|
Andy Andrews
THE NOTICER ISBN 10: 0785229213 ISBN 13: 9780785229216 Nashville. Thomas Nelson. 2009. 167 pp. reviewed by Patrick Killough I. biblio.com recommend? probably not I see THE NOTICER as an intelligent child's introduction to Socrates, especially the shorter dialogs by Plato such as MENO. Like Socrates, author Andy Andrews's hero, "Jones," wanders around a restricted area (Orange Beach, Alabama to Socrates's Athens) asking people questions and drawing "correct" answers from them. Unlike Socrates, however, Jones in season and out of season is congenial, non-confrontational, bland, corny. Jones's message is always upbeat, sunny of the "I think I can, I think I can" variety. Decade after decades this man Jones who never seems to age wanders under Orange Beach's great pier, sits on benches near the canal and dispenses homely, folksy, generally unsolicited advice. "Make people feel good to be around you.
If you make a mistake, apologize. If, on the other hand, you make an
avoidably bad choice you had better show real contrition and make
amends, in some cases even make restitution."
And so it goes. Saccharin. Often corny. Always congenial. Rarely deep. Usually practical. Motherhood and apple pie. Who dares argue against Jones? Oh, I amost forgot: local Hispanics, sometimes rich, often illegals, call Jones Garcia. To the Chinese he is Chen. Want to find out why? -OOO- http://www.biblio.com/books/236005339.html =-=-=-=-=-=- II. bn.com title of this review: old adage cited in THE NOTICER: God puts a person after His own heart where He wants him to be Reviewer AUSONIUS's rating of THE NOTICER: * * * It is hard for me to be fair in reviewing a book which does next to nothing for me personally. On the other hand I am aware that author Andy Andrews has a devoted following (though this is the first thing of his which I have read). I have pondered reviews by others who found THE NOTICER personally salient and helpful. In this book, to put it bluntly, Andrews and his oracular mouthpiece called Jones, come across to me as a poor man's Plato-Socrates combination. Like Socrates, Jones wanders around a community stopping people and asking them questions. Unlike Socrates, however, Andy Andrews's hero stays consistently on the surface of a selected handful of problems. And those problems are almost entirely behavioral and ethical. Socrates was known for more: for digging deeply into the nature of knowing, reality, the good and the beautiful. Socrates thought hard thoughts; Jones does not. What does this book offer? Let's begin with the dust jacket. We see a small, old, worn brown valise. Throughout this novella, that bag is never repeat NEVER parted from an aging man who to some looks white, to others hispanic, to yet others Chinese. He calls himself variously Jones, Garcia and Chen, depending on his interlocutor. Reader appreciations on the dust jacket include: "This is the best book I have ever read in
my life." "... this powerful story grapples with life's biggest
questions." and "THE NOTICER is packed with one astonishing
breakthrough after another. This book will transform your
life."
From those accolades I willingly conclude that this book appeals or fails to appeal to readers based on what they have remembered or forgotten or never knew of Dale Carnegie and other motivational speakers and writers tackling similar themes. Their topics are leadership through congeniality and their remedies for personal dead ends are a handful of zingy one liners about paying attention to things, making sure you and your loved ones talk the same language of love (if she wants cuddling, don't simply sing her praises) and so on. The book does tell a story. It has a clear-cut beginning and end. Jones-Garcia-Chen displays uncanny insights into what ails the people he selects for instruction and reform. He teaches them on the one hand to apologize for unintended mistakes but on the other hand to accept and declare personal responsibility for bad choices that hurt other people. For the latter the offender must show contrition, beg forgiveness, make amends and, if property is involved, make restitution. When Jones-Garcia-Chen finally disappears from the town of Orange Beach, Alabama, it turns out that he has left his brown valise behind. After hours of singing his praises all the assembled locals whom Jones has befriended agree to open the valise. Inside they find a note and hundreds of seed packets. The note recapitulates what Jones's approach has been to them all. He then exhorts them to plant their seeds and to do unto others as Jones has done unto them. Before you decide to read THE NOTICER, please first consult someone who enjoyed it more than I. It is not a difficult read. It pulls together in a few pages a handful of insights as old as Socrates and as new as Dale Carnegie. And further deponent saith not. -OOO- I also recommend: Dale Carnegie: HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Noticer/Andy-Andrews/ e/9780785229216/?itm=1 =-=-=-=---=-=- III. amazon.com title of this review: Will heaven feel better than being in church?, July 3, 2009 reviewer's rating of Andy Andrews' THE NOTICER * * * In Orange Beach, Alabama a peripatetic old man variously called Jones, Garcia and Chen and vaguely reminding of Socrates, went to church. When the celebrant called for prayer requests, "Jones stood up and said: 'I'd like us to
pray for some smiling faces in this church. ... I think more people
would want to go to heaven, if they weren't afraid it'd be like church
when they get there.'" (Ch. 7)
Happy, happy, relentlessly happy old man Jones, a mysterious outsider who drifts in and out of Orange Beach, Alabama on a timetable understood only by himself, is the hero of THE NOTICER, a didactic, moralizing novella by Andy Andrews. For those Orange Beach residents who have forgotten or never knew Dale Carnegie and such books as HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE, Jones has what seem fresh answers to basic problems they did not know they had. The narrator is Andy Andrews himself. Jones seeks him out and transforms his life when Andrews is 23, adrift in life, living in a hole in the sand under the Gulf State Park Pier. Jones's snappy cracker barrel one-liners transform Andrews on the spot and Andrews treasures infrequent future meetings with his mentor, including one years later after the now successful husband, father and motivational speaker Andy Andrews has just returned from exhorting a gathering of thousands of executives. To the Chinese, Jones is Chen, to Hispanics Garcia. In one meeting in the presence of others Andy Andrews sees Jones's face morph from race to race. Jones preaches principles: for principles never change. He dissects the four languages of love. He says that if you intend to influence others, you first have to make them stop disliking them. And on and on. Jones is always the first to initiate conversations with strangers. Uncannily, he knows what ails them. How does he know? "'I am a noticer,' he said. 'It is my
gift. ... I notice things about people that produce perspective ... a
broader view ... and it allows them to regroup, take a breath, and
begin their lives again.'" (Ch. 1)
At tale's end, the Noticer has just paid his final call on Orange Beach. He leaves behind his old brown valise with a farewell letter and hundreds of seed packets. Jones's letter recapitulates the highlights of his gospel and how he has applied it to the hundreds of grateful beneficiaries who are now invited to take up the seed packets, plant them and to unto others as Jones has done unto them. Is ths ending meant to echo the Bible? I think of "Men of
Galilee, why stand there looking up into the sky? This Jesus, who has
been taken from you up to heaven, will come in the same way as you have
seen him go." (ACTS I:11)
At its core THE NOTICER packages in a faintly messianic, somewhat eerie little tale a handful of nuggets of popular wisdom borrowed from Socrates to Dale Carnegie. The folk wisdom is simple, straightforward and not harmful. I might give a copy to my eight year old granddaughter. But to my 14 years old grandson I would instead give a couple of dialogs of Plato. Wisdom is where you find it and where you are old enough to look for it. -OOO- Your Tags: andy andrews, motivational, personal growth, dale carnegie, socrates, spoon river anthology, our town, cracker barrel wisdom ==-=-=---=-=- IV. for epinions.com TITLE OF THE REVIEW: "When a person is negative, complaining and disagreeable, other people stay away." Written: Jul 03 '09 Product Rating: * * * Pros: Simply written. Bits of helpful folk-wisdom: both age-old (Socrates) and recent (Dale Carnegie) . Cons: Pedestrian. Preachy. Slickly packaged. Superficial. Simplistic. Cracker-barrel level "philosophizing." The Bottom Line: Many epinionators can safely leave THE NOTICER unread. But some curious child might be ripe for its "main-stream" insights into social success through agreeableness. It is well written but light-weight. aohcapablanca's Full Review: Andy Andrews - The Noticer: "When a person is negative, complaining and disagreeable, other people stay away." This utterance is typical of four or five dozen one-line moralizing zingers scattered throughout Andy Andrews's novella, THE NOTICER. The book is not bad. Practical. Clearly harmless. The scattered elements of its distinctly American gospel were, however, proclaimed with more enthusiasm by Dale Carnegie decades ago. The book's hero is called Jones by the white inhabitants of Orange Beach, Alabama. To Hispanics he is Garcia, to Chinese Chen. The narrator, Andy Andrews, makes Jones a timeless, ageless mentor to himself and others. When Andrews was 23, Jones snapped Andrews out of an idle, pointless life into belief that he was destined for greater things. From his brown suitcase Jones produced three seminal biographies: of Winston Churchill, Will Rogers and George Washington Carver. After 15 library volumes loaned him by Jones, Andy Andrews began checking out books on his own: George Washington, Anne Frank and Christopher Columbus. There was no stopping Andrews after that. He had been kindly mentored into career liftoff. Jones is a frequent visitor to Orange Beach. Like Socrates long ago in Athens, Jones stops strangers, interrogates them and leads them almost effortlessly, certainly quickly, to discover their true inner selves. Andy Andrews, for instance, marries, sires children and in a later meeting with Jones has just returned from speaking before a gathering of thousands of executives. Jones develops a small army of devoted coastal Alabama devotees. Jones is a self-professed "noticer." He commends this gift of his to others. Notice what is around you. Draw conclusions. Learn how to make others like you, follow you. Be fair. Don't skirt the law. And you will go far. There may be a stage in every American's life when he needs to encounter the Gospel according to Dale Carnegie. He will find that doctrine repackaged as Carnegie-lite in THE NOTICER. If you think that either you yourself or someone you love might profit by this book, you might well be right. It would depend on how deeply you are or are not already immersed in Western classics from Homer through Aesop, Cicero, Shakespeare, Thoreau and, yes, Dale Carnegie. You have to "notice" what stage the person you plan to give THE NOTICER has reached in her or his evolving psychic, moral development. To my very literate 7-year old granddaughter I might give either Aesop's FABLES or Andrews's little book and stand by to discuss with her with the nostrums, platitudes and occasional nuggets. But to my 14-year old grandson, her cousin, it would likely be instead a dialog of Plato's like MENO or PROTAGORAS. Pick your reader carefully. -OOO- Recommended: No http://www.epinions.com/reviews/Book_The_Noticer_A_Story_of_Perspective_ About_Life_s_Greatest_Challenges_Andy_Andrews =-=-=-=-=-=-= http://www.patrickkillough.com/books/andrews_noticer.html |