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17th out of 17 books
—
5 voters
Flatscreen
by
Adam Wilson
Flatscreen tells the story of Eli Schwartz as he endures the loss of his home, the indifference of his parents, the success of his older brother, and the cruel and frequent dismissal of the opposite sex. He is a loser par excellence—pasty, soft, and high—who struggles to become a new person in a world where nothing is new.
Into this scene of apathy rolls Seymour J. Kahn. Fo...more
Into this scene of apathy rolls Seymour J. Kahn. Fo...more
Paperback, 336 pages
Published
February 21st 2012
by Harper Perennial
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Eli Schwartz doesn't have much going for him. He's a couple years out of high school but doesn't attend college. In fact, he doesn't do much of anything. He lives in his mom's basement, caught in a numbing cycle of drugs, internet surfing, and loneliness. The only things he has going for him are his love of cooking and his hyperactive imagination, which he combines with his immense knowledge of movies and TV to create scenes in his head featuring the people in his world.
So needless to say, he is...more
So needless to say, he is...more
Eli Schwartz is a fat, lazy pothead, slacker, who loves to cook fancy dinners like he sees on Food Network shows. He lives with his mom but doesn't work or go to college and so has been financially cut off by his dad. Instead of following his older brother's example and going off to college with his friends, he has stayed home and done nothing really. Then he befriends the drug-addicted, paraplegic former child star who buys his family home. The friendship leads to increased drug use, more chanc...more
If an episode of "Community" and one of those Hold Steady songs about college townies had a novelized lovechild, it would probably end up looking something like Flatscreen. It's aggressively self-aware, and replete with pop culture references, alternate universe endings, and bizarre characters. It's also incredibly dirty and druggy.
To date, I had only read glowing reviews, which I think overhyped the novel a bit. Flatscreen has its moments of humor, but it's never laugh-out-loud funny. The secon...more
To date, I had only read glowing reviews, which I think overhyped the novel a bit. Flatscreen has its moments of humor, but it's never laugh-out-loud funny. The secon...more
Mar 26, 2012
Jack Cheng
added it
A little disappointed at the guys who blurbed this book. I didn't nearly die from laughter, like Gary Shteyngart, nor did I find this bleakly funny like Tom Perotta (Yes, I'm calling out blurbers!)
This is the story of Eli, a slacker who didn't go to college and takes a lot of drugs, masturbates, and is told he is "funny" so he manages to get laid every once in a while. (A 3 year drought suddenly erupts into casual encounters with a former classmate, the mother of a former classmate, and even sor...more
This is the story of Eli, a slacker who didn't go to college and takes a lot of drugs, masturbates, and is told he is "funny" so he manages to get laid every once in a while. (A 3 year drought suddenly erupts into casual encounters with a former classmate, the mother of a former classmate, and even sor...more
1 like · like · see review
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The Good Stuff
Totally bizarre and unique
Some of the dialogue (and inner dialogue) is LMAO funny
Good writing
Excellent character development
All of the characters feel very realistic like people you would see on the street
Dark and quirky - sort of reminds me of something that Apatow would make into a movie
The Not So Good Stuff
Eli is a loser and I just found myself disliking him and feeling uncomfortable because he was so pathetic
Language is over the top base and vulgar at times & I am n...more
Totally bizarre and unique
Some of the dialogue (and inner dialogue) is LMAO funny
Good writing
Excellent character development
All of the characters feel very realistic like people you would see on the street
Dark and quirky - sort of reminds me of something that Apatow would make into a movie
The Not So Good Stuff
Eli is a loser and I just found myself disliking him and feeling uncomfortable because he was so pathetic
Language is over the top base and vulgar at times & I am n...more
This book is way more vulgar than I expected. There's plenty of sexual imagery and humor. What kept me reading was the interesting way Wilson broke up the narrative with very brief chapters about his family members, himself, and his psychology. Additionally, references to Seinfeld, The Big Lebowski, and other visual forms of entertainment intrigued me and helped me to connect more with the narrator.
You have this twenty-something schlub living near Boston, who talks about an area in which I grew...more
You have this twenty-something schlub living near Boston, who talks about an area in which I grew...more
I liked the book but found it personally distasteful. I don't like sex in my media; it makes me uncomfortable. I do not to critique others for my bizarre, puritanical bent. Sex is normal and fine and good, but I don't like hearing about it, reading about it, seeing it. Don't make out on subway cars. I'll like a romance well enough, but as soon as physical intimacy is described, I don't see what benefits are to be gained by adding explicit details. Offscreen implications of raucous behavior, sure...more
Mar 28, 2012
Joyce Hansen
marked it as to-read
Flatscreen tells the story of Eli Schwartz as he endures the loss of his home, the indifference of his parents, the success of his older brother, and the cruel and frequent dismissal of the opposite sex. He is a loser par excellence?pasty, soft, and high?who struggles to become a new person in a world where nothing is new. Into this scene of apathy rolls Seymour J. Kahn. Former star of the small screen and current paraplegic sex addict, Kahn has purchased Eli?s old family home. The two begin a d...more
FLATSCREEN was a fun fast read, if you have a depressing idea of fun. The prose was moving and poetic. Wilson painted an interesting depiction of the inner lives of the dysfunctional people who reside in an upper-middle class predominantly Jewish suburb.
Twenty year-old Eli Strauss’s conflict begins when his mother sells his childhood home where he has been purposelessly toiling away since his high school graduation, to Seymour Kahn, a disabled drug addicted former actor/porn star. Being uproote...more
Twenty year-old Eli Strauss’s conflict begins when his mother sells his childhood home where he has been purposelessly toiling away since his high school graduation, to Seymour Kahn, a disabled drug addicted former actor/porn star. Being uproote...more
1 like · like · see review
May 20, 2013
giuliadellestelle
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fermoimmagine
All Alone is All We Are
- accompagnamento musicale obbligatorio:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYqyLm...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ydhMX...
- accompagnamento musicale opzionale:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFnA-8...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQQ2gT...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k-sTG...
Già leggendo poche recensioni si intuisce una facile verità:
il protagonista, l'ingombrante Eli Schwartz,è un loser della peggior specie, un pappamolle maleodorante e verbalmente ripugnante, rob...more
- accompagnamento musicale obbligatorio:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYqyLm...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ydhMX...
- accompagnamento musicale opzionale:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFnA-8...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQQ2gT...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k-sTG...
Già leggendo poche recensioni si intuisce una facile verità:
il protagonista, l'ingombrante Eli Schwartz,è un loser della peggior specie, un pappamolle maleodorante e verbalmente ripugnante, rob...more
1 like · like · see review
Premise: Eli Schwartz is the child of disinterested divorced parents. He graduated high school (barely) and has since spent his time is a drug induced haze. Then paraplegic actor Seymour Kahn buys the house Eli and his mother have been living in. The story of the friendship between Eli and Kahn and how it affects those around them.
What it reminds me of: Coupland's Jpod and Microserfs because those characters went through similar existential challenges. Jpod more because the protagonist had dysfu...more
What it reminds me of: Coupland's Jpod and Microserfs because those characters went through similar existential challenges. Jpod more because the protagonist had dysfu...more
Flatscreen was kind of... flat. But deliberately so, I think -- the protagonist, Eli Schwartz, is a young, disaffected kind of guy, no job, no real prospects, smokes too much pot, and most of his drifting around over the course of the book involves trying to make connection to someone, anyone. The characters are all a bit flat in affect, and whereas in a different kind of story it would be frustrating and alienating, here it works. Nobody quite feels real, but since they don't to Eli either, I c...more
Flatscreen has its moments, the protagonist Eli is self-deprecating and helpless in a way that is mostly endearing, and there were some humorous moments and scenarios. He's come to a complete standstill after finishing high school, and seems ill-prepared and unmotivated to accomplish anything beyond watching marathon stretches of TV and cooking elaborate meals for himself in his mother's house. You kinda feel for the guy, but you also kind of want to give him a good shake and tell him to stop we...more
This was my Memorial Day beach reading and it it the role well, The style brought to mind Coupland and Eggers in and the narrator reminded me of all those of "lost soul stoners" who can't move on after high school that everyone has in their lives. I liked Eli, the main character, and even through his drug-induced ramblings I loved the sometimes sad, bittersweet, and tender revelations that always seemed to be in the last sentence of the each chapter. Wilson's movie references, alternate endings...more
Funny, smart, and sad all at the same time. It's a book about suburbia and what it'd actually mean to stay here and live an unexamined life. Drugs, sex, music, and mostly a whole lot of boredom - that's Eli's life. Even after he lands a surrogate father figure, he can't quite rouse himself out of this stupor... because it just doesn't really seem worth it. It's a "slacker novel to end all slacker novels" because he isn't disaffected or rebelling - he just doesn't really care. There's nothing beh...more
Meh. Stoner with a heart of gold fiction is just not for me, I guess. It read a lot like Jonathan Ames to me, the same kind of sad sack, social misfit who can't quite make it with girls befriends a strange, vaguely pathetic older man of the world and through the friendship starts to fund out who he is and who he is not. Liked it well enough, although I did not care what happened to any of the characters. Strong writing though, at times funny, but not the side-splitting tome Shteyngart's blurb cl...more
What do you do when you’re in the basement of life both literally and metaphorically? “Flatscreen” an uproarious novel from Adam Wilson considers this through the life and times of Eli. Told with no holds barred honesty by Eli the reader laughs and cringes as Eli slinks through life, still struggling to cope with his family being torn apart as a young kid (his family has done all it can to sweep it under the rug and not really deal with the issue), he’s become trapped in a slacker drug addicted...more
May 24, 2012
Kate
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Guy's my brother's age who are just trying to figure things out
This was a decent read.
I really liked the unique descriptions Adam Wilson uses throughout the book, as well as, the bullet point lists. What I didn't like was the blurb on the front cover toting how 'hilarious' this book was because I'm not sure it's meant to be a comedy, per say. A comedy of errors maybe, because Adam Wilson uses humor to cover up Eli Schwartz's insecurities, makes uncomfortable situations more bearable, and hides all the character's inner sadnesses. These are all great ways t...more
I really liked the unique descriptions Adam Wilson uses throughout the book, as well as, the bullet point lists. What I didn't like was the blurb on the front cover toting how 'hilarious' this book was because I'm not sure it's meant to be a comedy, per say. A comedy of errors maybe, because Adam Wilson uses humor to cover up Eli Schwartz's insecurities, makes uncomfortable situations more bearable, and hides all the character's inner sadnesses. These are all great ways t...more
http://charlotteswebofbooks.blogspot....
I really wanted to like Flatscreen. *sigh* Maybe I am just too old to really get the humor. I was expecting it to be similar to Matthew Norman or Johnathon Tropper, but it was more along the lines of a mixture of Jay and Silent Bob (major props to you if you know who they are) but not nearly as funny. There were a lot of movie references in the book and several times throughout the book I thought my younger brother (roughly Eli's age) would enjoy this book...more
I really wanted to like Flatscreen. *sigh* Maybe I am just too old to really get the humor. I was expecting it to be similar to Matthew Norman or Johnathon Tropper, but it was more along the lines of a mixture of Jay and Silent Bob (major props to you if you know who they are) but not nearly as funny. There were a lot of movie references in the book and several times throughout the book I thought my younger brother (roughly Eli's age) would enjoy this book...more
Debated whether to give it 3 or 4 stars, would have given it 3 1/2 if possible. This is a smart, funny slacker coming-of-age (kinda) novel that is not quite as smart or funny as it thinks it is. But as a sort of wanna-be "Catcher in the Rye" for a certain type of contemporary male--affluent, Jewish, angst-ridden--it does just fine. Zippy plot, no easy outs, sometimes over the top and sometimes not enough. Actually, the best thing I can say is that it really makes me want to see what the author w...more
Eli Schwartz is a loser. He can’t deal with his parents or the fact that they sold their home. He loves to get high and befriends the new owner of his house, Seymour Kahn, former actor, now confined to a wheelchair and loves his sex and drugs.
This is one dark and sometimes humorous debut, but I couldn’t deal with Eli and I felt he was unlikeable and couldn’t care less what he was doing or where his life was going.
This is one dark and sometimes humorous debut, but I couldn’t deal with Eli and I felt he was unlikeable and couldn’t care less what he was doing or where his life was going.
It's hard to be truly objective about Wilson's debut novel since I knew the author growing up and the fictional Boston suburb the story is set in is not very hard to recognize as inspired by the real one we grew up in. He definitely nails the atmosphere of our era of suburban young adulthood. That said, I think the book stands well on its own merits. Wilson has a deft control of language and it shines through with humor on most pages. I might not recommend the book to my mother because of the ra...more
I don't know you guys, but I can not read a book that its full of sexual jokes, after the fifth one I realized that they would keep coming. I did give the book the opportunity to make me want to read it, but the story didn't help .The story of a loser that doesn't have a job and don't do nothing to change it, besides of smoke weed all the time, and have thoughts of naked womens . Not offense , but this is a piece of crap. I gave it a star, and I guess I've been to generous.
Wilson's voice is Bukowski-esque, but there is far more substance, plot development, and character depth in this novel than anything I've read by Bukowksi. Adam Wilson has a real gem here. I loved this book. Eli is a dead-beat, lazy pothead, but readers can't help but to care about him. I'd recommend this book to the younger crowd, and I'll definitely be nagging my friends to read it.
Perhaps I just have a low tolerance for boner references but if you can maneuver around the dick-swinging it's not a bad book. I ended up liking the main character more than I thought I would -- and I laughed out loud more than once. On the other hand I wouldn't spend 15 minutes with some of these people in real life and I too felt like I got a contact high just reading it. In the end, I liked it and was glad I stuck with it.
I don't know where the initial recommendation came from, but this was the rare book I got through 7 pages of, said to myself, "I'm really not enjoying these jokes, and they're just gonna keep coming," and had to put down and send back. Overly jokey books can get on my wrong side quickly- I really liked, but sometimes was worn down by "The Ask," for example.
You know, the first 45 pages of this were hysterical. However, as it went along, it got more and more disarming, and just sad. It turned out to be a sad little book. I guess it's supposed to be darkly comic, but I just found the dark. It's probably something I can go back months from now and read, but in the meantime, I have to say I'm not digging it at this moment.
1 like · like · see review
Eli is druggy, two years out of high school, never had a job, and wishing his parents (divorced) would pay some attention to him. He and his mom move out of the house he grew up in and see it sold to Kahn, a druggy has been actor. He develops a friendship with Kahn, who later shoots Eli and then himself. Nothing funny or fun about this book!
Moving from "Elegance of the Hedgehog" to "Flatscreen" was like moving from "The Atlantic Monthly" to Twitter. I appreciated the modernity, the creativity, but I am clearly not enamored with the slacker novel genre. All of the reviews described this as "hilarious." I occasionally cracked a smile but hesitate to even describe it as "funny." I finished it, though, which counts for something.
Bleech. This was written for little boys who thought farts and booger jokes funny in grade school and grew up to think pot smoking and underachieving hilarious in their adulthood. Having been married to one of those, I was not amused. I gave it until page 111 then took it back to the library. This book was crap.
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