We're not used to hearing middle-aged men complain and whine about their careers and family. It's fine though, I guess they should be able to, especially their careers. But it's hard to feel compassion when he complains about his wife whose still breastfeeding a two month old infant, while dealing with two toddlers under five 24/7. Most of the time I bet he can walk ten feet and not have a kid attached to some part of his body. He then attends a two-week conference at a New England location near the ocean, during the summer. It's not paradise but he's unencumbered, he flirts, uses his brain, eating utensils and sleeps mostly alone. His career may be on hold but he can work to fix that! Did three small human bodies pass through his body? I don't think so! The Book is very well written, and I understand he's depressed. Stop whining, get counseling, some antidepressants and go help your wife who's going back to work. Life's tough, we've all been there. The Book is great. He needs to get ready, those kids will grow up to be teenagers. Hey Rich, you better get ready for that!

Insightful, funny, brilliant writing. Best novel I've read this year.

If you read the book blurb on this one, you already know the story.

This was a book that I thought could have been wrapped up a lot sooner. There was so much hand wringing and angst among the characters. None of them were particularly likeable.

It was just too self involved and rambling for me.

Unique writing style and pretty good story. Two lead characters well developed and realistic. Would have rated higher if the book had ended earlier. The current ending goes on too long and is too drawn out for me. It adds little value and I feel is at odds with the rest of the story. Left me with a bad taste.

I was looking for a book that would make me laugh and this book didn't disappoint. A definite laugh out loud who cares type of book.

I thought the main character was too cynical and unlikable for me to enjoy the book. I probably shouldn't have requested this book, it's not my cup of tea.

What am amazing writer Klam is! Through the eyes of Rich, a once-famous cartoonist--now considered a 42-year-old "has been," we see what it is like to be in the midst of a mid-life crisis while he is teaching at his yearly conference of the arts. Worried about his wife who no longer seems to love him, his two young children whom he adores but feels their energy sapping his life force, he falls into the arms of the young woman he met at the conference the year before. Both have marital issues, both desire sexual intimacy, both push and pull leaving them alienated from each other and the society to which they crave to belong. Adultery, monogamy, children, depression, pain...what doesn't this book address? Anyone who's felt alone in a marriage or relationship can relate to this novel--or really anyone who's human--Klam's biting humor is relentless as he addresses what it's like to be human and attempt to relate to other flawed humans.

This just wasn't the right book for me. I was drawn in by the quick summary of a washed up cartoonist whose only escape from his dull everyman life is a week-long "creative" conference where he carries on an affair with another married artist. For whatever reason, that premise I found interesting enough to request the ARC. Within the first few chapters, I was drawn in with the beautiful descriptions of the seaside town and the low life "faculty" at this artists retreat conference. However, after just a bit longer with the book, my interest and reading pace waned dramatically. It all became so repetitive--pages upon pages describing every faculty member and student, not that you'll be able to keep any of them straight--and quite frankly I quickly came to despise the protagonist Rich. He's horribly selfish, whiny, and quite frankly pathetic. While I started off in his corner, who hasn't feared being replaced professionally by their younger hotter version?, it didn't take long for me to just want this guy to succeed in his dalliance with his belt and beam.
This was another of those books that caused me to perform a happy dance of relief when I finally reached the end. So many days of struggling through the rambling prose, only for THAT ending? Ugh. Best part of this book is its cover.

This is not a book to read when you’re already having a bad day because the tone is a bit of a mood killer. It’s a slow pace with few light moments, a bit of humor and a whole lot of drama.

In some ways it’s a commentary on modern American life. People trapped in relationships they no longer seem to want but won’t leave due to finances, kids, societal pressures, etc. Affairs that occur because people can’t just leave. Too much money, not enough. No sex, rare sex or just not great sex. Is monogamy doomed? Why do people get married or have kids when it seems to come with so many problems? When do we grow out of our dreams or do we ever? It’s rare these days I dive into a piece of fiction that has me asking existential questions as I flip pages. This book definitely made me view my own life through a different lens and examine my own opinions and biases.

Klam digs deep in the character development area refusing to settle for stereotypes even as he creates mirrors of the human condition. It’s as if he hopes we’ll see something of ourselves in these broken and flawed people in order to force us to ask the uncomfortable questions.

It’s not exactly something you’d pick up to read on the beach or when you’re just trying to kill time but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t delve into it; even your brain is a muscle that needs flexing to stay active.

This book attempts to take adultery and make it funny. It fell short, in my opinion. There were some humorous parts but I felt dislike for the characters so that negatively impacted my enjoyment of the book.

I struggled through but not the most enjoyable book I have read. The character Rich, is interesting and complicated, but he is so negative, feeling sorry for himself. It was too introspective for me.

If people were happy with their lives, if they weren't having to deal with crises of conscience, relationships, and faith, what would that mean for the state of fiction? Much in the way that evil characters are more fun to read (and write) about, unhappy characters definitely provide a richer mine from which to build a novel.

Rich Fischer, the protagonist of Matthew Klam's Who is Rich?, is definitely unhappy. At one point he was a cartoonist of some renown, but he now works as an illustrator at a magazine which covers politics and culture.

"Illustration is to cartooning as prison sodomy is to pansexual orgy. Not the same thing at all."

The only thing really left from those better days is that every summer he travels to New England to teach a four-day cartooning workshop at a week-long arts conference. It's not the most fulfilling opportunity, but it does get him away from his family and from the constant problems weighing on his mind and his psyche.

"I wasn't a teacher. I didn't belong here. I'd ditched my family and driven nine hours up the East Coast in Friday summer highway traffic so I could show off in front of strangers, most of whom had no talent, some of whom weren't even nice, while I got paid almost nothing."

Rich and his wife Robin are unhappily married and on the verge of utterly resenting each other full time. Their two young children have their own dysfunctions, and how the couple chooses to handle (and/or ignore) these issues adds more strain to their exasperating relationship. Money is always tight, their sex life is almost non-existent, and both are often bitter, about their relationship and their lives.

"Was it a good life? Was I more joyful, sensitive, and compassionate in my deeply entangled commitment to them? Was there anything better than seeing the world through the eyes of my nutty kids? Was my obligation to Robin the most sincere form of love?...Was this as close to love as I was ever going to get? The closer I got, the more I wanted to destroy the things I loved. Something rose up in me, threatening me. I had to deflect it somehow."

There is one bright light drawing him back to the workshop this year—Amy. Amy is a painting student whom Rich met at last year's workshop, and they shared a flirtation, a little bit more than that, and then spent the winter alternately texting and longing to see each other, and punishing themselves for wanting this. She lives in a wholly different world than Rich—Amy is married to an extremely wealthy, reasonably loathsome Wall Street magnate who is barely home, and rarely pays attention to her and their children when he is. And as much as Amy wants more, wants something different, she isn't sure if she deserves that, and if so, if Rich is that something different.

This is an interesting meditation on monogamy, marriage, children, middle-age, financial success, and whether abandoning your dreams for something more stable makes you a sell-out or a failure. It's also an exploration of what kind of happiness we should expect from life—should you take what you're given or should you hope for more?

Klam is an excellent writer. I read his story collection, Sam the Cat: And Other Stories, about 17 years ago, and he's been one of those writers I've been waiting for years to write another book. This definitely didn't disappoint, although it's a bit more of a downer than I expected. Given the subject matter, it's not too surprising, but I felt the book flowed a lot more slowly because of its morose tone. There are moments of lightheartedness, even humor, but the dilemma that Rich and Amy find themselves in, and Rich's own struggles tend to take more precedence, at least early on.

Who is Rich? definitely made me think, and helped me keep the challenges of my own life in perspective. And isn't that why we read sometimes, to make us feel better about our lives than those the characters are living?

NetGalley and Random House provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

I thought this book was, in and of itself, well written. Great descriptions, interesting premise, relatable scenario, cool drawings.

Here's the problem...Who is Rich? He's someone I don't want to spend any time with. While I totally get what's going on in his head and why he's feeling the way he's feeling (yes, Rich, being middle aged and married isn't always a barrel of laughs), he's basically a self-absorbed asshole for the ENTIRE book. (Amy gets 6 Oxy and Rich eats/destroys three just cause he wants to get high? For that alone he deserves a kick in the balls.) Also he seems to hold such contempt for all of the characters he encounters (including Amy to some extent.) He hates himself, his life, his wife, his lover (off and on) everyone at the conference, the young hotshot poet, most of his students, etc. So spending a lot of time with this dude was a bit of a chore. That bummed me out and sadly made the read way less pleasant.

If you like books about self-absorbed, middle-aged, adulterous white men mourning their lost youth, then this is the book for you. Although the main character, Rich Fischer, spends most of the book whining about his first-world problems, WHO IS RICH? is strangely compelling, perhaps because some of Rich's angst is shared by most of us who have survived married life with small children. A washed-up cartoonist, Rich is broke, with an angry wife and two kids under the age of five. His mistress is the wife of a billionaire and Rich spends much of the book careening between desire, envy and disgust with regard to her. Klam is a talented writer but ultimately, I just wanted Rich to pull himself together and act like an adult. Fans of THE CORRECTIONS and WONDER BOYS will enjoy this book.

An overall enjoyable read, well narrated and smoothly written from a talented author. Interspersed with swirls of humor and veins of anguish, this remains nonetheless a deeper study of the bittersweet triumphs and conflicts of daily modern (American) life.

“… as I struggled to stay the course, all this goodness and responsibility; it seeded an impulse toward endless badness and rebellion.”

Who is Rich Fischer? He is many selves struggling with each other, full of desires that go against the ‘goodness and responsibilities’ of a husband and father. He is tied down and yet when let loose to teach a conference on cartooning at a week-long conference, full of like minded artistic individuals he is reunited with his lover, Amy. Too, he is disappointed in himself and his cartooning. Once a success, that part of his life seems to be dwindling and his failure is like a poison seeping into his marriage. Crazy in love with his children but wondering if his very family serves as a block to another life, to his creativity. “Was this as close to love as I was ever going to get? The closer I got the more I wanted to destroy the things I loved.” A man who acts out against his marriage, causing rifts. Getting older, life closing in, his creativity possibly dying, envious of those just starting out and with much more success than him, disappointing with himself this conference feels like an alternate universe. This is where people can set their true bohemian selves free, indulging in every pleasure while focusing on their art, or on forbidden partners.

Does fate punish the adulterers, serving as a wake up call to hold fast to the life they themselves chose to make? Is it possible to rein in one’s nature and desires in order to sustain respectability, to be a loyal spouse and exemplary parent? This novel doesn’t just expose the longings Rich struggles with, it’s about how diminished marriage can make a solitary person feel, how it can chip at one’s creative side, burying any mysterious parts some of us wish to cling to. Marriage splits you open from the skull down, there is nothing that goes ‘unmeasured’. The very moment you have children, you are exposed and open to judgement. You are both a success and a failure. It’s hard to be charming and deeply fascinating when your partner knows your bathroom habits, when you’ve let them down countless times. But the flip side is the comfort of knowing you are loved despite all the disgusting parts of your nasty self. Children are a chance to live your childhood over again, to be someone’s hero. In Rich’s life, they keep him grounded in his marriage, and expand his heart to bursting. But Rich is conflicted. It’s easy to fall passionately in ‘love’ if you can call it that, with someone you don’t have to share the bleaker side of life with. What bigger indulgence than sharing passion, and having another person to complain about the crappy things in your lives without having to truly be there through the ugly stuff? It’s fantasy, isn’t it? Fantasy made flesh, but are he and Amy ever fully present in each other’s lives enough to really be ‘in love’? Yet there is intimacy, with Amy he can empty so much of himself that needs to be let out. “Giving voice to every thought in my head, having a place for that, meant a lot to me.” In every marriage, bills, children, work, life takes over, wears you down and it’s not always easy to be an ear, especially when you are resentful of your spouses laziness or failures. Sex, the sex that starts to feel monotonous, if you’re even having it because with the demands of life and young children sometimes you just don’t feel erotic and sex is the last thing on your mind. So many marriages have such intermissions from intimacy, we’re all human.

When Amy is injured playing softball, his feelings are in turmoil. To make things better, he purchases a bracelet for his lover that costs his family, emptying out their bank account. Amy O’Donnell’s life is much more comfortable than Rich’s- a mother of three, married to a distant, unloving Wall Street titan but she isn’t any happier. Yet this purchase cost even his daughter’s preschool fees in the fall. Is he unraveling, letting his passion get the best, or worst of him? ” My thoughts were slow and bleating and obstructed, but I noted, finally, that Amy had been a kind of home, a vessel for my discombobulated mind, that my own family treated me like a footstool but this stranger had cared for my soul.” Does Rich just enjoy suffering? Interesting how he relates to Amy’s complaints, likely similar to how his own wife Robin often feels about him. There is a lot about Robin too, because he does love her. Early in their relationship he notes, “I would miss her and then forget her, and have to remember her all over again.” More, he felt “Welcoming Robin back into my life was like rejoining a cult: special rules, rituals, foods, a certain way of speaking, figuring out what was permitted, how to avoid those actions now deemed wrong.” The same can be said of any relationship and more, of our our own families, we are all little cults. What a fantastic insightful thought!

Rich’s love for his children is evident in the beginning of the novel. “Their lightness and willingness and spirit and stupidity surprised me, their readiness to bravely step into a world they couldn’t understand, packed with swimming pools, speeding cars, blazing sun, fanged dogs, stinging bees, heat, silent anger, slammed doors….” any man that sees through his children’s eyes this keenly is crazy about his family. As Rich fights himself, we get a heck of a glimpse into the mind of a man as he enters the middle of his life and questions everything he has made of it, and decides what is to come. He is selfish, kind, tender, cold, wise, stupid, and as bumbling as any of us. Well done.

Publication Date: July 4, 2017

Random House Publishing

(1 1/2). This genre is not my style in the slightest. A life driven sideways by angst, bad decisions, self indulgence and lack of direction does not float my boat. This is well written, but I did not find it particularly enjoyable.

An overall enjoyable read, well narrated and smoothly written from a talented author. Interspersed with swirls of humor and veins of anguish, this remains nonetheless a deeper study of the bittersweet triumphs and conflicts of daily modern (American) life.

A reflective introspective ramble analyzing of the character's own life - his faults, desires, dreams, and ambitions - with deep insights into the complex psyches of his wife, his lover, and to some degree, his contemporaries.

If you are from or know of coastal New England you can almost guess the town. Sort of a rambling account of an indecisive guy who loves his wife one minute and is jumping into an affair the next. Too much mental contemplations for my taste as it winds through the action parts. Interesting enough to keep me engaged to the last page but no rush to read it again

This book was so disappointing. Like many people, I've waited years for more of Matthew Klam's excellent stories, but this novel is a soggy, angry mess.