a vague review

Things you need to know about this book: Shoplifting From American Apparel was written by tao lin and published September 2009. i didn’t read it until early this year. And then i read it four times, back to back, just like that.

2x shoplifting arrest, 5x vague relationship

Sam is a writer who lives his days suspended between a world of Amazon and Gmail and the equally flat and uninteresting lines of urban America.

The drab lines and expressionless characters in this novella are an eery reminder of who we are—this lonely-ultra-connected generation. We who satiate our consumerist lifestyle with the pretense of fighting corporate greed. And eat at organic vegan restaurants.

And type “im fucked” a lot on Google chat.

The developed characters aren’t lovely or beautiful or demonic or hateful. They exist. They’re people. People we hardly want to get to know.

And also, this book was funny. In a weird sort of way. i laughed a lot, and i didn’t expect to. Not in a ‘ha ha’ sort of way; more of a ‘hehe’ sort of way. tao lin may have fashioned Sam in his own image, but i know a Sam. We all know a Sam.

And i can’t explain the thing about this book that made me read it four times. The thing that when you get done reading it makes you feel like you read something deep, something Hemingway-like with substance and double meanings and stuff. It’s the impulse that makes you so sure you missed some underlying connection that explains the meaning of the book that you read it again.

But it’s not there.

It’s my favorite book i’ve read all year.