Sunday, December 9, 2007

Apathy and other small victories

Pail Neilan's Apathy and Other Small Victories is the kind of book one loves to hate. A first-person narrative of a self-deprecating but narcissistic slacker, with no plot or character development to speak of: this is the type of book of which there are too many, all done poorly.

Except Neilan is hilarious. The book opens with a darkly humorous tone that is maintained consistently throughout the book, even when trying to wrap up the story through exposition (always a bad sign!) at the end. No mean feat.

It is difficult to describe this as a good book, but it is a quick and very enjoyable read. Easy to lend out, even to non-readers.

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