CHARACTERS: 3.5/5
WRITING STYLE: 3.5/5
CLIMAX: 3.5/5
ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3.5/5
For most of us, it takes a long time to figure out what we really want to do, what we are capable of doing, and what society will allow us to do.
By the time we do make head or tail of the life that has been given to us and the talent bestowed on us, the best years would have passed and we’ll be saddled with responsibilities that you simply cannot escape from, not unless you are willing to cruelly leave the people depending on you in the cold.
So, when you come across a book that seemingly charts the journey of the central character from childhood to what appears to be a successful solution to this complex question of what to do with life, the tendency is to dismiss it with a wave of the hand and treat it with nothing more than another book which assumes everything will work out.
But that’s perhaps where you would be wrong with Bodhi Alvarez’s “Masturbating with Strangers”.
The caption itself reads “Kill the dream and live beyond the clouds”, which should give the reader an inkling that it’s not your average story about a guy making his dreams come true.
The book is about Kevin Saunders and his attempts at becoming successful, whatever that meant.
The reader is introduced to the main characters at the Mardi Gras and the theme continues throughout the book, incessantly and unwaveringly.
It is definitely not one for a prude as I certainly lost count of the number of times the word “fuck” comes around, and perhaps even Martin Scorsese would hesitate to put in if he were to make this into a movie.
But here’s the thing: when the characters speak such a language, it makes perfect sense and the words are not out of place at all.
Would you expect a down in the dumps Kevin to be all nice if his life was going to the dogs and all he had to look forward to was mountains of student debt and no scope to get a job at all? Of course not.
Would you expect his best friend Trevor, who helps him out when Kevin decides to take matters into his own hands and who’s always constantly on the lookout for the next woman to get laid with to be the most polite guy around? Obviously not.
The language and the setting suit the characters and the plot to perfection.
As you might have already guessed, the story revolves around Kevin trying to do his best to do what successful people are supposed to, which is to land a great job, buy a car and a house, and marry that cute wife.
But even though he has the brains, it just doesn’t work for him.
Towards the end of his MBA, when all he can see is a bleak future of scraping enough money to meet his student loan obligations for a degree he only decided to do because it was supposed to make him successful, he hatches a plan to get away from it all, taking Trevor’s help.
How it all pans out for Kevin makes “Masturbating with Strangers” a very interesting read.