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Me Being Me Is Exactly as Insane as You Being You

Todd Hasak-Lowy

liked it 3.00 · Rating details · 2,005 ratings · 474 reviews

A heartfelt, humorous story of a teen boy’s impulsive road trip after the shock of his lifetime—told entirely in lists!

Darren hasn't had an easy year.

There was his parents’ divorce, which just so happened to come at the same time his older brother Nate left for college and his longtime best friend moved away. And of course there’s the whole not having a girlfriend thing.

...more

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Hardcover, 656 pages

Published March 24th 2015 by Simon Pulse

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Lists with This Book

My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga

2015 Contemporary YA

255 books — 1,384 voters

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

2015 YA Books with LGBT Themes

211 books — 861 voters

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· 2,005 ratings · 474 reviews

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Feb 08, 2015 Lola rated it did not like it

Shelves: lgbt, did-not-finish, psychological

I decided to DNF this book when I realised how I had read 150 pages… that could have been shorten to 15. Really.

I was waiting for the moment when Darren was going to visit his brother, Nate, at his college with his father. So I waited… and waited… and waited some more, but the moment never came and I unfortunately ran out of patience and interest for the book.

It’s actually not a ‘‘bad’’ book. Honestly speaking, I quite liked the main character and every other character in the story interacting ...more

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Mar 12, 2018 Sierra rated it did not like it

DNF @ 43%
Rating - 0.25 stars
I tried. I honestly tried. Two people told me this book was really bad and at first I thought that it was okay until I got to certain page and I just couldn't read anymore. It physically hurt to read this book.
I hate dnfing books but sadly I have to do it to this one.
This is the one and only book that had made me want to gag in the middle of class. I don't even know what it was but I'm not going finish reading it because I rather not have the urge to gag again while ...more

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May 25, 2015 adam rated it did not like it

.25/5
You know what, I've "finished" reading this. IT. IS. DREADFUL. Ugh. My mind can't handle the complete terribleness that exists within the pages of this book. I made it to page 359 and stopped. I waited for it to make an impression on me. The concept was unique enough, but I have had enough. ENOUGH.

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Apr 29, 2015 Jacob McCabe rated it it was ok

A+ idea, C- execution

The main problem was that there were too many lists that had nothing to do with the story. Only one or two developments in the story were actually interesting. 80% of the book was exposition, telling random stuff about the characters' pasts that were mostly not entertaining or funny.

Also, the romance in the story was kind of horrible. The girl was completely flat and made no sense, and the main character idolized her strange behavior and built her up so much in his mind in ...more

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Mar 25, 2015 Jeann (Happy Indulgence) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, ya-contemporary, review-copy, simon-and-schuster-australia

This review appears on Happy Indulgence. Check it out for more reviews!

Me Being Me Is Exactly as Insane as You Being You is a story told entirely in lists. Lists about Darren's family, his thought processes, the music he plays, the lunch that he eats, what he tells his therapist...you get the idea. For those of you who love to digest everything in neat, categorical, bite-sized lists, this book would be for you. But for those of you who want to just get to the point of it all, without being told This review appears on Happy Indulgence. Check it out for more reviews!

Me Being Me Is Exactly as Insane as You Being You is a story told entirely in lists. Lists about Darren's family, his thought processes, the music he plays, the lunch that he eats, what he tells his therapist...you get the idea. For those of you who love to digest everything in neat, categorical, bite-sized lists, this book would be for you. But for those of you who want to just get to the point of it all, without being told the exact details of a car or a list of the days of the week right in the middle of a story, Me Being Me could be frustrating.

Lucky for me, I really like lists, and enjoyed the original storytelling of Me Being Me. It's amazing how I became invested in Darren's life, as the book listed out his feelings, sporadic thoughts and fears, adjectives and exchanges, text messages and phone calls. Behind some of the lighter exchanges, are some deep encounters which Darren will have dealing with his parent's divorce, seeing both of them move on, discovering his dad is gay, re-connecting with his stoner brother in college.

This is one of the most realistic male perspectives I've ever read, of a teenager who isn't particularly verbose. Newsflash, teenage guys don't just think about sex every waking moment. Conversations are kept short, without fear of going too deep. Darren manages to avoid every topic that could lead to meaningful discussions...which makes him pretty hard to sympathise with, or get to know. I find it hard to describe Darren to you, upon finishing this 600 page book other than surly and actually kind of average.

I couldn't see the obsession with Zoe though, who Darren has an encounter with early in the book and continues to pine over for the bulk of it. Even though there's a lot going on in his life, he is always thinking about Zoe. Zoe is dark, angsty and clearly has more than a few issues of her own, so I really couldn't see what was so great about her. Especially when Darren kept on wanting her to be different or to change in his mind. But perhaps there was something in her that Darren could really relate to.

More than once, Me Being Me made me raise my eyebrows about the liberty of pot smoking in the book. I know it happens, and I know it's out there, but seriously, to that degree? I don't enjoy reading about people getting high all the time. It's just not for me.

Although Nate was a grounding force to Darren's life, from time to time he would say a few ignorant phrases about their gay dad that I found quite offensive.

Me Being Me Is Exactly As Insane As You Being You is a novel and interesting way of telling a story. The lists were creative and well-thought out, although there were times when we were given a bit too much information that didn't seem to add too much value to the story. Despite not being invested in the romance, pot smoking and some of it's characters, I enjoyed the honest male perspective. But if you take the lists away and look at the overall story? Nothing spectacular.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Australia for sending me this book for review. ...more

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May 29, 2016 Maddie rated it it was ok

Shelves: library-books

I loved the concept of a story told entirely in list format, but I'd say 1/4 of the lists were pointless, and it felt a bit too...whiney? Darren's dad comes out as gay and he doesn't deal with it very well, and meanwhile he's falling in love with a girl called Zoey, who he's known all of two days. I can't believe I read over 600 pages, and didn't feel like I got a story out of it. Hm.

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Feb 04, 2015 Kristin rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, juv-ya, first-reads

5 reasons why it may or may not be a good idea to write (or read) a novel composed entirely of lists:

1. For the sheer novelty of it.

2. Because, amidst the sheer volume of young-adult literature being produced these days, it is a creative use of form that might make a book stand out (much like Jeff Kinney's blending of cartoon and novel in his Diary of a Wimpy Kid series (and in the million copycat series spawned by DoaWK))

3. It can, at times, be a downright clever way to tell a story.

4. It can, ...more

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May 18, 2015 Kelly (Diva Booknerd) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: simon-schuster

http://www.divabooknerd.com/2015/06/t...
Me Being Me Is Exactly as Insane as You Being You is a storyline made entirely of lists, in which Darren seems to find solace as a coping mechanism. The ass has just fallen out of his world, he's depressed, latches onto girls hoping for a girlfriend and dreams of his own band, I suspect in the hope to find said girlfriend. His mother would rather throw herself into her work than spend time with her family, and his divorced father has just dropped a doozy http://www.divabooknerd.com/2015/06/t...
Me Being Me Is Exactly as Insane as You Being You is a storyline made entirely of lists, in which Darren seems to find solace as a coping mechanism. The ass has just fallen out of his world, he's depressed, latches onto girls hoping for a girlfriend and dreams of his own band, I suspect in the hope to find said girlfriend. His mother would rather throw herself into her work than spend time with her family, and his divorced father has just dropped a doozy of a secret in Darren's lap. Darren is a likable character, we're told he's intelligent but sadly never shown any proof. But he's creative and an incredible bassist, who misses playing with his brother's band. Darren reminded me of Charlie in The Perks of Being A Wallflower, naive and awkward, but has a strange appeal that is never quite fully explored. I loved Zoey, her character had the makings of a John Green novel. Quirky and flighty, but sadly just as she started to become interesting, she disappeared.

I loved Darren's father, so incredibly loving and tolerable of his son while he worked through his issues. He was a big part of Darren's life, whether Darren wanted him there or not and with his mother always on the road, he desperately needed a parental figure in his life.

But beyond the quirky format, it brings to light deep and thought provoking issues such as substance abuse, sexuality and loneliness. I felt incredibly sorry for Darren but once his father's secret was revealed, he became another angry and angst riddled teen that seemed withdraw from the only person who was genuinely there for him.

As much as I appreciated it's uniqueness, I didn't see the overall picture. I was waiting for the AH HA! moment that never arrived. It was entertaining, but the format left me feeling disconnected and unable to immerse myself within the storyline. I found the lists difficult to read with it's stop start format.

A quirky and unique coming of age, that in the right hands will indulge readers, immerse them and leave you on a high. I enjoyed it for the most part, but with a disconnection to the characters and storyline. Don't let it's length fool you, it's remarkably easy to breeze through. ...more

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Apr 07, 2019 『 jaelyn ♛』 rated it did not like it

Shelves: 2019-reads, dnf

dnf at 28%

i tried. i really did. i hate darren so much lmao and zoey seems like a "im not like other girls" type so nahhh. the way he treated his dad coming 0ut was ignorant and stupid. the way he talked about girls was gross and im not here for it !!!!!

adiós to this trash. 3

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May 15, 2015 Nara rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: for-review, contemporary, reviewed, coming-of-age

While the concept of writing an entire book in list form sounds good in theory, unfortunately the execution of it wasn't the best. I just feel like a lot of the chapters were completely redundant, both in terms of not adding any information about the plot, and also not really doing anything in terms of entertainment. I'm not going to lie, I skipped reading some of the lists e.g. a list of all the band members in Darren's high school jazz band (I mean, really, a list of 10+ names isn't going to ...more

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Mar 31, 2015 Hollie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: netgalley, 2015-in-books

3 Perfectly valid reasons why you should read Me Being Me:

1) The Format
It’s written in list form, which I absolutely loved. (And obviously inspired the style of this review!) It made reading Me Being Me such a breeze, and made it super easy to slip in and out of the book, although I found myself struggling to put the book down with the promise of “just one more list” all too alluring! The lists are a nice mixture of short and sweet and chunkier points, and these really helped with the pacing of 3 Perfectly valid reasons why you should read Me Being Me:

1) The Format
It’s written in list form, which I absolutely loved. (And obviously inspired the style of this review!) It made reading Me Being Me such a breeze, and made it super easy to slip in and out of the book, although I found myself struggling to put the book down with the promise of “just one more list” all too alluring! The lists are a nice mixture of short and sweet and chunkier points, and these really helped with the pacing of the story.

2) The Characters
Darren is a wonderful narrator and I couldn’t help but like him. He has a ton of shit to deal with, he’s trying to cope with his parent’s divorce, his brother has gone away to college and he doesn’t really have any friends. Then his dad drops this huge bombshell and it’s understandable why Darren reacts as he does. Darren’s relationship with both his parents is so well written and just plain wonderful, it’s realistic, natural and both his parents are so present. There’s no missing parent syndrome in this book, they play a huge role in Darren’s life, and you have no idea how wonderful it was to read. I also want to give a huge shoutout to Ray, because he was a character who Darren should have struggled to get along with, but he didn’t. I wish there had been more Ray in the book, because I loved him. And Zoe, who isn’t all that present throughout the book, but has a huge role in the story anyway was a character who I probably should have hated, but I didn’t. I can’t talk too much about her, but I just loved her character and her interactions with Darren. I wanted to see more of them together, but I understand why we weren’t given that.

3) The Ending
There was this wonderful openness about the ending, which I normally hate with a passion because I want to know EVERYTHING about the characters’ futures, but with Me Being Me, the open ending worked perfectly. I already know what will happen with Darren and Zoe, in my head at least, and I love how Hasak-Lowy ended it.

1 Thing I’d like to say to Todd Hasak-Lowy:
THANK YOU FOR NOT MAKING COUNSELLING THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL. It’s appreciated a lot. ...more

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Oct 18, 2015 R Green rated it it was ok

Dear Mr. Hasak-Lowy,

As much fun as it was to read a novel in lists (which were rather entertainingly titled some of the time), it's kind of disgusting to see another potentially-good-author fall down the pit of What Authors Wrongly Believe Belongs in YA Literature. It's not just your book but I think have finally gotten 150% fed up with this whole all-teenagers-have-sex-and-do-drugs-and-swear-and-are-stupid-in-general thing. Sure, some teenagers have beer parties and get each other pregnant and ...more

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Jul 28, 2018 Lucifer rated it did not like it

Shelves: abandoned

GOOOOOOOOOOOOD
my expectations were very high about this book, but, is very very bad, and i'm sorry for that, but this is trash - with that words.

the pages 're very extensive and the illustrations don't help. This book is a mess.
really this book didn't make sense to me, and the author don't know how write the chapters, is like a children book, and this is not my type of books.

waste of paper.

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Jun 06, 2018 Claire rated it did not like it

I liked the concept of the story being told through lists, but thought it was very poorly executed and not well written.

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Jun 08, 2015 Charlotte Jones rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Having not bought a book for myself for what seems like an age, I felt moving house was a good enough celebration and an opportunity to browse around a brand new Waterstones (at least new to me)! I haven’t been keeping up with Booktube or blogs recently, mostly due to the new job and moving, so I wasn’t sure what I wanted but I knew I wanted it to be something I’d never heard of before. Honestly, I was in that store for an hour before deciding what to get but I saw this cover paired with the Having not bought a book for myself for what seems like an age, I felt moving house was a good enough celebration and an opportunity to browse around a brand new Waterstones (at least new to me)! I haven’t been keeping up with Booktube or blogs recently, mostly due to the new job and moving, so I wasn’t sure what I wanted but I knew I wanted it to be something I’d never heard of before. Honestly, I was in that store for an hour before deciding what to get but I saw this cover paired with the concept of a novel written in lists and after reading the first few pages, the next thing I knew I was at the till, handing over my gift card and walking out of the shop, consciously resisting reading and walking (which I highly advise against).

This book is a YA contemporary made up entirely of lists. Some of these are a mere page long whilst others go on for a dozen or more so the pacing of the novel is extremely quick despite being a whopping 657 pages! I read this in less than 24 hours; I just couldn’t put it down.

I feel that some people could think that the list format would be a little gimmicky but I really enjoyed the way the headings were set out like chapter headings and the lists made up not only the main bulk of the story but also sometimes gave additional background information on the characters.

The characters themselves were annoying in parts but I completely forgave them because they were written in such a realistic way. Todd Hasak-Lowy did a marvellous job of making these teenagers seem like real people; it is very rare that a protagonist in YA fiction actually has parents but in this book, Darren’s whole family is a huge part of the narrative. The way this author tackles topics such as sex, love and LGBT themes is really well done and really got inside the mind of a teenage protagonist.

One trope that is used in this book that some people may not like is the idea of the ‘manic pixie dream girl’. I would usually find this a little irritating as well but in this case, I think that the situation was very well explained and made sense in the context of these characters’ lives.

Overall this is a book that seems to be dividing a lot of people but I can honestly say that I loved it; I loved it in the way I love a warm blanket and a cup of tea; a YA contemporary that does not quite reach the lofty heights of John Green in my opinion, but is definitely up there with the David Levithans and James Dawsons of the YA fiction world for me.
...more

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Jun 21, 2015 Beth Bonini rated it liked it

Shelves: young-adult

15 year-old Darren Jacobs is grappling with:
1) his parents' recent divorce
2) his father's coming out as gay
3) his body image
4) his sexual feelings
5) his confused emotions about at least 2 girls
6) the way that his parents suddenly seem like different people
7) the way that his parents have lives that don't necessarily have him at the center
8) general weirdness

Darren has a lot on his emotional plate, and being a fairly typical 15 year old boy, he is not really emotionally equipped to deal with it ...more

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Oct 21, 2015 Emma rated it liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 20, 2016 Forrest McKinley rated it really liked it

Todd Hasak-Lowy's debut YA novel is simply a must read. With it's unique approach of telling a story entirely using lists, it tells the story of Darren Jacobs and his struggles in dealing with his parent's divorce, as well as his somewhat-of-a-douchebag brother, and his longing for someone he hardly knows. Although the idea of using lists can become a little much at times (I've had to go back and read what the list was even relating to a few times) I completely recommend this book to anyone. I ...more

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May 21, 2015 Trixie rated it it was ok

Shelves: realistic-fiction

I had high hopes for this book - a story told in lists? I love lists! It's an interesting concept and I applaud Hasak-Lowy for trying this format. Unfortunately, there were many lists that just didn't add to the book and other lists that just went on and on. The book easily could have been half the length! So much potential for the storyline and the format - it just fell short of my expectations. I would suggest it as an interesting read. It probably would be better enjoyed in small chunks - for ...more

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Mar 20, 2015 Terri (Le Book Chronicles) rated it liked it

Shelves: sent-for-review, read-as-an-ebook

I was provided with this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own.
I really enjoyed this book overall. Such a unique writing style and it covers some really important themes that is not often seen in YA books. It was humorous without taking away from the main storyline, and had just the right amount of feels. Would definitely recommend. Full review on my blog.

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Mar 22, 2015 Beth marked it as abandoned

Shelves: ya-lit

I'm really bummed I didn't like this one but honestly, the list thing just felt way too gimmicky. I wanted to read an actual story, not a more complicated, less fluent version of a story told through lists. I think there's a good story here; I just really disliked the delivery.

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Apr 29, 2015 Bekah Ward added it · review of another edition

Shelves: couldn-t-finish

I just wasn't interested anymore...? Like, I was excited but I just can't reach the end?? Maybe I'll finish it another time? I hope so, because I hate, and almost never, put down a book half way through.

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Apr 20, 2015 Teresa rated it liked it

Shelves: 2015-new-reads, contemporary

In summary: awkward teenage boy loves manic pixie dream girl. In lists.

I really only kept reading this book because it was written in lists and was therefore a quick read. Otherwise, plot, characters, etc were all cliche and overdone. Nothing new here.

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Mar 05, 2015 Nadia Uhlenhaker rated it liked it

Shelves: 2015, hype-lots-of-it

Interesting characters, interesting prose, interesting plot. Not the best way to tell the story...

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Feb 05, 2015 Lauren rated it liked it

Shelves: 2015-reads

*FULL REVIEW WILL BE UP SOMEDAY SOON ON MY CHANNEL*

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Feb 19, 2015 Michelle Wrona rated it really liked it

Shelves: yum, something-special, lgbt-book, male-perspective, contemporary, awesome-ending, cute, i-feel-it-in-the-heart, 2015, expected-worse

This review can also be found on A Thousand Lives Lived, check it out for more!

*3.5 star rating*

When reading the summary for this one, I'll admit that I never expected for that to happen. By 'that,' I mean the shocker which Darren's dad spilled out at 6 AM with a chocolate donut in his hand. I never even made some sort of prediction or anything like that. Todd Hasak-Lowy presents readers with an unique way to reveal pride and a kind of LGBTQ concept revolving around being a teenager. Me Being ...more

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Dec 22, 2018 Kamlyn Y rated it liked it

The story was very well thought out, and it was a topic/storyline that I had never read before, so props to Hasak-Lowy for that. The characters seemed like real, plausible people- even if I hated most of them. Darren, the main character, would be a jerk, and I would hate him- and then he would turn around and seem pathetic and pitiful and then I would almost feel sorry for him and forgive him. In the end, I don't think that he deserved the happy ending, given how he treated his parents ...more

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Nov 06, 2017 Christie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Darren Jacobs isn’t having a particularly great year. He’s a slightly over-weight almost-sixteen-year-old who lives with his workaholic divorced mother (his father moved out about two years ago). His older, significantly cooler, brother Nate goes to school at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Todd Hasak-Lowy’s YA novel Me Being Me Is Exactly As Insane As You Being You is comprised completely of lists. That’s right, lists. For example: 5 Contributions Darren’s Dad Makes to This Morning’s Darren Jacobs isn’t having a particularly great year. He’s a slightly over-weight almost-sixteen-year-old who lives with his workaholic divorced mother (his father moved out about two years ago). His older, significantly cooler, brother Nate goes to school at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Todd Hasak-Lowy’s YA novel Me Being Me Is Exactly As Insane As You Being You is comprised completely of lists. That’s right, lists. For example: 5 Contributions Darren’s Dad Makes to This Morning’s Conversation Before Darren Makes Any Himself and 13 Adjectives Darren Wouldn’t Be Surprised to Hear His Peers Using to Describe Him.

The story follows Darren as he navigates his prickly junior and senior years. As if being a teenager isn’t problematic enough, his father has just told Darren that he’s gay. His mother is often on the West Coast for work. Plus, there’s this girl, Zoey, who is suddenly back on Darren’s radar even though “they actually went to elementary school together.” Although they don’t share any classes and although they’ve barely spoken, this one time

she looked at Darren, right at him, for a moment or two, her pale face either curious or confused, and it was then that he realized she may be the saddest person at North High, sadder than him even. And so he would hug her if she ever asked.

Impulsively, Darren kind of takes off on his own to Ann Arbor hoping that his older brother has some sage words of comfort. Zoey ends up tagging along and that turns out to be one more complication in his life.

7 Predictions That Darren Makes After Zoey Leans Over to Put Out Her Cigarette on the Underside of the Bottom Stair, Because Immediately After She Does That and Sits Back Up, She Smiles at Darren in This Impossibly Straightforward/Friendly/Kind/Open/Supportive/Sympathetic/Reassuring/Optimistic Way

1. Darren will fall in love with Zoey.
2. Zoey will welcome this development.
3. Meaning she will too (fall in love with him).
4. Darren will smoke cigarettes with some degree of regularity for the last couple years of high school.
5. Zoey will remain a bit unusual, but Darren will learn that she’s not really such a freak overall.
6. Darren’s running off to Ann Arbor with her will prove to be the best decision he ever made.
7. Everything will be different from now on.
Darren is a completely endearing character. He’s smart and wry and is trying desperately not to disappoint his parents. He is filled with doubts and anxieties, and spends a lot of time on his own because his best friend Bugs has moved away.

All of Darren’s relationships are a combination of confusing, infuriating, and heartbreaking.

The narrative isn’t exactly linear, but careful readers will have no trouble tracking Darren’s story. Some of his lists are funny, some sad, but every list reveals some essential part of Darren’s journey towards adulthood. It’s a trip worth taking. ...more

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Feb 25, 2019 glyn rated it liked it

I really enjoyed the dry humor and I loved the characters, but honestly, the story was dragged out so much I ended up putting the book down a few times—it was moving THAT slow. After the first 100 pages or so, I started wondering if something was even going to happen, but once you push yourself to keep going, you get used to it, I guess.
So, yeah... the list concept seemed interesting at first glance, but it probably would have been a better book if it was written normally and didn't take like 50 ...more

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Sep 12, 2017 Celine rated it liked it

I wanted to like a this book. I really did. But there were just so many flaws. If I am given a 1.5 inch thick book that's 600+ pages, I want full descriptions and a detailed plot. With this book, I got a rushed plot in the last quarter of the book. I was left with many brushed over explanations that made no sense. The ending felt so rushed. The whole plot following Darren and Zoey is neglected for about 500 pages only to return in the last five pages of the book. I'm sorry but this book is ...more

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About Todd Hasak-Lowy

Todd Hasak-Lowy

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VERY SHORT BIO:

My name is Todd, and I’ve been writing books for about fifteen years. I started writing books for adults, but now I write books for kids and teenagers, too. My most recent book is a middle-grade novel called 33 MINUTES. I’ve also published a short story collection THE TASK OF THIS TRANSLATOR and the novel CAPTIVES. In addition to writing fiction, I teach creative writing. I live in VERY SHORT BIO:

My name is Todd, and I’ve been writing books for about fifteen years. I started writing books for adults, but now I write books for kids and teenagers, too. My most recent book is a middle-grade novel called 33 MINUTES. I’ve also published a short story collection THE TASK OF THIS TRANSLATOR and the novel CAPTIVES. In addition to writing fiction, I teach creative writing. I live in Evanston, Illinois (just outside Chicago), with my wife, two daughters, a dog, and two cats.

MUCH LONGER AND NOT NECESSARILY INTERESTING BIO:

I was born in Detroit and raised in its suburbs. I’m the second of three brothers. All of us were born in May. Other than my immediate family, the most important part of my childhood was going to Camp Tavor in Three Rivers, Michigan. Tavor is part of a Labor-Zionist youth movement called Habonim-Dror. After high school I spent a year in Israel living on a kibbutz (sort of a collective farm). I worked in irrigation.

I attended the University of Michigan as an undergrad. I majored in Near Eastern and North African Studies. I knew by around age 20 that I wanted to become a professor, and I knew that I wanted to study Israel and the Middle East. But it took me a while to decide which field or discipline I wanted to pursue.

I wound up settling on Comparative Literature. I attended the University of California, Berkeley for graduate school, where I started in 1994. There I studied Hebrew and Arabic literature, though by the time I was writing my dissertation I was only working on Hebrew literature. The weird thing about being at Berkeley, especially at first, was that I really had no idea how to study literature. My major at Michigan had been interdisciplinary, with an emphasis on history. I had always loved reading novels, but had never done so with much systematic instruction. Suddenly I was attending arguably the top school for studying literature in the world, and I was lost. My first few semesters at Berkeley, were, needless to say, difficult.

But when I started making sense of fiction (and narrative in general), the payoff was huge. I still remember, sitting in my younger brother’s apartment (both my brothers moved to San Francisco around the time I moved to Berkeley), reading some comic or graphic novel that was clearly in the tradition of R. Crumb or Harvey Pekar. I was amazed how the author was able to represent an entire imagined world, and that this world was utterly specific and alive, and that the author was creating all this through some remarkable combination of decisions, techniques, ideas, etc.

I guess that may have been an epiphany of sorts. It was definitely, for me, a before and after moment. I suddenly realized in some way, Oh, this [this=writing stories] is really interesting, and somehow no longer 100% mysterious, and so maybe I could do it. I had always had a creative impulse (one that largely manifested itself from a young age with my behaving like a clown), but I never had a form or a medium to work in. Now I sensed I may have found one. I started writing a few months later, with the help of two novels (Nicholson Baker’s The Mezzanine and Yaakov Shabtai’s Past Continuous). These two works, each in its own way, offered me very particular models for forging my own prose. My voice as a writer, such as it is, came out almost fully formed right away. Sometimes you get lucky.

During the second half of graduate school (graduate school lasted a LONG time, eight years), I worked on my dissertation and—when I had both time and inspiration—wrote short stories on the side. In other words, most of the time I wasn’t writing fiction. I was fortunate to be put in touch with Simon Lipskar, who agreed to become my agent after seeing a few of my early stories. He helped me slowly put together a collection.

In 2002, I relocated with my wife and daughter to Gainesville, Florida, because I got a job teaching Hebrew language and literature ...more