The Noticer is unique: a self-help book under cover as fiction.
The story: Jones is an old man who gives advice to people. Amazingly, everyone is very open to his advice. (One or two may have balked at first.) All his advice works.
Therein we have the “suspension of disbelief” problem. I don’t balk that his advice is good, but I balk at how easily everyone accepted it. I also had a problem with how every struggle that the characters faced was wrapped up so neatly. It’s a stretch in some books to see one difficult struggle neatly solved, but thirty or fourty?
And there is a lot of advice packed into just 156 pages. Maybe that’s a good thing. I get really tired of long explanations for what should be a simple concept.
So, there is my negative reactions.
Positive? It was a very quick read. Jones had a lot of good advice. (One that was new to me that I’ll pull out at some point is for couples dating seriously – Ask your friends if they like your partner! They know you better than she or he does. And they probably aren’t infatuated with your partner like you are. That could prevent a lot of problems down the road.)
Should you buy and read the book? I dunno. Hopefully I have given you enough advice for you to make a decision.
