fujiwark

Scott Stein's "Mean Martin Manning" documents one man's transformative experience with "life-improvement" mandates. Protagonist Martin Manning has willfully shunned human contact for thirty years. Sustained by mail deliveries, he leads a life of quiet, anti-social leisure, inhabiting his apartment in an array of bathrobes and slippers. But when an uninvited knock on the door introduces him to Case

fujiwark

A funny satire about an individual342200231s rights in society. The protagonist342200231s quirks and annoyance at being disturbed make this dystopian novel fresh and engaging.

fufuakaspeechless

Potential spoilers. Absolutely brilliant. Mean Martin Manning is the story of a man who just wants to be left alone. He lives in his apartment and avoids all human contact. When a social worker attempts to "help" him by getting him to leave his apartment, a war of sorts is begun. Manning is forced to undergo therapy due to a new government bill. He resists help the entire time, forced to change his diet and his daily routine, and when things take a turn for the worse, things get very, very interesting. I love every aspect of this book. The whole process of getting him to leave his apartment, the "therapy", the escape, the revenge, the cliffhanger at the end...amazing. Manning is clearly the most intelligent person in the novel, and yet he is forced to change his life for the "better". This raises the issue of whether the government has the right to help us for our own good. Banning certain foods because they aren't healthy, for instance, is ridiculous. People should have a right to control their lives as long as they aren't hurting anyone else. Last but not least, I just have to say I think this would be an amazing movie. I could see it playing out in my head as I read the story. All in all, amazing book. Read it.

bibleeohfile

Author Scott Stein has crafted a very real and relatable world in his novel about a man who just wants to be left alone to live his life the way he wants. I wasn't quite sure if I was going to like this novel, but once I got into the story, the plot grabbed me and didn't let go. Martin, for all of his mean ways, is so relatable to anyone who lives in this day and age. Desiring to be left alone to enjoy his frogs and processed meats, all of that changes the day Alice Pitney knocks on Martin's front door. It seems several new laws have been passed while Martin has been shunning all human contact, allowing the state to decide what's 'best' for everyone. In Martin's case, Alice decides that what's best for him is no more processed meats, no more television, or clocks, or even the right to decide when the lights should be turned off. Martin isn't taking this lightly though, and he's absolutely determined not to cave into Alice's demands. His creative ways of getting out of group-bonding events and other acts of sabotage left me laughing, but what really made me smile was what happened after Martin struck out on his own. His acts of revenge, and the final few paragraphs of the novel, had me smiling the whole time I was reading. I won't spoil the ending for you, but I will say that I should have seen it coming. (And it's hysterical!) It's not all light-hearted reading though; there are a lot of serious issues inside this novel, several of which I've discussed previously with both "$everance" and "Junk." Zagorski and Martin both plan out acts of sabotage against the people in charge, although Zagorski is only fighting for his severance check; Martin is fighting for the right to wear a bathrobe if he wants to. And just like in "Junk," there's a whole war on food going on, although this time it's not so much a general banning of things, but more of a centralized discrimination against the people that the state has decided can't make their own choices anymore. It's scary when you think that one day, someone in 'power' could decide that you no longer have the right to make your own choices anymore, that you aren't capable of deciding what foods to eat. "Junk" takes it farther, but still for Martin it's a fairly traumatic turning point. If you're in the mood for a funny, sarcastic, well-plotted book with a side of social issues, I highly recommend "Mean Martin Manning."