This was a unique and delightful read. The portrayal of the low-achieving modern man was so familiar and relatable, yet I’d never before seen it tackled in a novel. The author captured it perfectly, and I loved seeing George’s “evolution” over the course of so many years. This was incredibly readable, funny, and poignant, and I have continued to think about it long after finishing.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for eARC.


I really enjoyed reading this book even though I haven’t dated a George. Author did a good job writing it.

Not for me. The writing here just didn’t flow naturally and made the story seem, stilted as a result. The characters were annoying at best.

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co. for the ARC.

I really wanted to like this book, but I couldn't. Although I liked the way that Kate Greathead told the story, in vignettes at different ages throughout his life, George was just too insufferable for me. I found myself frustrated with him over and over again, as I kept wanting and waiting for him to change. I thought about giving up on it more than once, but I somehow managed to finish it. I know a lot of people really liked this book, but it was just not one for me.

He’s both exasperating and delightful. THE BOOK OF GEORGE features George, a strikingly average antihero!

There’s nothing too remarkable about George or his family. They face their own set of difficulties. George’s mother, Ellen, has grown distant from him. She is currently separating from George’s father, Denis, whose excessive love for high-end fashion has begun to drain their family’s finances. Then there’s George’s older sister, Cressida, who is both candid and critical, regarding him with a hint of contempt, much like their mother does.

In spite of this family friction, the unassuming George seems to glide through their dynamics with nonchalance. This disengagement also characterizes his on-again, off-again relationship with his girlfriend Jenny, who, like his family, alternates between being patient and finding him tedious.

The story reveals George’s life in a series of episodes from ages 12 to 38. The introductory quote, excerpted from a letter by philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer’s mother to her son, establishes the narrative’s tone: Johanna Schopenhauer tells Arthur that while he has “𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘵𝘺 . . . 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘶𝘯𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦.”

The author’s writing style is laced with subtlety and ironic humor. I found it completely enchanting. George is surely not your typical heroic main character but I absolutely loved this book.

Many thanks to the publisher for providing a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This is the story of a man called George that cannot seem to get anything right. His relationships are strained and his lack of drive in the workplace are causing him to flounder.

George needs a slap... in the face... with a chair....

George is whiny lil b who needs to grow up and get real instead of driving all the women around him crazy. He is the poster boy, flag bearer, badge carrier for all the white American men out there who enjoy mansplaning while wouldn't be able to do the sh*t they explained themselves.

Kate Greathead, kudos to you for creating such a hateable character. You really nailed it with your storytelling, character development, and stage setting. If you want to get annoyed and still enjoy a book, The Book of George is a great choice. It's like book of Joffrey Baratheon.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Henry Holt & Co for providing me with an advance e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review. Look for it in your local and online bookstores and libraries on October 8, 2024.

Blaming my experience on some personal life stuff I had going on at the time of reading this. I did not enjoy this book in any capacity, but didn't hate it enough to only give it one star. NOTHING happens in this book and I think it's supposed to be character-driven, but how can you call yourself that when your character has no drive? Anyway, thanks Netgalley for this ARC. On to the next one!

So, THE BOOK OF GEORGE. I didn’t actually find it funny but I must admit, I know George, or a few Georges, and yes, the book is very realistic. It’s something akin to a birdwatching exercise; it’s amazing to realize that everything I thought was idiosyncratic was apparently not. They are character traits that author Kate Greathead has pulled together and presented in a series of decadal snapshots that vary little over the course of time. George is someone who isn’t emerging into adulthood; he is permanently in a state of becoming …. What he already is. And that lack of development, that failure to launch in spite of so much potential creates the tension in his life and for everyone who cares for him. This well written book is fast and entertaining. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

What a train wreck. I am convinced this book was only written to make boomers feel better about raising mediocre millennial white dudes. If this was a commentary on the fragility of millennial masculinity, it made me hate privileged white guys even more. Pass!

Thanks to Henry Holt & Co., and NetGalley for the audiobook, ebook, and physical ARC of this title. It published today, October 8, 2024.

I didn't like The Book of George at first, as I thought it was going to deal heavily with themes I find triggering. I do not like stories about unavailable and uninvested parents and the damage they do to their children, especially if the text gives this kind of parenting a pass. Only a few pages into this one, and already I didn't think I would like it or finish it. By the time he and Cressida were teenagers, Ellen seemed to view them as fully formed people who were going to do what they were going to do. She supported their endeavors and applauded their successes, but their accomplishments were not a particular source of pride for her. Nor was she inclined to interpret their struggles as a referendum on her mothering. p7 But clearly the writing is good, and I tend to give books at least 50 pages.

But, I was very wrong about where this story places its energy. It's still about crappy parenting, if you read between the lines. I actually love the way the suthor writes the MMC's mother, omnipresent while never there, her mark left on him long into his adulthood.

If you need a book about somewhat crappy people who were produced by truly crappy parenting, you will probably love this book. As it turns out, I do love this book, despite an ambiguous ending and a lack of resolution. Sometimes those elements are the *right* way to end a book!

Reading Notes

Three (or more) things I loved:

1. I like the expressions Greathead uses. They are not idioms but they feel familiar like idioms do. He had a sad, Sunday feeling, though it was still Saturday. p96

2. These characters make me sad! George is just like my M (whose middle name is actually George). It hurts me so much how the author and all the other characters disapproves of him. They always want to be something morw than what he is. But the secret to Georges is to show them acceptance. Love of the unconditional sort, since they probably have never experienced it. Some people just end up...affected...by their parents' shortcomings and other traumas they dealt with in childhood. I feel like I love George more than I'm supposed to, more than the author meant me to, more even than the author is maybe capable of loving a George. It's a very weird reading experience.

3. Like many mentally ill people are, George is very aware of how his symptoms affect the people around him, and he cares about it. “I just want to make sure you know how much I appreciate you. And how supportive you are. You’re the wind in my sails.” Jenny made a sound that was like a laugh. “I mean it,” George said. “I know I’m a lot. I don’t know how you put up with me sometimes.” p180

Three (or less) things I didn't love:

This section isn't only for criticisms. It's merely for items that I felt something for other than "love" or some interpretation thereof.

1. "...make things that look like things." The worst kind of redundancy – the intentional and unclever kind.

2. Ellen, George's mom, is such an unreliable character. I'm not sure what to make of it yet. *edit The development of this character (?) turns out quite cleverly. Best thing about the end has to do with this character. It's the only resolution the book offers.

Rating: ❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹 /5 insensitive characters.
Recommend? Yes
Finished: Oct 20 '24
Format: Digital arc, NetGalley
Read this book if you like:
❤️‍🩹 dysfunctional love
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 family stories, family drama
🧑 boy's coming of age
🔥 slow burn

Thank you to the author Kate Greathead, publishers Henry Holt & Co., and NetGalley for an advance digital copy of The Book of George. All views are mine.

I recommend this book on audio so that you get the style and tone the narration offers, I felt it was more engaging to listen to this one as compared to sitting and reading the book.

Thank you Henry Holt and MacMillan audio for The Book of George. I loved Blair Baker's narration, I valued that it was a female voice telling the story because Jenny, oh Jenny, she deserved to have the book narrated by a woman who could offer the wryly astute tone needed to appreciate Greathead's story. I 100% know a George, I might even have taught a few and be related to a few..., so I loved the way Greathead captures the meandering lack of focus that George has, his oblivious white maleness that somehow ensures he seems to kind of land of his feet/not have to take responsibility for himself (ouch, that might be a personal issue I have with a George I know...). I felt for Jenny, how she was strung along, but I felt Greathead did a good job helping us see Jenny as her own person even as I felt for her and the Jenny's I know (if we know George's then we also know Jenny's). this is a resonant story that did remind me of the early 2000s when I was finishing college and starting grad school, of the odd detachment that often pervades that time in development, and what arrested development (psychoanalytically speaking) can look like.

A well written character study of our man George in little vignettes. Thoroughly enjoyable and as thoughtless and selfish as he can be , highly relatable.

I was an early reader of The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P back in 2013 so I jumped at the chance to read The Book of George when I saw the blurb comparing the too. While interconnected stories are not usually my thing, I thought the Book of George was a good fit for the style choices. George is a clueless, listless young man who can't quite commit and relies on his mom a bit much. Through a series of stories, Greathead paints George's life, forcing the reader to grudgingly sympathize with George, in spite of his many failings.

This book is definitely not for everyone. George is an entitled, unlikeable man with a lot of privilege and a lack of self-awareness. I think Greathead was successful and if the book finds the right reader it will be a solid read.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

That said, this book was not for me. While there were a few humorous scenes, overall it was just meh. Boring, and unremarkable.

I would not recommend this book.

Fawning, Servile, Struggling Young Man

In fourteen linked stories, Kate Greathead seizes the essence of a young man who does not capture opportunities. Because he cannot zero in and make a decision regarding the use of his intellect and talent, he can continue to flounder. The main character, George does not thrive, has difficulty making decisions. The author is ready. In her epigraph she refers to a letter written by his mother over two hundred years ago to Arthur Schopenhauer who she finds “irritating and unbearable”.

Two hundred years later, the present day reader is confronted with Greathead’s George in fourteen linked stories. George is intellectually capable but his constant indecisiveness restricts him from picking a major in college. Later he wonders why employers are not interested in him and ends up as an incompetent waiter .

The stories move George through the years but not to any success in the great world of making a living or impressing important people with any original ideas. When his uncle gets him a job at a hedge fund, George feels he is better than those financial people and doesn’t belong there either. He does have a relationship with a worthy woman, Jenny, but he needs to apologize to her for so many things. He is good at pleading, but terrible on following through on his promises.

The strongest element in this book is candor. George has been unsuccessful with colleagues and women. George does not understand why he is not getting all these good things. After all, he is a privileged white guy, and he is smart.

My gratitude to NetGalley and Holt publishing for this pre-published book. All opinions expressed are my own

Everyone knows a George, but you probably don’t want to hang out with a George. He’s self-righteous without having the ability to actuate anything, he needs someone to take care of him but doesn’t have the ability to reciprocate in a meaningful way, and well, he’s just annoying. George is not a bad person, he’s just George.

I went against my better judgement and read/listened to this novel even though I didn’t like the books it’s compared to. I’m not mad about it, I’ve thought the book a bit since I finished it and the writing is very good (plus it has my alma mater in it so that was fun). My personal issue is that I can’t read about such an annoying self righteous character for an entire novel. I get that’s the point of this novel so I do not fault the author, I fault the reader and that is me. If you like this sort of pompous annoying guy and you can tolerate a novel about him - this is a very well written one. I thought the choice of a female narrator for the audio was clever and made the character a much more tolerable person and I did enjoy her reading of the novel.

3.5 stars

thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt

The book of George by Kate Greathead is a book about George we meet as a teenager in piggyback his life until the age of 38. With his on again off again relationship with Jenny to his superior notions about the simple things that make us civil to all the contradictions that make a persons life especially and uninspired mail in the 21st-century that is the book of George. For men like George who have the luck of a Jenny, nepotism and enough family connections to call being unemployed you writing a book that never materializes a credible event then put it down to someone who hasn’t yet found his way but lower the economic tear and take away all the advantages George had and it’s called something completely different. I found a book at first entertaining but each chapter was more of the same I thought maybe it would end in some type of redemption or seeing his way through but I was sadly disappointed by this book although there were parts that were really funny. I don’t think this is a book I will read again in the future as I only marginally found it entertaining but to each his own and some one else may enjoy it. #NetGalley, #HenryHoltAndCompany, #KateGreathead, #TheBookOfGeorge,

Inexplicably, George was the perfect name for this frustrating character. Kate Greathead cleverly painted a vivid picture of George – stubborn, narcissistic, inconsiderate towards others, self-deprecating, & pessimistic. He is someone we have all welcomed in our lives out of pity and painfully parted with from utter exhaustion and failure to reach. Although we see glimpses of his self-realization in spurts, our hope is thwarted by George’s inability to shift. Ironically, the author is speaking to the nature of humans in general – they rarely transform, even throughout a lifetime.
The author excelled in writing a compelling character like George but struggled to weave a cohesive storyline that wasn't centered entirely on him. Putting aside a very uninspiring, yet very Geroge-esque ending, the characters I desperately wanted to know more about were the females in his life; Jenny, his long-time on-and-off girlfriend, Ellen, his mother, and Cressida, his sister. Maybe there could be a follow-up, “The Book of Not-George”
As a whole, this book was a pleasure to read. Kate Greathead’s writing style is top-notch and paints the perfect tapestry for us as readers to understand the intricacies of George, as frustrating and painful as they might be.