RanDumb-er

Author: Mark Hayes

Website:

Blog: http://trickaduu.com

RanDumb: http://amzn.to/pGtbqY

RanDumber: http://amzn.to/xunZDQ

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/trickaduu

Description: "From Beverly Hills mansions to Irish country lanes, super-yachts to side-alleys, howling cougars to psychotic nutters, stand-up spotlights to police helicopter searchlights, superstar highs to inner demon woes, along with so much more, Mark Hayes takes us on quite an adventure in RanDumb-er, the random but hardly dumb tales of an Irish chancer."

Review: After reading the existing reviews on this, I wondered if I had the same copy, or my worldview is completely distorted.

After the first two chapters, I definitely agreed with everyone; this was some really funny stuff, quick, random, wild, and bizarre. It was different and fun... but for a limited time.

Because this really defies classification in a genre, I am not going to knock points off because of the one-word sentences or random punctuation. But there should also be a limit to this type of thing, a balance.

And I hate to knock things down because of taste—I really try not to do that. There have to be other glaring problems, such as plot holes, editing, etc. I'm not sure there would be many editing concerns with this one, since the sentences are quick and punchy. And there really is no plot, but is that OK?

The basic premise is: Try to get going in LA, get career started. Meet girls, get drunk, have some sort of intimate encounter (usually only ones that benefit the author), wake up, regret everything, and try again. Because of this, the main character comes across as very self-centered, as if the world just spins for his own benefit. The same routine over and over really got to me for some reason, and though that is a matter of taste, it also rings of a "plot" problem.

I do not like to be the one to knock down a book like this. As I said, the first pages really got be because the style was out-there, and I figured things were going to get weird. They got weird, but then fell into a monotonous routine. I think this could have been a lot shorter, maybe even a long story/novella, and come across perfectly.

I was given a copy of this for review.

Additional Info: I did a little digging and something just seems a little odd about this. First I checked out RanDumb and its 90+ glowing reviews... OK, so I have no life apparently but something stuck in my craw and so I followed up. Then I checked out this one.

Only THREE other reviewers had reviewed any book (some had reviewed products, but I was only looking at books) other than Hayes' works. Only three. Out of almost 100 reviews for these two books, we only have three people who have reviewed anything else. And oddly, almost every review is 5 stars. Curiously, those who gave negative reviews had many other book reviews... but they get buried in the avalanche of five stars.

I can't say for sure what this means, but my instinct tells me something is up.