Reviews

While I love slice of life realism, this book felt like it was drifting in the waters of millennial angst. There was no real destination, no real drama because everything felt overly-dramatic. I didn't feel any sense of closure in the writings, but perhaps that the was point. We're all private citizens of our own country, isolated by our anxieties and bobbing from port to port.

katellison's review against another edition

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5.0

this book rly fux.

i read Henrik's backstory chapter 3 times - the second time with a writer's eye, for instruction on compression, and the third time so I could just let myself cry.

after i read this book i took a lil extra ketamine nasal spray one night and had a vision that me, tony, & my friend who introduced me to tony's work ("The Feminist") merged souls via the Cloud and our soul-merge became an orb-shaped nft named jake.

jake went on to be involved in a school shooting in east texas. RIP buddy.

hillduggan's review against another edition

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adventurous funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

bauliya's review against another edition

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His short fiction is better sorry

wathykite's review against another edition

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challenging reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

caleb_tankersley's review against another edition

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2.0

On the sentence level, Private Citizens is impressive. Tony Tulathimutte is clearly a talented writer who'll win awards someday. And yet, I can't help feeling deeply dissatisfied with this novel. It was too much an intellectual exercise. I came away thinking "wow, Tulathimutte is really smart," but I didn't feel anything for the characters. The novel is lacking in emotional impact, which I assume is on purpose: you can't get too close to any of these characters without despising them. Looking down on them (and the types they represent) seems to be part of the point of the book, thus the intellectual exercise. But even as I type this, I realize what an easy set-up that is: Tulathimutte crafts exaggerated, overly negative, entitled millennials with almost no self-awareness who never learn from their mistakes. I think Tulathimutte imagined that laughing at or hating on these characters would be part of the fun, but it's too easy for the reader to get any real joy. Plus there's no emotional core to fall back on, so I end up seeing the novel as cynical and joyless, which seems to be the very attitudes Tulathimutte is critiquing his characters for expressing. I get that it's satire, that Tulathimutte is holding a mirror to us millennials. But is it illuminating anything we didn't already know about our worst selves? And can I get anything out of that as a message: "Hey, you and your generation can be self-absorbed assholes sometimes." Okay, sure, fine. Now tell me something new. Give me something to care about. It's hard to find anything to give a shit about in Private Citizens.

Am I wrong on this? Did I miss something? I got the distinct feeling that I was missing the joke or the point or some major piece of the project here that would make the reading more fulfilling and enjoyable. If you find that something I missed, please let me know.

Admittedly, I enjoyed some of the sentence-level work. I'll read Tony Tulathimutte's next book. But I don't think I'll touch Private Citizens again.

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