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kmerms's review against another edition
funny
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
youarenotthewalrus's review against another edition
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
jessicaacurry's review against another edition
challenging
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
cschwarz's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
fbroom's review against another edition
5.0
This book is a gem seriously. It follows the stream of consciousness of a young worker in some office job. It spans his lunch hour. His thoughts cover tying shoelaces, going to the restroom and complaining about the air dryer, getting lunch, going inside CVS and complaining about several things there and so on. Even though it is a short book, It was hard for me to get through it and I probably need to read it a second time since I’m pretty sure I missed a lot.
Quotes:
"I was just on the point of relaxing into a state of urination when two things happened. Don Vanci swept into position two urinals over from me, and then, a moment later, Les Guster turned off his tap. In the sudden quiet you could hear a wide variety of sounds coming from the stalls: long, dejected, exhausted sighs; manipulations of toilet paper; newspapers folded and batted into place; and of course the utterly carefree noise of the main activity: mind-boggling pressurized spatterings followed by sudden urgent farts that sounded like air blown over the mouth of a beer bottle.1 The problem for me, a familiar problem, was that in this relative silence Don Vanci would hear the exact moment I began to urinate. More important, the fact that I had not yet begun to urinate was known to him as well." From The Mezzanine
Quotes:
"I was just on the point of relaxing into a state of urination when two things happened. Don Vanci swept into position two urinals over from me, and then, a moment later, Les Guster turned off his tap. In the sudden quiet you could hear a wide variety of sounds coming from the stalls: long, dejected, exhausted sighs; manipulations of toilet paper; newspapers folded and batted into place; and of course the utterly carefree noise of the main activity: mind-boggling pressurized spatterings followed by sudden urgent farts that sounded like air blown over the mouth of a beer bottle.1 The problem for me, a familiar problem, was that in this relative silence Don Vanci would hear the exact moment I began to urinate. More important, the fact that I had not yet begun to urinate was known to him as well." From The Mezzanine
djbobthegirl's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
funny
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
lulo49's review against another edition
4.0
This was an odd one. I tend to most enjoy dialogue- and action-driven plots over detailed descriptions of locations and other sometimes (for me) distracting detail, such as a character's continual rumination of their thoughts and feelings. So the first few short chapters of this book did not appeal to me -- a broken shoe lace, then withn a day or two a second broken shoe lace, and what had been the cause of these almost simultaneous events? Was it the angle, the friction, the tying method, the fabric, whether there was unequal tension in the tying, etc. And I thought - where is this going? And the answer is - nowhere.
Yet something about this book intrigued me, especially when I got the rhythm of clicking on the several footnotes in each chapter (all numbered 1, which at first I thought was a publication error) for forther elaboration of the thought processes involved. And I became hooked. Still not certain why, but as the non-plot moved along from the shoelaces to other mundane items and process I became more interested. By the end of the book I was delighted with the thoughts and considerations of the narrator and was sad to see it end. Go figure.
Yet something about this book intrigued me, especially when I got the rhythm of clicking on the several footnotes in each chapter (all numbered 1, which at first I thought was a publication error) for forther elaboration of the thought processes involved. And I became hooked. Still not certain why, but as the non-plot moved along from the shoelaces to other mundane items and process I became more interested. By the end of the book I was delighted with the thoughts and considerations of the narrator and was sad to see it end. Go figure.