June
16
Tags
The Wonder Lover by Malcolm Knox
This is a man’s book. Actually it is a multi – functional man’s book. First you can read it and marvel at what it tells you about male behaviour; then you can thump the nearest guy across the head with it.
Written by Australian author Malcolm Knox (otherwise known for Jamaica, The Life and Summerland), this is a fictional equivalent of Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus and should be compulsory reading for any mixed book club.
The Wonder Lover tells the story of John Wonder who is running a life with three wives and families in different countries each ignorant of the others. As if three women weren’t enough, he develops a pathetic man crush on a fourth woman who he believes needs him more than all of the rest put together.
I won’t lie, this farcical premise was annoying at first. As if anyone can have three families in different countries that don’t know about each other and as if each wife has a boy and a girl both named Adam and Evie. I mean seriously? But as soon as put my Venus tendencies aside, it became obvious this was not the story of John Wonder but rather menfolk in general. Each woman holds a different type of appeal and satisfies a different emotional need to a man who sways between thinking of himself as a living legend one day and a pathetic coward the next.
The story is cleverly narrated by a single voice of his 6 children representing the silent damage of his deceit.
I make no secret of my love for this author Malcolm Knox. To me, his books shine a light into the dark and often creepy recesses of the male brain. Whilst his writing style, pace and tone can vary dramatically from book to book, his male world view is the starting point of all of his stories. After reading this one, I’d be interested to meet his wife.
And that is just my 2 cents worth.
Readhead 
Keen to read this one. Malcolm K is also a great sports journo – a surfing cricket writer.
Good pickup Ms L, although I like to think of him as just a full time novelist. To me, he is the next Peter Carey or Tim Winton in terms of great Australian male writers. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it once you’ve finished it.
I found this hard going too. I wondered whether John Wonder suffered from some sort of Autism, in the same flavour as The Rosie Project? No eye contact, overthinking intellectually without any emotional connection etc. Wanted to connect to him and become empathetic, but the lack of personality stopped me and it was very frustrating. The over analytical text (even though it’s a brilliant tool the author has used that coincides with the character of John Wonder) got me lost numerous times. Couldn’t finish the book even though I wanted to!!
Great feedback and I completely agree he was blank – I think the no smell thing tied into that as well. For what it is worth, I think it all got significantly better in the end and although it was tough at times I actually really enjoyed it. Now I just have to decide what to read next. Mmmm