A review by raykluender
Early Work, by Andrew Martin
5.0
Martin is a new favorite writer for me. If you have little tolerance for self-aware, erudite creative types drowning their anxieties in self-destructive behavior, I'd probably stay away. But if that's your bag, have I got the book for you.
The observational qualities of the novel were brilliant, there were a bunch of passages that made me laugh out loud and a bunch that left me twisting a turn of phrase around in my head in admiration. The cultural references are deeply relatable for me (there's a particularly funny exchange regarding Yeezus) and it's pretty neat to read this kind of novel from an author roughly my age.
Peter and Leslie are obviously trainwrecks; they're not supposed to be admirable characters. But they're the kind of characters who serve both as a good hang and a Stoic-style thought experiment of the worst paths one's life could take if one loosened their grip on ambitions and leaned into oblivion.
I hesitate to widely recommend this book because I think it'll rub some people the wrong way, but I loved it and devoured it in two beautiful afternoons on the Esplanade.
The observational qualities of the novel were brilliant, there were a bunch of passages that made me laugh out loud and a bunch that left me twisting a turn of phrase around in my head in admiration. The cultural references are deeply relatable for me (there's a particularly funny exchange regarding Yeezus) and it's pretty neat to read this kind of novel from an author roughly my age.
Peter and Leslie are obviously trainwrecks; they're not supposed to be admirable characters. But they're the kind of characters who serve both as a good hang and a Stoic-style thought experiment of the worst paths one's life could take if one loosened their grip on ambitions and leaned into oblivion.
I hesitate to widely recommend this book because I think it'll rub some people the wrong way, but I loved it and devoured it in two beautiful afternoons on the Esplanade.