Indecision by Benjamin Kunkel

[Kate]

Another I'm-so-clever novel with an exhaustingly self-conscious-yet-hip narrator. I laughed aloud for the first couple chapters, and then got the sinking feeling that the gems of wit were getting fewer and further between the runon babbling sentences. Or at least less worth the effort. And the premise, that a couple of girls would stage an international setup to get the narrator, who is in love with his sister (yuck) as well as one of them, to move on to the other, is ludicrous. This book seemed to have tons to prove yet nothing to say.

[David]

Yes. I remember it got rave reviews when it came out, so that I - like an idiot - actually bought a copy. It started out well enough, but became progressively less interesting as the book went on. And (as you point out, Kate) less plausible.

Absolutely nothing of this book stuck with me - I think I had completely obliterated it from memory within a day of finishing it.

Which does raise the question of why it got such good reviews at the time. Was it the "hip narrator" thing? lord spare us all.

[Kristin]

Ahhhhh...I just commented on Benjamin Kunkel in the On Beauty thread because, to me, he has a lot in common with Zadie Smith. They are both boring writers that pretend to be more philosophical and interesting than they are. I think that Indecision did well since it was linked to Kunkel and he'd become a kind of it-boy in NY, what with his n+1 journal and all....ridiculous premise, sappy ending, and it was really nothing more than lad lit. I know Kunkel would cringe at the comparison, but at least Bridget Jones' Diary was funny and didn't take itself too seriously.

[Recynd]

Mmmmm, how perfect...

I bought this baby just a while ago (before reading any reviews, of course, naturally); I suspect it'll be sitting in my "to read" pile for a long, long time...