Book Reviews

For a long time, I assumed that if one's writing made it so far as to be accepted by a publisher and printed in a book, then the writing must be at least somewhat good...

I was wrong.

Sorrentino's book is easily the worst book I've ever read. Perhaps the stories appeal to people who are into what he writes, but frankly, I founding it quite boring from cover to cover. The stories are just meaningless with a "life sucks and we're all wretches” attitude. Why did I even read all of it? Well, it was used for a class I was taking in college. It was unavoidable. The worst part is that over a dozen copies of it were sold solely because it was required for that class. The instructor liked it (at least most of it, so he claims) and one other student (maybe – she may have just been defending it just so not everyone would hate the work), yet most found it agreeably awful. The defenders found it "real” and "brave.” I just found it dull and empty.

However, maybe that was the author's intention: to write a book everyone dislikes. The sad part is all the lost time, but some things are unavoidable. Anyway, my experience with Sorrentino's work is finished forever.