A cynical, misanthropic, foulmouthed novel that no curious reader will be able to put down.
A fiction debut in which an anonymous internet troll has a kind of quarter-life crisis.
In this sprawling, rambunctious novel, Fitzgerald places his unnamed main character—an aimless, dissolute, perpetually horny online troll—on the cusp of a deep-seated personal dilemma. When he graduated from college (it was years ago, but he still has infinite student loans to pay off), his remaining friends warned him, “You have to get out of this town the second you graduate, or else you’ll never leave.” And the warning has come true: “No matter what route you take home,” the narrator tells himself, “you’re guaranteed to see a University bus whizz by or glimpse one of the crumbling dormitories you used to call home—teeming, iniquitous high-rises after J. G. Ballard's own heart.” The entire novel is set in the second person—a bit of a workout, especially over 500 pages, but the author pulls it off with impressive skill. The narrative follows its hapless main character through his largely aimless days, varying from online porn to large amounts of alcohol and marijuana. These misadventures are punctuated with long excerpts from the protagonist’s writings on pop culture and the nature of the perpetually online modern world. “Thanks to vertically integrated marketing strategies and the commodification of ‘cool,’ true originality has almost ceased to exist,” he muses in typically caustic terms. “Individually, we may all be snowflakes, but together, we’re a fucking whiteout.” As this tour through the protagonist’s tortured psyche reaches a crisis point, it is obvious something has to give, and soon.
In addition to successfully employing a seldom-used narrative point of view, Fitzgerald also accomplishes several other daring feats. The novel's narrative manages to be crude without being stupid and eloquent without having anything remotely pleasant to say. The author's sheer exuberance in describing everything from a mood shift to a bar fight is unflagging: “Wild-pitched shot- and pint-glasses shell the liquor display behind the bar like a knock-em-over carnival game, sending a waterfall of spirits crashing from the top shelf down,” goes one such moment. “The staff retreat to the back offices soaked in their own wares—their cuts and scrapes pre-sterilized by the downpour—and opportunistic alkies start absconding with whatever merchandise is still intact while the rest of the crowd makes for the door.” Our troll-ish main character grouses about the artificiality of online culture. There are many scenes driven by grotesque Pynchon-esque humor: After a particularly nasty incident, a bathroom is described as “a GG Allin-themed sanguinarium.” And the main character's lengthy dissertations on classic TV shows like Family Guy, The Simpsons, and especially Friends are genuinely fascinating. By the time “some migratory, sea turtle-type level” prompts the main character to one final epic feat of trolling, readers will be rooting for him despite his despicable ways.
A cynical, misanthropic, foulmouthed novel that no curious reader will be able to put down.Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2023
ISBN: 9781952600326
Page Count: 590
Publisher: Whiskey Tit
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
A warm and winning "When Harry Met Sally…" update that hits all the perfect notes.
A travel writer has one last shot at reconnecting with the best friend she just might be in love with.
Poppy and Alex couldn't be more different. She loves wearing bright colors while he prefers khakis and a T-shirt. She likes just about everything while he’s a bit more discerning. And yet, their opposites-attract friendship works because they love each other…in a totally platonic way. Probably. Even though they have their own separate lives (Poppy lives in New York City and is a travel writer with a popular Instagram account; Alex is a high school teacher in their tiny Ohio hometown), they still manage to get together each summer for one fabulous vacation. They grow closer every year, but Poppy doesn’t let herself linger on her feelings for Alex—she doesn’t want to ruin their friendship or the way she can be fully herself with him. They continue to date other people, even bringing their serious partners on their summer vacations…but then, after a falling-out, they stop speaking. When Poppy finds herself facing a serious bout of ennui, unhappy with her glamorous job and the life she’s been dreaming of forever, she thinks back to the last time she was truly happy: her last vacation with Alex. And so, though they haven’t spoken in two years, she asks him to take another vacation with her. She’s determined to bridge the gap that’s formed between them and become best friends again, but to do that, she’ll have to be honest with Alex—and herself—about her true feelings. In chapters that jump around in time, Henry shows readers the progression (and dissolution) of Poppy and Alex’s friendship. Their slow-burn love story hits on beloved romance tropes (such as there unexpectedly being only one bed on the reconciliation trip Poppy plans) while still feeling entirely fresh. Henry’s biggest strength is in the sparkling, often laugh-out-loud-funny dialogue, particularly the banter-filled conversations between Poppy and Alex. But there’s depth to the story, too—Poppy’s feeling of dissatisfaction with a life that should be making her happy as well as her unresolved feelings toward the difficult parts of her childhood make her a sympathetic and relatable character. The end result is a story that pays homage to classic romantic comedies while having a point of view all its own.
A warm and winning "When Harry Met Sally…" update that hits all the perfect notes.Pub Date: May 11, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0675-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
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