by Sam Lipsyte
The addition of this and Pastoralia to my TBR list comes courtesy of this quote from "Art of Fielding" author Chad Harbach, who says, "Since 2000, the battle for Funniest Writer in America has been a mano a mano mountaintop clash between Lipsyte and George Saunders, and everybody else just stands ar...
A very clever novel. I will write more when I am able to. Sam did a great job with this book. Well worth reading.
Witty and shallow, but not in the right proportion. It felt like Lipsyte was performing acrobatics in humor in order to please himself with his own skill. Sometimes the humor worked, sometimes it didn't. I was hoping for some meaningful social satire out of this book, but it didn't quite reach th...
This book is two parts hilarious, three parts wonderfully written, and four parts annoying. I suppose that puts it closer to a 3.5 stars, but it will take me a while to get over the whining of the main character Milo.Did you ever work with someone with a continuously depressed attitude? One of those...
When you try to be cute by writing a book with a detestable protagonist and include dialogue exchanges like this:"I'm not very likable, am I?""You're likable enough.""No, I mean, if I were the protagonist of a book or a movie, it would be hard to like me, to identify with me, right?""I would never r...
The problem with anti-heroes is that you don't particularly like them. So it goes with Milo Burke, the schlumpy and uninspiring protagonist of Sam Lipsyte's latest. However, as much as I don't like Milo, I can't help but love Lipsyte's oft-inspired prose. Best I've seen from him yet. [full review]