David Carkeet is known more for his young adult fiction, but I find him a very satisfying author of light adult fiction that carries a running intellectual thread. The characters are not so quirky that they are contrived nor so stereotypical as to be completely predictable; unfortunately they do demonstrate the suspicion that a higher education does not guarantee success in any endeavor. The ironies are not particularly inspired but part of the charm of this and also his "Double Negative" is the way events unfold with an unremarkable inevitability. I enjoy this book. I put it in the category of Patrick Dennis.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. The Full Catastrophe is as compelling and potent as a mystery, despite the fact that the "detective" in this case is linguist Jeremy Cook, and he bumbles through several well-meaning attempts to discover what the "horror" in the Wilson's marriage is. Carkeet's wit is intoxicating, yet he manages to take a back seat to the characters and let the day-in-the-life story unfold with perfect pacing. I can't ignore the probable similarities between Jeremy Cook and Carkeet, but one thing marks a clear distinction: Jeremy knows nothing about marriage until Carkeet unveils it to him.

Linguist-in-residence Jeremy Cook returns for an unlikely debut as live-in counselor to a couple trying to fix their sputtering marriage. There are laughs on every page in this entertaining dissection of holy matrimony. Jeremy moves in with the prosperous Wilsons and tries his best to get beneath their language, to analyze the "horror at the core" of their relationship

. . . the ending, while certainly "unpredictable and downbeat" (as one of the other reviewers notes), was not, in my view, "fitting"; rather, it seemed abrupt and arbitrary, drastically changing the tone of the novel sustained up until the final few pages, to no particular purpose. Having very much enjoyed Double Negative and The Full Catastrophe, I was angered and depressed. Nevertheless, Carkeet remains one of those rare writers (like David Lodge and Michael Malone) who not only makes me smile a lot, but also, at times, makes me laugh out loud; and, mostly, this novel did the same for me. So I still recommend it. Perhaps those for whom this is the first Carkeet novel will not have the same issues I have with the ending.

Carkeet was my History of the English Language professor two semesters ago, so I picked up this book out of curiosity when I saw it advertised on the UM-St. Louis English Department "Recent Faculty Publications" board. Am I glad I did. This book is very funny and very true to life. And the best part is that I can actually hear Carkeet's voice in there. Having taken one of his classes, I think, has given me a lot of insight into the book I might not have had otherwise, but I think that a lot of people can relate to this book, especially when it comes to the relationships between the characters.

This is a complex yet thorougly readable and hilarious book. A master of the spoken word, Carkeet makes every word count. His characters touched me deeply at many levels.

I put David Carkeet in the same category as Patrick Dennis. He finds unlikely scenarios and populates them with likeable characters. He may be considered a young adult author because even his adult books are accessible (no strong language or graphic scenes). This is not a book to be agitated by but to be reassured by: good people survive when the inevitably unfortunate circumstances develop in the routine interactions of daily home and work, however unlikely the actual work may be.

This is Carkeet's best novel, his later two books simply following the same main character, a linguist like the author. The writing is unusually crisp, the plot is engaging and unorthodox (the whole thing takes place in an Indiana daycare center/linguistic think tank), and the characters (particularly the hilariously frustrating police detective) are extremely entertaining. A fine mystery and comic novel at the same time.

This was recommended as a great baseball book, and perhaps that sets the bar pretty low. Carkeet knows baseball, writing easily about nuance and detail of the game - to the point where a casual fan or non-fan will probably be at a loss. The problem is with the structure. The premise is that every member of a contending professional baseball team simultaneously falls into depression. Hijinks follow. Unfortunately, the narrative clicks so quickly from one character to the next, and there are nine protagonists, that it eventually becomes impossible to sort out one character from another. I found myself paging along, not remembering which character had which peculiarity, waiting for something to happen. Very little happened.

Carkeet's prose is cute, and occasionally powerful. But the book is not particularly strong.

I've read Kinsella, Malamud, Harris, Lardner... and this remains my favorite piece of baseball fiction -- and it's well up the list on favorite reads, period. You'll laugh a lot, and think about it long after you've put it down. The characters are vividly drawn, the dialogue crackles, and while the story has its exaggerated comedic moments (there's an amazing no-hitter that remains a personal favorite), the tone is realistic and the details ring true. Carkeet never makes fun of his characters -- ok, almost never -- but he sure makes them fun.

Highly recommended, and if you enjoy this, you'll also enjoy his novels on linguist-for-hire (I'm not making this up) Jeremy Cook, _Double Negative_, _The Full Catastrophe_, and _The Error of Our Ways_.

In a stroke of what may be coincidence, all the key players on a National League contender fall into clinical depression. Each teammate despairs in the face of crushing personal challenges that threaten to make the each day too horrible to endure. Yet the team's collective talent and years of mechanical "good habits" propel the club ever higher toward a seemingly inevitable and fatal humiliation. Life, friendship, honesty and humility eventually prevail. This book has a message for young male professionals and those who would understand them.