Jim KokorisBesprekingen

Sister North by Jim Kokoris

Sam, an attorney from Chicago led a mundane life. Down on his luck after a tragic (violent) incident, which greatly impacted his life. He starts to watch Sister North on T.V. and feels he may have a chance at redemption, if only he could talk to the Nun. He travels to Lake Eagleton Wisconsin to meet Sister North and speak to her personally. But when he arrives he finds she is missing, not sure when she is coming back, or if she will return at all.

An original story that moves at a steady pace with complex characters. Each person wants to speak to the Nun for their own personal reason. Each is battling their own demons, yet they all seek the same thing, guidance, forgiveness, acceptance. With vivid detail and raw emotions I really got to feel what each person felt, especially Sam. Troubled as he may be, I was still hoping he was able to find what he was looking for. Overall I found Sister North an (emotional) enjoyable read and feel others will enjoy it as well.

I'm not sure how to categorise this book. In many ways you could say it's 'women's fiction' - but told from a man's point of view. Wikipedia tells me that women's fiction has been defined: "a commercial novel about a woman on the brink of life change and personal growth. Her journey details emotional reflection and action that transforms her and her relationships with others, and includes a hopeful/upbeat ending with regard to her romantic relationship." Well, replace "about a woman" with "about a man" in that definition and you've got Jim Kokoris's novel in a nutshell. I fell for the story - the part that's pitched at the 'father' demographic. This father is, however, ever worse a father than I am. Actually, I think this is a deliberate hyperbolic mechanism used by Kokoris. The father readers laugh at or are shocked by Charlie Baker's incompetence as a parent, but Kokoris makes Charlie believable enough that the readers ask "wait, could I really be a bit like that?" Unfortunately, when I asked myself this question, the answer was a decided "yes, I'm a lot like that". Where this book failed me is its romantic conclusion. I don't read romance, for the reason that the world is not really like that. The real story of Charlie Baker has to end with a lot more doubt and ambiguity than Kokoris suggests.

I've never read Jim Kokoris before but after reading this book, I ordered all of his earlier books and look forward to reading them as well. John Nichols decides to drive his autistic son, Ethan to his daughter's wedding in South Carolina. There are many rituals that have to be done to keep Ethan calm and just reading about them is exhausting. He's nineteen but will forever remain as a three year old. An excellent book, highly recommended.

First, this gets five stars for heavily referencing one of my favorite road trip books, Blue Highways. And five for its 'no one could write this unless they've lived it' After reading the book I checked and, yes, the author has. spot-on depiction of life with a challenged child/young adult. But only four stars for the story itself. As good as it was, some of the related family drama seemed a little too staged, especially the behavior of the supposed-to-be adult daughters. Maybe it was there to add tension but to me it was more of a distraction. And last, there just aren't enough stars to give for the honest and heartfelt quotables scattered throughout its pages.

Here's the road trip to end all road trips. John Nichols, divorced father of three, drives his autistic teenaged son Ethan from Chicago to his daughter's wedding in South Carolina. To keep Ethan happy and relatively quiescent, their rituals are at first amusing and then agonizing. Everything about this family, from the humorless mom to the comedian daughter to the bride-to-be, is remarkable and dysfunctional. One road trip leads to another, and the interactions and high stress levels (that eventually drive everyone into their own individual rental vehicles) are reality at its worst. Cell phones hurled out the window are major plot points, and all is not well at the end of the road, but cautious optimism prevails. This type of situation is not usually told from a father's point of view and most readers will find it a very satisfying tale well told.½

I LOVED this book. Because in many ways it's a memoir it really is an honest and heartwarming description/discussion of the complexity of raising a child who will remain a child even when he/she is an adult. All the questions you would be unable to ask come to the front as John faces the what to do and how to do it through a variety of incredible, and often very humorous circumstances. Really a delightful book. Who doesn't know a family facing this problem to some degree because we immediately face the Alzheimer's population.

It’s. Nice. Outside. by Jim Kokoris is sad. John Nichols loves but is also tortured by his son Ethan. Ethan was born with a rare brain disease and will have no more than a 3 year old mental capacity. At nineteen he is a precious burden.ItsNiceOutside

Being divorced the burden of raising Ethan has fallen mostly on John. Although his ex-wife lives close by, she does not share equally in Ethan’s upbringing, even though that is the intent. So John bathes him, shoots hoops with him and deals with Ethan’s frequent meltdowns. John has developed quite the sophisticated comedy routine with Ethan’s three favorite teddy bears (although I can’t say I really found them funny).

But John has an Overall Plan that he plans on implementing which starts with him and Ethan driving from their Wilton, IL home to South Carolina for his older daughter, Karen’s, wedding. Sitting in a car with Ethan for hours a day for two weeks is deemed a hair brained scheme by all involved.

In Carolina we meet Mary, John’s ex-wife, with whom he is still in love and his daughters Karen and Mindy who rarely, if ever, speak to each other. Your typical dysfunctional family. The family gets more dysfunctional as the wedding goes awry and John discusses his Overall Plan with his family.

I’ll admit, I’m not a big fan of John. While no one not in his situation can fully understand what he’s going through, in general I found him to be wishy washy. However, I do empathize with him. Mary, Karen and Mindy I found to be more interesting. And Ethan’s Uncle Sal is a hoot.

There are a couple of funny parts to the book, a couple of happy parts and a couple of sad parts. I sort of predicted the ending midway through the book—actually I think Kokoris hinted at it about midway.

Another way to look at It’s. Nice. Outside. is a dysfunctional family road trip because that’s really what it is.

So, I’ll conclude with being how I described John, wishy washy about It’s. Nice. Outside. If it’s nice outside, this is probably not the book I’d rush to read. However, if someone recommended it to me (as it was in this case), I wouldn’t turn it down.½

Professor of history Theo Pappas plays his dead wife's favorite lottery numbers - the date of birth of his oldest son, Teddy - and wins $190 million. The lives of the Pappas family members are forever changed, but all does not go smoothly. Kokoris gives the reader a wonderful cast of characters who are vividly drawn. My book club really enjoyed this book. We couldn't help ourselves and simply HAD to "cast the movie" - Kevin Spacey as Theo. And, of course, it made us wonder - would WE be changed by winning the lottery?

I spent the blizzard with Ethan, John, Mary, Karen, Mindy and Sal. I couldn't have imagined a better day. Pulitzer prize? Probably not. Memorable? You bet! Recommended to everyone? Oh yes!

11/30/09 - You are one of our Goodreads.com 'First Reads' lucky winners! You will soon receive a free copy of The "Pursuit of Other Interests: A Novel." Received 12/10/09



As I read this book I realized that except for the grace of God, there go I. I could easily be the protagonist and since like the protagonist I'm overly self-serious, many of the passages meant to be funny just struck too close to home for me to laugh at them.

Good plotline, good pacing, excellent character development and an overall enjoyable read.

I first became a fan of Jim Korkoris after reading his terrific novel, The Pursuit of Other Interests. This book showcases all the same talents -- a highly readable writing style, well-developed characters, an engaging plot with enough dramatic twists to make you want to keep reading, and a light comic touch mixed with enough drama to make the goings-on in his books seem like slices of real life.

While "Pursuit ... " offered a great snapshot of all the challenges faced by someone who's lost their job, this book explores a more unique situation. A pretty boy lawyer, Sam, is bored with his small-time practice. He had a taste of the big time after marrying an overweight woman just because she was rich and the marriage enabled him to work for his father-in-law in a powerhouse law firm. After she lost weight and got her life together, though, she dropped him, and now he's struggling to keep a small practice afloat. His life gets complicated when a crazed husband who just lost a custody battle wants to take his anger out on all the lawyers who worked for his ex-wife. He shows up at Sam's office with a gun and kills Sam's secretary and then himself, and Sam escapes unscathed.

Wracked with survivor's guilt, Sam's only solace is watching a TV show hosted by a nun, who takes calls, offering hope to the hopeless. Sam decides to travel to the small lake town in Wisconsin where the nun lives, hoping for a chance to meet her.

But the nun is mysteriously absent when he arrives, and that becomes one of the book's 2 minor problems. The books takes on a Waiting for Godot feel, and it gets a little frustrating as you, the reader, must wait, as all the people who show up in town hoping to see her, must wait too, and decipher all the rumors that make you suspect she may never arrive or that she may even be dead. The nun, then becomes less important, as the story focuses on the relationship that develops between all the nun's fans -- burn victims, cancer patients, parents of missing children -- and the town's rsidents, who are milking the nun's popularity for everything they can get, charging ridiculous rates for hotels and selling T-shirts and bric-a-brac with her likeness on it.

The cast of characters are more than a bit quirky -- the hotelier who's overweight, wear muumuus and pines for his dead kitten, the former general who's hoping for insight on his lost son, and who inserts himself into conversations and likes to talk about bizarrely inappropriate topics (why he likes porn) at any time and in any company. En route to Wisconsin, Sam also hooks up with a hitchiker who it seems may try to steal his car, but then lingers in the town and pursues his goal of becoming a magician. They all teeter on the edge of being a little too adorable, but Korkoris gives them enough complexity and a potent combination of noble and selfish traits to make each of them believable and interesting.

The other main problem is that Sam develops a love interest with a woman (Meg, the nun's personal assistant) who hardly ever talks. She has her own mysterious past, which doesn't unravel until the very end. She barely speaks to anyone and her only interest is in running. (She would have competed in the Olympics if she hadn't tripped in a trial run.) It's hard to develop a rooting interest in their romantic attachment when all she and Sam do is run together. They both work on the restoration of the nun's house after a devastating storm, but most of the time she avoids Sam and when she does interact with him, it is only to convey necessary information, in the briefest of exchanges.

Still, Korkoris does mine her inarticulateness for some comic effect -- she hosts a Beatles night at the restaurant where she works and everyone hangs out, but in her role as DJ for the evening all she does between songs is introduce the title of the next one. Patrick, the socially clumsy general who vocalizes the awkward issues everyone else has the commonsense to keep quiet about, observes that it's not much of a show. And anytime Meg's on stage, it isn't.

In the final quarter of the book, though, everything starts to come together, and the lessons the book offers about how to fashion a reasonably content life for yourself after a devastating tragedy are compelling and make for both an entertaining and enlightening read.

I love the way Jim Kokoris writes. He's incredibly clever, and you cannot help but fall in love with his characters, even when they're totally impossible.
I read, and enjoyed this book, but I have to say I knew exactly where it was going from the moment the protagonist, Charlie, is fired. You will, too, but it's still completely worth reading.½

The opening paragraph had me hooked: “Nine months after his divorce, Sam stopped wearing underwear. It was a practical decision rather than any type of statement…He worked in a very proper, very conservative Chicago law firm that had a dress code, and while the dress code did not specifically mention underwear, it was definitely implied”. The entire first chapter lived up to the opening paragraph, and I was convinced I had my favorite book of the year. Then I hit chapter two – I don’t think I cracked a smile. And by chapter three the book was careening all over the place from laugh out loud farce to depressing doses of realism with a fair share of soul searching thrown in. I don’t do soul searching. By the end, it was NOT my favorite book of the year.

Sam is in need of a change. Through his foibles in the first chapter he experiences a traumatic event in chapter two (hence, no laughing), and begins questioning the what’s, why’s and how’s of his life. While brooding in his seedy hotel room, he discovers Sister North, a TV nun described as part 700 Club/part Dr. Phil. Convinced she will know the answers to life’s mysteries, he decides to visit her – even though he himself questions the existence of God. Once in Lake Eagleton, Wisconsin, he meets the characters of the town as well as the characters of life all seeking guidance from Sister North. What is Sister North to each person? Can one person on earth embody the love, understanding and healing of God above? And if so, how? Is it right to make money off her “flock”? Each person’s relationship to Sister North is examined, and Sam learns more about himself as he understands others.

Overall the book was well written, entertaining and a quick and easy read. Kokoris introduces a plethora of characters, each unique and most are fairly well developed throughout the narrative, and it is likely that a reader can relate with at least one of them. This (possibly unintended) personalized reading experience thus creates a struggle between the relatively intense stories of some of the characters and the natural humor and wit of the author. As the book progresses, the humor becomes less consistent, to the point that its arrival becomes almost jarring. That doesn’t make it a bad book, it simply results in an overall narrative which does not live up to the expectations established in chapter one.½

After what seemed to me to be a clumsy start, this story of redemption of a flawed but likeable Charlie Baker found its footing. The dialogue is refreshingly funny and the characters well drawn. A few scenes are stilted and forced, but in all a good read.

On some level a humorous book but greed does not lead to happiness. Being in debt when you are making tons of money seems strange to me. However, it is a commentary on the life and times of many people now even if this is fiction.

I'd call this book a beach read, but it was a winter release, so I'll say it's a winter break read instead. This is a light and funny book, one that I would describe as the unisex version of chick lit, to be entirely convoluted. The novel is the story of Charlie Baker, an advertising CEO who loses his job and can't cope with the aftermath. Charlie is the stereotypical workaholic: three hours of sleep per night, little contact with his family, McMansion and SUV. In the wake of being fired Charlie has to try and make sense of his life, and repair his broken relationships with his wife and son. I found this novel to be light and humorous; a touching story that reads easily and quickly. I would certainly not describe this book as a deep statement on human nature or modernrity or anything like that, but enjoyable recreational reading nonetheless.

I'm probably not the intended audience for a book like this. I'm a female in her 30s that doesn't have a high stress, high paying, high travel job but I did enjoy the story. It was nice to get a glimpse of another lifestyle, one I don't expect to ever have. The main character, Charlie, was a likeable character despite his many flaws. The author did a great job of reminding us that we all have the same type of emotions regardless of how anyone acts or is perceived. Charlie was scared and embarrassed throughout most of the story but he was also hopeful, reflective and willing to change by the end. I liked Charlie's interactions with Matt and watching his friendship develop with Ned. What I'd really like to see is a follow-up novel with a story about Ned. I want to see what spectacular things he can do with his life, he's got great potential!

The Pursuit of Other Interests opens as 50-year-old Charlie Baker, head of a big Chicago ad agency, seems to be “losing it” -- and before long, we see that “it” isn’t merely his psychological stability but also his mega-salary job and possibly the wife and teenage son he’s ignored for years in favor of work.

Lest this sound like deep drama, it’s not; it’s instead a terrific “comfort read” -- a fun romp through the world of outplacement and a touching exploration of the opportunity that a mid-life/mid-career crisis provides to choose again (the same or differently) about one’s work, family, and life priorities. I so enjoyed Kokoris’s characters that I’m already working my way through his backlist and am eager for future releases.

(Review based on an advance reading copy provided by the publisher.)½

Charlie Baker was living the American dream. CEO of an advertising firm with an office overlooking Lake Michigan, a wife and son, a beautiful home in an exclusive neighborhood. Life was great and who could ask for more?

Then Charlie is fired without notice and finds himself stuck in a cubicle at an outplacement firm looking for employment. He soon realizes that he has no friends, his former employees hate him, he doesn’t know his son anymore and his marriage is in shambles.

Relevant to today’s economic times and delivered with just enough humor to keep you from becoming depressed, Jim Kokoris has written a modern tale of one man’s perseverance to rediscover and redefine himself after his life bottoms out.

Overall, this book was a very entertaining and fun read.

“The Pursuit of Other Interests” by Kokoris is a timely read in this economic downturn. I started the book with some apprehension that it wouldn’t really interest me but the author has made Charlie Baker, the downtrodden executive whose life has fallen into shambles, into a character I cared about. As he gets over his initial shock and anger over his job loss, Charlie begins a realistic transformation that life is not measured by the job you have. The author also makes the supporting cast of characters, his family and the outplacement people, into a laughable and likeable group.

In Pursuit of Other Interests is a well-written dark comedy with heart. The reader watches as the protagonist, Charlie, evolves from a self-obsessed workaholic with few redeeming qualities to a still flawed, but relatable family man. The transformation is impressive but not absurdly abrupt or extreme, and the realistic story is further improved by the author's excellent treatment of dialogue.

The Pursuit of Other Interests is a witty story of a high-powered adman who is fired, or "released." As someone who works in advertising, I could appreciate Charlie's (the main character) Type A personality and the baggage that comes along with it. As the novel unfolded, I most enjoyed watching Charlie grow from a self-absorbed mess into a man who becomes aware of those around him and what matters most. It was an enjoyable read – cute and clever, without being Saccharine – that I would recommend to others.½

When 50 year old Charlie Baker is laid off, he goes through all the stages of grieving...starting with denial. He cannot believe that he has lost his job...so much so that he at first does not even admit it to his family. Eventually, he does and discovers through his time at an outplacement firm, the life that he really has lost and the life he has gained.

This is a very funny book that makes many good points. Is it worth it???? The job and the prestige, the time away from the family???

I could not help but thinking this would be a great movie or play. The author has done a good job. Anyone who has ever had a job that they thought defined them would relate to this book.½

Very funny book. The story was certainly timely and interesting.

Don't be put off by the beginning of this book. I was ready to dismiss it as a predictable portrait of a shallow, overworked executive. But once Charlie Baker is fired, he becomes far more interesting. I love the way the reader gets to know him as he gets to know himself. Charlie does not even recognize his own life -- his McMansion is glossy and impersonal, his wife and son are practically strangers. Charlie has nowhere to go, so he spends his days at an employment center. The other out-of-work characters are real and poignant -- and funny. Gradually Charlie thaws out and becomes human again. Like warming up after frostbite, it's a painful process. I especially love Kokoris's descriptions of Charlie's son, Kyle. He seems to not be angry at his absent father, but sweetly befuddled by him. This book reminds me of a Tom Perotta novel, but without the unrelentingly dark view of humanity. The Pursuit of Other Interests is ultimately a hopeful book.