-
![[re-view of EAT WHEN YOU FEEL SAD by ZACHARY GERMAN]
read excerpts of the book here: http://www.bearparade.com/eatwhenyoufeelsad/
*******
in EAT WHEN YOU FEEL SAD, Zachary German uses ‘Robert’ as narrator
Robert does this, Robert does that
we encounter Robert’s everyday monotony, rendered with very little emotion
I more than once thought of Camus’ THE STRANGER
the sentence structure in EWYFS is the most simple & repetitive I have literally ever read in a novel
subject + verb + object, primarily
hyper short & choppy sentences
very little detail on emotion & ‘interior’ processing
deliberately no story ‘arch’ here
tao lin wrote a blurb for the back of this book, praising it, using words like ‘revolutionary’ & ‘avant-garde’
is it ‘revolutionary’?
it seems clear that Tao has ‘influenced’ Zachary
or ‘vice-versa’
they used to live together
Tao is arguably ‘Sam’ in EWYFS
very extreme detail abt the titles of songs Robert listens to
& abt the books & stories Robert reads
this book includes an absurdly (& awesome) intricate index of all titles referenced & things like ‘ebay’ & ‘eggs’ from the book
through this index & this heightened cultural specificity, zachary seems to be making cultural commentary
abt the young ‘indie’ american ‘scene’
abt isolation in a world of commodification(?)
abt connecting w/ music & literature more than ppl
I (very subjectively) connected with much of the music & lit referenced
very culturally & time specific
does this isolate readers who come from other contexts?
how much should that matter or not matter?
this book seems to press up against humor sometimes
& sometimes I laughed
but often it wasn’t very funny to me
there are moments of admirable honesty: ‘more like me, vain and judgmental and stuff’
Robert says ‘I don’t know’ constantly
reflecting his numbness? the fact we all ‘don’t know’ much?
part of me feels like anyone could write something like this novel
it is so minimal
part of me feels like this is meticulously edited
he places emphasis on the ‘literal’ rather than the ‘figurative’
like Tao was so interested in with RICHARD YATES
nothing ornamental
nothing overtly ‘poetic’
MY 7 FAVORITE MOMENTS OF THE BOOK
‘when i make bank deposits i sometimes write your phone number instead of my account number by accident’
‘He puts on his sweater. Robert thinks “Would I watch someone on the street put on a sweater?” He thinks “Why haven’t I asked myself that before?”’
‘I want there to be a girl, and for it to be realistic. I want to live with a girl. We would make food together and ten we would eat food together. We would do dishes. I would do dishes and she would put things away. We’d lie in bed. What would I think about?’
‘If I get Chinese food I’ll feel okay for as long as it takes to eat the Chinese food. If I get twice as much Chinese food I’ll feel okay for twice as long’
‘I know what sound I would hear if I stepped on leaves’
‘I know that nothing matters but I still live as though I think that something matters. No, maybe I don’t. That’s what I should do, though. No, I don’t know.’
‘Robert touches his cat. He says “You douchebag.” He pets his cat. He smacks his cat’s ass’
*******
ultimately I felt mixed emotions abt this book while reading it
it’s 117 pages – it takes very little time to read
the repeated sentence structure potentially gets redundant
somehow it doesn’t get as redundant as you might think
when I got caught up thinking abt the sentence structure I would trail away from the content
when I forgot abt the sentence structure I engaged with the content & the nuances of emotion](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9l17h3xI31r1vr5po1_400.jpg)
[re-view of EAT WHEN YOU FEEL SAD by ZACHARY GERMAN]
read excerpts of the book here: http://www.bearparade.com/eatwhenyoufeelsad/
*******
in EAT WHEN YOU FEEL SAD, Zachary German uses ‘Robert’ as narrator
Robert does this, Robert does that
we encounter Robert’s everyday monotony, rendered with very little emotion
I more than once thought of Camus’ THE STRANGER
the sentence structure in EWYFS is the most simple & repetitive I have literally ever read in a novel
subject + verb + object, primarily
hyper short & choppy sentences
very little detail on emotion & ‘interior’ processing
deliberately no story ‘arch’ here
tao lin wrote a blurb for the back of this book, praising it, using words like ‘revolutionary’ & ‘avant-garde’
is it ‘revolutionary’?
it seems clear that Tao has ‘influenced’ Zachary
or ‘vice-versa’
they used to live together
Tao is arguably ‘Sam’ in EWYFS
very extreme detail abt the titles of songs Robert listens to
& abt the books & stories Robert reads
this book includes an absurdly (& awesome) intricate index of all titles referenced & things like ‘ebay’ & ‘eggs’ from the book
through this index & this heightened cultural specificity, zachary seems to be making cultural commentary
abt the young ‘indie’ american ‘scene’
abt isolation in a world of commodification(?)
abt connecting w/ music & literature more than ppl
I (very subjectively) connected with much of the music & lit referenced
very culturally & time specific
does this isolate readers who come from other contexts?
how much should that matter or not matter?
this book seems to press up against humor sometimes
& sometimes I laughed
but often it wasn’t very funny to me
there are moments of admirable honesty: ‘more like me, vain and judgmental and stuff’
Robert says ‘I don’t know’ constantly
reflecting his numbness? the fact we all ‘don’t know’ much?
part of me feels like anyone could write something like this novel
it is so minimal
part of me feels like this is meticulously edited
he places emphasis on the ‘literal’ rather than the ‘figurative’
like Tao was so interested in with RICHARD YATES
nothing ornamental
nothing overtly ‘poetic’
MY 7 FAVORITE MOMENTS OF THE BOOK
‘when i make bank deposits i sometimes write your phone number instead of my account number by accident’
‘He puts on his sweater. Robert thinks “Would I watch someone on the street put on a sweater?” He thinks “Why haven’t I asked myself that before?”’
‘I want there to be a girl, and for it to be realistic. I want to live with a girl. We would make food together and ten we would eat food together. We would do dishes. I would do dishes and she would put things away. We’d lie in bed. What would I think about?’
‘If I get Chinese food I’ll feel okay for as long as it takes to eat the Chinese food. If I get twice as much Chinese food I’ll feel okay for twice as long’
‘I know what sound I would hear if I stepped on leaves’
‘I know that nothing matters but I still live as though I think that something matters. No, maybe I don’t. That’s what I should do, though. No, I don’t know.’
‘Robert touches his cat. He says “You douchebag.” He pets his cat. He smacks his cat’s ass’
*******
ultimately I felt mixed emotions abt this book while reading it
it’s 117 pages – it takes very little time to read
the repeated sentence structure potentially gets redundant
somehow it doesn’t get as redundant as you might think
when I got caught up thinking abt the sentence structure I would trail away from the content
when I forgot abt the sentence structure I engaged with the content & the nuances of emotion
