Carlos Andres Gomez

This memoir, while written with good intention, fails to reach its goal of recreating the way men see each other, their lives, and the world. Gomez is tripped up by his own writing style. I believe he was attempting to capture his persona at the time he is writing about, but it generally just comes off childish and immature with little in-depth adult reflection. The memoir is divided by topic (not all of which even deal with masculinity), meaning that his life stories are divided up and jump constantly through time. This leads to a lot of repetition of events and details as the author has to reestablish his setting every time he tells a new story. While Gomez does have some powerful moments to share, most of them are everyday experiences exaggerated to the point of non-belief or so ordinary to the human experience that they do little for the message in the novel.… (more)

I liked the authors approach to unraveling what some label as a complex generation. Gomez spells it out! I was able to pass the good read along to several young men who found it informative and relative to what they were experiencedaor had once in their life. The media paints a negative picture to what may simply be a young male trying to find his way in this world. We have been condition to label someone as a predator if he dresses a certain way or appears to be too aggressive . Spenindg more time helping and less time judging may solve be the solution to solving what appears to be a problem… (more)

A very entertaining memoir! Despite the title, that is really what this book was, in my opinion. As a woman, I've been pretty curious about the "male perspective." I knew it had to be more than the stereotypical image of a man that society paints. Anyway, in between is a usually emotional poem that that sets the mood for the next chapter. This novel is written in first person and details the different chapters in Gomez's life.

I really liked how honest Gomez was. He didn't gloss over his personal failings or hide his feelings from the reader. He left it to the audience to decide their own opinion, which is a brave thing to do. Aside from that, the writing was superb. It's no surprise, since he's a poet, but you can really see his talent in weaving such descriptive pictures with his words. His thoughts were concise and clear and I could easily understand what he was trying to say. Nothing pleases me more than a book that I can understand!

I'm very specific about the memoirs. I especially don't like ones that try to manipulate your feelings. In a way, Gomez does but his method is so brilliantly subtle, I don't even feel like I'm forced to feel something. I recommend this book to both male and female readers alike. It might resonate better with men but I think women could learn quite a bit things from this book too. However, because of his honest and clear thoughts, this book might not be good material for our younger readers.

Won in a giveaway in return for an honest review… (more)