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rleibrock's review against another edition
5.0
This is a great example of minimalist fiction. Robison uses brief, diary-styled entries to tell this story of a screenwriter who appears to be going crazy.
The result is sparse but seemingly effortless prose imbued with sadness, anger and humor.
The result is sparse but seemingly effortless prose imbued with sadness, anger and humor.
biedermeier_margo's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.25
ceelabee's review against another edition
5.0
I don't think this is for everyone, but if you like the weird, experimental, and hysterically funny, then it is for you. It's a novel without much of a plot and written in about 500 short fragments, each of which are polished stones of literary greatness and humor. You will probably either be perplexed and hate it or love it and obviously I am in the latter camp.
sloatsj's review against another edition
3.0
I found this manic and entertaining and ultimately worthwhile, although it was sometimes hard to get my hooks into it. The story is told as a series of short quotidian narratives by the character Money Breton, whose son has been the victim of some terrible sex crime, whose daughter is a recovering addict, and who herself seems to be under-medicated for ADD. There are a couple other key characters, including an imperfect boyfriend, a bitchy Hollywood boss, and the Deaf Lady, who was my favorite. The book is punctuated with some very funny moments, but it’s a case of the funny throwing salt on the sad. It is interesting how all these fleeting thoughts, observations and exchanges swell into a book and a plot. The ‘outtake’ format is at once engaging and disconcertingly choppy.
I have to say it isn’t one of my favorite books, but it was interesting to read both for the concept and execution.
I have to say it isn’t one of my favorite books, but it was interesting to read both for the concept and execution.
julieb3a's review
0.75
This is a bizarre little book. I laughed very seldomly, and wasn’t even sure if I was supposed to be laughing, but mostly it just made me feel anxious. Maybe because it’s 20 years old and I don’t have the right frame of mind, or maybe the book is just meant to be exactly as weird as it seems. Wouldn’t recommend to anyone except maybe that person who thinks they know the art forms writing can take and is really pretentious about letting you know that.
etaylorm's review
1.0
Not actually bad, pretty sure I just hate fragment novels - they always read like disorganized first drafts to me.