The Page 69 Test: "You Can Make Him Like You"

Monday, March 21, 2011

"You Can Make Him Like You"

Ben Tanzer is the author of the books Lucky Man, Most Likely You Go Your Way and I’ll Go Mine, Repetition Patterns and 99 Problems. He also oversees day-to-day operations of This Zine Will Change Your Life.

He applied the Page 69 Test to his new novel You Can Make Him Like You and reported the following:

"Liz looks at me. She wants to believe, she wants to not think of me as that kind of guy, the guy who stays up all night talking to the hot chick from his past, who might not be willing or able to truly to do anything, but is willing to embarrass his wife and a marriage she holds sacred, by playing along."
--An excerpt from page 69 of You Can Make Him Like You.

The question is whether or not Page 69 of my new novel You Can Make Him Like You is representative of the rest of the book and would someone skimming that page read on? In terms of the latter question I am contractually obligated to tell you that of course they would read on, You Can Make Him Like You is like a magnet, or more accurately the Death Star, though a good literary kind of Death Star, drawing you in to a magical world where everything everywhere else but the world you've been drawn in to ceases to momentarily exist.

There are no contractual anythings related to the former question, however, just hard data and facts, and the data tells me that yes, Page 69 is reflective of the book overall, or more generally anyway one of the kernels that the book's foundation is built on, some males, maybe many males, and females as well, desire, need, something, to test just how far they will let themselves wander outside the confines of their marriage without allowing themselves to break the marriage itself.

A desire that only seems to be further highlighted, or maybe it's illuminated, no magnified, when it comes to people from our past who we sort of feel like just kind of got away, but maybe represent what might have been or could be, a theme only further exaggerated in real life by high school reunions and, or, if you prefer this new invention you may have heard of called the internet, though maybe more specifically, this thing called Facebook, you may also have heard of, where anyone you've ever met, talked to or may have smiled at you are a couple of keystrokes away.

I should add here, strike that, I am also contractually obligated to add here, that while this is one of the foundational themes of this truly engrossing book, there's more, so much more, it's also an homage to the music of The Hold Steady, pop culture as common vernacular, Obama's presidential campaign, Ray Bradbury, interns, because really where would be without them, breast feeding classes, and a serious debate, well serious may be strong, but a debate none-the-less about not only whether U2 or REM is the true super group of the late eighties and early nineties, but whether you are even allowed to engage in this debate if you or anyone you know has ever listened to Hootie and The Blowfish.

As I said it's like the Death Star. A good one. Enjoy.