I wanted to like this book very much but I did not like one single character. By the middle of the book I was begging for someone to cheer for. That person never showed up.

This was a very pleasant surprise. Low on reading material I thought, "what the heck, not my usual thing" but one can only read so many crime/murder/serial killer books. An insightful look at love, relationships, commitment, and monogamy, I have to rate this quite highly. Thank you for an enjoyable read.

Great idea for a book and really well executed. A thoroughly good read. Highly recommended. .

Not for me at all - I could NOT get into this book. I tried really hard! It was well-written -- just not my thing.

2.5 Stars

Wow, this book took me awhile to read...as in months! I would pick it up, read a little, get bored and then put it back down for awhile. I just could never fully give myself to Rich’s story. I did feel his pain during part of the book though. Lagging marriage, kids, 40ish, but the part that got me was finding someone else at the retreat because his life was monotonous and boring. Either fix it or jump ship! I know this doesn’t bother everyone in a book, but it does me. So whatever it’s worth, I kind of got bored with Rich’s complaining and lack to fix what was broken.

The writing in this book wasn’t awful, in fact it was pretty good. But I just couldn’t get past Rich...and well, since that’s who the book is ultimately about, I guess I’ll stick with my 2.5 stars.

A hard book to get into and a story about a very real, but unhappy topic. Rich longs for a different life. He's in a rut in every aspect of his everyday life. One week a year he teaches an art class at a seminar by the sea. There he meets Amy who is as unhappy as Rich is. Together they try to help each other through what to me sounds like a mid-life crisis. No happy ending here.

I got more than halfway through this book before I decided to call it quits. I just didn't care - Rich annoyed me, Amy was confusing, and Robin was just awful. None of these characters drew me in and I had no investment in the plot - I just saw no reason to continue. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC, but not something I can strongly recommend.

Am OK with books where you don't like the characters particularly, but not where tyou don't care about them. there was little to keep me intrigued in this book

Matthew Klam's debut short story collection, Sam the Cat, was a revelation when it appeared in 2001: His was a completely original voice, funny, honest, insightful, and moving all at once. More than a decade-and-a-half later, he returns with his first novel -- a rich, fully, moving portrait of four days in the life of a not-quite-washed-up graphic novelist. There's infidelity and awkward sex, compulsive (and potentially ruinous) purchases, and some pathos and a lot of soul-searching. Highly recommended.

I had a hard time with this book. I tried and tried to get into it but was unable to connect with the main character. He seems so whiny and unlikable that it was hard to focus on the story. Add that to the almost stream of consciousness style of writing and I unfortunately had to step away.

Random House and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Who is Rich? I was under no obligation to review this publication and my opinion is freely given.

Rich Fischer is a cartoonist with an out of print book to his name, an unstable job at magazine, mounting debt, with a wife and two kids. Each summer, he sheds off his life to teach a class at a week long arts conference in a New England beach community. Morals get left behind, as Rich embarks on a personal journey that threatens the world outside his temporary little bubble.

I was not a fan of this book, from the writing style, to the characters, and to the plot. Rich is a poor excuse for a man, although his wife is no prize either. I was hopeful that Who Is Rich? would be a journey of self discovery for the main character, but he really learned nothing from his time away from his family. I never felt connected to any of the characters, nor did I feel engaged with regards to the story itself. Who Is Rich? is not a book that I would recommend to other readers, for the above stated reasons.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Random House for allowing me to read this book. I will have to say that this was not to my liking. Rich is a cartoonist who had his fame way back when and still can't get over that he will never be what he was before. Married with children, it is a story about unhappy people and the emotional and eventually physical affairs he has while teaching on Cape Cod every year which he does just to get away from the family. It starts with him whining and complaining and ends with just about the same. Nothing about this book appealed to me, but the descriptions are well written.

I liked the first few chapters and the voice of the narrator, but had a hard time staying interested even though I did finish it. I read this one on my iPhone for many months via netgalley.com. I’m a little surprised at all the glowing reviews in professional venues.

I did not finish this book after the first few chapters.

I appreciate the author's storytelling efforts, but this novel failed to hold my attention.

Several layers comprise the titular question here.

The most obvious is our hero, Rich Fischer, a cartoonist on the verge of becoming a has-been. His novel, with all of its accolades and sales figures, has gone out of print, and the magazine at which he works might go out of business. Rich is both a devoted husband and father and a philanderer (who happens to be devoted to his girlfriend). He's an engaging professor at an annual summer conference and utterly ambivalent about the gig. He knows better, yet he makes some truly ridiculous decisions.

There is a social class layer, too. Matthew Klam describes his wealthy characters and enclaves with precision. Rich seems to be surrounded by people with money, whereas he has nothing. Less than nothing, actually, because Rich owes a lot of people a lot of money. Rich is decidedly not rich, at least not financially speaking.

Rich's girlfriend Amy adds another layer. You have a far stronger sense of what her house looks like than Rich's. She's married to a man who makes 120 million a year. That's right. He makes ten million a MONTH. He's also bald and fat, and he treats her deplorably. This seems to be an intentional symbol on Klam's part. Amy tries to combat her flagrant wealth by performing Good Works, but those seem more self-serving than anything else.

You could even argue that Rich's love life reflects the title. He has both a wife and a lover, albeit a lover he only seems to see on a yearly basis at the writing conference. Believing his marriage to be stale (his wife seems to have a tad of hypochondria), he justifies his affair by pointing out the poverty of his sex (and love) life. When he's with Amy, he gets to have the sex he wants.

The irony is that you finish the book fundamentally unable to answer its question. Who is Rich? I still have no idea. He tries to do the right thing, but he doesn't really want to. He wants to do what he wants. When his conscience kicks in, he's almost bitter about it. I wasn't sure what to think of Rich at the end of the book. He doesn't seem as if he's broken any cycles, let's just say.

Klam uses humor and pathos to tell his story, which at times feels like a satire and at others more like a socioeconomic screed. This isn't so much a fun book to read as one you will enjoy, largely due to its layers.

Rich is the protagonist, not a state of wealth- let's just clarify that. He is on a soul-searching journey that stems from a sabbatical where he teaches at a camp for artsy adults. He sways back and forth with the wind on whether or not he should be loyal to his family, or succumb to his desires for "human touch". I do not empathize with Rich, but I can see why some would enjoy this sort of dilemma. The writing is very good, but Rich drove me crazy.

This wasn't a book I could really get into very much.

I'm passing on this one as the book isn't a good fit for me and I prefer to review positively. Thanks for the opportunity.

This is a stunner. Klam's writing is as sharp as are his perceptions. You won't want to put this one down, compelled and repelled by characters and storytelling that are first-rate.