The Average American Male, a novel by Chad Kultgen, is something I would probably never read if it hadn’t been both on the recommended shelf at a local bookstore and on sale. At the time I thought that the cover was nice enough (big sans-serif letters in stark black and white), that the title was interesting enough, and that the price was reasonable enough that I would get it. Besides, I hadn’t read much fiction recently.
And the book begins with a relatively strong bang, the first chapter being only one sentence long. Chapter One, titled “Christmas with Mom and Dad,” has only these three words, “Same old bullsh*t.” I got a good chuckle at that sentiment, which, even if I don’t share, I can certainly understand.
But from there on, the novel becomes an endless profanity-laced discussion of sex and pornography which left me moderately disturbed. This is surely something teenage boys would love to be assigned to read, may even choose to read, but to people outside of that bracket, it’s perhaps too much. If one can press past the obscenity, which is no minor feat, the novel does tell a relatively interesting story.
The story’s narrator is, as the title suggests, “the average American male.” That assumes something inaccurate about average: he’s a white, college-educated, relatively well-off twenty-something living near Hollywood; but you get the idea.
The unnamed protagonist is dissatisfied with his present romantic relationship, finding his girlfriend too smothering, too unattractive, and not nearly horny enough. He finds himself pushed toward a marriage he has no interest in being involved in, while constantly bitching about his situation to the stock gay friend, Carlos. He eventually leaves that girlfriend to find every teenage boy’s dream, a hot girl who loves nothing more than sex, but harbors a willing interest in video games as well.
What I came away with was this: The Average American Male tells a story I probably would have been enamored with at 17. A time when I thought there was nothing more honest in art than sex and profanity.
But the real question posed by The Average American Male is whether this is autobiographical fiction or biting satire of the concept of a sex-obsessed “average American male” who has become a rather prominent cultural trope. As Toby Young, author of How to Lose Friends & Alienate People writes in his blurb:
I can’t figure out if this book is a heartfelt dispatch from the front line of the battle of the sexes or a brilliant send-up of the way the male point of view has been misrepresented by militant feminists. I suspect if may be both.
And though Young’s paraphrase is perhaps over-complimentary back-of-the-book blurbage, that’s the final and vexing question I had. What is this book? And, at the end of it, I wasn’t sure.
The book’s website suggests satire, beginning its description with a critique of what Dr. Phil, et al. say that men are like. But I can’t deny the feeling that this is tacked-on analysis in a desperate effort to make the novel more interesting. Instead the book feels like an earnest autobiography by a man who is genuinely concerned by little more than sex. Perhaps that is the highest height of satire, but I’m not so sure.
Some things do suggest satire, not least of all the startling flatness of every single character. And though I’m tempted to believe that this is simply caused by Kultgen’s inexperience, I can’t escape the feeling that this might have been intentional. The odd ending, too, offers satire, though not explicitly.
In the end, both ends of this conundrum feel troublesome. This story could either be disturbingly shallow and aimed straight at the heart of a teenage boy, or a decidedly unsure satire about how no man could be as shallow as some want us to believe. For now, I’m not saying which it is.
6 responses to “Review: The Average American Male”
I read it in one sitting and got nothing much from it except the fact that I ain’t that bad as an average man (whatever qualifies as average) as compared to the narrator.
It was interesting enough that I couldn’t put it down, which doesn’t exclude the possibility that the work is drivel.
I figured is written for women, as my girlfriend loved it and thought she had me figured out after reading it.
It is useful for a westernized, urbanize, men to compare notes with…
Beyond that… I think it’s a sexist joke, which at least is worth a couple of laughs.
First of all, this was an outstanding book, could not put it down and I’m in the process of reading it for a second time in order to do a report for a psychology class.
I must disagree with the above review, as I would suggest that today’s “average american male” can relate to much of the emotions and feelings suggested in the novel. That’s not to say that I believe most men would choose to act in the sometimes atrocious ways the protaganist does, and I will be the first to admit most of the book is an extreme dramatization, but it was a highly entertaining read and I personally believe the heart of which is as real as any portrayal of 20 something men in modern literature for sure, but art in general.
I would highly recommend this novel if you consider yourself to fall in the category of an “average american male”.
It’s hilarious. Mostly because, thankfully, I can’t relate to it. I found it particularly funny that the only gay character in the book is named, obviously, Carlos.
Hopefully most women who read it will understand that- actually, no, this is a pretty good approximation of a great deal of men I have met, probably the majority. It’s a fair warning, really. However, it’s often more critical of women than men, which I suspect is because the author has dealt with women like those in the book- stupid, tasteless, and (somehow) even more shallow than the protagonist.
On the other hand, hell, I’m 15.
Firstly I loved this book just as I quite liked 50 Shades. These books are polar extremes. 50 Shades deals with female fantasy and this book deals with male fantasy. Unsurprisingly the are pretty similar wrt the sex. So the difference is in all the attitudes that surround it. When sex is put into the context of real life, that’s when the trouble starts. The question Chad is putting to us is: What will your attitude be?
To answer that question Chad presents three alternative “heroines”. He chooses two and comes to grief with both. But what of the third? Maybe he should have looked beyond the superficial to the real person.
That’s a really interesting perspective. Unfortunately, I no longer the book clearly enough to have an intelligent response to it, but thank you for sharing it.
Book really does bring the thoughts of “the average american male,” to light. It’s what most guys think and want to say and act but knows society frowns upon, so most can’t act on the thoughts. Which the author doesn’t act on most thoughts, but absolutely the thoughts are what most guys think and fantasize. I would imagine most guys wish they had the courage to act on some thoughts as the author does. It absolutely depicts the 20-30 + something male. Ending is not what I expected because it’s actually reality and sometimes that sucks.