you think this is a crazy post title, but really it is the least crazy at all.  this post is for book #22 on my quest to 52 books this year, and that book is:

Eeeee Eee Eeee by Tao Lin.  Fiction.

I was hugely disappointed by this book, perhaps just because my hopes were up so high in the first place.  i’d read some great things about it and some writers (and publications) that i enjoy were really endorsing his writing as pretty much the future of writing, so i assumed it would be right up my alley.  and it should be, because the themes Lin is dealing with, are so present in my own life right now that i cannot even articulate it, however i guess i just didn’t “get it”.  i hate to sound like some stupid cliff notes reading kind of moron, but whatever it was Lin was going for with the bizarre dolphins and moose and bears and “Eeeee Eee Eeee’s” all over the place, i just didn’t freaking get it.  he is a beautiful writer and i would love to see what he could do with a more “straight” narrative, but here i just felt a bit lost and let down.  the book is largely stream of conciousness writing from the perspectives of a couple different characters, but there is no story arc to speak of and no real direction for the book overall (forgetting for a second the truly bizarre elements – that i totally WANTED to love – like cars full of bears and dolphins curled up in corners) the book was still difficult to get through and far too “avant garde” for my tastes.  i mean i want to be the girl who likes avante garde things, i really do, and i think sometimes i am, certainly  more than the average bear (no pun intended), however i find these days what really interests me is character development and beautiful writing, best paired with an interesting and thought provoking narrative – i want to fall in love with characters and be moved by them, whether in books or films, and i desperately wanted to fall in love with Lin’s characters, but i couldn’t even come close.  i also found myself very much wishing that Lin was going to send some knowledge my way, because he was talking about issues so dear to my current heart (i.e. happiness and the ridiculousness of searching for it and the added ridiculousness of not knowing if it even exists, either in the world, or for you personally) but i just never got the information, if it was there.  maybe i was looking for too much in it, maybe a combination of my expectations and my desire to have someone impart great knowledge to me is actually keeping me from getting his likely very simple message…it certainly could be.  i suspect i’ll give this another try in a couple years and see if i “get it”, but for now it is 2.5 stars for having all that beautiful writing and all those brilliant ideas that went nowhere. 

of note:  lately i seem to stand alone on book reviews.  i think usually i’m pretty in line with the masses (the good ones of course) but everyone on earth has seemed to love Eeeee Eee Eeee and also Soon I Will Be Invincible.  sigh.  maybe i’ll get back on track soon.