Linda’s Book Obsession Reviews “Helping Howard” by Sally Schloss, 2022, Atmoshere On Tour With Suzy Approved Book Tours

Linda’s Book Obsession Reviews “Helping Howard” by Sally Schloss. 2022. On Tour With Suzy Approved Book Tours

Sally Schloss, the author of “Helping Howard” has written a unique and creative fictional book. The Author’s note in the beginning of the story says, “This is a novel in which the main character, Howard helps The Author write a book, and The Author in turn helps Howard understand his marriage.”

The genre for this novel is fiction. This reminds me of when I interview the author of a novel, I often will ask about the characters, and why and how they were written. Often an author will say that her characters speak to her, and often and author will change the character to soften or harden them. In this story the Author and Howard have a conversation, which at times sounds like a negotiation. Howard has undefined expectations for his character, and the author is handling Howard like the work of progress in her novel that she is. This is certainly an unusual technique and I found it intriguing and witty.

The Author describes her characters in great detail, and they appear to be complex and complicated. Howard questions the author on if he will have a happy ending, and the author is deep in thought processing how it will be.

I would recommend this thought-provoking novel to other readers and writers.