Tomcat in Love

In Tomcat in Love O'Brien introduces us to a very different hero: "In summary, then, my circumstances were these. Something over forty-nine years of age. Recently divorced. Pursued. Prone to late-night weeping. Betrayed not once but threefold: by the girl of my dreams, by her Pilate of a brother, and by a Tampa real-estate tycoon whose name I have vowed never again to utter." Thomas H. Chippering, professor of linguistics, war hero, and sex magnet--in his own mind, at least, has recently lost his childhood sweetheart and wife of 20 years to another man, the Tampa magnate, and Lorna Sue's desertion has clearly unhinged him. He has taken to flying down to Tampa from Minnesota on weekends to spy on his ex-wife and plot revenge against her, the tycoon, and Lorna Sue's brother, Herbie, whom he blames for destroying his marriage.

Thomas, Lorna Sue, and Herbie go back a long way together, bound equally by ties of love, guilt, and suspicion. Dating from the afternoon young Herbie nailed an even younger Lorna Sue's hand to a makeshift cross, Thomas has occupied a kind of emotional no man's land between the two: "In my bleakest moods, when black gets blackest, I think of it as a high perversion: Herbie coveted his own sister. Which is a fact. The stone truth. He was in love with her. More generously, I will sometimes concede that it was not sexual love, or not entirely, and that Herbie was driven by the obsessions of a penitent, a torturer turned savior. Partly, too, I am quite certain that Herbie secretly associated me with his own guilt. I was present at the beginning. My backyard, my plywood, my green paint."

Chippering takes his revenge to hilarious lengths, starting with a purple leather bra and panties stuffed beneath the seat of the tycoon's car and escalating from there. But even as he attempts to wreak havoc in his ex-wife's life, he succeeds in laying ruin to his own. His self-proclaimed irresistibility to women gets him in hot water with both his female students and his administration; his obsession with Lorna Sue threatens his budding romance with Mrs. Robert Kooshof, a woman who loves him as his wife never did--and, oh yes, there's that little matter of the squad of Green Berets he crossed many years before in Vietnam who may or may not be hunting him down.

Once you get over the shock of this new, funny Tim O'Brien, traces of the writer you thought you knew begin to surface. Chippering might be a pompous, overbearing windbag, but you can't trust him any more than you did any of O'Brien's other earthier, equally unreliable narrators. In one breath, he tells us, "I must in good conscience point out that women find me attractive beyond words. And who on earth could blame them?" In the next he describes himself as resembling "a clean-shaven version of our sixteenth president." Half the fun of reading Tomcat in Love is trying to sort out just how much of what Thomas H. Chippering tells us is true. Stellar writing, a brilliant cast of characters, and a sly, surprising story that breaks your heart one minute and tickles your funny bone the next all make Tim O'Brien's first foray into the comic novel a resounding success. --Alix Wilber

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

A change of pace for Tim O'Brian, 2008-09-13
I've read all of his books...liked some... loved some...Lake of the Woods is a masterpiece..."Tomcat" shows us some new creativity in his writing and creation of characters...read it...you won't be dissapointed.


2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

Underrated, 2007-07-16
Though this book isn't the literay masterpiece that "The Things They Carried" is it is still an enjoyable read that rings true. The descriptions of the main character's heartbreak and his mixed feelings at being betrayed are dead on. I love how he examines language and the loaded meaning of words once imbued with personal meaning. Yes, the main character is dislikeable in many ways (this is completely on purpose) but despite all his pompous flaws I still liked him. He is a sort of exageration of character flaws that are in many of us. Because he is at times dislikeable it also allows the reader to laugh at his predicaments without having to feel sorry for him. I found the book hilarious, all the characters to be well-developed, and the depiction of lost first love and betrayal perfect.


1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Crazy at first sight, sweet in the end, 2007-04-26
This book is a easy read at the beginning. It starts with some childhood memory like a lot of other books. Then it became hard to read all that Tommy's craziness and obsessive behaviour. At last, alas, it ended with common sense and some bitter sweet twist.

You need to be patient to read through all those pages, and in many ways, all those loose ends.


1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

Tomcat in Love: I am Not in Love, 2007-02-14
This novel tries to be funny, but the satire falls flat and the whole thing quickly becomes totally tedious. I bailed after 75 pages.


1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

Satire at its finest..., 2006-10-29
The many recent negative reviews for this amazing work of literature sadden me greatly. Granted, I may be a bit biased as a huge fan of O'Brien's other books; but, this is certainly not a typical piece of Tim O'Brien fiction.

The main character, Thomas Chippering is self-centered to the extreme, very critical of others, incapable of listening, and obnoxiously perfectionist when it comes to language and word usage. Yet, O'Brien makes it work. Through his faults and sins, we are presented with an intelligent criticism of gender and relationships in contemporary society and perhaps an insight to why we (yes, I am including you in this) behave the way we do. His faults are over-the-top and at points even unforgivable, but aren't they merely magnifications of things of which we are all guilty? His character is wonderfully drawn. All of the side narratives (which at points seem slightly disordered, yet contribute to sense that Thomas is hiding something not only from the reader, but himself as well) tie the story together quite nicely. Chippering makes the proper character advancements, learning things about himself and others through an often-humorous series of mistakes and misunderstandings. However, it isn't unbelievable. He doesn't have some great epiphany that makes him not-sexist or egotistical. He improves. He stays a flawed human, as we all are and will remain.

I will concede that the story itself is outrageous at points. But a true realist like Tim O'Brien keeps it believable. His wit is sharp and his sense of satire and irony are among the keenest I've ever come across. The story is also heart-warming, an endearing look at love and the crazy lengths people will go to for it.

Humor. Sympathy. Tenderness. Social criticism. Self-criticism. Read it. It's all here. You'll love it.

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