I Just Want My Pants Back: A Novel

 (31 customer reviews)

If you are a budding novelist, but worry about getting your work into print - take heart in the fact that Broadway Books, a division of Random House published "I Just Want My Pants Back: A Novel." The bar has been set pretty low.

Pros:

Pleasant writing style, essentially conversational
Some humorous bits
A little sleazy sex
Some realistic depravity

Cons:

There are not enough interesting ideas to support 226 pages of text.
The passage of time has been substituted for a plot
Characters, including the protagonist are poorly developed
No issues are resolved

I can't help but feel that Rosen's, "I Just Want My Pants Back" is largely autobiographical.
It reads like a diary chronicling a series of very, unexceptional events in a young man's life.
As a reality show template. "I Just Want My Pants Back." may appeal to some TV producers.

Used copies of I Just Want My Pants Back: A Novel are...Read more

Jason Strider is a loser, and he's lost. He has an Ivy League English degree, but rather than taking a step forward, he's content to just skate by in zombie-mode with a meaningless job at a small-time casting agency where he spends half the time fighting hangovers, and the rest on instant messenger. He spends his evenings getting plastered, stoned, and then searching for a similarly inebriated woman who he can convince back to his place for a nightcap. A particular one-night stand, Jane - who was part of a run-in with a refrigerator and a wild-cab ride - borrowed jeans from Jason upon waking up, and the story truly begins. Life for Jason is repetitious if anything. He's just like many others, except he cares more about his favorite pants than most else, and he wants them back. Unfortunately, Jane won't return calls, texts, emails, or IMs. Through this dilemma, along with being asked to act as a rabbi (i.e. Universal Life Minister) at a friend's wedding, the book follows Jason...Read more

First of all, I hate that there aren't "abstracts" for most of the books here, so I'd like to give a general outline for those thinking about buying the book, without giving much away. This book is a first person account of a very average guy named Jason, who some would call "down on his luck." He is a college graduate, but working an entry-level job at a casting agency where he shows up late and hungover most days of the week. He has two friends getting married who ask Jason to conduct the ceremony, which involves him going to classes held by a Rabbi at his nearby Synagogue. This prompts some comical interactions and wonderful inner dialogue for our protagonist. Jason takes his audience through his drug and alcohol induced adventures of sex, lust, loneliness, and loss. It was incredible how the author's writing style matches the level of lucidness and intoxication perfectly. As a reader I felt stressed when he was stressed, high when he was high, etc... Whether you take drugs...Read more