Summary and Reviews of A Changed Man by Francine Prose

A Changed Man by Francine Prose

A Changed Man

by Francine Prose
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  • First Published:
  • Mar 1, 2005, 421 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Feb 2006, 448 pages
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About This Book

Book Summary

Masterfully plotted, darkly comic, A Changed Man illuminates the everyday transactions in our lives, exposing what remains invisible in plain sight in our drug-addled and media-driven culture.

On an unseasonably warm spring afternoon, a young neo-Nazi named Vincent Nolan walks into the Manhattan office of World Brotherhood Watch, a human rights foundation headed by a charismatic Holocaust survivor, Meyer Maslow. Vincent announces that he wants to make a radical change in his life. But what is Maslow to make of this rough-looking stranger who claims to have read Maslow's books, who has Waffen-SS tattoos under his shirtsleeves, and who says that his mission is to save guys like him from becoming guys like him?

As he gradually turns into the sort of person who might actually be able to do that, Vincent also transforms those around him: Maslow, who fears that heroism has become a desk job; Bonnie Kalen, the foundation's fund-raiser, a divorced single mother and a devoted believer in Maslow's crusade against intolerance and injustice; and Bonnie's teenage son, Danny, whose take on the world around him is at once openhearted, sharp-eyed, and as fundamentally decent as his mother's.

Masterfully plotted, darkly comic, A Changed Man illuminates the everyday transactions in our lives, exposing what remains invisible in plain sight in our drug-addled and media-driven culture. Remarkable for the author's tender sympathy for her characters, A Changed Man poses the essential questions: What constitutes a life worth living? Is it possible to change? What does it mean to be a moral human being? The fearless intelligence, wit, and humanity that inform this novel make it Francine Prose's most accomplished yet.

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Reviews

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BookBrowse

If you think you'd enjoy a 'comedy of manners' which fairly gently skewers the middle-classes then this might be one for you; but if you're anticipating a book that digs deep you might be disappointed...continued

Full Review (338 words)

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Beyond the Book



Francine Prose is the author of about 20 books, including Blue Angel (2000) which was a finalist for the National Book Award; she is considered one of America's sharpest cultural satirists. She says "I really do love my characters...I don't find them guilty of anything that I'm not guilty of myself."

She says she was inspired to write A Changed Man after seeing two skinheads on the New York subway, all dressed up with jackboots and shaved heads, but looking terrified - it was clear to her that they were out of their element, which made her curious about what kind of people they were. Later she saw a middle-aged man with hair growing over his tattoos, one of which looked like a swastika and she thought 'this is...

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Read-Alikes

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