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Spurious (2011)

by Lars Iyer(Favorite Author)

3.57 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

193555428X (ISBN13: 9781935554288)

languge

English

genre

Humor

publisher

Melville House

review 1: Definitely not for most people, but I laughed out loud quite a lot reading this short (1.5 hour) book about trying to have great thoughts and realizing that you are probably never going to be great. It is rambling and philosophical about trying to be a philosopher - reminds me of trying to work in academia. My favorite part (talking about being a Brod instead of a Kafka), "We too must write interpretative essays on the work of others more intelligent and gifted than we will ever be. We too must do our best to offer support and solace to others despite the fact that we will always misunderstand their genius, and only bother them with our enthusiasm." If that doesn't strike you as funny, you probably want to pass!
review 2: Pretty amusing, and an incredibly fast ... moreread. This short little number is a first-person tale from the POV of a semi-intellectual narrating snippets of his relationship with his best friend, known only as "W". We get little direct insight into the narrator (who conveniently shares the author's first name, "Lars")'s opinions of himself, but rather mostly get W's expositions and interrogations of why their own bizarre, co-dependent misery links them together. It's actually rather humorous, and it comes off as a literary version of the English cult film "Withnail and I". By the end, I found the ruminations getting a bit repetitive, though. All-in-all, it's a fun little read, packed with plenty of wit, served dry, much like the gallons of gin that they two main players ingest. less

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