Customer Reviews

Warp: A Novel

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I'm not Lev Grossman and I liked the book. Actually I liked it a lot. It's sad and elegic and not very funny, but some of the scenes were honestly moving. Another thing was that the book had exactly the right length for what it was about. There's too many writers who fill too many pages with too little content. I'll definitely look out for more books by this guy. The episode with the punk girl sounded more like the author daydreaming though.

Absolute unadulterated puerile pap. For such a perilously sleight "novel," this spillage worthy of Onan reads like a much, much longer writing workshop exercise gone metastatically awry. Ill-conceived, poorly executed, and disaffectedly lame ... this is the sort of fiction only someone on the losing end of a bet should be subjected to.

The deluge of both five- and one-star reviews precludes any sober assessment of this novel.Kudos to the author for his moxie and his admission of sabotaging the amazon reviews. Unlike many commentators, I have read the book. I discovered a flimsy structure, cringingly-poor dialogue, and an adolescent-level understanding of intertext, its importance, its subtlety. As it was a first novel, he will no doubt seek to improve (though not for pedantic boors like myself)

Rarely have I read a book quite as puerile as this one. The author's masturbatory ramblings are as sophomoric as the novel's supposedly sophisticated subject-matter: a tragically hip slacker who wanders around the city of his past. Grossman articulates the self-indulgent ideation of every collegiate male who has read "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," romanticizing erotic and intellectual dorm-room epiphanies in a grotesque charade of introspection.

The point of this novel is (how original!) the pointlessness of the main character's life. He (named Hollis) peregrinates around Boston in a Harvardian gloom, thinking about Star Trek and His Life. Somone should tell Grossman that Faulkner did this 75 years ago, minus the fetishistic television references, which add nothing to anything. Postmodern ennui and mass culture overlay were finished by the time that Tama Janowitz hit the scene, so Grossman's utter derivativeness goes beyond the boring into the totally banal.

Hollis does nothing, and moans to himself about the inevitability of going "corporate." The problem with this sort of soft, rich-boy literature is that it is underwritten by a mindset that yearns to be in college again, forever. Maybe if the author got a job he would get some real material and not have to mull over his extended adolescence in order to wring out some moisture for his novel.

Although Warp's plot is a little thin, Lev's references to pop culture are amusing. He covered the Gen X waterfront pretty well. I would have liked to see him stretch himself a bit, though, perhaps with a reference to Nigel Molesworth instead of Terri Garr. And Lev, there are no women like Xanthe, OK?

I read this book in a half hour standing at a bookstore after reading an article on a web magazine where the author confided he wrote in positive reviews to his advertisement here at amazon.com to defend himself against the negative ones. That was enough to peak my interest. Unfortunately, the book didn't and I agree, sadly, with the criticism. I literally sped through the book-- the literary nod to Joyce didn't keep me interested and I love Joyce. In my opinion, this author should just live with his negative criticisms and work on making his next book worth the praise he wants.

"Warp" features none of the wry intelligence and humor on display in Grossman's Salon essay. Thie first draft of a novel is an aimless, shallow tale told without insight or humor. The characters are unmemorable, the plot is nonexistant, and the dialogue is painfully cliched. I am truly disappointed that I wasted an afternoon reading this drivel.

Not only did I not like this book but I resent the fact that I spent time reading it. I strongly suggest that this book remain unread.

I had the pleasure of reading Mr. Grossman's book BEFORE the flurry of email surrounding his hilarious Salon article. I only wish that I had written a stellar review of "Warp" earlier so that Mr. Grossman would have not felt the need to bolster his ratings with his own reviews. As an aimless twenty-something myself, I found Warp to be amusing and worth every second of my time. I look forward to the next installment from the mighty Mr. Grossman.

I found "Warp" to be unreadably trite. The main character is extremely self-absorbed and the narration suffers from the author's arch media references. The novel has no plot, its characterization is weak, and its general tone is facile and somewhat sophomoric. I do not strongly recommend this book.