Man of the House by Ad Hudler

Release date: 2008 / 294

Synopsis (from back cover): For 14 years Linc Menner stayed at home to take care of his daughter and executive wife, surprising his female-caregiver peers with incredible cooking and creative, strict parenting. But the man who found his inner-woman in Househusband meets his match… and begins to crack in Hudler’s brilliant follow-up novel…

First line: “Let me tell you about the screwed-up state of things in our house these days. We have no kitchen.”

Review: I’m so thrilled to review this novel — it is wonderful. Funny, thought-provoking, page-turning, well-written, did I mention funny? I had not read Househusband (but immediately requested it once I finished Man of the House), and did not need the background of the first novel at all. In fact, after the first chapter, I had a list of people I couldn’t wait to recommend it to — including all of my readers!

I read it in one sitting, in about 3 1/2 hours. The week prior I had read — and enjoyed — a nonfiction work about the horrific state of AIDS in Ethiopia, a novel about the Holocaust, and a mystery about a talented, but haunted alcoholic who made his fame by mining the misfortunes of others. So, needless to say, I desperately needed Man of the House to be exactly what it was. My husband hit the links and I hit the deck and didn’t take my nose out of the novel until I was finished.

Linc is who I’m afraid I might have been as a stay-at-home mom — well-intentioned, but obsessive, shooting off emails whenever I perceived an injustice that may or may not have directly affected my off-spring, impervious to the derision of other neighborhood mothers. So, I was immediately hooked.

But then Linc notices, through the course of extensive house repairs, that he is really not like the men traipsing in and out of his home, and decides he would like to be. So, he jumps into a crash course of “Manly Man 101″ and the results are very funny…

The only plot line that wasn’t needed was the obsessive English teacher. She was too much of a cartoon character for my liking — and honestly wasn’t needed, even as a plot device. Linc, his daughter and his wife were more than sufficient to keep the story rolling, in my opinion.

So, I would LOVE to pass along this light-hearted romp through the joys and challenges of domesticity and marriage… Simply leave me a comment and I’ll put in the running!

Welcome back!