trying” to fix himself, but for a variety of reasons, he can’t seem to pull himself together. He has promise and he has talent, he just fails to use it in a way that is productive. I think that, in some ways, we all have a little bit of George in us; maybe that’s what made me sympathetic towards him. Or perhaps we don’t all have a little bit of George in us and I am just The Problem… Who’s to say!

The description of the book says that we all know a George. That’s true. I’ve known several, to varying degrees. I’ve dated a George, I’ve been friends with a George, I’ve been a George. I saw a lot of myself and a lot of my friends in this book. I appreciated the fact that, while characters did try to steer him in the right direction, the book never really tried to “fix” him. He had moments of massive failure and moments of sweet redemption, just like he would in real life. I wonder if my tolerance for George speaks to the type of person I am. Maybe I’m too much like Jenny (George’s on-again-off-again girlfriend). Maybe we’re all a mix of both.

Thank you so much to Kate Greathead for writing this wonderful book, and thank you to Henry Holt and Co. as well as NetGalley for providing me the opportunity to read it early.