Shoplifting from American Apparel

Sep 29, 2011 Lee rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: potential-conflict-of-interest

In recognition of Tao Lin's mention of this review on HTMLgiant, I've decided to temporarily give his novella an additional 'star,' although I won't change the original review 'below':

My facial expression was almost neutral after I finished this book, which was controlled, calm, short, flat, and simple. I'm not the target demographic for this book. I don't really get excited about nearly identical disembodied proper nouns doing not much and talking about not much in an intentionally undescribed...more

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Oct 19, 2009 Matthieu rated it 2 of 5 stars

Recommended to Matthieu by: Crls

Why?

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Feb 06, 2012 Jason rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: american

Well, a friend and I discussed this book for a moment. She had recently read it, and I just finished it yesterday. We concluded that we didn't like it very much. It wasn't terrible, there were some good parts, funny parts - the seemingly incompetent writing was most likely intentional and consistent with the scattered-brained vapid technologically saturated creatures who aimlessly and meaninglessly search for a reason to exist and ways to stave off boredom in a landscape of too many possibilitie...more

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Apr 09, 2011 Spoonbridge rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: library-book, generation-y-life

I'm not entirely sure how to review this interesting, unusual work of seemingly semi-autobiographical fiction. The work follows the mundane everyday life of Sam, an unfocused vegan writer who bums about New York City (and occasionally elsewhere) shoplifting, drinking Synergy brand kombucha, chatting with friends on Gmail, and indulging in painfully self-conscious irony (he jokes about buying a "Spicy Chicken Sandwich from Wendy's," and then not eating it). I have to say, "Shoplifting from Americ...more

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Jan 04, 2011 Mike Kleine rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a short book. The ending is really good. Tao Lin also, is a good writer. He will make you think about the way you think. He will make you realize that everyone is different and awkward really doesn't mean anything since we all end up having our "moments"... If you think about it.

But in simple terms, Tao Lin's SHOPLIFTING FROM AMERICAN APPAREL is interesting to read and fascinating in concept. I say this because Lin uses a style of writing that is both precise and minimal. In a recent in...more

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Jul 12, 2010 Jasmine rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: american

I have a feeling that this review will be insulting, so perhaps people emotionally attached to either this book or eat when you feel sad should perhaps just look at the star rating not the rest of the review. Thanks.

I like this book, I like a lot of books, sadly me liking thing tends to translate into me having opinions which easily slides into direct criticism. Things I hate are safer I tend to simply digress or not care enough to say anything.

Anyhow, let's begin with a serious digression, I wa...more I have a feeling that this review will be insulting, so perhaps people emotionally attached to either this book or eat when you feel sad should perhaps just look at the star rating not the rest of the review. Thanks.

I like this book, I like a lot of books, sadly me liking thing tends to translate into me having opinions which easily slides into direct criticism. Things I hate are safer I tend to simply digress or not care enough to say anything.

Anyhow, let's begin with a serious digression, I was discussing gilles deleuze with my friend jonathan, although I didn't tell him who we were discussing. This occurred directly after a discussion of James Joyce and David foster Wallace. The deleuze we discussed was about Proust. Basically that Proust was a collection of disjunctive pieces lacking a coherent whole mushed together. Jonathan agreed with this and like Proust as opposed to the other authors whom I mentioned whom he is not fond of. My theory on this is that Proust while working with the random pieces maintains a sense of literary integrity that is not present in Joyce. Basically if they played the game where you keep the balloon from touching the ground Joyce would drop the balloon a lot, Proust would make the balloon magically levitate while he made a sandwich. My point is not that either is better although I prefer Joyce's methods. My point is that if zach german is Joyce than Tao Lin is Proust. If I could not get attacked for equating these people with famous classical authors I would appreciate it, thanks. Lin's book maintains a sense of literary integrity which German can't juggle. While this doesn't really contain a serious conflict or traditional plot points it does carry a sense of a literary arc. You constantly feel that you know where you are in the story, whereas, in the German book I felt I constantly lost my sense of time. Although in both time seems to be moving faster than it should.

I think that Tao Lin is basically the transition point between German and traditional literature. Meaning he is probably actually more creative, as the point of change tends to be more interesting than the actual change. Unless the change is BS Johnson and he proceeds to kill himself, but that is another story.

Both this book and the German book share a sentence, "I just want to be crying in someone's arms." this is obviously on purpose, I meant contextually the sentence is completely different. Basically nothing around it matches. In the German it reads as a desire for a person, here it reads almost as a desire for emotion. The German book is almost entirely about what thing could make him happy. The Lin seems more about the attempt to interact with the world. The sentence in that context makes it seem like the act of crying is as important as the arms. This related to a difference in emotional content. German is direct description. Not unlike spot ran. Emotional content is entirely absent, the closest he gets is the desire for emotional content. Tao Lin allows for undifferentiated emotional content. I mean it is certainly there, but it occurs in these weird amorphous blobs of "emotionality". perhaps the desire to cry is a desire for a pure emotion. Let's go back to my 80s idea from my German review. This is what became late eighties stoicism. It reads as a confusion and inability to label affective states, perhaps a slightly schizophrenic projection of emotional states. Basically they appear to occur outside Sam, whereas, for German they appear to not occur.

The level of detail is intensely different and probably directly affects the judgment of literary integrity. Lin is very detailed and tells his reader entire conversations as opposed to German's "Robert and Tom talk". you commonly know exactly what is going on, which weirdly you commonly don't in German's book regardless of him detailing every time Robert walks up stairs or goes through a door.

Now that this entire review only is accessible to people that have already read German let me make some comments about Tao Lin. Although I could tell this was autobiographical it didn't feel like Sam had to be Tao Lin although from other reviews it seems it was that character. It read fast. Nothing felt different at the end than the beginning. I kind of like the vapid gchat (although not as much as I liked german's commentary about how much Robert didn't want to talk to the person). I mean it is a novel of life. You won't leave it changed. You won't think Tao Lin is a genius, sorry. You will leaving having been told a story about a person. And here is a secret most people do not lead terribly interesting lives. Tao Lin is not an exception to this.(less)

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Nov 22, 2011 Very rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, borrowed, clever-premise, colorful, dark-comedy, douchebag-chic, hipsteria, moody-blues, style-points, xy, nyc, good-stuff, ebooks, novels

I’m not the kind of person who likes to read “challenging” novels, who dissects convoluted paragraphs to find the “genius” lurking beneath the surface. So it was refreshing to read a story that wasn’t cluttered with pretentious descriptions of bowties and caterpillars. I loved the nihilism and existential drama because it was all wrapped up in pop culture references and demented gmail chats, like when Sam and Luis talk about how much they love Wendy’s Spicy Chicken Sandwiches, but that actually...more

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Jan 02, 2012 Leah rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: literary, favourites

I think it must be ridiculously hard to write this simply and make it endurable. I actually didn't quite connect with the ending as much as the rest of the book; once he met Audrey it sort of veered off in a different direction than the one it had seemed to be heading in.
I think this might be because I read an alternate ending that he posted a link to on his blog or something, so the character of Audrey and the role she played were foreshadowed and so felt a little less genuine.

It was just so r...more

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Oct 24, 2012 Andy W rated it 1 of 5 stars

Terrible. I actually picked this up at a local bookstore one day when my Kindle had run out of battery and I wanted something quick to read on my way back home on the subway. I picked it out purposely because it was thin and seemed like a quick read, bonus points that the title was hip and obscure enough that I would feel like a cool hipster champion as people gazed upon my proudly-displayed reading material on the train.

But for what was a little over a 100 pages and should have been finished th...more

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Oct 04, 2012 Darran Mclaughlin rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've been meaning to read Tao Lin for a while and finally got around to it yesterday. I've been hearing his name touted as a the voice of a generation for a while, the first writer I have heard that accolade accorded to since David Foster Wallace. Reading this I think that he might well be. Writers come along every now and again and are acclaimed as the voice of a generation, from Fitzgerald to Salinger, Kerouac to Coupland. That doesn't necessarily mean that they are the best writer of their ge...more

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Sep 13, 2012 Jonathan Fretheim rated it 4 of 5 stars

1. it is short
2. "flat style"

It may seem at first like a cheap literary trick, but reading IM transcripts in a book resonated deeply with the way I experience some relationships. Conversations always carry multiple simultaneous threads. There is subtle context switching in human interaction (whether verbalized or textual); the linear mode of reading words one line at a time, left to right, on a screen highlights the disjointed nature of conversation and the ever-present role of the context switc...more

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Feb 12, 2012 Dan rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

as i see it, there are a few slightly contradictory ways to interpret this book...

one way would be to see it as some kind of updated, facebook-era existential absurdist tome - like kafka or beckett with text-messaging. or you can take the opposite approach, and see it as a twee, miranda july-ish attempt to capture the awkwardness and vulnerability of 20-something vernacular. or you could pull pack a bit, and look at it as a mostly formal exercise in the rhythms of conversational language, with...more

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Dec 31, 2011 Tfitoby rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: lit, favourites

This was in the cult section of my favourite bookshop and upon reading the title I knew I had to get this book. Yes, I guess this makes me hip or some other label.

I now know more about the author because I loved this novella so much I had to wiki him. He made a documentary on the mumblecore film movement and this is a fact that sheds a whole new light on the structure of Shoplifting From American Apparel. This is a mumblecore novella.

There is something so real and awkward and funny about the cha...more

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Dec 26, 2011 Jay rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shoplifting From American Apparel is a novella stripped of anything that resembles description. Characters are only distinguised by their names or, for unnamed characters, by their ethnicity; faces are described by reference to a "facial expression" (most often "neutral"); dialogue is flat, literally monotonous--questions are more likely than not to appear without question marks--and treats only of irrelevant, incidental subjects; time and it's passing is mentioned but for no real reason or effe...more

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Oct 19, 2011 Rachel Ann Brickner rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: novellas, read-in-2011

I appreciate Lin's project and his aim in writing this book, but once it was over, it was over, leaving me unaffected, without many memorable scenes or moments to think about beyond the context of the text itself. I do admire Lin's referencing of pop culture and his clever capturing of characters who seemingly align themselves with indie subculture (but not really) without it feeling too clumsy or heavy-handed. However, my favorite moments were ultimately slapstick:

"'I don't hold in farts,' said...more

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May 09, 2011 Anita Dalton rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: autobiography, fiction, non-fiction, bullshit-in-paper-form, books-we-own

Look, people have shit on those who write for a new zeitgeist pretty much since publishing evolved from the Gutenberg Press to a more accessible means of conveying ideas. Truman Capote demeaned Kerouac. Half the people I know would like to kill Holden Caulfield if he were a real human. Douglas Coupland mined his generation so thoroughly that some think he wrote himself into a place of relative irrelevance, and Bret Easton Ellis’s scathing examination of 1980s consumer culture, American Psycho, i...more

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Apr 04, 2011 Laura added it

I find this book very attractive. Seriously. I have a weird book crush on these Melville House editions of novellas (they have both a classics series and a contemporary series).

Other than that, I'm not entirely sure what to say about Shoplifting From American Apparel, so I will attempt to tell you what it is about. Sam is a writer. He lives in Brooklyn. He has a friend. His name is Luis. They like to talk about nothing on gmail chat. Sam steals things that he doesn't need. He goes to jail. He go...more I find this book very attractive. Seriously. I have a weird book crush on these Melville House editions of novellas (they have both a classics series and a contemporary series).

Other than that, I'm not entirely sure what to say about Shoplifting From American Apparel, so I will attempt to tell you what it is about. Sam is a writer. He lives in Brooklyn. He has a friend. His name is Luis. They like to talk about nothing on gmail chat. Sam steals things that he doesn't need. He goes to jail. He goes to Atlantic City and doesn't eat steak. I won't ruin the end.

I am oh so cleverly doing a real hack job of imitating Lin's style, which I would describe as "postmodern stream of consciousness" (which I intend to copyright). It has a Palahniuk vibe, without the grotesque. Lin is a master at revealing how uninteresting most communication actually is, and in that way, is a brilliant realist. But, I didn't particularly like it.

My husband asked me what I thought of the book, and like I am now, I was kind of at a loss, so I just started reading him passages from random pages. What I learned from that exercise was that Lin is funny, out of context. He interactions are kind of hilarious collections of comic non sequiturs that reveal how inept and meaningless communication can be. I'm not sure that is proposing that this is new, but maybe. Here is an example:

"Has Marissa ever threatened to kill you," said Sam.
"Oscar Wilde said that genius is a spectator to their own life, to the point that the real genius is uninteresting," said Luis. "No, Marissa has never threatened to kill me."
"Oscar Wilde was stupid though," said Sam.
"Yeah, you're right," said Luis. "My chest is going to explode."
"My face is going to float away from my skull," said Sam. "To emo music."

There is a plot, although I wouldn't say it was the point. The characters are quirky, without being particularly unique or developed. The ending is kind of beautiful. I suppose I did have quite a bit to say, but really no summation for the review. I think that if you read the dialogue above, you might get a pretty good idea whether Lin's style is for you. In the end, I left the book intrigued, and I would probably try it again. (less)

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Nov 21, 2010 A. D. Jameson rated it 5 of 5 stars

A minor modern masterpiece, easily the best thing I've read by Lin, and one of the best new novels I've read by anyone. Do folks still think after this one that Lin isn't deeply committed either to his own writing or to literature? Rather, he strikes me as far more serious than most. An updating of 80s minimalist realism to the present-day, this book is as desperately absurd and emotional as works by Beattie, Carver, L. Moore, J. Williams (the lineage Lin is clearly inhabiting). I read this seve...more

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Aug 15, 2010 James Crichton rated it 2 of 5 stars

As previous reviews have aptly explained, this book does kind of resist any sort of formal analysis. I am going to try to outline my main problem with this book, but it should be noted that I actually don't dislike this book, it's just hard to "like" or have any kind of emotional response to, in the conventional sense.

So the main problem I have with this book is that, having read quite a lot of what has been written about the book, I am left feeling that the people who write about the book are...more As previous reviews have aptly explained, this book does kind of resist any sort of formal analysis. I am going to try to outline my main problem with this book, but it should be noted that I actually don't dislike this book, it's just hard to "like" or have any kind of emotional response to, in the conventional sense.

So the main problem I have with this book is that, having read quite a lot of what has been written about the book, I am left feeling that the people who write about the book are better at writing than Tao Lin.

What I mean is that when I read a novel(la), usually it's because I want to "feel" something or at least be intellectually stimulated and flattered and rewarded, and this book offers no such stimulation/flattery/reward. (I am aware of the reductive nature of this argument but I didn't get $6000 dollars through my blog to fund the writing of this review, so, like, whatever).

This is because the prose is so sparse and so devoid of feeling and so completely perfunctory in its description of things that you sort of have to project your own experience onto it to extrapolate any sort of meaning. Like "yeah I've sort of been in a situation like that, I can remember how that feels, that was probably how this character was feeling".

So, what I suppose I'm getting at, is that in order for this book to be analysed or written about in any detail, some degree of charity must be given to the author. (And I'm not talking about the $6000 thing again. What a cheap shot that would be.) I mean that to ascribe any cultural/social/historical/artistic value to this book is an act of charity, because it is basically a dispassionate account of some stuff that happened, all of it without any discernible significance or meaning, and - I'm going there - anyone could write this. And quite probably, loads of people will. And we will tire of it because it won't be good fiction.

At the risk of totally contradicting and discrediting everything I just said, at least this guy is trying to write something that is actually new, and says something about its spatio-temporal origins, even if that something is "everyone of this generation is incapable of sincerity because they communicate solely through Gmail chat" or "people born in the 80s grew up to have no idea who they were because every aspect of their lifestyle and attitude was prescribed by about five websites, all of which were maintained by people who were born in the 80s". (less)

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May 12, 2010 Adam rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

I sat and read this book at once, in about 2 hours or so total. It demands to be read in one sitting, the way that it is organized, with no chapters and a continuous flowing narrative.

There were several places that I felt like there was a real connection between the main character and myself. I have felt the way that he is feeling. I have taken note of the things that he takes note of. Disaffected, yet deeply affected at the same time. Severely, chronically depressed and worn down from the poss...more

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Apr 09, 2010 christa rated it 1 of 5 stars

Of all the vapid crap in all the vapid world over, this is the vapid-est. I have not been able to get that word out of my head -- vapid! vapid! vapid! -- since I finished Tao Lin's vapid "it" novella "Shoplifting from American Apparel." A task completed over the course of an hour and a half that would have been better spent watching "16 and Pregnant."

True story: I read more than half of this in the cafe at Barnes & Noble and knew I hated it. But I still bought it because I wanted to be able...more Of all the vapid crap in all the vapid world over, this is the vapid-est. I have not been able to get that word out of my head -- vapid! vapid! vapid! -- since I finished Tao Lin's vapid "it" novella "Shoplifting from American Apparel." A task completed over the course of an hour and a half that would have been better spent watching "16 and Pregnant."

True story: I read more than half of this in the cafe at Barnes & Noble and knew I hated it. But I still bought it because I wanted to be able to loathe something physical. And I wanted to finish it, so I would have more reasons to not like it. Joke's on me: Lin profits from my wrath.

Our hero Sam is a bored New York City writer/organic vegan restaurant worker who sleeps until 3 p.m., then IMs Internet friends on Gmail. These are gripping back-and-forths that frequent digress into "I'm so fucked." "I'm so fucked, too." "He's so fucked." Sam seems to like iced coffee, vegan dining, and his ex-girlfriend Sheila, although it's hard to tell. This entire story? chronology? Twitter stream? is written in an eerie See Dick Run monotone. What passes as witty conversations seem to be of the "had to be there" variety. Sam is horseshit at shoplifting, the two times he does it he lands in the clink. Friends enter and exit scenes and new ones replace them but act exactly the same.

All the while, Sam has some sort of cult following of people who actually want to hear him read his words in public and talk about being fans of his work. Then things get super fun on a trip to Florida where everyone gets crazy and does antics.

There is part of me that hopes this book is some sort of elaborate bit of social satire. Like maybe, just maybe Lin is making a statement about blind worship, consumerism, and herd mentalities. Maybe Lin is sitting at home using Hotmail and Bing, craving gas station coffee and Olive Garden, laughing at his friend -- the one who took blurbs from the reviews of people who didn't like this book and tried to refute their claims. I'm not convinced Lin wouldn't do this: he's allegedly given readings where he repeats the same sentence over and over and over; he papered NYC with Britney Spears stickers. Why not write a blase novella, and then mock people who like it in the name of art? Don't get me wrong -- even if that is what's going on here, I'd still hate it.

Another true story: I started reading "Less Than Zero" by Bret Easton Ellis in the same sitting. Strip these two tales, and they are similar concepts: 20-somethings wandering here and there, leaving a trail of pop culture bread crumbs. Yet Ellis doesn't inspire ire. He makes me giddy. Nostalgia is a better brand of vapid. I prefer bored twits from the 80s to bored twits from the 2000s.

This book actually made me mad, and then more mad because I let it make me mad. And this book made me really glad that I don't have any friends younger than 30. It also made me hate the Internet, cult followings, bloggers, and vegans, readers, and emo anything.(less)

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P P oh dear...
Apr 11, 2010 12:28pm

Jk as a fellow literature blogger i must weigh in: you do bring up some good points, but i have to respectfully disagree on the whole.

at first i didnt re...more
Apr 19, 2010 06:51am

Mar 21, 2010 Phloe rated it 2 of 5 stars

Two stars because Lin does - write in a way no one else has prior.

Two stars because - it really wasn't all that engaging.

But. I'm not the one with a book deal, and one who is included in the series "The Art of The Novella" alongside Kipling, Flaubert, Wharton and Joyce. Tao Lin is inarguably making more money than I am.

Shrug. Maybe it's because I'm not a writer. I just read. Perhaps I am missing something.

One-hundred-and-three pages of hipster ennui. Our main character Sam basically drinks iced...more

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Jan 10, 2010 Andy rated it 1 of 5 stars

I'm a fan of gritty realism, and i've got no problem when a book doesn't go anywhere. It's not that I don't "get it", it's that the author doesn't. If taken as satire, the references are painfully out of touch and come across like the misplaced name-dropping of someone who hangs out in the city on weekends but doesn't really know his way around.

If the book is actually to be taken in earnest, it reflects the privileged, vapid reality inhabited by the class of "slumming" pseudo artists who want t...more

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Dec 30, 2009 Trish rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, teen, something-completely-new

Just this morning NPR broadcaster Lynn Neary opined that ebooks and online mobile reading will make writers and readers of traditional books less central to the important intellectual challenges being debated today. Since most ebooks are simply a repackaging of "traditional" books, I question that assertion, but it did make me take another look at Tao Lin's Shoplifting from American Apparel . It occured to me that the style, which hasn't a strong narrative thread but is bits of thought, hints,...more

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Dec 18, 2009 Schuyler rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: library-books

It's easy to read Lin and conclude that he writes about nothing. I mean, that's what I was thinking half the time. But what is behind the 'nothing'. And what do I mean by 'nothing', because clearly he's writing about something. 'Nothing' is really a representation of the current twenty something generation (of which I am a part) that spends way too much time on their Macbooks (this is a Macbook on which I am typing)and talking on Gchat (of which I am also guilty...guilty? Why do I say guilty?)....more It's easy to read Lin and conclude that he writes about nothing. I mean, that's what I was thinking half the time. But what is behind the 'nothing'. And what do I mean by 'nothing', because clearly he's writing about something. 'Nothing' is really a representation of the current twenty something generation (of which I am a part) that spends way too much time on their Macbooks (this is a Macbook on which I am typing)and talking on Gchat (of which I am also guilty...guilty? Why do I say guilty?).

The principle character is Sam, and from what I gather, Sam is a representation of Tao Lin, mostly because he said so on the inside book flap. Sam wanders through his life, "goalless", working his vegan restaurant job, going to parties, occasionally kissing girls, and yes, shoplifting from American Apparel (and not being very good at it). So. This is my generation. And I see some of myself in Sam; the goallessness, the ebb and flow of depression, the wandering, the estrangement from others.

Ultimately, SFAP left me feeling worn out. It didn't make me feel less alone because I had found someone else leading a similarly disillusioned life. It didn't make me feel motivated to change my circumstances. It didn't make me feel hope or even despair. It just left me feeling tired and ordinary. I think his writing style had a lot to do with the overall sense of exhaustion. And I can see that's how Lin's environment and life translates itself onto the page. He writes like he is looking at the world through the lens of a robot from a distant planet who happens to find himself moving through modern America. A robot that drinks a lot of smoothies. And not a clunky robot...a robot like Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Ya know, like, a highly advanced robot.

I will probably read a little more of Tao Lin to get a better perspective on his writing but Shoplifting From American Apparel gave me a pretty good idea about what I'm in for. And if he ever comes across this review, which it's very possible he might, I say to him, Tao, this is just my weak human opinion. My brain moves slowly compared to your advanced robot brain. Disregard all of the above.

Stop Smiling Magazine has an interview with him. I think I'm gonna go and read that. Bye.

(less)

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Oct 18, 2009 Buttercup Mcgillicuddy rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: elderly, disenfranchised native americans

Recommended to Buttercup by: tao lin

this book made me shit myself in a way that felt 'productive'. i felt that i was shitting myself with a purpose. it took me approximately twelve hours to read. over the course of those twelve hours i shat myself seventeen times. it felt good. my prostate was adequately stimulated each time i shat myself. i read this book again briefly over the course of the last three minutes. i didn't shit myself this time. i felt 'a little perturbed' while reading the parts of the book where sam acts 'impossib...more

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Sep 22, 2009 Stop added it

Shelves: interviewees

Read the STOP SMILING Interview with Tao Lin:

Reading About Other People's Lives

Stop Smiling: You’ve said that your target demographic includes hipsters, happy but sensitive teenagers, depressed vegans, Europeans and college students. Does it strike you as odd when other types of people — say, literary critics or editors of magazines — are attracted to your writing?

Tao Lin: No. The way I write, I feel, is within the tradition of what literary critics in every mainstream publication would approve...more

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Sep 20, 2009 Karen rated it 3 of 5 stars

I wandered over to my local Barnes and Noble and read Tao Lin's new book. I feel very mixed feelings...I kinda enjoy his hipster writing, but at the same time, he really annoys me with his emo attitude and cliches. And while a lot of people are so impressed by the New York references to clubs and stuff, I was just like "oh....yeah", having lived there myself and being immune to name dropping. The trendiness was overkill-Odwalla, East Village bars, Myspace, organic veganism, Gmail chat. And a lot...more I wandered over to my local Barnes and Noble and read Tao Lin's new book. I feel very mixed feelings...I kinda enjoy his hipster writing, but at the same time, he really annoys me with his emo attitude and cliches. And while a lot of people are so impressed by the New York references to clubs and stuff, I was just like "oh....yeah", having lived there myself and being immune to name dropping. The trendiness was overkill-Odwalla, East Village bars, Myspace, organic veganism, Gmail chat. And a lot of it is too dead-pan for me, played up for irony. I can appreciate that to a certain extent, but he takes it way overboard, using it in every vague verbal exchange. He himself feels numb from all of it. So, as a reader, how can you not get impatient? I lose sympathy for him halfway through the book although I continue reading it just because I feel that I need to complete the book. I did spend $12 on it after all. Maybe it's not too late to return it. I still have the receipt! I feel bad though....I feel as if we might have met while I was in New York (maybe we have and I forgot?) and had a drink together, discussing the meaninglessness of life. Maybe this is a deluded pattern of thinking due to a sense of familiarity, but the fact is that I have definitely met and know people like Tao Lin. And I'm left trying to decide if that is a good thing or not. Also, I don't understand his inclination to steal random things like earphones and shirts when he is a published writer with a decent future and income ahead of him. It doesn't seem to be about the money as he had almost all of the money needed for the earphones anyways. Which may make the theft worse, in my opinion, because then that means he is stealing stuff just for the "experience" of being arrested and put in jail, which can later become material for his new book. Can we say sell-out? It just seems so contrived, which is an unattractive quality in memoir-type writing. It gets into this question: "Should we do things just so that we can write about them?" My answer has tended to be no, don't screw up your life on purpose in order to create some sort of art, to be different and unique. Don't make your life a drama just for the sake of it. If you are not able to write naturally without consciously creating situations, then it is a reflection on your (lack of) capabilities as a writer. Good writers are able to pen works without resorting to this kind of exploitation. And I strongly feel that it is important to maintain your own health, safety, and stability and not put it at stake for a book. There is a desire to please the audience, but this cannot take precedence over the day-to-day life that one lives! It is a challenge in order to negotiate the line between creativity and madness, between beautiful art and exploitative garbage. I am more aware of this tension than most others. But flagrantly stealing and being caught to be sent to jail would certainly cross that line, almost in the vein of reality television. Just another attention-grabbing scheme. It takes much more thought and originality to actually present unique ideas. I believe that Tao Lin is capable of producing better work than this novella, which seems to a cop-out for a real novel. I look forward to watching his development as a writer. I know this review sounds overly harsh, but the novella just seems to play up the fact that he is semi-known and semi-famous rather than tackle anything of substance.(less)

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Sep 17, 2009 Imogen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Ah, Tao Lin. Evan was like, "Tao Lin has an Andy Warhol thing going on," which is true. Intentionally vapid in a way that points to the vapidness (vapidity!) of the culture! Smart.

And for the first sixty pages of this little book, I was super pumped about it. "This is great," I thought. "Nobody writes this simply and directly about complicated things." But by the end I was like, "okay, yes, you write simply and directly about complicated things, and the lack of analysis is basically the point,...more

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May 06, 2011 Vivek Tejuja rated it 3 of 5 stars

This novella is a slice of early 21st century life among middle class creative types in urban US. The characters live detached lives in which nothing much happens but everything is observed and worthy of comment. The main character is unable to judge his own reaction to things or his own emotional state. He tries to make connections with people, often making heroic attempts, but is largely frustrated by a mixture of the cultural environment and his own character.

It has a certain ring of truth t...more This novella is a slice of early 21st century life among middle class creative types in urban US. The characters live detached lives in which nothing much happens but everything is observed and worthy of comment. The main character is unable to judge his own reaction to things or his own emotional state. He tries to make connections with people, often making heroic attempts, but is largely frustrated by a mixture of the cultural environment and his own character.

It has a certain ring of truth to it, and I know people in the UK whose lives are not dissimilar to those described here. However the narrative drifts as much as the characters lives - presumably deliberately but I'm not sure it makes for compelling reading. I read on in the hope of more of the semi-nonsensical but realistic conversations that are the book's strength. Perhaps this was the intention.

The weak structure would be forgivable in a book this brief if there were something beneath the surface to grasp at. Unfortunately I ended up feeling the author was as shallow as the culture that his characters battle against. They strive for morality of some sort, but in a consumerist way that undermines any thought of them really having a positive impact on the world. The author seems to buy into the ethical posturing that, for example, extends to constantly eating vegan organic food but not to wondering who picked the food and what they were paid. The thefts in the book pass by with an admirable lack of judgment but there is no indication of why an American Apparel t-shirt would be desirable in the first place. The final theft then is the denial of any substance to the reader.

This reads like a harsh review, perhaps because I had high expectations. I'd recommend the book to people interested in novelists trying to do something different, but not to someone who wanted a good read or an interesting insight into US culture. I'm afraid Kurt Vonnegut said it better and much more succinctly:

"Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops."
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