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dantastic's review against another edition
4.0
You're forty and work a dead end job. You've tried giving your life meaning through possessions and failed. Your wife is having an affair with the neighbor and thinks you don't know. When Death shows up at your door with a job to do, what other choice do you have?
I first encountered Kirk Jones through the New Bizarro author series years ago, with [b:Uncle Sam’s Carnival of Copulating Inanimals|9557216|Uncle Sam’s Carnival of Copulating Inanimals|Kirk Jones|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1288120713s/9557216.jpg|14443812], and then years later with [b:Journey to Abortosphere|21936317|Journey to Abortosphere|Kirk Jones|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1397614344s/21936317.jpg|41238336]. The thing that sets his writing apart from other Bizarro fiction is that his stories always have a underlying logic no matter how demented things are on the surface. When he hit me up to read Die Empty, I was up for another run.
Die Empty is the story of one man's journey into middle age and the deal he made with Death. Told using a second person point of view, there's an odd intimacy to the tale. It's at once funny and depressing. Actually, the main character reminds me of the main character from Fight Club, only without all the macho bullshit going on.
Entering your forties sucks. You're not old yet but you're not young anymore. Die Empty captures this nicely. Lance, the main character, works a dead end job, lusts after every woman except his drunk wife, and basically coasts along. He hates his neighbor and not just because of the affair he's having with his wife. When Death shows up, Lance doesn't really have anything better to do but help Death claim some lives through shitty products in exchange for forty more years of life.
I'm not really selling this right but it's a hard book to quantify. Once I started reading it, that was pretty much it. There's humor, sadness, some time paradoxes, and even some lessons to be learned. I'm docking a fraction of a star because the Masters of the Universe action figures' name was Tri-Klops, not Cyclops.
Die Empty is a thought-provoking read, to say the least. It's not for everyone but if you're looking for something off the beaten path, this is it. Four out of five stars, adjusted for Tri-Klops.
I first encountered Kirk Jones through the New Bizarro author series years ago, with [b:Uncle Sam’s Carnival of Copulating Inanimals|9557216|Uncle Sam’s Carnival of Copulating Inanimals|Kirk Jones|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1288120713s/9557216.jpg|14443812], and then years later with [b:Journey to Abortosphere|21936317|Journey to Abortosphere|Kirk Jones|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1397614344s/21936317.jpg|41238336]. The thing that sets his writing apart from other Bizarro fiction is that his stories always have a underlying logic no matter how demented things are on the surface. When he hit me up to read Die Empty, I was up for another run.
Die Empty is the story of one man's journey into middle age and the deal he made with Death. Told using a second person point of view, there's an odd intimacy to the tale. It's at once funny and depressing. Actually, the main character reminds me of the main character from Fight Club, only without all the macho bullshit going on.
Entering your forties sucks. You're not old yet but you're not young anymore. Die Empty captures this nicely. Lance, the main character, works a dead end job, lusts after every woman except his drunk wife, and basically coasts along. He hates his neighbor and not just because of the affair he's having with his wife. When Death shows up, Lance doesn't really have anything better to do but help Death claim some lives through shitty products in exchange for forty more years of life.
I'm not really selling this right but it's a hard book to quantify. Once I started reading it, that was pretty much it. There's humor, sadness, some time paradoxes, and even some lessons to be learned. I'm docking a fraction of a star because the Masters of the Universe action figures' name was Tri-Klops, not Cyclops.
Die Empty is a thought-provoking read, to say the least. It's not for everyone but if you're looking for something off the beaten path, this is it. Four out of five stars, adjusted for Tri-Klops.
mrfrank's review against another edition
5.0
I'm left fulfilled after reading DIE EMPTY. What should have been a sort of depressing read was actually quite uplifting in an odd way. Kirk Jones seemed to lay it all on the line in this one and came up aces.
The story to DIE EMPTY is riveting and should be relatable to most anyone who has lived and loved and lost. But where this book REALLY shines is in its execution of the 2nd person perpective. Anytime a writer is able to pull that off and do it as well as it was done in this book, the result is breathtaking.
DIE EMPTY rang with the spirit of a Chad Kultgen novel. But Kirk Jones makes it all his by being a bit less crass and pouring in a lot more heart. Don't die until you read DIE EMPTY.
The story to DIE EMPTY is riveting and should be relatable to most anyone who has lived and loved and lost. But where this book REALLY shines is in its execution of the 2nd person perpective. Anytime a writer is able to pull that off and do it as well as it was done in this book, the result is breathtaking.
DIE EMPTY rang with the spirit of a Chad Kultgen novel. But Kirk Jones makes it all his by being a bit less crass and pouring in a lot more heart. Don't die until you read DIE EMPTY.
jasminenoack's review against another edition
5.0
So many years ago I made some large life changes and I happened to lose my goodreads password(not a life change just a thing that happened). Trust me it was better that way you likely didn't want to hear about all the programming books I was reading. You might have liked to hear about the romance books I was reading (Christina Lauren is highly recommended if you have having a bad day).
Well I reset my password I don't know like a week ago and I checked my messages because why wouldn't I. I mean it was mostly spam. Goodreads announcing events and authors I'd never heard of. But one message was from Kirk Jones 3 years ago offering me a reviewers copy of this book (thanks for thinking of me). I of course had not ever responded because I wasn't checking goodreads, but I thought Die Empty, yeah I could be on board for that. And I went on Amazon and bought a copy immediately (for what it's worth I'm not really a great candidate for review copies anymore because I build cap table management software, but I still want to read all the books, also a 3 year delay is unforgivable, oops).
So on the book? What does it mean to die empty? Before I started the book I had a few ideas:
* nihilism you die feeling empty
* buddhism you die empty of desires
* no lunch, you die hungry
This book started in a weird place it started at the accumulation of things. That if you could buy everything you could die free of desire. Which I was initially confused by. Maybe money can buy happiness and I just haven't bought enough things. Maybe I can learn from Lance and just buy all the things.
As a side note this book is written in the second person which is extremely disorienting.
As we find that Lance unfortunately is not dying empty because he has achieved all his dreams and has a perfect life, but he is actually possibly a little suicidal it turns out that you cannot buy happiness. Shocker.
Lance is offered a deal which he expects to give him meaning and make him want to be alive again... you know how that happens sometimes.
This is a book for those people that go through life with an undercurrent of suicidal tendencies. The people who death can see because their desire to die makes them shine a little brighter. The ones who think about it, but can't work up the desire to actually do anything about it. People who would prefer to be dead, but aren't willing to push themselves in front of the train.
I have no idea if a fundamentally happy person would like this book. Can someone happy read it and let me know?
I would like to say that my favorite this about Lance is the Rube Goldbergesque attempts to end himself and those around him. An attempt to have someone die "accidentally" so he is not at fault, but he has made all the choices that lead up to it.
** this is a spoiler that you should not click if you have not read the book. It won't make sense
Also, I don't have a good enough suspension of disbelief to believe the kid is his, no matter who says it is.
I plan to go put this book in a little library to inflict it on an unsuspecting random neighbor. This makes me feel happy.
Well I reset my password I don't know like a week ago and I checked my messages because why wouldn't I. I mean it was mostly spam. Goodreads announcing events and authors I'd never heard of. But one message was from Kirk Jones 3 years ago offering me a reviewers copy of this book (thanks for thinking of me). I of course had not ever responded because I wasn't checking goodreads, but I thought Die Empty, yeah I could be on board for that. And I went on Amazon and bought a copy immediately (for what it's worth I'm not really a great candidate for review copies anymore because I build cap table management software, but I still want to read all the books, also a 3 year delay is unforgivable, oops).
So on the book? What does it mean to die empty? Before I started the book I had a few ideas:
* nihilism you die feeling empty
* buddhism you die empty of desires
* no lunch, you die hungry
This book started in a weird place it started at the accumulation of things. That if you could buy everything you could die free of desire. Which I was initially confused by. Maybe money can buy happiness and I just haven't bought enough things. Maybe I can learn from Lance and just buy all the things.
As a side note this book is written in the second person which is extremely disorienting.
As we find that Lance unfortunately is not dying empty because he has achieved all his dreams and has a perfect life, but he is actually possibly a little suicidal it turns out that you cannot buy happiness. Shocker.
Lance is offered a deal which he expects to give him meaning and make him want to be alive again... you know how that happens sometimes.
This is a book for those people that go through life with an undercurrent of suicidal tendencies. The people who death can see because their desire to die makes them shine a little brighter. The ones who think about it, but can't work up the desire to actually do anything about it. People who would prefer to be dead, but aren't willing to push themselves in front of the train.
I have no idea if a fundamentally happy person would like this book. Can someone happy read it and let me know?
Spoiler
I would like to say that my favorite this about Lance is the Rube Goldbergesque attempts to end himself and those around him. An attempt to have someone die "accidentally" so he is not at fault, but he has made all the choices that lead up to it.
** this is a spoiler that you should not click if you have not read the book. It won't make sense
Spoiler
Also, I don't have a good enough suspension of disbelief to believe the kid is his, no matter who says it is.
I plan to go put this book in a little library to inflict it on an unsuspecting random neighbor. This makes me feel happy.
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