Customer Reviews

The Year of Endless Sorrows: A Novel

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Do you remember the way the East Village in NYC used to be only a few short years ago - overrun by homeless, drug dealers and squatters, with the cental area, Tompkins Square Park, basically a war zone? That was before the property values of the entire neighborhood sky-rocketed, making "Rent" outdated even as it continued to play on Broadway. In "The Year of Endless Sorrows," which takes place in the early 90's, an unnamed midwesterner, in his early twenties, attempts to stake his claim by writing a semi-autobiographic novel (on a manual typewriter yet) after he moves to the East Village from the mid-west. He rooms in what seems to be a rent free unheated apartment, using a broken refrigerator to store his novel, with bizarre roomates which include his artistic younger brother, Feick, and two others nicknamed "The Owl" and "The Loach." He works for peanuts in a publishing house with, as you might expect, colleagues who may actually be odder than his roomates.

Basically "The Year of Endless Sorrows" describes our Midwesterner's travails and minor triumphs as he's surrounded by madness -- in his apartment and at work, with a full-fledged love story somehow worked in. Occasionally I wondered why he lived like he did, even given his low salary. Until the end of the book, Rapp's tone is comedic and sarcastic, sometimes to a fault. But, shockingly, the last few chapters pull the rug out from the reader and give us something very unexpected.

I could see some people not liking this book because Rapp, whether it be the comical first 350 pages of the book, or the tragic final 50 pages, writes in an overly snappy, bombastic and hyperealistic style which can be difficult to take at times. However, he generally presents the characters and situations so deftly, that I, for the most part, found the book to be irresistible, and I recommend it highly.

When he wants to be, Adam Rapp can also write in a quite literary manner. There's a lengthy letter that The Owl, while on a solo road-trip and deranged, sends to the main character towards the end of the book which is nothing short of brilliant. Why Rapp chose to end his novel the way he did is anybody's guess, but the impact is deeply felt.

In order for a novel to be deemed "good" in my eyes it must possess a strength in at least one area. Perhaps the writing is extremely strong while the plot is so-so. Or vice-versa; an exceptional plot and less than perfect writing. Even more pleasing is when success is achieved in both areas. Adam Rapp's The Year of Endless Sorrows fails to fall into any of those categories; neither the story itself or the actual prose reach out and grabs the reader (over four hundred pages of not being sucked in!).

Rapp tells the story of a young man starting out in New York City right after college; he must cope with eccentric roommates, a difficult job market, family struggles and dating dilemmas- all done many times before and done better.

It's not a difficult read by any means; much better than half of the New York Times Bestsellers, so you could do much worse than reading this novel. Then again, you could do much better...

I am 100 pages into this book and I'm not going to finish.

I cannot take the egregiously excessive use of similes and metaphors. Similes mostly. An average of FOUR per page. The classic example of a writer trying to show you how witty he is. Had the plot moved beyond description in the first 100 pages, I might have stuck with it. But I just found it too irritating to read.

I wasn't crazy about this book from the beginning, but I hung in there, hoping it would get better.

It didn't.

Rapp is so enamored with telling his "interesting" little side-notes and sharing his "insightful" musings of the East Village that he forgets that there should probably be a story in there somewhere. But this only sort of materializes in the last third of the book, and by then you don't care at all for his annoying, ridiculous characters.

A total letdown.

This novel is extraordinarily well written, no matter what you feel about the plot. The plot is nothing new, and that's why it's so great. This book shows real life from a hysterical perspective, written by an amazing author. It's even better if you're familiar with his other, very different, playwriting work.

Too long, too extraneous, too trying too hard, too boring, too pointless. It was torture trying to get through this. A waste of 430+ pages!

This tale of the mid-westerner moving to the east village in the early '90's and starting a novel has already been covered by Adam Rapp in his terrific play, Nocturne. In fact, this tale of twenty-somethings holed up in an east village apartment contemplating the meaning of life as they try and find their way has been covered by Adam Rapp an EXHAUSTIVE number of times. The Year of Endless Sorrows is the same ol' same ol' from Mr. Rapp! He is showing less and less in the way of imagination and more and more in the way of regurgitation. Though a fine writer this novel makes one wonder if he has anything at all to say.