Customer Reviews

Glorious Failure

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a recent college graduate desperately searching for a foothold on life, I immediately identified with "Glorious Failure." It chronicles the phase of adulthood that follows school and is a precursor to the obligatory "real world." The novel is full of contradictions and it incessantly asks questions that can't be answered. Some people might say this is irresponsible writing, but I would argue that it is extremely thought provoking material. It is full of the stuff that rambles through a young adult's head in the course of an average day. It is simultaneously cynical and hopeful, bleak and utopian. The narrative takes a back seat to heavy philosophical rambling for the most part, but it is philosophical rambling that you can sink your teeth into. Expect the angst ridden fury of a teenager paired with the world-weary cynicism of a seasoned veteran. Jonjak is a bold new voice with a strong first novel.

Life is an erratic thing, a dust cloud of ideas. We, the hapless humans, can do nothing except swirl around and try to find a foundation. It's hard, but we have time so we like to piece together little ideas until we have something that we feel is concrete. These little foundations become our culture and the majority of our ideology. Unfortunately, few of us recognize the frailties of our devices. To some it's even inconceivable that our nation can be flawed. Most people are led into the trap of having complete faith in something that's fragile and weak. But, once in a while, an extraordinary individual will come and in and shake our little precepts around a little bit, just to see what sticks. In this book the main character, Walter Pan, is one of these individuals. He is a person who questions, a person who is searching for the eternal. Glorious Failure tells us of his mission to find the truth and the consequences he faces when he encounters the blindly obedient. It is a quick, colorful commentary on how we sould approach life, ignore culture, and invariably succeed only by walking our own path.

In a way, Jonjak is a "glorious failure" himself. There is a lot to digest in the book, and some of it may be hard to swallow for a few. Jonjak pushes away the status quo and brings in a new scene. Parts are uncomfortable to read because several commonly held values of society are attacked. In other words, you may read it, you may feel uncomfortable, and you may criticize it, but you'll be thinking about it. No doubt, that was the intent of the author and, thus, worth the read.

Very rarely does an author come along with the ability to extract from the atmosphere and construct in words the essence of the malaise that binds an era. Rarer still is an author who manages to do this on his first attempt, and almost unheard of is an author who manages to get that work published. In the past, a novel as daring and uncompromising as "Glorious Failure" would not have been touched by a publisher with a ten-foot pole. However, we live in the era of print-on-demand publication, and the freedom provided by that medium has allowed for an influx of new and risky texts. "Glorious Failure" is the first example of this exciting new phenomenon.

Ben Jonjak's new novel is my choice for the best work of the year, and I shudder for the almost total lack of publicity it has received. The plot itself is unremarkable-a gifted young man is ostracized by his community-however, the plot is merely a device on which Jonjak hangs all manner of insightful digressions on topics ranging from religion, to relationships, to self-doubt. The importance of this work is contained not so much by its eloquence, but by its honesty. Jonjak is only 25 years old, and his reflections are so precise that they are virtually guaranteed to take any reader back to the angst they themselves felt at that age. It is a refreshing and liberating novel to read, and if you've enjoyed the work of Chuck Palahniuk, J. D. Salinger, or Bret Easton Ellis, this work is for you.

I am tempted to continue writing, but "Glorious Failure" is a novel that benefits from a lack of preconception. I have never read a novel that is so adaptable to the imagination of its readers, and every one of my friends I have shown this work to has a dramatically different, yet equally rewarding response. "Glorious Failure" pushes you rather than leads and allows you to choose the depth of your introspection. It retains an amazing coherence, yet it adapts to the imagination of its readers. It is an experience I highly recommend and one I assure you won't be soon forgotten.

Last night, the taxi driver arrived in a nondescript Buick Skylark with tinted windows. There were no meters or cb systems with which our "taxi driver" could communicate with his company. He also seemed unfamiliar with the area. He was a shady character, a man with greyish skin and a rotting scent of death which flitted about his transparent scalp. His brittle fingernails scraped against the dash board. I felt his hand brush against my leg as I tried to make a polite yet distracting conversation. The miles dragged on like life times. Each stop light would remain blood red for an eternity. Perhaps the taxi ride was in fact a thinly veiled disguise for a parade of torture? He was obviously in love with me. I can't say I blame him. He dropped me in front of my house, telling me the ride was "however much [I] want to pay." I gave him the last of my purse-- four measley dollars. However, it wasn't enough to appease the beast. "Is it OK if we talk?" "Sure" I said uneasily as the door was propped wide open against the sidewalk. His face showed the hopefulness of a child. "You don't have boyfriend?" "No!" I spit, ready to spring to my freedom. "Can I have hug?" he asked, the tears of anticipation welling in his blackened eyes. You're damned right I hugged that man. I squeezed him for all he was worth. As his curly oiled hairs brushed against my eyelids,the undying messages of Walter Pan in the new book, Glorious Failure, reverberated throughout each molecule in my body. It was a page turner, to say the least. Never before have I read such immensely intelligent ideas in such a thought provoking and unique set up. Mr. Ben Jonjak certainly is a genius, his quests to convey his frustration with contemporary american society have been conquered. I could only dream that the book wouldn't end so I'd never have to put it down. As our taxi driver sped off into the night, I realized I would never forget him. Not in a million years. And you, Mr. Ben Jonjak, your writing too will stay with just us as the dancing scents of a coconut air freshener and the organic smell of stale vomit within that fateful taxi have imbedded themselves permanently into the lining of our very clothing as well as into the depths of our souls. Thank you, Ben Jonjak.

The struggle between the old and the new defines the path of our evolution. The central figure of this book discovers the old generation does not easily yield to the new. Walter Pan replays the learnings of his experience and his genes and considers how to supplant existing knowledge and power with his new insights. Will his push on the barriers to change be the incremental force that tips the balance toward meaningful evolution toward a better human existence? This book can stimulate your thoughts as to how you might like to see your world changed and how you might best add your weight to the author's push for a better world.

I was very disappointed with this book. Judging by the positive reviews it received, I was very excited to order it and was expecting the next big underground discovery. Unfortunately, the text is poorly edited and the basic premise really is not very original.

Structure and synopsis: Each chapter is divided into three parts. The first portion is usually a short character study involving people that may or may not have anything to do with the plot. The second portion is italicized and is the main character speaking to us in a half-dream state. The third portion furthers the plot. Furthermore, the book is divided into three parts, each part having an introduction pontificating on the situations of three popular heroes--Icarus, Galahad, and Jesus. The actual plot only takes up about one hundred pages of the book, and involves the main character Walter Pan rejecting society and the punishment he receives from the authoritarian state in doing so.

Now we have to consider the book in two ways; the editing and the writing. First the easy target--the editing. Within the first twenty pages I was blown away by the amount of mistakes I was finding in the text, to the point where I started over with a pencil to mark them. By the end of the novel I found over 190 instances of incorrect punctuation (the biggest offender being the comma splice), incorrect usage of the apostrophe and contractions, and just plain wrong words. Here are the problem words I found: their/they're, its/it's, your/you're, too/to, then/than, lose/loose (a lot of that one), hole/whole, stripped/striped, aesthetic/ascetic, impetuous/impetus, matter/manner, was/were, scarifies/sacrifices, keep/kept, and the grand finale--but/butt (no lie, "butt" was a word used where "but" was needed). It became a game to find these, almost overshadowing the rest of the writing. How do these errors make into print?

Onto the writing. The plot and ideas are nothing new here, and my main problem is this: once we get the main point at the very beginning the tone and language never changes for the rest of the novel. There's nothing that hasn't been explored better in the other Authoritarian-State-Messes-With-The-Little-Guy books out there. As a matter of fact this one is a bit confusing. The society the story takes place within seems to be a variation on ours. It's a little different because everyone has to take the ASCAP standardized test to find out their career (though we never get to know what ASCAP stands for--in our world those are the initials for a music publishing business, so my mind was consistently drawn to that reference), and that's the way their life is to go. Walter Pan goes to the test wearing a Nirvana t-shirt from a recent performance, so apparently this is our society in present time slightly altered.
Obviously there are others who identified with the message the author puts forth, which is basically a diatribe on morality, loss of youth and innocence, movement into society, the quest for the eternal, and morality vs. the Real World. It's all set out for you in the prologue, and from then on blanket statements abound, there's a constant tone of accusation and anger, and the focus of it all remains a mystery until the middle of the book.....(wait for it)....the conformist masses! What bothered me most of all, though, was that even though the author really does a good job of coming up with all sorts of new scenarios and scenes to keep our interest the tone remains the same and so does the message. Regardless of who is addressing the reader or whatever scenario is being played out, it always sounds the same (which brings up another problem--perspective often changes in mid-paragraph, such as 3rd person to 2nd person and back). There is no variation in "voice", which over even a meager 185 pages becomes tiresome.

In closing, I suppose I'm a bit put off that I paid fifteen dollars for a book that reads like a college term project rough draft. We all have our opinions on the content, but the book needs a serious going over in the editing department.

I think I am too old to be a impartial reviewer of this book. First of all, I found the bad editing to be very distracting. There were a lot of grammatical and spelling errors that really put me off. However, I found the basic story rather intriguing. Walter Pan is a twenty-something citizen in an unspecified time and place. When he scores an almost perfect score on the ASCAP test used to evaluate all citizens for job placement, he refuses to play the game and walks out of the placement office. The powers that be then throw him into Tranquility, an asylum/prison for the non comforming. He is a Messianic figure for Gen Xers.
Jonjak belabors his points, and he does have some good ones, mightly, and endlessly. I wanted to shout "I GET IT, I GET IT!" many times.
The young and the old have always been at war, and I imagine it will be so forever. It's always hard to relinquish power to the next generation, and it's always fashionable to blame one's elders for the state of the world. And it's always easy to believe that your generation has the answers that will fix everything. The 60s peace and love Flower Children who were going to be different from their money grubbing folks, are now the entrepreneurial owners of the flower shops! And their kids are now the generation with all the answers.
This book is a howl of rage from Generation X. As a story it says little that other books have not said better and earlier--see "1984". There is some talent here, but it definitely needs refining. I hope he tries again.

"Glorious Failure" is an extreemly thought-provoking novel. It is, essentially, a critique on our current social system with tie-ins to how our current experience relates to the understanding of mankind's "unanswerable" or "eternal" questions. The thing that makes "Glorious Failure" unique is that it is written from the perspective of an extremely young man. This is a viewpoint that is often overlooked or tackled only by writers of advanced age looking for a little nostalgia. In a sense, the voice of the novel is reflective of that youthful fear and excitement. There is the hope that things could be changed for the better but the fear that we, as a society, lack the power to do it. Most importantly, the work rings true and I think anybody who gives this novel a read will find something in it that is worthwhile.

I am writing a second review of this novel because my first one seems to have dissapeared. "Glorious Failure" is a tremendous new novel by an obscure new author. The work has recieved almost no critical attention, but it is among the most compelling novels I have ever read. If you like J.D. Salinger, Chuck Palahnuik, Ken Keasy, or any novelist that tells a good story and makes you think at the same time, then this book is for you.