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3.28 AVERAGE
3.28 AVERAGE
HSAPB is like a series of beautiful quilt squares held together with scotch tape. Moments of clarity offer startling insight to the author's mind, but the plot is nonexistant and the characters never seem to evolve. Heti is less concerned with craft than concept, and it shows. The novel structure, hailed as innovative and confessional, seems truly lazy at times. Heti has admitted that the typical novel structure is difficult to master. I don't believe that throwing together pieces of dialogue from your day-to-day life is an appropriate substitute for the effort of writing a novel. The most bittersweet thing about this novel, though, was my disappointment. At times, I identified with the author on a deeply emotional level. However, my hope that these feelings would be addressed or even simply evaluated, did not happen. Many people dismiss the book as pretentious. I think that, with some effort (and better editing) this criticism could have been done away with. Sadly, Heti didn't seem to care enough to do so.
I looked forward to reading this book because I had heard it contained a frank and truthful examination of female friendship. While this might be true, the novel's catastrophic structure and lazy prose cancelled out any insight it could have offered. Perhaps I am simply not hip or ethereal enough to understand the overall point, but honestly, I doubt it.
I looked forward to reading this book because I had heard it contained a frank and truthful examination of female friendship. While this might be true, the novel's catastrophic structure and lazy prose cancelled out any insight it could have offered. Perhaps I am simply not hip or ethereal enough to understand the overall point, but honestly, I doubt it.
I’m quitting at page 128. I don’t like the writing or the characters. And 100 pages in, I’m not seeing the story getting better either.
challenging
funny
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Glib and self-destructive, but there are also some very kind moments.
I don't know what to think about this book. It's kind of a novel, kind of a memoir, confusing and disjointed and strange. But it made an impression. It's the rare book where I could agree with a five star review, and I could agree with a one star one too.
I didn't hate this, but I didn't love it either. I really did want to love it, because I haven't read a novel in a while that I've been absolutely crazy about. I liked a lot of what the protagonist/author had to say about self perception and the idea of being confused about "how you should be," but I guess I'm sort of at my limit of semi autobiographical pieces of art from twenty somethings about finding their place in the world. This book said some of the same things in a new way, but I find the overall genre to be self indulgent and repetitive and also maybe speaks to our self obsessed culture in which everyone thinks that their own story alone will be fascinating, marketable and inspiring to others. But at the same time, maybe ident want to hear about it because I'm living through similar issues? I guess id be interested to see if she could write about anything but herself.
Also I hated (HATED) the last scene. Two of the protagonist'a friends were playing a game of squash that managed to become a symbol for a 20 something's path through their early adult life. It was so cheesy. "Then finally Jon said, 'I don't think they even know the rules. I think they're just slamming the ball around.' And so they were."
Also I hated (HATED) the last scene. Two of the protagonist'a friends were playing a game of squash that managed to become a symbol for a 20 something's path through their early adult life. It was so cheesy. "Then finally Jon said, 'I don't think they even know the rules. I think they're just slamming the ball around.' And so they were."
The intimate, fun writing style drew me into this book, which centers on a blossoming friendship between Sheila and Margaux. When they discussed their favorite funny artists and met Keanu Reeves at a hotel pool, I thought how much I wanted to be hanging out with these cool women. But my opinion swung in the opposite direction when Sheila described--graphically, with lots of C words--her enjoyment of degrading sex (TMI, I would have told my new friend!) and said that she and Margaux were doing cocaine for fun. I sort of lost interest and just skimmed the rest of the book from there.
Despite its sometimes overt vulgarity, I think this is a novel about coming to peaceful and interesting terms with the idea that perhaps the best part of life is "being part of the gang" and not singling ourselves out to be extraordinary in a zillion different ways.
What was so freeing about this novel is that it metaphorically tells the reader that they aren't that special - that these emotions, these events, and these relationships are recursive. With the admission that there is a lack of special-ness to us, we are freer to delve into deeper parts of ourselves. It's towards the end of the book that she posits how antithetical our thought processes can be. Why do we choose to connect these dots as opposed to those dots? I think what this book ultimately comes up with, in that regard, is brave and intriguing.
What was so freeing about this novel is that it metaphorically tells the reader that they aren't that special - that these emotions, these events, and these relationships are recursive. With the admission that there is a lack of special-ness to us, we are freer to delve into deeper parts of ourselves. It's towards the end of the book that she posits how antithetical our thought processes can be. Why do we choose to connect these dots as opposed to those dots? I think what this book ultimately comes up with, in that regard, is brave and intriguing.
2023
"You have to know where the funny is." The burned-out sense of humor (and, occasionally, that of parenthetical insertion) remains, perhaps, a sign that thinking has occurred. Heti is writing a sentiment which is already flaring out of existence, but she is funny, too. A novel accidental-contingency. The title phrase ("How should a person Be?"), following a reading of the text, turns out to emphasize "How" (question of modalities of being) rather than "Be" (question of the possibility of being), such that we sense each moment could have been written differently than it appears on the page (not in the bad sense). In the regurgitation of hi-fi tape-recorded conversations and the paring of emails into a series enumerated phrases, a kind of archaeology is being illuminated. ME: (Reassuringly) I don't even know what that means.
"Interlude for Fucking" chapter as a re-dubbed "Song of Songs," but she's crazy and really pulls it off. (Israel is so hot, but his sexts are pathetic. There is some sense in this.)
Miscellaneous Quotes, or, Heti Writes the World:
"Sheila, you never come to clown class anymore.”
"You have to know where the funny is." The burned-out sense of humor (and, occasionally, that of parenthetical insertion) remains, perhaps, a sign that thinking has occurred. Heti is writing a sentiment which is already flaring out of existence, but she is funny, too. A novel accidental-contingency. The title phrase ("How should a person Be?"), following a reading of the text, turns out to emphasize "How" (question of modalities of being) rather than "Be" (question of the possibility of being), such that we sense each moment could have been written differently than it appears on the page (not in the bad sense). In the regurgitation of hi-fi tape-recorded conversations and the paring of emails into a series enumerated phrases, a kind of archaeology is being illuminated. ME: (Reassuringly) I don't even know what that means.
"Interlude for Fucking" chapter as a re-dubbed "Song of Songs," but she's crazy and really pulls it off. (Israel is so hot, but his sexts are pathetic. There is some sense in this.)
Miscellaneous Quotes, or, Heti Writes the World:
Heti as Oppenheimer --> "We live in an age of some really great blow-job artists."
Heti as Adorno --> "Everyone enjoys economy for its relation to a certain morality, "
Heti as Beckett --> "It would not help me finish my play, or solve any of my problems.
Yes it would. It would solve them all."
Heti as Emma Lazarus --> "Where would all of America be—and wouldn’t the flame long be extinguished in the sea—if not for that tall girl’s steady wrist?"
Heti as Heti --> "I should put a lot of shit in the play,"
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A