Product Description

Lincoln Menner is finding out just how hard it is to be a woman. When his wife Jo was offered her dream job, Linc supported her wholeheartedly, leaving his thriving landscape business in Los Angeles and moving to Rochester, New York. This was a chance to escape the cloying needs and atrocious tastes of his celebrity clientele, start over in fresh surroundings, and spend a little quality time with their three-year-old daughter, Violet.

But Linc had no idea what it really meant to be a househusband: To stay home every day, folding laundry, cleaning soap scum, and teaching his little girl to use the potty. To be ignored at parties by his wife’s colleagues who see him as just a homemaker. To be looked upon with suspicious eyes by the neighborhood women who can’t understand what sort of man would choose to stay home. And with each new day, Linc is sure that the next load of whites will be the one that sends him off the deep end.

Though he has the house humming, Linc misses the outside world, longing to carry on an adult conversation with adult friends (the electrician and the UPS guy are starting to avoid him). Most of all he misses Jo, who is working all hours of the day and night and barely notices the fabulous dinners he slaves over, much less the husband who cooked them. And then there is Marilyn, the attractive next-door neighbor, who has been so friendly and supportive. . . .

Now the only thing Linc knows for sure is that something’s got to give. Should he go back to work and leave Violet in the hands of someone who is sure to be less competent? Or should he give in and embrace his role as househusband extraordinaire? At turns funny, neurotic, and endearingly vulnerable, Linc Menner will win your heart–and make you wish you had a househusband all your own. (and you’l love the recipes!).


From the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #657005 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-27
• Released on: 2004-04-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 304 pages

Amazon.com Review
The premise of Ad Hudler's first novel, Househusband, is as simple as the book's title: narrator Linc Menner tells us all about adjusting to life as the primary caregiver to his 3-year-old daughter Violet. The pleasures the book yields are, however, surprisingly complex. There's a weird thrill in reading the trials of domesticity described by, well, a man. In the opening comic set piece, Linc prepares for a dinner party he's throwing for his wife Jo's boss. "Jo had said the house was already clean, that it wouldn't take much to get it ready for guests, but she doesn't understand these things. It wasn't dinner party clean." Hudler has a real knack for observing the inner workings of what is traditionally considered woman's work--he's not shy about devoting page space to dusting and nutrition and plant care. He also gets off some good, quiet social commentary: "There's a reason women read more than men. They get stuck in undesirable locales and situations more often--soccer fields, hospital rooms, bedsides--and a book helps pass the time." In the end, Hudler's book amounts to both a celebration of the art of homemaking and a lovely, funny way to pass the time. --Claire Dederer

From Publishers Weekly
The novel of feminist awakening is given an unexpected twist in Hudler's entertaining debut: its protagonist is a man. Lincoln Menner, once a California landscape designer, is now a stay-at-home dad who knows every creak and crevice of his huge suburban Rochester, N.Y., house. He is plagued by insecurities about wife Jo's high-profile job, three-year-old daughter Violet's schooling and development and his own wrestling with wanting and not wanting to be the perfect man to everyone. In a burst of self-pity, he contemplates his situation: "I felt as helpless as Amelia Earhart, alive on some island, reading a copy of Aviation Today that had washed up on the beach." Meanwhile, Linc's mother, Carol, a deferential wife who temporarily escapes her unimaginative car-salesman husband after stealing one of his own vehicles and driving off to explore the country and herself, provides an alternate voicing of desire and longing through her on-the-road e-mails to her son. The themes of career, family and power struggles between the sexes are prosaic, and the occasional recipes inserted into the text seem out of place, but Linc's plaintive observations about passing days alone and, finally, his self-acceptance, redeem his narrative. 5-city author tour.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Linc Menner's wife, Jo, is given the chance to climb the corporate ladder, but it means moving from California to Rochester, NY. Tired of running his own landscaping business, Linc agrees to give up his job to take care of their young daughter, Violet, while they move and get settled into their new home. Linc immediately bonds with Violet and has the house running smoothly, but he soon discovers the downside to being a stay-at-home dad: most of the neighborhood women snub him, he wonders if he will ever get back into the "real" workplace, and he feels that Jo doesn't truly appreciate what he does. Hudler, who is a househusband himself, creates a light and humorous tone that is a perfect match for this entertaining look at how much work really goes into keeping a house clean and a family fed. A scattering of real recipes is included, and somewhere in between the cooking, cleaning, and childcare comes a genuine glimpse at the guilt and joy that only other stay-at-home parents really understand. This first novel is a great choice for most public libraries. John Charles, Scottsdale P.L., AZ
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Shocked me
I live in Las Vegas and am an avid reader of westerns, mob books, history of Las Vegas and war books. I guess you might refer to me as a macho sort of character even at sixty-four years of age. Getting to the book Househusband, a friend of ours and his wife gave us this book as a present, they are close friends of the authors parents. I told my wife, nice of them, but this looks like a book for you, but certainly not for me. My wife told me, as much as you read, you better read this one because you know who will ask you what you thought and you best know what you are talking about or your buddy will not be happy with you. I am so thankful my wife made that statement, as I then started reading the book, by the third chapter I was hooked. Some four hours later I finished the book, what a delightful and enjoyable book and even though it is fiction there is so much truth in it about todays world and role reversal and the love a macho father who made the decision to do what he felt best for his family. A must read for all women and the macho man who is not afraid of his other side.

Not what I thought
I bought this book thinking it was going to be a very sarcastic spoof on househusbands. Never did I expect it to have serious undertones.

Nevertheless, the book was thoroughly enjoyable and I read it in one sitting (I was down with the flu). The story revolves around Linc, who has just moved his family cross-country so that his wife can take a new position. He decides to settle his family into their new life and becomes a househusband.

Linc struggles with depression as he searches for a new balance in his life. He seems to seek some sort of control which he finds in domestic duties. Between running a perfect house, cooking gourmet meals and raising a perfect daughter, this guy is supermom!

Thoughtful and funny, the story is a good lesson in life change for all of us. By the way, the recipes in every chapter are scrumptious!

To someone debating whether to buy this
Don't read this if you either think only women can be homemakers or think housework is a snap. I think this book makes a lot of true points, about gender and about the unrecognized value of a homemaker, and I think the readers giving reviews are influenced by whether they agree with these points. However a good message doesn't necessarily make a good book. The points could have been made in a 5,000 word position paper. Or this story could have made a tight novella. But, despite the well-written prose, the situation is unchanged for most of the book: Linc is unhappy as a househusband despite the rewards, yet he's trapped. The book failed to engage me in whether he has an affair with his neighbor, or with what happens to his mother on the run, or how he will deal with an inadequate nanny. I enjoyed the individual scenes but overall the trip to the end took too long.