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Blood Test
Blood Test: A Comedy | Charles Baxter
3 posts | 3 read | 4 to read
From the winner of the PEN/Malamud Award and one of our most gifted writers (Chicago Tribune) comes a comic novel about a divorced Midwestern dad who takes a cutting-edge medical test and learns that he has a predisposition to murder. In this fresh take on love and trouble in America, Brock Hobson, an insurance salesman and Sunday-school teacher, finds his equilibrium disturbed by the results of a predictive blood test. Baxter, a master storyteller, brings us a gradually building rollercoaster narrative, and a protagonist who is impertinent, searching, and hilariously relatable. From his good-as-gold, gentle girlfriend to the macho subcontractor guy his ex-wife left him for, not to mention his well-raised teenage kids, now exploring sex and sexuality, the secondary characters in Brock's life all contribute meaningfully to the drama, as increasing challenges to his sense of self and purpose crash over him. The final battleno spoilers, but there is onecouldn't be more delightful, as this quick and bracing novel reminds us to choose the best people to love, accept the ones we love even if we didnt choose them, and love them all well.
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review
Hooked_on_books
Blood Test: A Comedy | Charles Baxter
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Panpan

When the #TOBlonglist came out, this one looked right up my alley. A man gets a new blood test that tells him he has a tendency for criminality and will kill someone, but it‘s funny. Problem is, it‘s not so funny (but thinks it is), then takes a wild turn away from the premise halfway through and doesn‘t hold together. I wish I had bailed.

ChaoticMissAdventures That is a bummer. Many of the books on the list this year seem to be wild misses for a lot of people. 4h
36 likes1 comment
review
Megabooks
Blood Test: A Comedy | Charles Baxter
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Pickpick

Serendipitously, I was reading this #toblonglist choice when it was announced. It was what I needed at the moment. Offbeat weird funny book that isn‘t sticking with me at all. I liked it, but you don‘t need to run out and read it. 🤷🏻‍♀️

A mild-mannered man gets a blood test that predicts a life of criminality in his future. He immediately goes and shoplifts gardening shears. Things just get wackier from there. #tob25

BarbaraBB Another one I can skip 😅 2mo
74 likes1 stack add1 comment
review
OwenB
Blood Test: A Comedy | Charles Baxter
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Mehso-so

The title states it as a comedy but it‘s just an overall odd subject. A brief read that kept me interested to see what happens to the main character. I didn‘t love it or hate it. Quite different than I‘ve read before. A good length as any longer and I would have probably lost interest.