Eeeee Eee Eeee (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Poet and blogger Lin's debut novel uneasily documents the life of Andrew, a recent college graduate working at Domino's Pizza while over-analyzing every aspect of his life: past, present and futureless. He drives through the suburbs reminiscing about college life in New York and his ex-girlfriend, stopping occasionally to express his boredom to his best friend Steve. When at one point, Andrew states that he wants to "wreak complex and profound havoc" upon capitalist establishments such as McDonald's, it feels like Lin is attempting the same kind of attack on organized art. The novel, while short on plot, makes abrupt shifts in setting and point of view, and is pierced throughout by celebrity cameos and surreal touches: bears, dolphins (who say "Eeeee Eee Eeee" to express emotion, in spite of their ability to speak like humans), Salman Rushdie, and the president make grandiose declarations that are heavily saturated with the same sardonic wit displayed by Andrew and his friends. The novel dips dangerously into metafiction, with Andrew in the middle of "writing a book of stories about people who are doomed." The characters' repetitive thoughts and conversations become strangely hypnotic, however, and Lin's sympathetic fascination with the meaning of life is full of profound and often hilarious insights.
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Product Description

"Tao Lin writes from moods that less radical writers would let pass — from laziness, from vacancy, from boredom. And it turns out that his report from these places is moving and necessary, not to mention frequently hilarious."—Miranda July

Tao Lin’s book blog, reader-of-depressing-books.blogspot.com, has made him one of the most talked-about young writers on the scene today. His commentaries taking mainstream writers to task and calling for the death of commercial writing have generated nonstop discussion and made him the subject of innumerable profiles on leading cultural websites, from McSweeney’s to Bookslut to Gawker and on. Meanwhile, his fiction appears regularly in the ’zines and websites defining the new culture.

Lin meets and surpasses all expectations in a debut novel set in the bizarre alternative reality of today’s youth culture. EEEEE EEE EEEE is a pleasingly sophisticated work, an unself-conscious yet commanding tour de force about the search for meaning in a culture gone mad with celebrities and advertising.

Depicting a group of friends transitioning between school and adulthood, Lin’s prose is strikingly stylish, funny, and lyrical, as he reminds us that youth is still—refreshingly—a time of deep questioning, poignant realization, fun, and hope. It is a place where animals talk, books and music matter, honesty counts, and you can ask, without fear of embarrassment, “What’s a Jhumpa Lahiri?”

It is a sparkling, joyous debut.

Tao Lin, also author of the story collection Bed, lives in New York City.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 211 pages
• Publisher: Melville House (April 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933633255
• ISBN-13: 978-1933633251
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #21,322 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book about dominos pizza ever written., November 21, 2007

By	Aziraphael (Silver Spring, Maryland United States) - See all my reviews

"Sometimes when dolphins went to playgrounds alone they did the monkeybars and went to the swings and on the swings thought, "I hate this stupid world."

They thought, "I hate it."

They cried a little with the wind against their face.
They felt so bad that they went away.

And found Elijah Wood and told Elijah Wood to go with them and Elijah Wood went--because he thought it was a movie. Elijah Wood and other celebrities like Salman Rushdie rode dolphins in rivers. Salman Rushdie felt proud and famous. And the dolphins swam to islands and beat Elijah Wood and the other famous people with heavy branches. They cried when they murdered human beings, and it was terrible.

One dolphin had a battle axe and killed Wong Kar-Wai."

That's an excerpt from Tao Lin's new book Eeeee Eee Eeee. I'm pretty sure the book doesn't mean anything which is why you should read it. It's about post-ironic boredom and laziness and saying things like "I don't know how to have fun" all the time.

If you care the book is kind of like if Holden Caulfield wrote an autobiography in the middle of a Hunter S. Thompson freakout. It is very "Kafka-esque" which is a phrase that annoys the hell out of my friend Rachel, and rightfully so because it's a dumb thing to say.

Go pick it up and read it and hate it (probably), but read it. It will change nothing about you but it will make you think about bears teleporting and throwing blankets on top of moose(s), which is so much better than most things.

37 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tao Lin's best, April 14, 2007

By	P. K. Almond "a mother" (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews

Although Tao Lin has been consecutively strong in all of his books so far, I think EEEEE EEE EEEE is his best. The book not only confronts the indifference of the universe but sarcastically laughs in its face. The book has a lot of dolphins and bears trying to cope with life's disappointments such as Jhumpa Lahiri, Elijah Wood, and the DaVinci Code. The DaVinci Code isn't actually mentioned in the books as the other things are but if it were a moose would probably look at it and then scream in agony before running in front of a subway train. I recommend this book for all ages. I first read it with my kids and they both liked it and often beg for me to read chapters of it to them before they go to sleep.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing, May 9, 2008

By	Katey "reader" (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews

I bought this book because of the title. Little did I know that it would turn out to be the best book I've read in a very long time. I have a hard time considering it a piece of prose. It is pure poetry. Tao Lin is my new favorite writer.