A review by nickdleblanc
I Pass Like Night by Jonathan Ames

3.0

I’d read “You We’re Never Really Here,” I’d seen Bored to Death, and I’d heard a few interviews with Jonathan Ames before so I had a good idea about the scope and skill of his writing, but this collection, his first, really drives that point home. It’s a collection of micro-stories and reminiscences from a neurotic, queer, and most likely bipolar narrator. More of a character study than a proper novel with a plot, the only real beats of the story being sordid tales of sexual dalliances and complicated family memories. I like his style, his dialogue is great, the writing is frank, and he wastes no time getting to the meat of a situation. Besides a bad habit of ending each piece with stinger sentences—which is endearing at first but becomes grating once you notice it, I have nothing but good things to say about the prose. I think this collection was about exploring the inner life of someone clearly suffering from bipolar disorder and a sex addiction. The narrator, Alexander, overthinks and lets irrational worries cloud his mind, like his eyelids getting burnt from squinting on a sunny day. Then, he’ll spend a day compulsively masturbating, getting out of bed at night, buying himself an onion roll at a deli and talking with bums in the street until the next morning. In one section he hates his old alcoholic grandfather and prays for his death while he sits at the side of his hospital bed, and in another he beams and tells people proudly that he is wearing his grandfather’s old hat. Some of the stories read like thinly veiled nonfiction, and it feels a little icky at times, but his writing is so charming and funny you quickly forgive it. It’s sort of like a light beer version of early William Burroughs novels, but in a good way. A good quick and dirty read. I’ll check our more of his stuff, enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. -
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tl;dr—Confessional fiction about a troubled guy, written in such a way to make it relatable. You’ll find bits of your own thinking throughout the book—especially the type of private thinking you do when no one else is around, they type of stuff you generally don’t share with anyone. Good stuff.