I READ A BOOK AND WENT TO NEW YORK CITY

Salem St, Boston

I'm just finishing Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven. Besides being a fan of his previous works, I think it's commendable that he took the initiative to write about shocking Mormon fundamentalism that occurs in America's own backyard shortly after September 11, 2001, not to detract from the tragedy of that moment in time, but to draw attention to dangerous religious extremism that goes largely disregarded from American criticism that eagerly and arrogantly directs itself instead at foreign ways of life.

The hypocrisy of humans never ceases to both amaze and disgust me, and the book is convoluted with such disturbing aspects of polygamy, incest, rape, inbreeding and entitlement that I must admit I felt inclined to vomit. Add to that the delusional religious fanatics the world over who think they're having direct conversations with God and are his self-proclaimed prophets and you have yourself a book that masterfully encapsulates the dreariness that is human existence, in the same sense that his book, Into Thin Air reveals human cruelty and self-centeredness.

Spent my birthday in New York City. Little brother was also there for a bike expo taking place in Queens.

I was really just the clueless person who walked around looking at bicycles pretending to be intrigued.

WORST BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD

Is The Circle by Dave Eggers the worst book I have read this summer?

Yes.

It's a disappointment, to say the least. Because I'm a big Eggers fan, ever since first reading his memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius in my late teens. And then my brother giving me his copy of What Is the What to borrow, which blew my mind.

So while browsing the bookstore some weeks ago and seeing this newly released novel from last year, and the multitude of praise from every publication in existance, and shockingly, the much feared Michiko Kakutani, I willingly forked out the $15 to make a copy of it mine. Trust in Eggers, I thought. He's going off on the internet age of today, where people blindly allow technology to control their lives, diminish the value of privacy and intimacy and actually living and making experiences count. He's pointing out the problems of living through a screen, making all information available through social media in an eager, dangerous, naive, egocentric need to be seen and heard and acknowledged by everyone.

Trust in anyone who goes to great lengths to spell out the truth for the unthinking masses.

I'm on board with the subject of his latest novel. But the execution just seemed horribly wrong. For one thing, the story is 500 pages long. Due to a lot of excessive repitition and the superfluous explanation of just how impulsive and reckless the innovative minds that lead the sheep generation deeper into the abyss of a totalitarian society, the story becomes dull yet hyperbolic.

The characters are unappealing, especially the naive, submissive female protagonist (but of course), Mae, who is such an idiot I kept thinking after some time, "Come on, dude...Really?" But perhaps that's what Eggers was trying to convey anyway, that having one's life revolve around the internet and social media day in and day out makes one into a monotonous robot-like machine. Add to the fact that the dialogue was implausible and grating, I just had to relent and finally allowed myself to lose interest somewhere in the middle. After 300 pages I just started skipping paragraphs and pages impatiently, something which I very rarely do when reading, determined still to see how it all ends for naive, hopeless Mae. 

I think it was Stephen King who once wrote in his bit on writing advice, that some writers, however talented they are, can't write realistic dialogue for shit.

And it was Douglas Adams who opined that a book doesn't have to be longer than it should. He pointed out with accuracy that American writers are in the habit of writing extremely long novels, when you can say something in less words. I too, agree. If I wanted to read something that was the length of a bible I'd just read the bible.

I'm still a Dave Eggers fan, but The Circle was pretty bad.