A review by allierice
The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker

I really wanted to enjoy this book. His writing style is relateable, clever and smart, and his observations are insightful without being self-conscious. I liked his little lessons about the constructs of poetry and how they are misunderstood or misused. And yet, I couldn't even bring myself to finish this book. Maybe it's because Paul Chowder is a procrastinator in the extreme and it started to grate on me. The harsh truth: I didn't have to get very far into the book to understand why his girlfriend moved out. The entire book is one giant aside.

In many of my favorite books, the narrator takes various meandering journeys to discuss various details or observations or bits of trivia, and then he or she returns to the plot. In this book, I never felt that return; perhaps that's because the plot itself is a representation of Chowder's constantly distracted mind.