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Rating: 
Summary: Weird
Review: I was intrigued within the first 50 pages or so because of the direction it seemed to be heading. Then it got bland in the middle . It just seemed to be the same thing spit over and over to the reader. It did have its high moments in the middle. Then at the end of the book it got better, but it was hard to get through the 2nd third of the book, it probably goes deeper than i gave it. I really didn't get into it, so that may be why, also I am still a teenager but I did get most of the satire. My recommendation is that it's one of those books you have to read yourself to judge because you may take it a different way. It just wasn't for me.
Rating:
Summary: Weird
Review: I was intrigued within the first 50 pages or so because of the direction it seemed to be heading. Then it got bland in the middle . It just seemed to be the same thing spit over and over to the reader. It did have its high moments in the middle. Then at the end of the book it got better, but it was hard to get through the 2nd third of the book, it probably goes deeper than i gave it. I really didn't get into it, so that may be why, also I am still a teenager but I did get most of the satire. My recommendation is that it's one of those books you have to read yourself to judge because you may take it a different way. It just wasn't for me.
Rating: 
Summary: upi are tje ja;fwot, or, Can't You See I'm Blind, You Fool?
Review: Relax, I was hungry when I wrote that. The book really helped once my wife diced up some Chinese pillaries. They help the apoplexy, really.Hey, wouldn't we also read them aloud to our friends, and our friends-to-be, and our enemies, and our enemies-to-be? Would we cradle the book tenderly near our crotch(es) and croon it to our children-to-be? Would we go to the nursing home and holler it into the ear trumpets of the corpses-to-be? I'm all for this public reading stuff, but your proposition--it cries out with a mighty shriek to have its reductio ad absurdum illustrated, especially since you called me a halfwit. Hey--maybe we'd be reading them to a friend and the act of reading it aloud would transform that friend into an enemy-to-be; would similarly transform a lover-to-be into a nodding acquaintance-to-be, or even a person-who-crosses-the-street-when-they-see-us-to-be. We might go to a special ed class and read them to our halfwits, and halfwits-to-be. Just a thought, articulated within the framework of several complex "sentances" utilizing serial commas, written with concentration, intensity, and love toward a lover-to-be.
Rating:
Summary: The Subject Boredom
Review: The book consists of a terminally ill guy doing weird/odd/normal things. Note: not weird-interesting or weird-really-neat, mostly weird-why-am-I-reading-this. To be fair I must admit I could not bring myself past page 175. I forced my way through pages 2-175. Enough is enough. Man against book...a timeless struggle. Maybe pages 176-200something hold the meaning of life. Amazon recommended this to me; I am currently in the process of re-associating my rankings on previously purchased items. Beware of this book if you are here by recommendation. I almost submitted this as 1 star, whoops. I forgot to mention the two really cool characters: The Philosopher and Mechanic. Hmmm, so I guess the first 20 pages were actually quite good. Unfortunately these characters did not get enough screen time. They at least indicate potential in Mr. Lipsyte and I will at least read the back of his next endeavor.
Rating:
Summary: The Subject Boredom
Review: The book consists of a terminally ill guy doing weird/odd/normal things. Note: not weird-interesting or weird-really-neat, mostly weird-why-am-I-reading-this. To be fair I must admit I could not bring myself past page 175. I forced my way through pages 2-175. Enough is enough. Man against book...a timeless struggle. Maybe pages 176-200something hold the meaning of life. Amazon recommended this to me; I am currently in the process of re-associating my rankings on previously purchased items. Beware of this book if you are here by recommendation. I almost submitted this as 1 star, whoops. I forgot to mention the two really cool characters: The Philosopher and Mechanic. Hmmm, so I guess the first 20 pages were actually quite good. Unfortunately these characters did not get enough screen time. They at least indicate potential in Mr. Lipsyte and I will at least read the back of his next endeavor.
Rating:
Summary: An Astoria Statement from Seattle
Review: Well, the other reviews here wrote there great synopses, but here's my two cents. David Foster Wallace has this essay about the difficulty today's novelists have competing with mediated reality. Roth wrote this essay first, and Franzen's written it since (and has now written a novel following Wallace's advice) But despite W's literary catholicism, his fictions wallows in exactly the same stuff he abhors. And, of course, that's what makes it great, and it's what most fortysomething novelists spend a lot of time thinking about. I'd guess that Lipsyte's just get that this is stuff you learned in college--mediated reality is just a given. This book is usually descibed as satire, and I guess that's true because it reminds me of Nathanial West--it manages to be scathing and poignant at the same time, and it's very human. It's also very--and I mean, veryfunny. It's like some sin not to be a realist today, but it's also not like the book is particularly difficult or anything (it's moving, but that's another story). I mean, it feels silly to recommend this book--you just want to thrust it into people's hands. On the other hand, this just might be a book that should have "this book is not for you" sticker slapped across the shrink wrap. You're always laughing at stuff that is real, which hurts. Which makes it so cool. Which also hurts.
I guess you all know this book is about a dying man whose condition is universal. Which is funny, because explains why something which reminds me of the best ever episode of the Simpsons has been reviewed as if it were an episode of ER. But it's not at all a morbid book. Steve-not-Steve (see? already it's confusing) really just has these poignant, hysterical adventures, told in these amazing sentences which read kind of like what street poetry would sound like if street poems were beautiful. Which is not to put down Franzen or street poetry or anything, but simply to say that if you have a good year you just might like this book. I did.
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