Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Hooked by John Franc- Book Review

Let me preface this review of Hooked by John Franc with this- this is a book for mature audiences simply due to the topic rather than what is contained within. I write this with the warning that I will have to discuss in this review what is contained within the book. A simple warning.

Hooked reads like a giant dream sequence. There are no chapter breaks, no spaces between paragraphs, time doesn't matter as we move forward days or months or years, girls flow into one another, and places blur into one another. Most of the book (except the last 2% or so) is written in first person plural. Yes, you read that right, first person plural.

It tells the story of a group of men who begin their journey into brothels. At first they are tentative, they stumble, they dare each other to go first, and they kid each other after.

One brothel turns into another, which turns into another, and a journey of traveling from brothel to brothel from one country to another begins. The prices vary, the girls vary, and the experiences change. They spend extreme amounts of cash to experience 30 minutes of pleasure.

In the meantime, they also have families. Either one or each has a wife with three kids- one teen, one pre-teen, and one child. The further they delve into their life, the further their families become. They start mistrusting their wives as their wives mistrust them. They lose their relationships with their children. 

This all builds until one of their sisters-in law shows up stating one of their wives has not been heard from in several weeks and one of the friends have disappeared. Even in the midst of this they continue to visit brothels, although the visits begin to lose their luster. What happened to their friend and their friend's family?

What I found interesting about this book, besides the first person plural, is there is very little sex within this book about brothels. In fact, as I am trying to remember (I am writing this a few days after reading it), I am not sure there is one sex scene. It is as if the sex doesn't really matter to these men as the experience of picking the women and the anticipation of sex matters more. The sex is just one more thing, until the next time they can get to another brothel.

This book is one of the reasons I love Tin House books. Even with the subject matter, which may be a turn off to some, the amount of depth in this little book is astounding. A few days later and I am still thinking about the book and the messages around desire, lust, and ultimately addiction. Plug in drugs and you can still write the same book. Plug in gambling and it is still the same book. Brothels are these men's drug of choice.

Much has been written on the choice of the first person plural as representing all men. In fact, as this group go from one to another, they see other groups of men and they are always in a group. It is always a plural.

This is obviously not a book for everyone, but I found it well worth the read as I continue down my Tin House rabbit hole.

I gave this one 4 stars. Give it a try.

Here is your Amazon link- Hooked by John Franc

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