The hero (or anti-hero) of Aaron Jacobs’ The Abundant Life is Alex Wolf, a Jewish boy who goes rogue as a teenage gunrunner, does hard time, and returns home to — not much. Meet his struggling family: Mom’s a bleeding heart working in a homeless shelter; Dad’s a gambler and a business failure; and little sister Rachel’s greatest aspiration is to leave home for college. Where to find money? The credit-card debt is too deep to see the bottom, and the house, of course, is a health hazard ... Author Jacobs needs to prune his clichés and deploy fewer ordinary turns of phrase. His writing can be choppy and convoluted. What he does deliver, however, is humor. Alex’s cynicism is unrelenting, but fortunately, he can laugh at himself ... Character development? Not really. Big ideas? Nah. Call this book madcap, call it screwball, and you would be right. Read The Abundant Life for entertainment and for a plot that defies reality; that is, if we weren’t living in 2018.
The Abundant Life, told mostly in the first person, is about a young man who, with the help of his close friend, Ron, and a quest to begin a new career path, gets into a bind after legally purchasing, and questionably transporting, firearms and ammunition to a mysterious rebel army ... There were...some humorous moments that I know readers will find quite amusing. This was uniquely done and definitely reminds me of one of those must-read classics.
