She Treads Softly: The Overexamined Life of Jacob Hart

Saturday, June 1, 2024

The Overexamined Life of Jacob Hart

The Overexamined Life of Jacob Hart by Jerry Wald
6/11/24; 362 pages
Torchflame Books

The Overexamined Life of Jacob Hart by Jerry Wald follows four men searching for a greater meaning in life. It is a highly recommended

Jacob Hart has always said that there is an answer to every problem. This mantra helped him succeed as an engineer with GoldOrb Diversified. He always struggled with the role of a higher power in this world and other existential questions, but retirement and his wife's death left him seeking the answer to life's mysteries at Lake Paradise. Joining him in his quest is a Rabbi who has lost his faith, an unruly Ivy League professor, and the powerful CEO of GoldOrb. At the same time a political scandal erupts that could impact the friends.

This is a story of men reflecting upon their lives and asking themselves the existential questions which can lead to a better understanding and acceptance of themselves. The men undertake the insightful personal examination of their own lives and seek the answers to some age old questions and other more recent quandaries with the goal of living a more fulfilling, meaningful life. It also looks at the growth of interpersonal relationships with friends and family.

The pages fly by quickly in this well written debut novel which explores an age old quest for meaning and direction in one's life. The characters are all presented as individuals with their own unique struggles as they deal with questions that they must come to terms with for themselves. Thanks to Torchflame Books for providing me with an advance reader's copy via BookSirens. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.