Eeeee Eee Eeee by Tao Lin
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Book Reviews of Eeeee Eee Eeee
Book Review: I like this book.
Summary: 5 Stars
I like this book. It made me laugh. Tao is nice to me. If you buy this book, he'll feel happy.Book Review: Eeeeeeeee Eeeeeee
Summary: 5 Stars
Few writers paint with a brushstroke that is as thoughtful and hilarious as Tao Lin.Book Review: Tao Lin: Part 1
Summary: 4 Stars
I came across Eeeee Eee Eeee by accident, spotting it on the clearance table at Dog Eared Books on Valencia St in SF I immediately took a liking to its dadaist title. I don't know what about it strengthened my resolve to purchase it. I remember it was either that or an old paperback copy of The Man In The High Castle by Phillip K. Dick.
After reading it, it seemed almost too obvious that I would have bought it at that particular bookstore, what with its prime Mission District location and little notes on the shelves in the Critical Theory section helpfully advising lost grad students: "Looking for Tintin? Try graphic novels!" Also, I think I got roughly the same intellectual mileage out of it as I would have if I had bought Dick instead. But that's getting ahead of myself.
I read it while sitting in the rooftop garden at SF Moma, drinking an overpriced museum cafe iced coffee. I read it on the red eye to Atlanta later and then finished it on the connecting flight to Philadelphia, unable to sleep in the frigid air of the nearly empty plane. I read EEE and liked it and felt it deeply, to an almost embarrassing degree.
Most of all, I wondered what it feels like to be Tao Lin. I later found out, though this did not surprise me, that the author lives his life as a kind of public artist. Something in the prose, its wavering between nihilism, absurdity and the peculiar type of introspection practiced by the deeply depressed prepared me for that revelation. The label "voice of a generation"--or at least a particularly culture-savvy subset of a generation--seems like a burden he either cultivates or accepts.
I don't know how I feel about that. Think of how many promising writers exposed to Hunter S. Thompson, Jack Kerouac, David Foster Wallace or Bret Easton Ellis at an impressionable age are ruined for life because they artlessly take on the stylistic peculiarities of their literary heroes. I can only imagine what kind of terrible, painfully unreadable pastiches of Lin's work are currently being churned out in college creative writing classes. I don't blame him for that but I thought I would mention it.
The novel is powerful because, at surface level, it tries not to be. It is accessible and stupid and about nothing at all but then Lin writes something that means more than it should, an unexpected truth or a recognition of a common but difficult to articulate ennui.
I hesitate to use the word 'ennui' because it has become a kind of affectation assumed by the people who I envision read books like EEE; I honestly don't think its the right word but it comes immediately to mind when discussing his work. I think the author is much, much smarter than he lets on and that the way he presents this nebulous concept is one aspect of his role as an important media figure. Its either that or he's an incredibly emotionally naked artist. What combination of those two things makes up the actual truth is a bit of a mystery to me.
I don't know how many "helpful" things I can say about Eeee Eee Eeee or that its really susceptible to to review. I do think its worth reading and would recommend it.
Book Review: Good times for some.
Summary: 4 Stars
About thirty pages into Eeeee Eee Eeee, I had to put the book down and spend a good twenty minutes wondering how Tao Lin had been intercepting my thought processes. Whether this says more about the book or about me is anyone's guess. Anyhow, on with the review.
As someone previously unaware of Tao Lin's fiction, I approached this like I always approach a new writer; with an attitude somewhere between cynicism and 'It couldn't be worse than ...'. As such, I was pleasantly surprised. Now, readers of this review need to bear in mind that I'm twenty-one, which is probably well within the age range Eeeee Eee Eeee (That title's a nightmare to type) was written for. I found the characters relateable, and the frequent use of in-jokes made the young adult and teenage characters feel more real. The plot is brilliantly difficult. Tao Lin seems to have found that place where literary fiction stops being about nothing, turns its nose up at being about something and is painfully, honestly and hilariously about everything.
So, why isn't this getting the full five stars? Well, while the plot can be confused dialogue should make sense, and sometimes it doesn't. Also, the appearance of anthropomorphic animals and aliens is something of a curveball. They might be metaphors for something, but for what is unclear and the fact that they're there at all makes little sense.
These are just minor gripes, though. I wouldn't recommend this book for anyone who believes phrases like 'they don't write them as good as they did'. I wouldn't recommend it for people past a certain age, either. To an extent, this is a book for the naive and youthful, and more assured people may not 'get it', or appreciate the content.
Ultimately, it's an engaging read for the directionless and existentially minded. Buy it for your student relatives.
Book Review: How I feel about this book.
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a book review which describes how I feel about this book, as well as how how I feel about this book. I like this book. Moreover, I like the way this book makes me like this book. I do not feel overly strongly about this book, as some reviewers seem to, though this response I have then makes me feel all the better about this book, bolstering my enthusiam while paradoxically failing to undermine my ambivalence towards it. It feels very nice not to have to feel too much enthusiasm towards a novel. Do you want to compare this novel or author to J.D. Salinger or Kurt Vonnegut? That's nice, you may, but the 'tone' or 'style' of this book encourages me to feel this entirely unnecessary. One could describe the emotions this book contains or enables, and that is fine, but why, why bother, when much more lovely is the fasion in which these contents are rendered. Words like simple or unstraining might be used, but really metadescription (wasn't that a big, ugly word?) is unnecessary. Read it, or sample his twitter feed. It uses a language I would have never thought to use, or to use to such extent, but I trust you will find it as expressive and as addictive as I have. Small words can speak so much. I don't know, I gave it to one friend, he said I hate this character, but did not stop reading. I gave it to another friend and she devoured it quickly, saying only I want more. As regards how you might feel about it, the strongest recommendation I can give is that it is assuredly worth picking up in order to find out.