Customer Reviews

Our Noise

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

I bought this book because it is full of all the things I enjoyed reading about in my post-college wastoid time before I got a real job and became a Productive Member of Society (the horror!) and I was severely disappointed. I mean, really, how can a book chock full of dead-end jobs, sleazy apartments, mind altering substances, and alternative lifestyles possibly be bad? Let me count the ways.

1--poor writing! This is Jeff Gomez' first novel and I've never written a novel, so I will cut him a little slack here, but this was poorly written. It had it's moments or I wouldn't have finished the whole thing, and it's fairly aparent that Mr. Gomez has talent, but he should have thrown this in a drawer for a couple of years, come back and re-edited later, and then re-edited again before deeming it fit for publishing. There's nothing I hate more than when an author insults the readers' intelligence by explaining in great detail the already obvious irony of a situation.

2--characters I don't care about! I honestly didn't care what happened to any of them, and would have laughed had they all died in a horrific environmental disaster. Like I said before, this book had it's moments, and it was only because of them that I could muster enough interest to continue reading.

3--cliches! cliches! cliches! Alright, I'll admit, any book about dead-end jobs, sleazy apartments, mind altering substances, and alternative lifestyles is almost positive to be a cliche, so what was I expecting?

The only reason I can see to read this book is if you are interested in reading "Bottlecap," the sequel, which, although flawed, is leaps and bounds better than "Our Noise." But, hey, Vonnegut's early work wasn't the best, either.

If this book was a film it would be Ted Demmes Beautiful Girls. Utterly pointless, dull at first, but leaves you feeling somewhat content, mildly depressed and joyfull that your life is surely better than the lifes that Gomez intellegently writes about. Each character has some pecadilos that we can all identify with, and more worryingly they are the people we would of been had we not made certain good/bad life decisions. It made me think about my own current situation, and any book that can do that is well worth reading. Gomez has a talent for observing peoples actions and thoughts and more importantly writting them down in a coherant way. This book has no real plot, just reflections on current situations that we all come across. It stays away from the Gen-X sterotype as much as book of this nature can, and although some may accuse it of being a Gen-X hang on, I think they just missed the point by a mile. Oh yea, Mr Gomez has kick-ass music tastes.

Like many people who picked up this book and purchased it, I was excited to read it. I expected something really good, something exciting; the back made it sound so interesting! And when I started reading it, I still believed it'd be okay, even though I was turned off by the use of present tense in the writing. As I kept reading, my insistence to my friends that it was a good book weakened and by the time I was halfway through, I was complaining every time I picked it up about how awful it was, and why.

The biggest fault is probably the writing. Granted, it was a first novel, but the writing was equivalent to walking into any role play forum and picking something out to read. It was over-detailed (there's an entire long paragraph dedicated to the description of a fat man that enters a store and then leaves; he has no interaction with the story whatsoever and is never seen again). And something that really got on my nerves was the long winded descriptions of things like smoking pot, being a waiter, being drunk and what it feels like to drink alcohol, and pages upon pages of talk about bands and their music. These descriptions are typical of two motivators, and two alone: either the person didn't know what they were talking about and wanted to sound like they did, or they wanted to show off what they knew.

Again, it's something typical of a role play forum.

Sadly enough, for the most part of the story I did enjoy the actual story. I thought the dead end jobs and what not were interesting, but then it got to the end and it basically became everyone was sleeping with everyone, and no one was happy with the person they were with and it made me angry that the book seemed to be saying that the person you're with sucks and you need to go and cheat on them to be happy.

Let's not forget the book's final line, and it humorously reminds me of the reaction a friend of mine had to Toy Story 3: " 'Ever one of us wants to be some sort of star', Eileen thinks, 'but instead we're just ending up satellites that don't call home.' "

If you're expecting an interestingly written, feel good tale, go look somewhere else. And if you're looking for a good doorstop, or something to keep that slippery window from falling down when you want the breeze to roll in, pick up this book.

Even though this book is set in 1993 (and came out in 1995), it still made a lot of sense to me and reflected what's happening in my own life. I'm a lot like this book's characters--just got out of college, should probably find a career--and I could really see my own life in almost every one of these pages. There's lots of music references, and I think that's put a few people off, but I didn't mind it...I thought it made the characters seem real--to be listening to actual music. The book's best feature is that it's funny. More than once I copied down a funny line and sent it to a friend. I liked this book and recommend it to anyone who likes Generation X fiction.

This is the first book that i have ever read that accurately captures the mood of my generation, namely the indie rock subculture. I liked that I could relate to just about everything that each of the characters went through... I could probably name someone I know that mirrors each of the characters, and at the same time, I see bits myself in each of them. I stumbled upon this book at a great time, as I am a recent art school grad living in a small town with no job! OUR NOISE gave me the opportunity to read about kids in my same situation. And I really enjoyed all of the music references...it made it all the more realistic. Basically, years from now, i can show this book to my kids (or someone else's!!) and say, "this is what it was like when i was 24!" This book hit home.

Unfortunately the topics approached in the book are things that I have in common in my life. I have been a musician, an owner and producer of a very independent record label, employee of a record store, and a fan. The only one of those subjects Jeff Gomez seems to have in common is the fan. Every perspective of his writing is from the view of a fan who has never even remotely lived the experience, but only thinks he relates because he likes a bands songs. If he had written a book about being a a very excited fan I would have been more interested. The only characters that seem even slightly tolerable are the two guys trying to start a zine, probably because that's the only thing in the book Gomez has any experience at.

The whole experience was like witnessing a train wreck, I wanted to stop but I just couldn't look away.

Definitely one of the worst novels I've ever read, and believe me, I'm usually not this critical. "Our Noise" was obviously meant to cash in on the Generation X trend of the early nineties. In any other circumstance it would have no place being published. There basically is no story, no interesting characters, no writing skill, and no point. The characters are just there to fit every indie cliche - the local band, the fanzine maker, the record label guy, etc. etc. And yes, surprise, they are all angsty about their small town existence and mainstream culture in general. I get the feeling that Jeff Gomez wrote this book for no other reason than for an opportunity to namedrop all his favorite (semi-obscure) bands and labels to prove his indie cred. Sad.

I too fail to understand criticism of this book. There is no truer or more accurate presentation of the mores, values and thoughts of what has come to be known as "generation x" but which was called by its members twentynothings. it seems to bother the critical most that the characters are lazy and self-absorbed. well we are. His most valuable insight is that there is no link between effort and reward. you can try your best and in the end it might not mean anything at all. this is true and people who don't like this uncomfortable truth should probably stick with books like Lassie, where poor Bobby is always rescued from the well he stupidly fell into. Or any book where a spunky and determined boy makes good. in real life, as in this book, it ain't that simple and Gomez should be applauded for pointing this out. anyway i have noticed that people who don't like the book seemingly had no trouble finishing it anyway. that says all you need to know.

I barely made it through the first chapter of this book a year or so ago, noticing the same things everyone else has (shallowest characters ever, needless posturing). Then I forgot all about it. However, I recently picked it up again 'cause it was there. The first thing I realized is that there were way too many lame people to keep track of. If Gomez would have chosen to dedicate some character development to four or five people instead of spreading himself too thin, then maybe I would have found these people more intriguing. In his defense, I did read the whole thing. And there were the rare occasional cultural references that clicked; unfortunately, they were overshadowed by the multitude of lame ones. It's sort of sad that the only thing I come away with after reading this novel is that you don't have to be a genius writer to land a book deal. I guess that's not a terrible lesson to learn. I won't be buying the sequel.

Found this book the other day, and I really loved it. Some of the references are dated, but the core of the story still rings true: post college, finding one's way in love and life, etc. I liked it a lot. There's a sequel, too, but I haven't read that one yet.