Scan barcode
chillcox15's review against another edition
4.0
As befitting a true 'experimentalist,' not every piece in this collection by Cohen totally worked for me, but the ones that did really worked it. Emission, the first piece, is an effective exploration into a familiar narrative of toxic masculinity, that of the man who has deluded himself into believing himself at least average/passable, until the truth of his past comes out and he reacts perhaps predictably. By telling this story from the inside out, Cohen does something amazing, balancing an indictment of his character while still working to understand and translate that understanding. "The College Borough" also revolves around a college environment, and is pretty amazing. The final piece took a while to get settled for me, and "McDonald's" didn't really work for me at all.
kaylielongley's review against another edition
2.0
Joshua Cohen is a good writer, but Four New Messages isn't particularly moving or exciting. Sliced into four sections, each story acts like metafiction. Pages are filled with seemingly stream-of-conscious rants about the Internet Age and how it has radically shaped humanity. Perhaps I've read too much nonfiction (and fiction!) on the subject, but these messages are nothing new, as the title suggests. Each story simultaneously feels like an ode to traditional writing while disregarding and shaming modern mediums. Rounding up, there are only 200 pages to read, so there’s minimal time to make connections with the characters. Though the third story, “The College Borough” will haunt me, it is the provocative final story, “Sent” that truly angered me and knocked my rating to two stars. Cleverness sells, but it doesn't inspire. Sorry, Cohen.
jvillanueva8's review against another edition
2.0
Parts of this book were nearly unreadable. I enjoyed The College Borough, tolerated Emission and Sent, and hated McDonald’s. The whole collection felt not only like a desperate plea for relevance, and a bit like the author was one editor’s comment away from replacing full sections with the words “I am brilliant!” over and over. I need to stop reading collections by white guys who seem to think that run-on sentences and snide references to women and brown people make them “edgy” and, therefore, admirable.
atschakfoert's review against another edition
2.0
I couldn't get past the first story. It felt like Cohen was trying too hard to be controversial. He failed at any rate.
hogwash1's review against another edition
1.0
https://www.google.com/search?q=crap+definition&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
zachkuhn's review
5.0
Wow, this one bowled me over.
Like Faulkner wanted, this is a text that teaches you how to read it.
So damn good, but not an easy read.
Like Faulkner wanted, this is a text that teaches you how to read it.
So damn good, but not an easy read.
hcq's review
1.0
Wow, I can't believe I finished this--what a bore.
The first story (hapless drug dealer is screwed by story on Internet) had a good idea as a kernel, but it was way too long and diffuse. The second was also too long, but had a decent ending. The last two were simply terrible.
I read this on the basis of a favorable review from Rachel Kushner, in the NYTimes. Note to self: Her taste is opposite mine. If she dislikes something, I might like it.
I honestly thought she was joking with this line: "In his latest book, “Four New Messages,” Joshua Cohen takes on the experiential properties of the 'online' modality, its textures and tautologies, its effects on language and thus on humans and meaning," because, really, who takes that sort of twaddle seriously? But the joke's on me, because she wasn't kidding. Blurgh.
The first story (hapless drug dealer is screwed by story on Internet) had a good idea as a kernel, but it was way too long and diffuse. The second was also too long, but had a decent ending. The last two were simply terrible.
I read this on the basis of a favorable review from Rachel Kushner, in the NYTimes. Note to self: Her taste is opposite mine. If she dislikes something, I might like it.
I honestly thought she was joking with this line: "In his latest book, “Four New Messages,” Joshua Cohen takes on the experiential properties of the 'online' modality, its textures and tautologies, its effects on language and thus on humans and meaning," because, really, who takes that sort of twaddle seriously? But the joke's on me, because she wasn't kidding. Blurgh.
More...