Couldn't connect with the characters. Prose gets lost in itself sometimes.

A compulsively readable, deeply human novel that examines our most basic and unquenchable emotion: want. With his critically acclaimed first novel, Jonathan Miles was widely praised as a comic genius “after something bigger” (David Ulin, Los Angeles Times) whose fiction was “not just philosophically but emotionally rewarding” (Richard Russo, New York Times Book Review, front cover).

“I loved this book…the work of a fluid, confident, and profoundly talented writer…it’s a joyous book, a very funny book, and an unpredictable book, and that’s because everyone in it is allowed to be fully human.”

— Dave Eggers, the New York Times Book Review

About 2/3 of the way through this book you may start to wonder if the three very distinct characters ever actually connect. Miles' is a terrific writer, able to lead the reader to care deeply about three very disparate characters whose stories are seemingly unconnected, outside of the overarching theme of waste and want that permeates the book.

Stick with it, it's worth it. Miles' develops depth in his characters to a depth rarely seem in mainstream literature today. The joy in reading here is in getting to know these characters. Whether or not the storylines ever connect is sort of beside the point. ( )

Enjoyed some of the flashbacks way more than the main timeline, but overall just couldn't get into it. ( )

Just didn't click, try again

Smart, funny, angry and beautifully written, Want Not uses three interlinked stories to explore waste in all its forms. It's a breathtaking achievement, welding a fierce examination of the mindless way people keep or throw away things (and people), with complex and interesting characters and some propulsive plotting. ( )

The majority of Jonathan Miles’ second novel, Want Not, is told in three separate stories – a freegan couple dealing with welcoming a third person into their squat; a washed up linguist, attempting to juggle a separation from his wife with his father’s worsening Alzheimer’s disease; and a blended family, made up of a 9/11 widow, the man she married for security and her angst-filled teenage daughter. Natural desire eventually pushes these starkly different characters toward one another, in a surprising conclusion.

As its title suggests, want is the central force of the book, driving the decisions each of Miles’ characters make. Even Micah and Talmadge, the freegan couple pulling bruised produce from dumpsters in New York City, have underlying desires that are picked apart in this dense character study. But those desires are not haphazardly assigned. By the middle of Want Not, the amazing depth at which Miles understands his characters becomes apparent – down to a preferred bathroom stall and carefully plotted childhoods. Miles shares these details not to stretch out the mundane, but to breathe real, vibrant life into his story. And it works. Each player in Want Not’s web feels whole and, as the novel progresses, has a purpose that shows clear.

“At the hard bottom of loneliness, he'd found, there is just a single letter, one bereft of curves and ornament, a short straight line that's capped on both ends as though to stifle growth and blossoming: I. Merely shifting that to We - two letters, one reaching upward and the other sliding sideways - felt sometimes like enough: just the regular presence of another human, not to cure the pain but to blunt it...”

Where other novels of similar structure attempt elaborate schemes to bring their characters together, Jonathan Miles brings his three stories together in a natural, believable way. Both hilariously funny and painfully honest, Want Not captures the best and worst of the human spirit in a thoroughly enjoyable read.

- See more at www.rivercityreading.com ( )

Having read "Dear American Airlines" which was the best novel I read last year and communicating with the author directly, I was looking forward to "Want Not". It was a terrific book. Miles can flat out write. His prose is terrific and he is very creative. This is a not a plot driven novel and he has 3 different stories which eventually come together at the end. So many novels are using this format that sometimes I feel the each story is short changed but it worked pretty well here although I would have liked more about one character and less about another but that is the nature of any novel with multiple characters. His theme of waste and excess is portrayed through the lives of a young freegan couple living off the grid, an obese linguistic professor whose wife has left him, and a couple that lives the materialistic life. All of the characters live in the New York area. Miles goes deep into all of the characters so you get an insight into everyone. Ultimately this is story that is about what we should value and the excesses of our society. I read about 50 books a year and an always looking for authors to get excited over. Miles is the real deal. Despite the seriousness of the themes that he writes about he also very clever and funny. Enjoy!! ( )

Have you ever been overwhelmed by stuff? Too much food in the refrigerator, overflowing closets, boxes shoved into an attic or garage corner… We are blessed with the excesses of civilization to the point where we sometimes eat when we're not hungry and buy things we don't need. Jonathan Miles raises some interesting thoughts about the consumption and trashing of goods -- and even people who don't meet our expectations.

The stories of three interesting sets of characters are told in this entertaining social commentary. There is Micah and Talmadge, a young couple squatting in an abandoned building in Manhattan, who take pride in living off the grid and getting their food and clothing from dumpsters. Elwin Cross is recently divorced and feeling like a human discard. When he hits a deer and damages his beloved Jeep, he refuses the insurance's mandate to total it because of its age. He also has the most interesting job I've heard of in a long time. He is a professor of dead languages and has been hired as a consultant to come up with the signage for a nuclear dump site to warn the people of the future who, in all probability, will not be speaking any of the current languages. And then there is the widowed trophy wife and stepdaughter of a rich debt collector who seemed the least redeemable of the three sets of characters, but who, in the end, were the source of a most tender story.

Miles shows the reader that people and situations can always surprise us and that nothing is truly wasted if we value what is most important in life. This is the second book he has written. I think I need to take another look at Dear American Airlines to see what lessons I can glean from it. ( )

Set in and around present-day New York City, Want Not follows three storylines about characters who are finally connected at the end of the novel. There’s a freegan couple squatting in an abandoned building; a sleezy debt-acquisitions tycoon, his trophy wife, and troubled step daughter; and an aging linguist struggling with the dissolution of his marriage and his father’s fading health.

Each of these characters deal with waste and the constant strive for more. The couple living off the grid object to America’s rampant consumerism, which creates enough waste for entire third-world countries to live on, and so they drop out of this society completely. They squat in an abandoned building and forage for food and clothing, surviving on society’s excess. The debt-acquisitions man has been corrupted by greed, his wife compromises herself for her comfortable lifestyle, and his teenage step daughter is unable to cope with a difficult reality. The linguist finds himself on a government team charged with creating signage for a nuclear waste dump — signage that must last 10,000 years, during which time all current languages will die out.

Based on what I’ve written so far, Want Not sounds like a really grim novel, but here’s the kicker: it’s actually not. Although parts of this book are heartbreaking, Jonathan Miles is a really funny writer. For each sad moment, there is an equally witty, absurd, hilarious one. And although this is a book about waste, it manages to avoid being at all preachy.

I’m a sucker for books that portray characters living separate lives and then reveal connections between them, and I was wondering throughout the novel how Miles would bring them all together. The connection turned out to be a little weak for my taste, but this is my only complaint about this otherwise incredible, compelling novel. Overall, I loved Want Not and can’t wait to read more of Miles’ work.

See the full review at Books Speak Volumes. ( )

Very conceptually enlightening, if not the greatest of entertainments. Three separate stories, with two starting most gruesomely, one roadkill, one dumpster diving, and a visit to the omniscient self storage facility that litters every landscape. From these evolve whole novels of the lives intertwined with using and discarding. A Jeep is redeemed, an infant is rescued, and stuff is moved from pillar to post and to more posts. The characters are mostly too human and not very likeable, but the redemption is rewarding and most foibles seem to be attached to redeemable humans. Give it a try but don't expect light reading. ( )

I really enjoyed Dear American Airlines and enjoyed this novel as well -- though the two are VERY different. Want Not focuses on three separate stories (with back stories on multiple characters) of people living their lives driven by various wants from life -- all facing a variety of major life decisions... but the reader wonders how in the heck they could possibly intersect, but they eventually do. ( )