Rate this book

10:04 (2014)

by Ben Lerner(Favorite Author)

3.91 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0865478104 (ISBN13: 9780865478107)

languge

English

genre

Science Fiction

publisher

Faber & Faber

review 1: Pretentious hipster lit. Couldn't shake the feeling from the get-go that here was an author, fresh out of Iowa or some other esteemed writers program, trying desperately to prove himself capable of producing something artful. It's such a shame since I loved Atocha Station, identified strongly with its narrator's aimlessness and thought the book offered keen insights on the creative process. But Lerner's follow-up is dreadful. The story (if you can call it that, seeing as so very little happens) is disjointed and muddied, the writing is infuriatingly complex at times, and there is absolutely no character development whatsoever. The narrator starts off as a pompous douchebag, and stays one til the end. And there are hardly any other characters to speak of -- they appear on t... morehe page and disappear just as suddenly. As for what the book is trying to say?? Beats me. I learned nothing about art or friendship or sex or politics, and certainly nothing about "what it is like to be alive right now", as the jacket blurb so favourably declares. And the sheer high-mindedness -- who the f**k eats quinoa and dried mango? Oh and the narrator's interest in postmodern poetry and in art house cinema? WE GET IT. The guy couldn't be any more Brooklyn if he tried. Hated it.
review 2: I gave this book 61 hard fought pages and I wanted to like this book based on the good reviews it had received. I can honestly tell you, no idea what the book is about. I can't even tell you what I read about it. The way he writes is absurd! It feels like he sat down with a thesaurus and picked the most insane way to describe a feeling, someone or something. It took me a full paragraph to figure out he was talking about a homeless person. I have never not finished a book before, but this is the first. less

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