Let me try to explain this book. Henry is a 'practice baby' at a university in the 1960's. Apparently this was a real thing in the world. Several Home economics programs (Did you know that I was a home-ec Major my first year in college? True story.) had homes set up wherein they had orphaned infants that were raised by groups of college girls for about two years. After that, the babies were adopted by 'real' families. Henry is one of these babies. But he is so irresistable the stodgy house mother who never gets attached to the house babies falls completely in love with him and adopts and raises him in the practice house.
So I figured the book would be about how Henry grows up to be a womanizer. The author spends a ridiculous amount of time discussing Henry's need to please each of his practice 'mothers' and how he is incapable of choosing a favorite in any situation. That's not really how it went down though. Henry grows up, hates his adopted mom(for no real good reason?)pretends to be mute for a few years, becomes an artist, goes to work at Walt Disney, and dates a few girls. 4 to be exact. Maybe I am just jaded. But I don't think 4 girlfriends spanning between adolescence and your mid twenties grants you man-whore status. Am I wrong here?
Anyway, I love the idea of this book. I love that I had no idea such a lifestyle ever existed. But, honestly, I found Henry to be a pretty resistable character.
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