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    Maynard and Jennica
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    Maynard and Jennica
    Unavailable
    Maynard and Jennica
    Ebook352 pages5 hours

    Maynard and Jennica

    By Rudolph Delson

    3.5/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this ebook

    A brilliantly inventive comic love-story, set in and around New York at the beginning of the 21st century.

    Maynard is a defeated musician, a reformed misanthrope who makes a hobby of surreptitiously filming the fashion faux pas of New York City subway commuters. On an uptown Number Six Train, in the summer of 2000, he meets Jennica, a nostalgic Californian and Princeton graduate who calculates that she's been lonesome 68.53% of her adult life. It is hardly love at first sight. But when they meet again at Maynard's film screening, their romance does indeed blossom. And as with most things in life, everyone has an opinion.

    In the case of Maynard and Jennica, everyone includes: many living and some dead relatives, a blond-bombshell Russian-Israeli scam artist, a hip-hop impresario, a shabby lawyer, a long-lost friend and a writer for The New Yorker. Exuberantly illuminating much that is true and often horrifying about our times, page-turning and wryly funny, Maynard and Jennica remains at heart a love story. Delson has given us a pair of lovers who are human, flawed, complex, at once eccentric and deeply familiar – and in whose story we continue to feel invested long after we've turned the last page.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateSep 4, 2008
    ISBN9780007285600
    Unavailable
    Maynard and Jennica
    Author

    Rudolph Delson

    RUDOLPH DELSON quit his job as a lawyer on the eve of his thirtieth birthday to finish Maynard and Jennica. Born in San Jose, California, he now lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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    Reviews for Maynard and Jennica

    3.5/5

    61 ratings11 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      This book had a really great writing style and a few likable characters. Quirky fun read.
    • 4/5
      Recommended by Diane E. and Nancy S.Very clever and enjoyable read. The story is told through a series of observations by a variety of characters, some of whom are directly involved in the story and others who are ancillary players. The author was able to capture the personalities of the characters via relatively short monologues and dialogues. Definitely a fun read!
    • 4/5
      Reads like an interview. Very clever and witty, straight to the point love story told from many different points of view. The characters are down to earth and easy to relate to....i could see a lot of myself in Jennica, the flighty non-commital dreamer.....although i'm not flighty or non-commital and am a realist...come to think of it we have nothing in common and yet i could still identify with her, rudolph delson is a genius! Highly recommended.
    • 3/5
      (from my blog, b/c I am lazy)I don't remember how I heard about Maynard & Jennica, by Rudolph Delson. Doesn't really matter - it ended up on my list so I requested it from the library. It's billed as a love story, with a lot of minor characters. In this it is perhaps like Beginner's Greek. But this is missing a lot of the sweet. You're not rooting against these lovers, but I'm not convinced that you like them very much.I'm having trouble knowing what to say about the book, and perhaps that's because it is a very talky novel. It's a little like a written documentary - a series of (mostly) monologues by a variety of different characters, explaining what's happening from their point of view. And the characters include family, childhood friends, a kid on the subway, and a rap artist. Somehow this all makes sense. And they all have plenty to say, mainly about an ambitious California girl seeking an "illustrious" life in NYC, and a completely pretentious filmmaker who dresses like he's someone's grandpa. These are Jennica (aka Jenny) & Maynard (aka Arnie, aka Manny, aka Gogi). And these monologues are introduced like this: "Maynard Gogarty, in paradise, tells us something he isn't certain of." The uncertain thing, by the way, is whether Jennica knows he can be a jerk. Jennica follows up by being uncertain about whether or not he plans to propose.Anyway, etc. etc. For just under 300 pages. Also there is September 11, and a really fantastic indictment of the way non-New Yorkers appropriated the city's grief. (I'm not entirely sure I agree, seeing as how I was not exactly innocent of the charge and seeing as how the attacks were on a nation, not just a city, but nonetheless...) And some very funny moments. Which is all to say... what? I liked it; I did. Maybe despite myself.
    • 3/5
      If you like the kind of movie where someone behind the camera interviews people to get an outside perspective on the situation, or on the people in the story, you'll like this book. In learning about the titular Maynard and Jennica we hear from 35 different characters, from family members to the building super to casual observers who may or may not stick to the point of the story, which adds to the offbeat charm of the novel. Debut novelist Delson has crafted two very distinctive characters, has thrown them together in a creative way, and has surrounded them with a quirky cast of supporting characters. Maynard and Jennica, and their hit and miss romance, are as appealing as their eponymous novel.
    • 1/5
      The single star rating simply means this did not work for me. You may think differently. If it was an audio CD it would probably have one of those parental advisory stickers on, since it is quite explicit in places. Not that the author need worry, I always suspect those stickers do more to help than hinder sales!
    • 4/5
      I just picked this up in the airport yesterday, but it was just one of those books that I couldn't put down. "Maynard and Jennica" is the story of, yes, Maynard Gogarty and Jennica Green, but told through their eyes...as well as the eyes of everyone around them, from friends and family to a subway conductor and an artist. As it says on the back, sweetly and succinctly: "Love, fate, and the number 6 train." Admittedly, some of the characters take forever to get to the point - the action's a little slow at the beginning. But it picks up by the time you get to Part Two (And Delson's brilliant at characterization) and pieces start to really fit together. I found Maynard interesting even if Jennica was never quite likable (her parents and her "ex" best friend do their best to point out her faults, which prove rather plausible through her actions). The character Ana, however, was a little odd, if completely unbelievable at times. Although I do like her method when it comes to NYC taxis! Recommended as a light read.
    • 4/5
      A romantic comedy about neurotic Manhattanites that is also a first novel can very easily go horribly wrong. This did not. It definitely took some getting into, however. The title characters never become entirely likable people, but I definitely have friends who sometimes act like them. Not to mention that I have friends who would definitely say that I sometimes act like them. The supporting cast is very charismatic, fortunately. And I love books with multiple narrators.Picked it up despite the 9/11 angle rather than because of it, but I was fine with how that was handled. There is a rant that could put some people off, but I have heard very similar things from real-life friends in the city.A favorite line : "And really, I don't believe that I deserve anyone's sympathy. I indulge myself with these tables of data, but I don't think my life is as sad as, like, Wuthering Heights, or Love in the Time of Cholera, or Dave Eggers, or whatever."
    • 3/5
      Told from the viewpoint of multiple narrators, this romantic novel and its characters just didn't grab me.
    • 3/5
      I picked this book up full of enthusiasm and excited about something that seemed very different. This diminished within pages. It takes a while to get used the style of the book. The tale of how Maynard and Jennica meet and their relationship is told by them and the other characters in snippets, as if they are being interviewed by someone. It really did take me a while to get going with it. It's short enough which meant that as I wasn't thrilled with it I was able to persevere. I was pleased I did, even though it still didn't become brilliant. There were too many characters and I wished I had read Part Five at the beginning as this is an explanation of who all the characters are. They are called "a list of speakers in this comedy" which links in with the idea that all the world's a stage (Richard III?). It was good to read how other characters perceived the decisions that Maynard and Jennica made but it just became confusing at times. The best bit for me was the inside of the dust jacket with both characters explaining how to select a book. I reached the end feeling that nothing much had happened. I'm hoping that Maynard & Jennica keep their life to this short documentary and don't produce the sequel.
    • 2/5
      Disappointing ending. Humorous, interesting concept with the 5-bajillion narrators telling one story. I think I'd like to have coffee with the author - I bet he's very amusing company. The book kind of stunk though. That being said, I would read another book by him as I think he has a lot of potential