Customer Reviews

Random Lingering in Isla Vista

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Yes it is true
I have been to rowdy college parties!!!!
It is true this is very Hunter Thompsonesque
Fear and Loathing on the Central Coast.
The writing style is kinda hard to comprehend at first
But, you get used to it
I liked the part how every house in IV has a name
The Boathouse
The Bob Marley House
The JunkYard
I had forgotten all about that...
I wonder how Mr. Knox's liver is doing these days?
Seems like he liked them pills
I 2 wish it had more on IV
Maybe for his sequel...

This book should be a must read for UCSB incoming freshman
This book should be on every former Isla Vistan's bookshelf
Even if it's just to show your friends someone actually wrote a book about living in Isla Vista!!
I hope this is the 1st of many from J.M. Knox...

After the first page you can't put it down. He commands the narrative and gives the reader new eyes. If you thirst for brilliance than this is your book.

Having gone to school at UCSB and having lived in Isla Vista, I felt this book really summed it all up. Mike Knox recreates the madness, excitment and blissful confusion that one might encounter while living in Isla Vista. Writing in the style of a Hunter S., David Sedaris and E. Hemingway, he is the next great American Counter-Culture writer.

This is the first time someone actaully sat down and wrote about Isla Vista. After reading this book I got chills and had to slam some beers. Amazing!

As a recent graduate of UCSB and a four-year resident of Isla Vista, I figured I had no choice but to check this book out. Wow, what a dissappointment! First of all, it's filled with typos. The author should learn the basics of punctuation before trying to tackle another book. Secondly, the narrative contradicts itself constantly (maybe no one - not even the writer himself - could bear to give it a read-through before printing). Lastly, it's just plain terrible story-telling. The book is not funny, interesting, believable, or unbelievable enough to be interesting. It reads like exactly what it is: a college-aged guy trying to sound like a drug-addled wild man. He's no Hunter S. Thompson (which is clearly who he, like most college guys who write, is aiming for). This book is good for a laugh, as some of it is so bad as to be amusing; but if you want to know what life in IV is like, take a trip there yourself, you definitely won't find it here. Terrible.

I must say I was thoroughly disappointed with "Random Lingering in Isla Vista." In the first place, the typos and other mistakes were annoying to the point of making the reader notice them thus detracting from the narrative. There's a reason why major publishing houses have editors and Knox should at least have had a friend (an English major, maybe)review his MS before he self-published it. I couldn't believe the continuity problem that popped up in the first few pages. His character complains about a cop being surprised at finding a bong in an Isla Vista apartment, only the scene wasn't taking place in Isla Vista, his character was in an apartment in San Luis Obispo. It only gets worse from there. Knox is no more than a Hunter S. Thompson wannabe, and his character ingests an unrealistic amount and variety of mind altering substances. He then goes on to have unpleasant experiences. Ho hum. The book doesn't say much at all about Isla Vista and less than half the story takes place there, so the title is misleading. He blasts the university education he's getting without backing it up with examples or explanations. His drug-addled ramblings provide no insight to anything but maybe my mind is too sober to understand. And, in what must be some inside joke, though there is a donkey on the cover, I don't remember any donkey in the story except for a mention in his facetious "about the author." If you're looking for an interesting inside look at a famous (some would say infamous) student community, this is not it.

I loved this book! Too funny for words. Can we hope for a sequel?

No way! I totally remember this dude doing stand up comedy for some random band on Del Playa! He had some crazy poems and would pass out drunk after screaming at people slamming beers at the Halfway House. I'm glad to see he put his IV days to good use. This book makes me wonder how I ever got out of Isla Vista without catching the Ebola virus. This book is all about IV.

I don't know about the comparisons with Hunter S. or Mary Chase...I was thinking more on the lines of a cross between Doug Latimer and Chris Hogenesch. It was a cleverly written piece with a dark undertone that has a lot of potential. I hope to read more from this author in the near future.

I've never reviewed a book before but as soon as I finished this, I had to make sure other people read this hilarious book. The author should be a comedian, but if that meant he didn't write any more books then I guess it's for the best he remains an author. All I can say is try it, you'll love it.