why has no one else reviewed this book..? a modern-day "double indemnity" is what it is... perfect...

I'm a nineteen year-old youth with a minimal interest in books and movies. I'm not sure why, but Michael Tolkin's movies (esp. "The Rapture") really have an effect on me. I think "The Rapture" was a really misunderstood movie, I know it took me a total of three times seeing it before I really understood the character's motivations for her actions at the end of it. I don't know why I'm writing this. I guess I just want somebody to tell me when he's making another movie or writing another book. Please email me with any info, I'd appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

Great book, fabulous book, one of the best books I have read. Interesting view on life in Los Angeles.Feels like so many of the residents. lost, lost, lost, lost, lost. The heartbreak of his loss. His weakness. The book flowed so well. Excellent writer. His other books are amazing. Would love to run across him in a chatroom, and get to the angst that fills his life.
For instance is he overpowered by broken families and overpowering brothers? Are his eyes brown? Is he tall? If you get my drift.

The sadness of the main character. A must read.
His search. His tiredness.
His lover. Her husband.
I feel this book is the Koran for those moving to this land of milk and honey.
Again you must read this book.
It is the only hope for salvation in this wasteland of a city that they call the "Big Easy".
Oops sorry that would be New Orleans.
A similar town in terms that people live there.
But back to the book.
The character needs to move on and don't we all!
Read this book.
Buy it!

Beg for it!
Pray for it!
Borrow it from the library if you have to .
Since you are already on Amazon it would probably be best to puchase it through them.
God be with you.
As I have stated earlier a must read.

This is a work of complete ferocity, simultaneously horrifying and hilarious. So astounding in places I wanted to memorize what I was reading. It's as if Dostoyevski were from Los Angeles. Don't miss it.

I loved this book, but was so upset when I put it down. Mr. Tolkin definitely captured the weakness in all men, the reluctance to change, and to take resposibility for our lives . Micheal Tolkin is a genius and is the only writer I know of who thoroughly captures the shabbieness of the well-off and empty. Of course it was super funny along the way. An excellent book!!!

This title is the kindest summation possible of my reaction to "Under Radar," a book whose editorial reviews made me look forward with anticipation to reading it. Usually I like black comedies and characters with quirks of character or psychological interest. And, as many reviewers included almost the entire plot line of this novel in their remarks on it, I assumed that the charm and fascination must lie in its development. Not so. Instead, almost half-way into my reading I found only what could easily have passed as the script for a film, and a skimpy one at that. This unattractive spareness of fictional detail dissipates slowly as the novel advances, but never completely disappears. How can it, when the story, covering decades of a man's life, is dispatched in 212 small pages with wide margins and 12-point type?
Yes, mysteries develop and profundities are hinted, but all are left hanging as the reader turns the final page. And that none too soon, for this reader. Promising script, perhaps, for the Coen brothers.

Tolkin tried to interweave a novel of criminal psychology and religious allegory, an ambitious enterprise. But the writing stumbles in both areas. The main character's (Tom) development into an enlightened (if chastened) man isn't credible, yet it's the main thing the author wants us to accept. Intervening chapters were apparently designed to provide an odyssey for Tom; though they're written in a fluid manner, they don't provide adequate or meaningful support for the main idea. It looks like Tolkin read up on the Kaballah and/or other mystical texts, and then tried to stitch them into a crime novel. The first part is written with the slickness of a screenplay outline; the second part goes fuzzy with spirituality. Neither part works. I'm puzzled by the mainly positive reviews this book has received and am interested to know what actual readers think.

Why read a book that tells you everything you already know? The more enigmatic on first reading, the likelier that subsequent readings will yield deeper meaning. I have my opinion of this book, but if the book has a point, it means to leave my opinion open to interpretation.