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  <id>72599</id>
  <title><![CDATA[Eat the Document: A Novel]]></title>
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  <description><![CDATA[Mary Whittaker and Bobby DeSoto have constructed lives for themselves like Popsicle-stick houses: brittle, unfurnished, painstakingly assembled but made to be snapped apart or abandoned in a moment.  The main characters of Dana Spiotta's magnificent second novel, <em>Eat the Document,</em> they were once in love, but spend all but a few pages of the book intentionally distant and out of communication--fugitives after executing a political bombing in the '70s that went awry.  Moving often, changing their names more than once, they had to cut off any friendship as soon as it blossomed emotionally and seemed to demand authenticity.  Now, in the 1990s, Mary's 15-year-old son Jason (a '70s music buff) begins to uncover his mother's dangerous secret. &quot;Incidentally, if you have never stalked someone close to you, I highly recommend it,&quot; he confides in his journal, &quot;Check out how it transforms them.  How other they become, and how infinitely necessary and justified the stalking becomes when you realize how little you know about them.&quot; <p> More than a portrait of life underground, <em>Eat the Document</em> derives its power from an implicit comparison of '70s radicalism to the pale protests of present-day consumer culture, somehow upholding the idealism and commitment of the earlier period without advocating its violent methods.  Spiotta never lets the novel feel like a history lesson or a diatribe.  Its social critique is enacted chiefly through Nash (the former Bobby), whose resistance has mellowed to amused observance of the radical Seattle youth who frequent the independent lefty bookstore he runs.  Nash redefines the term &quot;activist&quot; by facilitating a number of brilliantly conceived groups that rarely execute their plans. The Radical Juxtaposeurs, for example, &quot;rent films from Blockbuster and dub fake commercials onto the beginnings of the tapes to imply dislocated, ominous, disturbing things,&quot; while the Barcode Remixers &quot;made fake bar code stickers that would replace ones. Everything rang up at five or ten cents.  This was strictly for the chain, nonunion supermarkets.&quot; <p> <em>Eat the Document</em> moves back and forth in time, like a fishnet pulling through water, tantalizing the reader with glimpses of Mary and Bobby's past.  There are plenty of surprises, not so much in the details of the bombing plot but in the shifting culpability of the actors.  Above all, this is a grown-up novel about late adolescence, and about what we take with us&#139;and what we jettison--on the journey from passionate, reckless youth into seasoned (or soiled) middle age. <em>--Regina Marler</em></p></p>]]></description>
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    <name><![CDATA[Brien]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Export, PA]]></location>
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    <![CDATA[Eat the Document: A Novel]]>
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    <![CDATA[Mary Whittaker and Bobby DeSoto have constructed lives for themselves like Popsicle-stick houses: brittle, unfurnished, painstakingly assembled but made to be snapped apart or abandoned in a moment.  The main characters of Dana Spiotta's magnificent second novel, <em>Eat the Document,</em> they were once in love, but spend all but a few pages of the book intentionally distant and out of communication--fugitives after executing a political bombing in the '70s that went awry.  Moving often, changing their names more than once, they had to cut off any friendship as soon as it blossomed emotionally and seemed to demand authenticity.  Now, in the 1990s, Mary's 15-year-old son Jason (a '70s music buff) begins to uncover his mother's dangerous secret. &quot;Incidentally, if you have never stalked someone close to you, I highly recommend it,&quot; he confides in his journal, &quot;Check out how it transforms them.  How other they become, and how infinitely necessary and justified the stalking becomes when you realize how little you know about them.&quot; <p> More than a portrait of life underground, <em>Eat the Document</em> derives its power from an implicit comparison of '70s radicalism to the pale protests of present-day consumer culture, somehow upholding the idealism and commitment of the earlier period without advocating its violent methods.  Spiotta never lets the novel feel like a history lesson or a diatribe.  Its social critique is enacted chiefly through Nash (the former Bobby), whose resistance has mellowed to amused observance of the radical Seattle youth who frequent the independent lefty bookstore he runs.  Nash redefines the term &quot;activist&quot; by facilitating a number of brilliantly conceived groups that rarely execute their plans. The Radical Juxtaposeurs, for example, &quot;rent films from Blockbuster and dub fake commercials onto the beginnings of the tapes to imply dislocated, ominous, disturbing things,&quot; while the Barcode Remixers &quot;made fake bar code stickers that would replace ones. Everything rang up at five or ten cents.  This was strictly for the chain, nonunion supermarkets.&quot; <p> <em>Eat the Document</em> moves back and forth in time, like a fishnet pulling through water, tantalizing the reader with glimpses of Mary and Bobby's past.  There are plenty of surprises, not so much in the details of the bombing plot but in the shifting culpability of the actors.  Above all, this is a grown-up novel about late adolescence, and about what we take with us&#139;and what we jettison--on the journey from passionate, reckless youth into seasoned (or soiled) middle age. <em>--Regina Marler</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2006</published>
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    <rating>5</rating>
  <votes>3</votes>
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  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007</read_at>
  <date_added>Thu May 31 17:41:40 -0700 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Thu May 31 17:47:18 -0700 2007</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[This one crept up on me as I read it.  It starts simple, and then moves back and forth in time sketching out the narrative and the characters.  One of the best examples of &quot;show, don't tell&quot; that I've ever come across.  Maybe my interest in the old 60's romantic revolutionaries flavored my...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1571836">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1571836]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1571836]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>11793347</id>
    <user>
    <id>217774</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Christy]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Cleveland, OH]]></location>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[Eat the Document: A Novel]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>3.39</average_rating>
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  <description>
    <![CDATA[Mary Whittaker and Bobby DeSoto have constructed lives for themselves like Popsicle-stick houses: brittle, unfurnished, painstakingly assembled but made to be snapped apart or abandoned in a moment.  The main characters of Dana Spiotta's magnificent second novel, <em>Eat the Document,</em> they were once in love, but spend all but a few pages of the book intentionally distant and out of communication--fugitives after executing a political bombing in the '70s that went awry.  Moving often, changing their names more than once, they had to cut off any friendship as soon as it blossomed emotionally and seemed to demand authenticity.  Now, in the 1990s, Mary's 15-year-old son Jason (a '70s music buff) begins to uncover his mother's dangerous secret. &quot;Incidentally, if you have never stalked someone close to you, I highly recommend it,&quot; he confides in his journal, &quot;Check out how it transforms them.  How other they become, and how infinitely necessary and justified the stalking becomes when you realize how little you know about them.&quot; <p> More than a portrait of life underground, <em>Eat the Document</em> derives its power from an implicit comparison of '70s radicalism to the pale protests of present-day consumer culture, somehow upholding the idealism and commitment of the earlier period without advocating its violent methods.  Spiotta never lets the novel feel like a history lesson or a diatribe.  Its social critique is enacted chiefly through Nash (the former Bobby), whose resistance has mellowed to amused observance of the radical Seattle youth who frequent the independent lefty bookstore he runs.  Nash redefines the term &quot;activist&quot; by facilitating a number of brilliantly conceived groups that rarely execute their plans. The Radical Juxtaposeurs, for example, &quot;rent films from Blockbuster and dub fake commercials onto the beginnings of the tapes to imply dislocated, ominous, disturbing things,&quot; while the Barcode Remixers &quot;made fake bar code stickers that would replace ones. Everything rang up at five or ten cents.  This was strictly for the chain, nonunion supermarkets.&quot; <p> <em>Eat the Document</em> moves back and forth in time, like a fishnet pulling through water, tantalizing the reader with glimpses of Mary and Bobby's past.  There are plenty of surprises, not so much in the details of the bombing plot but in the shifting culpability of the actors.  Above all, this is a grown-up novel about late adolescence, and about what we take with us&#139;and what we jettison--on the journey from passionate, reckless youth into seasoned (or soiled) middle age. <em>--Regina Marler</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2006</published>
</book>

    <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>2</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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          </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[failed revolutionaries?]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Tue May 13 00:00:00 -0700 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Sun Jan 06 11:36:54 -0800 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Tue May 13 20:15:49 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[I must be officially done with school because I am reading again!  Well, not quite, but I did read this surprising novel today.<br/><br/>Although I was interested in reading Eat the Document, my expectations for it were not very high at the outset.  I suppose I was expecting mainly a character stu...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/11793347">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/11793347]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/11793347]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>41110929</id>
    <user>
    <id>1653081</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Becky]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[The United States]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1653081-becky]]></link>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[Eat the Document: A Novel]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>3.39</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>540</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[Mary Whittaker and Bobby DeSoto have constructed lives for themselves like Popsicle-stick houses: brittle, unfurnished, painstakingly assembled but made to be snapped apart or abandoned in a moment.  The main characters of Dana Spiotta's magnificent second novel, <em>Eat the Document,</em> they were once in love, but spend all but a few pages of the book intentionally distant and out of communication--fugitives after executing a political bombing in the '70s that went awry.  Moving often, changing their names more than once, they had to cut off any friendship as soon as it blossomed emotionally and seemed to demand authenticity.  Now, in the 1990s, Mary's 15-year-old son Jason (a '70s music buff) begins to uncover his mother's dangerous secret. &quot;Incidentally, if you have never stalked someone close to you, I highly recommend it,&quot; he confides in his journal, &quot;Check out how it transforms them.  How other they become, and how infinitely necessary and justified the stalking becomes when you realize how little you know about them.&quot; <p> More than a portrait of life underground, <em>Eat the Document</em> derives its power from an implicit comparison of '70s radicalism to the pale protests of present-day consumer culture, somehow upholding the idealism and commitment of the earlier period without advocating its violent methods.  Spiotta never lets the novel feel like a history lesson or a diatribe.  Its social critique is enacted chiefly through Nash (the former Bobby), whose resistance has mellowed to amused observance of the radical Seattle youth who frequent the independent lefty bookstore he runs.  Nash redefines the term &quot;activist&quot; by facilitating a number of brilliantly conceived groups that rarely execute their plans. The Radical Juxtaposeurs, for example, &quot;rent films from Blockbuster and dub fake commercials onto the beginnings of the tapes to imply dislocated, ominous, disturbing things,&quot; while the Barcode Remixers &quot;made fake bar code stickers that would replace ones. Everything rang up at five or ten cents.  This was strictly for the chain, nonunion supermarkets.&quot; <p> <em>Eat the Document</em> moves back and forth in time, like a fishnet pulling through water, tantalizing the reader with glimpses of Mary and Bobby's past.  There are plenty of surprises, not so much in the details of the bombing plot but in the shifting culpability of the actors.  Above all, this is a grown-up novel about late adolescence, and about what we take with us&#139;and what we jettison--on the journey from passionate, reckless youth into seasoned (or soiled) middle age. <em>--Regina Marler</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2006</published>
</book>

    <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
  <shelves>
        <shelf name="read" />
          </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Sun Dec 28 00:00:00 -0800 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Sun Dec 28 14:36:09 -0800 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun Dec 28 14:42:32 -0800 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Well I'd looked forward to this book but it was ultimately disappointing. I guess I wanted more  protagonist, Mary/Freya/Caroline/Louise, story than for her son Jason. Anyway... <br/><br/>Mary, a young radical revolutionary runs from the scene of a felony done in the name of making a solid, materi...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/41110929">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/41110929]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/41110929]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>44760516</id>
    <user>
    <id>1587840</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Jacki]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Akron, OH]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1587840-jacki]]></link>
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    <![CDATA[Eat the Document: A Novel]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>3.39</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>540</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[Mary Whittaker and Bobby DeSoto have constructed lives for themselves like Popsicle-stick houses: brittle, unfurnished, painstakingly assembled but made to be snapped apart or abandoned in a moment.  The main characters of Dana Spiotta's magnificent second novel, <em>Eat the Document,</em> they were once in love, but spend all but a few pages of the book intentionally distant and out of communication--fugitives after executing a political bombing in the '70s that went awry.  Moving often, changing their names more than once, they had to cut off any friendship as soon as it blossomed emotionally and seemed to demand authenticity.  Now, in the 1990s, Mary's 15-year-old son Jason (a '70s music buff) begins to uncover his mother's dangerous secret. &quot;Incidentally, if you have never stalked someone close to you, I highly recommend it,&quot; he confides in his journal, &quot;Check out how it transforms them.  How other they become, and how infinitely necessary and justified the stalking becomes when you realize how little you know about them.&quot; <p> More than a portrait of life underground, <em>Eat the Document</em> derives its power from an implicit comparison of '70s radicalism to the pale protests of present-day consumer culture, somehow upholding the idealism and commitment of the earlier period without advocating its violent methods.  Spiotta never lets the novel feel like a history lesson or a diatribe.  Its social critique is enacted chiefly through Nash (the former Bobby), whose resistance has mellowed to amused observance of the radical Seattle youth who frequent the independent lefty bookstore he runs.  Nash redefines the term &quot;activist&quot; by facilitating a number of brilliantly conceived groups that rarely execute their plans. The Radical Juxtaposeurs, for example, &quot;rent films from Blockbuster and dub fake commercials onto the beginnings of the tapes to imply dislocated, ominous, disturbing things,&quot; while the Barcode Remixers &quot;made fake bar code stickers that would replace ones. Everything rang up at five or ten cents.  This was strictly for the chain, nonunion supermarkets.&quot; <p> <em>Eat the Document</em> moves back and forth in time, like a fishnet pulling through water, tantalizing the reader with glimpses of Mary and Bobby's past.  There are plenty of surprises, not so much in the details of the bombing plot but in the shifting culpability of the actors.  Above all, this is a grown-up novel about late adolescence, and about what we take with us&#139;and what we jettison--on the journey from passionate, reckless youth into seasoned (or soiled) middle age. <em>--Regina Marler</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2006</published>
</book>

    <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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          </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Fri Jan 30 00:00:00 -0800 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Thu Jan 29 10:29:06 -0800 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Fri Jan 30 10:15:15 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[This one was interesting for me.  I didn't really  know anything about it before I read it and as I got going, it really sucked me in.<br/><br/>I thought it was interesting how the idea of 'identity' was looked at from so many different angles. The changing of identity/teenage identity/the identit...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/44760516">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/44760516]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/44760516]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>45461763</id>
    <user>
    <id>1008236</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Bookmarks Magazine]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[The United States]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1008236-bookmarks-magazine]]></link>
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  <isbn>0743272986</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780743272988</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">11</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[Eat the Document]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>3.21</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>34</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[In the heyday of the 1970s underground, Bobby DeSoto and Mary Whittaker - passionate, idealistic and in love - design a series of radical protests against the Vietnam War. When one action goes wrong, the course of their lives is forever changed. The two must erase their past, forge new identities and never see one another again. Now it is the 1990s. Mary lives in the suburbs with her fifteen-year-old son, who spends hours immersed in the music of his mother's generation. She has no idea where Bobby is, whether he is alive or dead. Shifting between the protests in the 1970s and the consequences of choices made back then in the 1990s, Dana Spiotta deftly explores the connection between the two eras - their language, technology, music and activism. &quot;Eat the Document&quot; is an important and revelatory novel about the culture of rebellion. 'Stunning ...a glittering collage of a book - a book that possesses the staccato ferocity of a Joan Didion essay and the historical resonance and razzle-dazzle language of a Don DeLillo novel ...a symphonic portrait of three decades of American life ...filled with musical leitmotifs and searing, strobe-lighted images of contemporary life' - Michiko Kakutani, &quot;New York Times&quot;.]]>
  </description>
  <published>2006</published>
</book>

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  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Thu Feb 05 09:45:05 -0800 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Thu Feb 05 09:45:05 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[<p>Spiotta, whose debut novel <em>Lightning Field </em>(2001) garnered critical acclaim, has pleased some critics and disappointed others. With a title based on a documentary about Bob Dylan, the novel raises questions about identity, intent, and outcomes. Some reviewers praised Spiotta's gift for delving deep ...</p><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/45461763">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/45461763]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/45461763]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>4495209</id>
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    <id>162597</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Shiri]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Brooklyn, NY]]></location>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[Eat the Document: A Novel]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>3.39</average_rating>
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  <description>
    <![CDATA[Mary Whittaker and Bobby DeSoto have constructed lives for themselves like Popsicle-stick houses: brittle, unfurnished, painstakingly assembled but made to be snapped apart or abandoned in a moment.  The main characters of Dana Spiotta's magnificent second novel, <em>Eat the Document,</em> they were once in love, but spend all but a few pages of the book intentionally distant and out of communication--fugitives after executing a political bombing in the '70s that went awry.  Moving often, changing their names more than once, they had to cut off any friendship as soon as it blossomed emotionally and seemed to demand authenticity.  Now, in the 1990s, Mary's 15-year-old son Jason (a '70s music buff) begins to uncover his mother's dangerous secret. &quot;Incidentally, if you have never stalked someone close to you, I highly recommend it,&quot; he confides in his journal, &quot;Check out how it transforms them.  How other they become, and how infinitely necessary and justified the stalking becomes when you realize how little you know about them.&quot; <p> More than a portrait of life underground, <em>Eat the Document</em> derives its power from an implicit comparison of '70s radicalism to the pale protests of present-day consumer culture, somehow upholding the idealism and commitment of the earlier period without advocating its violent methods.  Spiotta never lets the novel feel like a history lesson or a diatribe.  Its social critique is enacted chiefly through Nash (the former Bobby), whose resistance has mellowed to amused observance of the radical Seattle youth who frequent the independent lefty bookstore he runs.  Nash redefines the term &quot;activist&quot; by facilitating a number of brilliantly conceived groups that rarely execute their plans. The Radical Juxtaposeurs, for example, &quot;rent films from Blockbuster and dub fake commercials onto the beginnings of the tapes to imply dislocated, ominous, disturbing things,&quot; while the Barcode Remixers &quot;made fake bar code stickers that would replace ones. Everything rang up at five or ten cents.  This was strictly for the chain, nonunion supermarkets.&quot; <p> <em>Eat the Document</em> moves back and forth in time, like a fishnet pulling through water, tantalizing the reader with glimpses of Mary and Bobby's past.  There are plenty of surprises, not so much in the details of the bombing plot but in the shifting culpability of the actors.  Above all, this is a grown-up novel about late adolescence, and about what we take with us&#139;and what we jettison--on the journey from passionate, reckless youth into seasoned (or soiled) middle age. <em>--Regina Marler</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2006</published>
</book>

    <rating>3</rating>
  <votes>1</votes>
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  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Mon Aug 13 15:47:44 -0700 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon Aug 13 15:49:25 -0700 2007</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[I borrowed this book from my roommate, and she told me that while it was really good, it wasn't as good as it could be. I enjoyed it and found the pace especially to be fascinating. But, by the time I got to the end, my roommate was right. A really good book, but there was a small something missing....<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4495209">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4495209]]></url>
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</review>
      <review>
  <id>21587813</id>
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    <name><![CDATA[Cherie]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Brooklyn, NY]]></location>
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  <isbn>0330448293</isbn>
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  <text_reviews_count type="integer">10</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[Eat the Document: A Novel]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>3.49</average_rating>
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  <description>
    <![CDATA[Mary Whittaker and Bobby DeSoto have constructed lives for themselves like Popsicle-stick houses: brittle, unfurnished, painstakingly assembled but made to be snapped apart or abandoned in a moment.  The main characters of Dana Spiotta's magnificent second novel, <em>Eat the Document,</em> they were once in love, but spend all but a few pages of the book intentionally distant and out of communication--fugitives after executing a political bombing in the '70s that went awry.  Moving often, changing their names more than once, they had to cut off any friendship as soon as it blossomed emotionally and seemed to demand authenticity.  Now, in the 1990s, Mary's 15-year-old son Jason (a '70s music buff) begins to uncover his mother's dangerous secret. &quot;Incidentally, if you have never stalked someone close to you, I highly recommend it,&quot; he confides in his journal, &quot;Check out how it transforms them.  How other they become, and how infinitely necessary and justified the stalking becomes when you realize how little you know about them.&quot; <p> More than a portrait of life underground, <em>Eat the Document</em> derives its power from an implicit comparison of '70s radicalism to the pale protests of present-day consumer culture, somehow upholding the idealism and commitment of the earlier period without advocating its violent methods.  Spiotta never lets the novel feel like a history lesson or a diatribe.  Its social critique is enacted chiefly through Nash (the former Bobby), whose resistance has mellowed to amused observance of the radical Seattle youth who frequent the independent lefty bookstore he runs.  Nash redefines the term &quot;activist&quot; by facilitating a number of brilliantly conceived groups that rarely execute their plans. The Radical Juxtaposeurs, for example, &quot;rent films from Blockbuster and dub fake commercials onto the beginnings of the tapes to imply dislocated, ominous, disturbing things,&quot; while the Barcode Remixers &quot;made fake bar code stickers that would replace ones. Everything rang up at five or ten cents.  This was strictly for the chain, nonunion supermarkets.&quot; <p> <em>Eat the Document</em> moves back and forth in time, like a fishnet pulling through water, tantalizing the reader with glimpses of Mary and Bobby's past.  There are plenty of surprises, not so much in the details of the bombing plot but in the shifting culpability of the actors.  Above all, this is a grown-up novel about late adolescence, and about what we take with us&#139;and what we jettison--on the journey from passionate, reckless youth into seasoned (or soiled) middle age. <em>--Regina Marler</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2006</published>
</book>

    <rating>1</rating>
  <votes>1</votes>
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  <read_at>Thu Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006</read_at>
  <date_added>Sun May 04 15:16:22 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun May 04 15:16:33 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[DNF Although there was a very promising start, I was lost and unengaged as you enter these characters unrelated to the original plot.]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/21587813]]></url>
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</review>
      <review>
  <id>76078236</id>
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    <name><![CDATA[Michele]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[The United States]]></location>
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    <![CDATA[Eat the Document: A Novel]]>
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  <average_rating>3.39</average_rating>
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  <description>
    <![CDATA[Mary Whittaker and Bobby DeSoto have constructed lives for themselves like Popsicle-stick houses: brittle, unfurnished, painstakingly assembled but made to be snapped apart or abandoned in a moment.  The main characters of Dana Spiotta's magnificent second novel, <em>Eat the Document,</em> they were once in love, but spend all but a few pages of the book intentionally distant and out of communication--fugitives after executing a political bombing in the '70s that went awry.  Moving often, changing their names more than once, they had to cut off any friendship as soon as it blossomed emotionally and seemed to demand authenticity.  Now, in the 1990s, Mary's 15-year-old son Jason (a '70s music buff) begins to uncover his mother's dangerous secret. &quot;Incidentally, if you have never stalked someone close to you, I highly recommend it,&quot; he confides in his journal, &quot;Check out how it transforms them.  How other they become, and how infinitely necessary and justified the stalking becomes when you realize how little you know about them.&quot; <p> More than a portrait of life underground, <em>Eat the Document</em> derives its power from an implicit comparison of '70s radicalism to the pale protests of present-day consumer culture, somehow upholding the idealism and commitment of the earlier period without advocating its violent methods.  Spiotta never lets the novel feel like a history lesson or a diatribe.  Its social critique is enacted chiefly through Nash (the former Bobby), whose resistance has mellowed to amused observance of the radical Seattle youth who frequent the independent lefty bookstore he runs.  Nash redefines the term &quot;activist&quot; by facilitating a number of brilliantly conceived groups that rarely execute their plans. The Radical Juxtaposeurs, for example, &quot;rent films from Blockbuster and dub fake commercials onto the beginnings of the tapes to imply dislocated, ominous, disturbing things,&quot; while the Barcode Remixers &quot;made fake bar code stickers that would replace ones. Everything rang up at five or ten cents.  This was strictly for the chain, nonunion supermarkets.&quot; <p> <em>Eat the Document</em> moves back and forth in time, like a fishnet pulling through water, tantalizing the reader with glimpses of Mary and Bobby's past.  There are plenty of surprises, not so much in the details of the bombing plot but in the shifting culpability of the actors.  Above all, this is a grown-up novel about late adolescence, and about what we take with us&#139;and what we jettison--on the journey from passionate, reckless youth into seasoned (or soiled) middle age. <em>--Regina Marler</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2006</published>
</book>

    <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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  <read_at>Sun Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Wed Oct 28 20:42:49 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun Nov 01 19:20:27 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Finally, a book I can recommend, and because I liked it, I'm not going to give anything away. The events take place at two time periods, beginning in 1972 or 1998, and there are four points of view. It's one of those books that is maximally confusing until you figure out who is who and when is when....<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76078236">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76078236]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76078236]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>30482143</id>
    <user>
    <id>430381</id>
    <name><![CDATA[John]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Columbus, OH]]></location>
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    <![CDATA[Eat the Document: A Novel]]>
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  <average_rating>3.39</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>540</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[Mary Whittaker and Bobby DeSoto have constructed lives for themselves like Popsicle-stick houses: brittle, unfurnished, painstakingly assembled but made to be snapped apart or abandoned in a moment.  The main characters of Dana Spiotta's magnificent second novel, <em>Eat the Document,</em> they were once in love, but spend all but a few pages of the book intentionally distant and out of communication--fugitives after executing a political bombing in the '70s that went awry.  Moving often, changing their names more than once, they had to cut off any friendship as soon as it blossomed emotionally and seemed to demand authenticity.  Now, in the 1990s, Mary's 15-year-old son Jason (a '70s music buff) begins to uncover his mother's dangerous secret. &quot;Incidentally, if you have never stalked someone close to you, I highly recommend it,&quot; he confides in his journal, &quot;Check out how it transforms them.  How other they become, and how infinitely necessary and justified the stalking becomes when you realize how little you know about them.&quot; <p> More than a portrait of life underground, <em>Eat the Document</em> derives its power from an implicit comparison of '70s radicalism to the pale protests of present-day consumer culture, somehow upholding the idealism and commitment of the earlier period without advocating its violent methods.  Spiotta never lets the novel feel like a history lesson or a diatribe.  Its social critique is enacted chiefly through Nash (the former Bobby), whose resistance has mellowed to amused observance of the radical Seattle youth who frequent the independent lefty bookstore he runs.  Nash redefines the term &quot;activist&quot; by facilitating a number of brilliantly conceived groups that rarely execute their plans. The Radical Juxtaposeurs, for example, &quot;rent films from Blockbuster and dub fake commercials onto the beginnings of the tapes to imply dislocated, ominous, disturbing things,&quot; while the Barcode Remixers &quot;made fake bar code stickers that would replace ones. Everything rang up at five or ten cents.  This was strictly for the chain, nonunion supermarkets.&quot; <p> <em>Eat the Document</em> moves back and forth in time, like a fishnet pulling through water, tantalizing the reader with glimpses of Mary and Bobby's past.  There are plenty of surprises, not so much in the details of the bombing plot but in the shifting culpability of the actors.  Above all, this is a grown-up novel about late adolescence, and about what we take with us&#139;and what we jettison--on the journey from passionate, reckless youth into seasoned (or soiled) middle age. <em>--Regina Marler</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2006</published>
</book>

    <rating>4</rating>
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  <read_at>Sat Sep 06 00:00:00 -0700 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Mon Aug 18 14:41:12 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon Sep 08 13:24:27 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[This book was recommended to me by Nate and Amy who thought I would enjoy as much as I did My Revolutions.  They were right.  The narrative does not directly tell the story of 60s radicalism, the most interesting part of My Revolutions, but focuses on the legacy of radical violence for contemporary ...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/30482143">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/30482143]]></url>
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</review>
      <review>
  <id>26286519</id>
    <user>
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    <name><![CDATA[Josie]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[San Francisco, CA]]></location>
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    <![CDATA[Eat the Document: A Novel]]>
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  <average_rating>3.39</average_rating>
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  <description>
    <![CDATA[Mary Whittaker and Bobby DeSoto have constructed lives for themselves like Popsicle-stick houses: brittle, unfurnished, painstakingly assembled but made to be snapped apart or abandoned in a moment.  The main characters of Dana Spiotta's magnificent second novel, <em>Eat the Document,</em> they were once in love, but spend all but a few pages of the book intentionally distant and out of communication--fugitives after executing a political bombing in the '70s that went awry.  Moving often, changing their names more than once, they had to cut off any friendship as soon as it blossomed emotionally and seemed to demand authenticity.  Now, in the 1990s, Mary's 15-year-old son Jason (a '70s music buff) begins to uncover his mother's dangerous secret. &quot;Incidentally, if you have never stalked someone close to you, I highly recommend it,&quot; he confides in his journal, &quot;Check out how it transforms them.  How other they become, and how infinitely necessary and justified the stalking becomes when you realize how little you know about them.&quot; <p> More than a portrait of life underground, <em>Eat the Document</em> derives its power from an implicit comparison of '70s radicalism to the pale protests of present-day consumer culture, somehow upholding the idealism and commitment of the earlier period without advocating its violent methods.  Spiotta never lets the novel feel like a history lesson or a diatribe.  Its social critique is enacted chiefly through Nash (the former Bobby), whose resistance has mellowed to amused observance of the radical Seattle youth who frequent the independent lefty bookstore he runs.  Nash redefines the term &quot;activist&quot; by facilitating a number of brilliantly conceived groups that rarely execute their plans. The Radical Juxtaposeurs, for example, &quot;rent films from Blockbuster and dub fake commercials onto the beginnings of the tapes to imply dislocated, ominous, disturbing things,&quot; while the Barcode Remixers &quot;made fake bar code stickers that would replace ones. Everything rang up at five or ten cents.  This was strictly for the chain, nonunion supermarkets.&quot; <p> <em>Eat the Document</em> moves back and forth in time, like a fishnet pulling through water, tantalizing the reader with glimpses of Mary and Bobby's past.  There are plenty of surprises, not so much in the details of the bombing plot but in the shifting culpability of the actors.  Above all, this is a grown-up novel about late adolescence, and about what we take with us&#139;and what we jettison--on the journey from passionate, reckless youth into seasoned (or soiled) middle age. <em>--Regina Marler</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2006</published>
</book>

    <rating>3</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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          </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
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  <read_at>Mon Jul 07 00:00:00 -0700 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Fri Jul 04 07:20:04 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sat Jul 12 10:00:44 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[I really loved Dana Spiotta's <u>Lightning Field</u>.  It was a little bit like a contemporary <u><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/428.Play_It_As_It_Lays_A_Novel" title="Play It As It Lays  A Novel by Joan Didion">Play it as it Lays</a></u>.  Icy cool in the bright sun.  Hard-edged portraits of weird female characters.<br/><br/><u>Eat the Document</u> was really fun to read, I kept thinking &quot;ooh I get to go read more&quot; like it...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/26286519">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/26286519]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/26286519]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
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    <name><![CDATA[Pamela]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Astoria, NY]]></location>
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  <id type="integer">3220673</id>
  <isbn>0330448293</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780330448291</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">10</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[Eat the Document: A Novel]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>3.39</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>540</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[Mary Whittaker and Bobby DeSoto have constructed lives for themselves like Popsicle-stick houses: brittle, unfurnished, painstakingly assembled but made to be snapped apart or abandoned in a moment.  The main characters of Dana Spiotta's magnificent second novel, <em>Eat the Document,</em> they were once in love, but spend all but a few pages of the book intentionally distant and out of communication--fugitives after executing a political bombing in the '70s that went awry.  Moving often, changing their names more than once, they had to cut off any friendship as soon as it blossomed emotionally and seemed to demand authenticity.  Now, in the 1990s, Mary's 15-year-old son Jason (a '70s music buff) begins to uncover his mother's dangerous secret. &quot;Incidentally, if you have never stalked someone close to you, I highly recommend it,&quot; he confides in his journal, &quot;Check out how it transforms them.  How other they become, and how infinitely necessary and justified the stalking becomes when you realize how little you know about them.&quot; <p> More than a portrait of life underground, <em>Eat the Document</em> derives its power from an implicit comparison of '70s radicalism to the pale protests of present-day consumer culture, somehow upholding the idealism and commitment of the earlier period without advocating its violent methods.  Spiotta never lets the novel feel like a history lesson or a diatribe.  Its social critique is enacted chiefly through Nash (the former Bobby), whose resistance has mellowed to amused observance of the radical Seattle youth who frequent the independent lefty bookstore he runs.  Nash redefines the term &quot;activist&quot; by facilitating a number of brilliantly conceived groups that rarely execute their plans. The Radical Juxtaposeurs, for example, &quot;rent films from Blockbuster and dub fake commercials onto the beginnings of the tapes to imply dislocated, ominous, disturbing things,&quot; while the Barcode Remixers &quot;made fake bar code stickers that would replace ones. Everything rang up at five or ten cents.  This was strictly for the chain, nonunion supermarkets.&quot; <p> <em>Eat the Document</em> moves back and forth in time, like a fishnet pulling through water, tantalizing the reader with glimpses of Mary and Bobby's past.  There are plenty of surprises, not so much in the details of the bombing plot but in the shifting culpability of the actors.  Above all, this is a grown-up novel about late adolescence, and about what we take with us&#139;and what we jettison--on the journey from passionate, reckless youth into seasoned (or soiled) middle age. <em>--Regina Marler</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2006</published>
</book>

    <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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  <read_at></read_at>
  <date_added>Thu May 15 17:32:23 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Thu May 15 17:41:05 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[I loved this. It makes a great companion to Russel Bank's The Darling, and Phillip Roth's American Pastoral about yet another female sixties radical who inadvertently kills an innocent bystander.<br/><br/>But this one's the best of the bunch.<br/><br/>Spiotta really connects the dots here. She f...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/22332643">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/22332643]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/22332643]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>5216643</id>
    <user>
    <id>303665</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Kristine]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Chicago, IL]]></location>
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  <isbn13>9780743273008</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">101</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[Eat the Document: A Novel]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>3.39</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>540</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[Mary Whittaker and Bobby DeSoto have constructed lives for themselves like Popsicle-stick houses: brittle, unfurnished, painstakingly assembled but made to be snapped apart or abandoned in a moment.  The main characters of Dana Spiotta's magnificent second novel, <em>Eat the Document,</em> they were once in love, but spend all but a few pages of the book intentionally distant and out of communication--fugitives after executing a political bombing in the '70s that went awry.  Moving often, changing their names more than once, they had to cut off any friendship as soon as it blossomed emotionally and seemed to demand authenticity.  Now, in the 1990s, Mary's 15-year-old son Jason (a '70s music buff) begins to uncover his mother's dangerous secret. &quot;Incidentally, if you have never stalked someone close to you, I highly recommend it,&quot; he confides in his journal, &quot;Check out how it transforms them.  How other they become, and how infinitely necessary and justified the stalking becomes when you realize how little you know about them.&quot; <p> More than a portrait of life underground, <em>Eat the Document</em> derives its power from an implicit comparison of '70s radicalism to the pale protests of present-day consumer culture, somehow upholding the idealism and commitment of the earlier period without advocating its violent methods.  Spiotta never lets the novel feel like a history lesson or a diatribe.  Its social critique is enacted chiefly through Nash (the former Bobby), whose resistance has mellowed to amused observance of the radical Seattle youth who frequent the independent lefty bookstore he runs.  Nash redefines the term &quot;activist&quot; by facilitating a number of brilliantly conceived groups that rarely execute their plans. The Radical Juxtaposeurs, for example, &quot;rent films from Blockbuster and dub fake commercials onto the beginnings of the tapes to imply dislocated, ominous, disturbing things,&quot; while the Barcode Remixers &quot;made fake bar code stickers that would replace ones. Everything rang up at five or ten cents.  This was strictly for the chain, nonunion supermarkets.&quot; <p> <em>Eat the Document</em> moves back and forth in time, like a fishnet pulling through water, tantalizing the reader with glimpses of Mary and Bobby's past.  There are plenty of surprises, not so much in the details of the bombing plot but in the shifting culpability of the actors.  Above all, this is a grown-up novel about late adolescence, and about what we take with us&#139;and what we jettison--on the journey from passionate, reckless youth into seasoned (or soiled) middle age. <em>--Regina Marler</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2006</published>
</book>

    <rating>3</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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  <read_at>Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007</read_at>
  <date_added>Tue Aug 28 07:15:51 -0700 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Thu Aug 30 08:51:39 -0700 2007</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[i'm not overly fascinated by the 60s radicalism movement, other than the kidnapping of patty hearst and reading about how delusional all of the hippies and earnest counter-revolutionaries were.  i also have no great interest in current &quot;earth liberation&quot; movements and the kids who break st...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5216643">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5216643]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5216643]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>76648011</id>
    <user>
    <id>1315167</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Kate]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Chile]]></location>
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  <isbn13>9780743273008</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">101</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[Eat the Document: A Novel]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>3.39</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>540</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[Mary Whittaker and Bobby DeSoto have constructed lives for themselves like Popsicle-stick houses: brittle, unfurnished, painstakingly assembled but made to be snapped apart or abandoned in a moment.  The main characters of Dana Spiotta's magnificent second novel, <em>Eat the Document,</em> they were once in love, but spend all but a few pages of the book intentionally distant and out of communication--fugitives after executing a political bombing in the '70s that went awry.  Moving often, changing their names more than once, they had to cut off any friendship as soon as it blossomed emotionally and seemed to demand authenticity.  Now, in the 1990s, Mary's 15-year-old son Jason (a '70s music buff) begins to uncover his mother's dangerous secret. &quot;Incidentally, if you have never stalked someone close to you, I highly recommend it,&quot; he confides in his journal, &quot;Check out how it transforms them.  How other they become, and how infinitely necessary and justified the stalking becomes when you realize how little you know about them.&quot; <p> More than a portrait of life underground, <em>Eat the Document</em> derives its power from an implicit comparison of '70s radicalism to the pale protests of present-day consumer culture, somehow upholding the idealism and commitment of the earlier period without advocating its violent methods.  Spiotta never lets the novel feel like a history lesson or a diatribe.  Its social critique is enacted chiefly through Nash (the former Bobby), whose resistance has mellowed to amused observance of the radical Seattle youth who frequent the independent lefty bookstore he runs.  Nash redefines the term &quot;activist&quot; by facilitating a number of brilliantly conceived groups that rarely execute their plans. The Radical Juxtaposeurs, for example, &quot;rent films from Blockbuster and dub fake commercials onto the beginnings of the tapes to imply dislocated, ominous, disturbing things,&quot; while the Barcode Remixers &quot;made fake bar code stickers that would replace ones. Everything rang up at five or ten cents.  This was strictly for the chain, nonunion supermarkets.&quot; <p> <em>Eat the Document</em> moves back and forth in time, like a fishnet pulling through water, tantalizing the reader with glimpses of Mary and Bobby's past.  There are plenty of surprises, not so much in the details of the bombing plot but in the shifting culpability of the actors.  Above all, this is a grown-up novel about late adolescence, and about what we take with us&#139;and what we jettison--on the journey from passionate, reckless youth into seasoned (or soiled) middle age. <em>--Regina Marler</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2006</published>
</book>

    <rating>4</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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          </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Tue Nov 03 18:56:51 -0800 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Tue Nov 03 18:56:51 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[More than being interested in the characters, I was fascinated by Spiotta's ability to conjure so many characters and make them all seem real.  The generational divide between 70s radicals and Gen. X is one that's not often enough explored by fiction.  An interesting current read and perhaps one tha...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76648011">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76648011]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/76648011]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>47989950</id>
    <user>
    <id>126461</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Marty]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Chicago, IL]]></location>
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  <isbn>0743273001</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780743273008</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">101</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[Eat the Document: A Novel]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170816080m/72599.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170816080s/72599.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/72599.Eat_the_Document_A_Novel</link>
  <average_rating>3.39</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>540</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[Mary Whittaker and Bobby DeSoto have constructed lives for themselves like Popsicle-stick houses: brittle, unfurnished, painstakingly assembled but made to be snapped apart or abandoned in a moment.  The main characters of Dana Spiotta's magnificent second novel, <em>Eat the Document,</em> they were once in love, but spend all but a few pages of the book intentionally distant and out of communication--fugitives after executing a political bombing in the '70s that went awry.  Moving often, changing their names more than once, they had to cut off any friendship as soon as it blossomed emotionally and seemed to demand authenticity.  Now, in the 1990s, Mary's 15-year-old son Jason (a '70s music buff) begins to uncover his mother's dangerous secret. &quot;Incidentally, if you have never stalked someone close to you, I highly recommend it,&quot; he confides in his journal, &quot;Check out how it transforms them.  How other they become, and how infinitely necessary and justified the stalking becomes when you realize how little you know about them.&quot; <p> More than a portrait of life underground, <em>Eat the Document</em> derives its power from an implicit comparison of '70s radicalism to the pale protests of present-day consumer culture, somehow upholding the idealism and commitment of the earlier period without advocating its violent methods.  Spiotta never lets the novel feel like a history lesson or a diatribe.  Its social critique is enacted chiefly through Nash (the former Bobby), whose resistance has mellowed to amused observance of the radical Seattle youth who frequent the independent lefty bookstore he runs.  Nash redefines the term &quot;activist&quot; by facilitating a number of brilliantly conceived groups that rarely execute their plans. The Radical Juxtaposeurs, for example, &quot;rent films from Blockbuster and dub fake commercials onto the beginnings of the tapes to imply dislocated, ominous, disturbing things,&quot; while the Barcode Remixers &quot;made fake bar code stickers that would replace ones. Everything rang up at five or ten cents.  This was strictly for the chain, nonunion supermarkets.&quot; <p> <em>Eat the Document</em> moves back and forth in time, like a fishnet pulling through water, tantalizing the reader with glimpses of Mary and Bobby's past.  There are plenty of surprises, not so much in the details of the bombing plot but in the shifting culpability of the actors.  Above all, this is a grown-up novel about late adolescence, and about what we take with us&#139;and what we jettison--on the journey from passionate, reckless youth into seasoned (or soiled) middle age. <em>--Regina Marler</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2006</published>
</book>

    <rating>2</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
  <spoiler_flag>false</spoiler_flag>
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          </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
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  <read_at>Fri Mar 06 09:19:02 -0800 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Mon Mar 02 07:28:40 -0800 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Fri Mar 06 09:19:02 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Eh.  I liked the idea of this book - a woman who is a fugitive from justice after some Vietnam protests being found out by her 15-year-old son, but did not care of the execution.  I didn't care for the parallel story of Nash, or Henry, or Miranda.  I was interested in Mary/Caroline/Louise, but there...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/47989950">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/47989950]]></url>
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</review>
      <review>
  <id>43329506</id>
    <user>
    <id>837540</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Pamela]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Fort Collins, CO]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/837540-pamela]]></link>
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  <isbn13>9780743273008</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">101</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[Eat the Document: A Novel]]>
  </title>
  <image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170816080m/72599.jpg</image_url>
  <small_image_url>http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170816080s/72599.jpg</small_image_url>
  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/72599.Eat_the_Document_A_Novel</link>
  <average_rating>3.39</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>540</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[Mary Whittaker and Bobby DeSoto have constructed lives for themselves like Popsicle-stick houses: brittle, unfurnished, painstakingly assembled but made to be snapped apart or abandoned in a moment.  The main characters of Dana Spiotta's magnificent second novel, <em>Eat the Document,</em> they were once in love, but spend all but a few pages of the book intentionally distant and out of communication--fugitives after executing a political bombing in the '70s that went awry.  Moving often, changing their names more than once, they had to cut off any friendship as soon as it blossomed emotionally and seemed to demand authenticity.  Now, in the 1990s, Mary's 15-year-old son Jason (a '70s music buff) begins to uncover his mother's dangerous secret. &quot;Incidentally, if you have never stalked someone close to you, I highly recommend it,&quot; he confides in his journal, &quot;Check out how it transforms them.  How other they become, and how infinitely necessary and justified the stalking becomes when you realize how little you know about them.&quot; <p> More than a portrait of life underground, <em>Eat the Document</em> derives its power from an implicit comparison of '70s radicalism to the pale protests of present-day consumer culture, somehow upholding the idealism and commitment of the earlier period without advocating its violent methods.  Spiotta never lets the novel feel like a history lesson or a diatribe.  Its social critique is enacted chiefly through Nash (the former Bobby), whose resistance has mellowed to amused observance of the radical Seattle youth who frequent the independent lefty bookstore he runs.  Nash redefines the term &quot;activist&quot; by facilitating a number of brilliantly conceived groups that rarely execute their plans. The Radical Juxtaposeurs, for example, &quot;rent films from Blockbuster and dub fake commercials onto the beginnings of the tapes to imply dislocated, ominous, disturbing things,&quot; while the Barcode Remixers &quot;made fake bar code stickers that would replace ones. Everything rang up at five or ten cents.  This was strictly for the chain, nonunion supermarkets.&quot; <p> <em>Eat the Document</em> moves back and forth in time, like a fishnet pulling through water, tantalizing the reader with glimpses of Mary and Bobby's past.  There are plenty of surprises, not so much in the details of the bombing plot but in the shifting culpability of the actors.  Above all, this is a grown-up novel about late adolescence, and about what we take with us&#139;and what we jettison--on the journey from passionate, reckless youth into seasoned (or soiled) middle age. <em>--Regina Marler</em></p></p>]]>
  </description>
  <published>2006</published>
</book>

    <rating>1</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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            <shelf name="abandoned" />
      </shelves>
  <recommended_for><![CDATA[]]></recommended_for>
  <recommended_by><![CDATA[]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Mon Jan 19 00:00:00 -0800 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Sat Jan 17 02:50:08 -0800 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon Jan 19 21:53:04 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[AAAARGH! Better than an Ambien. Okay, apparently another character driven vs plot driven book only I am just not getting the characters. My rule of thumb is to give a book 100-150pages before I give up but this one has just become torture for me. Possibly, I can't identify with the whole &quot;prote...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/43329506">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/43329506]]></url>
  <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/43329506]]></link>
</review>
      <review>
  <id>31056486</id>
    <user>
    <id>109808</id>
    <name><![CDATA[Andrew]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[San Francisco, CA]]></location>
    <link><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/109808-andrew]]></link>
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  <title>
    <![CDATA[Eat the Document: A Novel]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>3.39</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>540</ratings_count>
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    <![CDATA[Mary Whittaker and Bobby DeSoto have constructed lives for themselves like Popsicle-stick houses: brittle, unfurnished, painstakingly assembled but made to be snapped apart or abandoned in a moment.  The main characters of Dana Spiotta's magnificent second novel, <em>Eat the Document,</em> they were once in love, but spend all but a few pages of the book intentionally distant and out of communication--fugitives after executing a political bombing in the '70s that went awry.  Moving often, changing their names more than once, they had to cut off any friendship as soon as it blossomed emotionally and seemed to demand authenticity.  Now, in the 1990s, Mary's 15-year-old son Jason (a '70s music buff) begins to uncover his mother's dangerous secret. &quot;Incidentally, if you have never stalked someone close to you, I highly recommend it,&quot; he confides in his journal, &quot;Check out how it transforms them.  How other they become, and how infinitely necessary and justified the stalking becomes when you realize how little you know about them.&quot; <p> More than a portrait of life underground, <em>Eat the Document</em> derives its power from an implicit comparison of '70s radicalism to the pale protests of present-day consumer culture, somehow upholding the idealism and commitment of the earlier period without advocating its violent methods.  Spiotta never lets the novel feel like a history lesson or a diatribe.  Its social critique is enacted chiefly through Nash (the former Bobby), whose resistance has mellowed to amused observance of the radical Seattle youth who frequent the independent lefty bookstore he runs.  Nash redefines the term &quot;activist&quot; by facilitating a number of brilliantly conceived groups that rarely execute their plans. The Radical Juxtaposeurs, for example, &quot;rent films from Blockbuster and dub fake commercials onto the beginnings of the tapes to imply dislocated, ominous, disturbing things,&quot; while the Barcode Remixers &quot;made fake bar code stickers that would replace ones. Everything rang up at five or ten cents.  This was strictly for the chain, nonunion supermarkets.&quot; <p> <em>Eat the Document</em> moves back and forth in time, like a fishnet pulling through water, tantalizing the reader with glimpses of Mary and Bobby's past.  There are plenty of surprises, not so much in the details of the bombing plot but in the shifting culpability of the actors.  Above all, this is a grown-up novel about late adolescence, and about what we take with us&#139;and what we jettison--on the journey from passionate, reckless youth into seasoned (or soiled) middle age. <em>--Regina Marler</em></p></p>]]>
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    <rating>2</rating>
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  <date_added>Sun Aug 24 09:36:05 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun Aug 24 09:44:00 -0700 2008</date_updated>
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    <body><![CDATA[i kept wanting more from this, though the subject matter is interesting and in places the writing is strong. i like the idea of contrasting 60s radicalism with the radicalism of today, but somehow it never fully came into focus. given the setting and time (seattle, late 90s) i expected the WTO riots...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/31056486">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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      <review>
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    <![CDATA[Eat the Document: A Novel]]>
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    <![CDATA[Mary Whittaker and Bobby DeSoto have constructed lives for themselves like Popsicle-stick houses: brittle, unfurnished, painstakingly assembled but made to be snapped apart or abandoned in a moment.  The main characters of Dana Spiotta's magnificent second novel, <em>Eat the Document,</em> they were once in love, but spend all but a few pages of the book intentionally distant and out of communication--fugitives after executing a political bombing in the '70s that went awry.  Moving often, changing their names more than once, they had to cut off any friendship as soon as it blossomed emotionally and seemed to demand authenticity.  Now, in the 1990s, Mary's 15-year-old son Jason (a '70s music buff) begins to uncover his mother's dangerous secret. &quot;Incidentally, if you have never stalked someone close to you, I highly recommend it,&quot; he confides in his journal, &quot;Check out how it transforms them.  How other they become, and how infinitely necessary and justified the stalking becomes when you realize how little you know about them.&quot; <p> More than a portrait of life underground, <em>Eat the Document</em> derives its power from an implicit comparison of '70s radicalism to the pale protests of present-day consumer culture, somehow upholding the idealism and commitment of the earlier period without advocating its violent methods.  Spiotta never lets the novel feel like a history lesson or a diatribe.  Its social critique is enacted chiefly through Nash (the former Bobby), whose resistance has mellowed to amused observance of the radical Seattle youth who frequent the independent lefty bookstore he runs.  Nash redefines the term &quot;activist&quot; by facilitating a number of brilliantly conceived groups that rarely execute their plans. The Radical Juxtaposeurs, for example, &quot;rent films from Blockbuster and dub fake commercials onto the beginnings of the tapes to imply dislocated, ominous, disturbing things,&quot; while the Barcode Remixers &quot;made fake bar code stickers that would replace ones. Everything rang up at five or ten cents.  This was strictly for the chain, nonunion supermarkets.&quot; <p> <em>Eat the Document</em> moves back and forth in time, like a fishnet pulling through water, tantalizing the reader with glimpses of Mary and Bobby's past.  There are plenty of surprises, not so much in the details of the bombing plot but in the shifting culpability of the actors.  Above all, this is a grown-up novel about late adolescence, and about what we take with us&#139;and what we jettison--on the journey from passionate, reckless youth into seasoned (or soiled) middle age. <em>--Regina Marler</em></p></p>]]>
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  <recommended_by><![CDATA[Dave King]]></recommended_by>
  <read_at>Sat Jul 05 00:00:00 -0700 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Thu Jun 26 16:55:05 -0700 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Mon Jul 07 13:28:02 -0700 2008</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[This book wasn't as good as its cover blurbs. Generally, I like books about American social history, and I like books that have multiple story lines, characters and temporal shifts that all come together in the end. And I like literary novels, but this one just didn't hang together in any kind of sa...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/25604940">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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    <![CDATA[Eat the Document: A Novel]]>
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    <![CDATA[Mary Whittaker and Bobby DeSoto have constructed lives for themselves like Popsicle-stick houses: brittle, unfurnished, painstakingly assembled but made to be snapped apart or abandoned in a moment.  The main characters of Dana Spiotta's magnificent second novel, <em>Eat the Document,</em> they were once in love, but spend all but a few pages of the book intentionally distant and out of communication--fugitives after executing a political bombing in the '70s that went awry.  Moving often, changing their names more than once, they had to cut off any friendship as soon as it blossomed emotionally and seemed to demand authenticity.  Now, in the 1990s, Mary's 15-year-old son Jason (a '70s music buff) begins to uncover his mother's dangerous secret. &quot;Incidentally, if you have never stalked someone close to you, I highly recommend it,&quot; he confides in his journal, &quot;Check out how it transforms them.  How other they become, and how infinitely necessary and justified the stalking becomes when you realize how little you know about them.&quot; <p> More than a portrait of life underground, <em>Eat the Document</em> derives its power from an implicit comparison of '70s radicalism to the pale protests of present-day consumer culture, somehow upholding the idealism and commitment of the earlier period without advocating its violent methods.  Spiotta never lets the novel feel like a history lesson or a diatribe.  Its social critique is enacted chiefly through Nash (the former Bobby), whose resistance has mellowed to amused observance of the radical Seattle youth who frequent the independent lefty bookstore he runs.  Nash redefines the term &quot;activist&quot; by facilitating a number of brilliantly conceived groups that rarely execute their plans. The Radical Juxtaposeurs, for example, &quot;rent films from Blockbuster and dub fake commercials onto the beginnings of the tapes to imply dislocated, ominous, disturbing things,&quot; while the Barcode Remixers &quot;made fake bar code stickers that would replace ones. Everything rang up at five or ten cents.  This was strictly for the chain, nonunion supermarkets.&quot; <p> <em>Eat the Document</em> moves back and forth in time, like a fishnet pulling through water, tantalizing the reader with glimpses of Mary and Bobby's past.  There are plenty of surprises, not so much in the details of the bombing plot but in the shifting culpability of the actors.  Above all, this is a grown-up novel about late adolescence, and about what we take with us&#139;and what we jettison--on the journey from passionate, reckless youth into seasoned (or soiled) middle age. <em>--Regina Marler</em></p></p>]]>
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  <read_at>Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008</read_at>
  <date_added>Sat Feb 16 16:28:19 -0800 2008</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sun Mar 02 05:31:32 -0800 2008</date_updated>
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    <body><![CDATA[Loved: Nash, the book's near perfect structural integrity, Jason, Mary underground, Nash's ideas for political actions, the way music looped through Mary/Jason.<br/><br/>Questioned: Henry (although early on he does a lot for the book's aforementioned structure, and he provides the fodder for one b...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/15590078">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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    <![CDATA[Eat the Document: A Novel]]>
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    <![CDATA[Mary Whittaker and Bobby DeSoto have constructed lives for themselves like Popsicle-stick houses: brittle, unfurnished, painstakingly assembled but made to be snapped apart or abandoned in a moment.  The main characters of Dana Spiotta's magnificent second novel, <em>Eat the Document,</em> they were once in love, but spend all but a few pages of the book intentionally distant and out of communication--fugitives after executing a political bombing in the '70s that went awry.  Moving often, changing their names more than once, they had to cut off any friendship as soon as it blossomed emotionally and seemed to demand authenticity.  Now, in the 1990s, Mary's 15-year-old son Jason (a '70s music buff) begins to uncover his mother's dangerous secret. &quot;Incidentally, if you have never stalked someone close to you, I highly recommend it,&quot; he confides in his journal, &quot;Check out how it transforms them.  How other they become, and how infinitely necessary and justified the stalking becomes when you realize how little you know about them.&quot; <p> More than a portrait of life underground, <em>Eat the Document</em> derives its power from an implicit comparison of '70s radicalism to the pale protests of present-day consumer culture, somehow upholding the idealism and commitment of the earlier period without advocating its violent methods.  Spiotta never lets the novel feel like a history lesson or a diatribe.  Its social critique is enacted chiefly through Nash (the former Bobby), whose resistance has mellowed to amused observance of the radical Seattle youth who frequent the independent lefty bookstore he runs.  Nash redefines the term &quot;activist&quot; by facilitating a number of brilliantly conceived groups that rarely execute their plans. The Radical Juxtaposeurs, for example, &quot;rent films from Blockbuster and dub fake commercials onto the beginnings of the tapes to imply dislocated, ominous, disturbing things,&quot; while the Barcode Remixers &quot;made fake bar code stickers that would replace ones. Everything rang up at five or ten cents.  This was strictly for the chain, nonunion supermarkets.&quot; <p> <em>Eat the Document</em> moves back and forth in time, like a fishnet pulling through water, tantalizing the reader with glimpses of Mary and Bobby's past.  There are plenty of surprises, not so much in the details of the bombing plot but in the shifting culpability of the actors.  Above all, this is a grown-up novel about late adolescence, and about what we take with us&#139;and what we jettison--on the journey from passionate, reckless youth into seasoned (or soiled) middle age. <em>--Regina Marler</em></p></p>]]>
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  <read_at>Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Sat Jun 27 22:16:47 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Sat Jun 27 22:16:47 -0700 2009</date_updated>
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    <body><![CDATA[Wow. Completely gripping. Intriguing. Engaging. Other words ending in -ing.<br/><br/>And here, all this time, I had kept ignoring contemporary fiction because I didn't know where to start. Thank you, my friend Becca, for gifting me this novel.]]></body>
    
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    <![CDATA[Eat the Document: A Novel]]>
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    <![CDATA[Mary Whittaker and Bobby DeSoto have constructed lives for themselves like Popsicle-stick houses: brittle, unfurnished, painstakingly assembled but made to be snapped apart or abandoned in a moment.  The main characters of Dana Spiotta's magnificent second novel, <em>Eat the Document,</em> they were once in love, but spend all but a few pages of the book intentionally distant and out of communication--fugitives after executing a political bombing in the '70s that went awry.  Moving often, changing their names more than once, they had to cut off any friendship as soon as it blossomed emotionally and seemed to demand authenticity.  Now, in the 1990s, Mary's 15-year-old son Jason (a '70s music buff) begins to uncover his mother's dangerous secret. &quot;Incidentally, if you have never stalked someone close to you, I highly recommend it,&quot; he confides in his journal, &quot;Check out how it transforms them.  How other they become, and how infinitely necessary and justified the stalking becomes when you realize how little you know about them.&quot; <p> More than a portrait of life underground, <em>Eat the Document</em> derives its power from an implicit comparison of '70s radicalism to the pale protests of present-day consumer culture, somehow upholding the idealism and commitment of the earlier period without advocating its violent methods.  Spiotta never lets the novel feel like a history lesson or a diatribe.  Its social critique is enacted chiefly through Nash (the former Bobby), whose resistance has mellowed to amused observance of the radical Seattle youth who frequent the independent lefty bookstore he runs.  Nash redefines the term &quot;activist&quot; by facilitating a number of brilliantly conceived groups that rarely execute their plans. The Radical Juxtaposeurs, for example, &quot;rent films from Blockbuster and dub fake commercials onto the beginnings of the tapes to imply dislocated, ominous, disturbing things,&quot; while the Barcode Remixers &quot;made fake bar code stickers that would replace ones. Everything rang up at five or ten cents.  This was strictly for the chain, nonunion supermarkets.&quot; <p> <em>Eat the Document</em> moves back and forth in time, like a fishnet pulling through water, tantalizing the reader with glimpses of Mary and Bobby's past.  There are plenty of surprises, not so much in the details of the bombing plot but in the shifting culpability of the actors.  Above all, this is a grown-up novel about late adolescence, and about what we take with us&#139;and what we jettison--on the journey from passionate, reckless youth into seasoned (or soiled) middle age. <em>--Regina Marler</em></p></p>]]>
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  <read_at>Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007</read_at>
  <date_added>Wed Dec 19 09:17:15 -0800 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Wed Dec 19 09:24:06 -0800 2007</date_updated>
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    <body><![CDATA[Fascinating, ambitious account of a woman who goes underground after a botched Vietnam-protest bombing in the early 70s. What, the novel asks, would it be like to erase your name, your history, every link to your past? The early 70s narrative is juxtaposed with a narrative taking place amid young ac...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/10686872">more...</a>]]></body>
    
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