See the hottest books publishing this Summer

What readers think of Defending Jacob, plus links to write your own review.

Summary |  Excerpt |  Reading Guide |  Reviews |  Beyond the book |  Read-Alikes |  Genres & Themes |  Author Bio

Defending Jacob by William Landay

Defending Jacob

A Novel

by William Landay
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (4):
  • Readers' Rating (33):
  • First Published:
  • Jan 31, 2012, 432 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Feb 2013, 496 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Reviews

Page 5 of 5
There are currently 33 reader reviews for Defending Jacob
Order Reviews by:

Write your own review!

Patricia B. (Columbia, SC)

Defending Jacob/WLanday/Book Review
Mr. Landay gets carried away with himself trying to have the main character, Jacob's father, explain himself to the reader. This is annoying and unnecessary. He has his character assuming he knows what the reader must be thinking. Stop this!
The book labors in many places throughout. It seems to pick up most in the dialogue which moves the story forward better than the author/character's attempts at convincing the reader how smart or hip he is. There was a story to be told here, but Landay took too long to tell it. I had to force myself to keep reading this book and could take it in only carefully meted out doses.
The book is apparently more about a human being's extreme denial of anything approaching reality. If the reader is suppose to dislike the father, then Mr. Landay accomplished this. The book was all about the supposed intelligent father who was a perfect example of the ability of the male species's inability to see reality and deal with it head on. This book needs a lot of editing and revising before it is published. It was hit and miss over and over. A lot can be thrown out to tighten it up and make it a more compelling and powerful story. Please tell me the final copy will be a much more fine-tuned piece of work. Otherwise, I cannot recommend it to anyone to read. The reader has to struggle too much to enjoy the writing.

Beyond the Book:
  Courtroom Drama

BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    The Ghostwriter
    by Julie Clark
    From the instant New York Times bestselling author of The Last Flight and The Lies I Tell comes a dazzling new thriller.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Songs of Summer
    by Jane L. Rosen

    A young woman crashes a Fire Island wedding to find her birth mother—and gets more than she bargained for.

  • Book Jacket

    Erased
    by Anna Malaika Tubbs

    In Erased, Anna Malaika Tubbs recovers all that American patriarchy has tried to destroy.

Who Said...

The good writer, the great writer, has what I have called the three S's: The power to see, to sense, and to say. ...

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

B a L

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.