I stayed up far too late on Saturday night finishing “My Name is Russell Fink,” and I really enjoyed it. It’s written in a clever, conversational tone – think chick lit, only from a guy’s perspective and not so obsessed with shoes.
Our main character, as you’ve probably guessed, is named Russell Fink and he’s a salesman for an office supply company. He’s not a good salesman—he hardly ever puts in a full day’s work and he takes frequent sick days to visit the doctor for pretend maladies—but his boss will never fire him. It seems that several years ago, Russell’s father, a minister, saved his son’s life and so Russell has permanent employment. He does push it to the very limit.
Russell is engaged to be married to a beautiful control freak named Alyssa and it never occurred to him to be uncomfortable about that until he started talking it over with Geri, his friend from college. Suddenly he doesn’t know which way is up and if he’s making the right decisions, so he consults his oracular basset hound, who will, when properly inebriated, bark answers to yes and no questions about Russell’s future with startling accuracy.
In the middle of all this neurotic lunacy comes the very real possibility of cancer as Russell’s doctor decides to biopsy a mole, and in the meantime, the dog is poisoned. Russell goes from a state of pleasant confusion to all-out chaos as he tries to piece together the mystery of the dog’s death, the mystery of who he should marry, and the mystery of who is making threatening phone calls to his father.
I enjoyed this quirky tale of a young man who, at heart, wants to do what’s right but essentially isn’t sure what that is or how to do it.
(This book was published in 2008 by Zondervan.)
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