Customer Reviews

Waste

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

 

 

One of the most affecting experiences I've had. Buy this book. Buy many. Give them to friends. If it doesn't alter you, throw it in the garbage; it'll be okay, might actually be happy.

Incredibly precise & intense writing (think Gary Lutz but with more of a plot) yields a darkly satisfying tale of an oafish hi-rise janitor heading for a fall. Some have complained about the "necro" angle. Yes, that aspect is disturbing -- but used less for shock value than to drive home the point (in the ultimate terms) that we're all just "waste" in the end. Minor, but memorably grim (or poignant, depending on your mood.) And you'll never leave your shoes unattended beneath your cubicle desk again.

I was expecting more from WASTE. Often thin books pack the punch harder, getting to the meat of what lies underneath those everyday transactions, and those everyday people, that we pass through or pass by without much thought. Certainly WASTE has a good character for this. Sloper is a janitor with the social skills, or lack of them perhaps, that makes him invisible to so many of the rest of us. The story pushes things even more to the periphery. Lacking companionship, Sloper finds it where he can.

But it is so disjointed that we never really connect. We follow Sloper around rather than really get under his skin or experience his physical and existential isolation. Not a character that many would naturally project onto, the story required something to let us make that emotional connection that allows for a more appreciative reading. Given the companion that Sloper finds, a solid narrative could have developed based upon an exploration of Sloper's own feelings as projected onto his girl. We do not get it.

Maybe I mistook WASTE for something it was not meant to be. I personally am no fan of that stream-of-consciousness writing in which we do not really know if the words in front of us are an objective description of what is happening or a projection of the subjectivity of the character (though I would hope the latter, as the former would be very weak writing indeed). However, even given my distaste, the story here was too thin, too insubstantial, for me to recommend it.

Eugene Marten seems to have talent. He can write a scene and even some decent dialogue. Perhaps writing in a style that makes full use of such skills would allow for a better book. WASTE is (bad pun alert) a waste of this man's seeming talents.

It sounds like I'm not the only person who bought this book entirely because of the blurb on the back by Gordon Lish. From what I understand, Lish's own writing is godawful but he was editor of Raymond Carver,Amy Hempel, Gary Lutz and others, so the man at least has taste. For $10 I figured why not?

Having now read "Waste" I'm not surprised Lish likes the book, because it has aspare, clipped sort of language reminiscent of Carver - I liked the style of prose very much. The content though ... err, not so much. What you won't learn from the back cover of this book or any of the reviews is that necrophilia is a major plot point in "Waste." The book isn't particularly graphic, although Marten does describe the gradual decay of the corpse while it's still being used as a plaything by the disturbed anti-hero of the story. "Waste" made me a little ill and put me in a weird headspace for awhile after reading it.

Nice prose, but the lurid subject matter might turn some readers off and there's none of the emotional heft you'll find from Carver or Hempel.

I picked up this book because Gordon Lish blurbed it, and he seldom blurbs anything. It's a curious book, a good book, as if it came straight out of the school of Lish. It reads like a book Lish would have acquired 20 years ago when he was at Knopf -- a little dab of Stanley Crawford, a sprinkle of David Ohle, a splash of Raymond Kennedy, a hint of Thomas Glynn. Recommended for fine reading in the underground press. What's it about? It's about a janitor in a building full of corporate and law firms, and the merde they toss away, and other things.