"Erasure" post-modern anger in the ghetto

Erasure: A Novel- Percival Everett
   
If you have read some of the book reviews of the blog, you should now by now I'm not much of a fan of post-modernist or vanguard tendencies that some critics/editorials try to sell as the "next best thing". No way. But I'm more than glad to find an exception. And in the case of this vitriolic  "Erasure", a great one!

Because Percival Everett's novel is quite a devastating read. Audacious and risky in its structure, allusive and bleak in his prose, sardonic and angry in what it wants to say. Merciless in the portray of hypocrisy in our society (particularly in the world of culture) but also able to include a moving look to a son trying to deal with the aging of her mother.

"Erasure" is a fierce kick in the b_ _ s to the sanctimonious, politically correct. Also to the "academia" of literature for its narrow definition of what's black literature and what blackness entails: an abuse of cliches, that are the argument among which the cultural establishment decides whether what book will be successful or not. It's all summarized in that sort of brutal coda that novel's protagonist, black writer Thelonious Ellison, Monk, systematically gets when his experimental (unreadable) novels are rejected: "It's not black enough".

Everett plays with prejudice shockingly, revealing our miseries. Monk's fathers were doctors, like his sister and brother. He was a brilliant Harvard student, he's not into hip-hop or rap or doesn't play basketball. And he writes about Euripides, so how can we consider him black enough? Our self-conscious writer will throw his frustrations and rage in a new novel. Vengeance is the word.

And we are invited to read that "novel inside the novel", an irate, presumably ironic in its aim to mock and reveal how pathetic are books like Juanita Mae Jenkins's best-seller, "We's Lives in Da Ghetto", unanimously celebrated for its "haunting verisimilitude" by critics. Under a pseudonym (and a further new impersonation of what a black ghetto writer should be), he offers a parody of a "ghetto novel", "Ma Pafology". In not even 100 pages Everett constructs a highly addictive tale of violence, crime, lack of hope and that sort of "ghetto fate", that works as a knock-out diatribe against the cliches on "black literature". But his idea will turn against him, on a ridiculous and threatening downward spiral.
 
"Erasure" also finds time to talk about family. Monk's isolation and frustration has, thanks to illness, disgrace and time, to be confronted with the "obligation" to help his mother. It's another kind of shock on the novel, adding complexity but foremost humanity and a touching side on Monk. That mixture makes the secondary layers of footnotes and imaginary dialogues between painters, philosophers, famous writers, etc... forgivable and even likable in their eccentricity. Same goes with the TV script or the unique imitation of an academics CV. As you can see, a lot to offer (better said to read).

A box of surprises, a fierce statement, a peculiar comedy that won't make you laugh but think instead. Percival Everett is a writer to discover (thanks to Blackie Books for that).

SCORE: 7,75/10

"A Visit from the Goon Squad", in search of lost time in the digital age

A Visit from the Goon Squad- Jennifer Egan

Just to tell you which side I'm on, as an American literature reader (my family and friends would say "obsessed") my "education" is full of: "dirty realists and damned writers", "beatniks", the "lost generation", "southern gothics", "new journalists" and Woody Allen's humour and vision of life. I overtly admit vangardists and post-modernists writers haven't had a lot luck with me (few exceptions), but hey!, I keep trying.

In that sense, "A Visit from the Goon Squad" seemed a perfect choice. The 2011 Pulitzer's Prize, coming from an unknown writer (in Spain), Jennifer Egan, who has been included by Time Magazine among its most influential people list (whatever that means), and dealing with music. Curious? Needless to say I was. A lot.

I'm not going to spoil the intricate plot for you, but as the excellent artwork used by the promising new Spanish editorial Minúscula Jennifer Egan's book works as a coral mixtape dealing with one subject: time. A very peculiar "concept album" conformed by thirteen chapters, where thirteen characters explain, in their own different ways, a significant moment of their lives. From the 70s to 2020, this stories connect with each other, as the characters are linked through Bennie Salazar, who's work as musician and music producer gives the context of this peculiar novel.

One has to praise Egan's attempt to create something different, intimately connected with the "digital age" in which we are living. Her book is an intriguing "artefact", that despite its distorted, fragmented structure and therefore, different voices inside, is capable of permeating "A Visit from the Goon Squad" with a very cohesive (and classic, but don't worry, this is not Proust) element. A genuine sense of melancholy goes throughout the novel, the characters suffering that constant defeat against time, confronting their past with their changing present.  

But this book, as many mixtapes, records, compilation albums, in particular when they include "various artists", is unbalanced, some chapters being far more interesting than others, and a few of them, being a bit annoying, in my opinion. Yes, I'm basically referring to the "powerpoint" chapter. As a post-modernist idea it might be a literary achievement, and it might serve well the purpose of reflecting how communication evolve in the digital era. But after five pages, it is boring to read. The "journalist chapter" might be a fun homage to the ill-fated Foster Wallace, but lacks his punch. And the final, futuristic episode is, well, too blatantly "modern" to  bring you back to start, to collect the disjointed pieces and compose the fragmented puzzle. 

Again, I have the impression of aesthetics being more important for the author than the story she wants to explain. But as I said, "A Visit from the Goon Squad" leaves you with a quite powerful sense of longing for time, for the past that has gone, so aside from its original structure and attempts for new narrative forms, this is finally a "modern book" that achieves being substantial and interesting. Will look for more from Jennifer Egan.  

SCORE: 6,75/10

"Richard Yates", Tao Lin's insult to literature

Richard Yates- Tao Lin

I'm very sorry for the title of my post. But that's how I feel after reading this book. And the mere fact he is using the name and surname of Richard Yates, in my opinion, one of the best writers this world has ever read, as the title of his novel, to me is offensive. I don't believe he did it ironically. Worse, I don't care if he did. The result is exactly the same. This book is awful.

I didn't know about Tao Lin's over-hype. I guess that not being American it was something completely alien to us. I didn't have any previous opinion about him either, but after reading the novel I made a little search and sadly, it has not helped at all. Read this little fragment of an interview made on a Spanish diary. Again, I don't care if he's being ironic or what. That's the answer of a total jerk (depression is quite a serious thing for many people).

"Are you as depressed and unhappy as is assumed in your books? I don't know. Maybe. But other people depressed is unable to do anything. I have published six books. And I take antidepressants just for fun".

Kafka for the iPhone generation? That's a very offensive insult to the Czech genious. The writer for the facebook generation? Excuse but I know lots and lots of people that use facebook regularly (me included) and are not stupid. 

Sorry if I'm taking my time to write about the author and not about the novel. I am. But that's because there's not much to talk about the book. This novel is a trifle. Maybe it wasn't Lin's goal, just a marketing strategy, but contrary to what the say, "Richard Yates" doesn't reflect the reality of the world we are living, with modern kids who live their life through a social network or a chat. Lin's book just shows reflect the lack of talent of someone who constructs simple verb phrases after simple verb phrases (X says, Y says) and the most tedious voice I ever read in literature. 

Dakota and Haley are impossible characters. Not only their ages and educational levels have no relation with how they talk/chat/sms each other, that would be more associable to 10-12 year old kids, but they are plain clichés too. Just two words that resume my point: depressed and suicide, used ad infinitum. If  the book was just a short story of no more than 20 pages it could pass as a joke, or if, at least, the kids fulfilled their promise and commit suicide...

Empty, profoundly superficial and topical, without a direction (plot? still wondering), I promise that finishing only a bit more than 200 pages has been to me like reading Tolstoy's "War and Peace" twice. Some critics say his prose is the most accurate expression of the minimalist approach. That's another offensive comparison. If authors like Raymond Carver, Tobias Wolff where called minimalists was because they wanted to eliminate everything superficial, accessory, irrelevant from their works. But Lin's case is the opposite. What can you do when you have nothing else than superficiality and irrelevance on your book?

Tao Lin has said this is sort of an autobiography, that he wrote for himself. That concludes any debate about its (lacking) quality. In my opinion, it would have been excellent if he had decided to keep it for himself. But opens another one: why was this published? I think that has to do with these tendency of looking for and selling trends. You find that author, you create a categorization for him/her (post-post-modernism? how cool sounds that, right?) and hire/influence some critics that will say this is "the next big thing". Oh, and you can always say people that doesn't get is because they are not prepared for anything new or challenging, or that they didn't get the irony of it. Yes, the irony. Look how I'm laughing.

SCORE: 0,75/10