Waste (Paperback)

~ Eugene Marten (Author)
Key Phrases: wheelchair beeped, copier rooms, trash room, The Client Manager (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

A spare and chilling account of the day-to-day experience of Sloper, a janitor in a big-city office building. Waste explores the import of the discarded--for those who generate it, those who dispose of it, and those who are themselves discarded From the humble prospect of his station, Sloper uncovers ominous possibility in lives he barely brushes, allowing Marten in this "stark little masterpiece" to recover language, story and terror from the banality of a throw-away world. Praise for Waste: "Only Eugene Marten can keep a reader enthralled with the minutiae of a janitorial existence. From the most unlikely of subjects Marten constructs, with great care and taking joy in every sentence, a spellbinding work. Precisely and exquisitely detailed, Waste is a stark little masterpiece." ¿Brian Evenson "There is nothing quite like the controlled burn of Eugene Marten's prose. Waste is an exhilarating and unnerving piece of fiction." ¿Sam Lipsyte "When a poet pal had put a copy of Waste into my hands, I right away went nuts until I had gotten myself in touch with its author to add to my household a supply of enough copies to scare all my writer friends with. Here, said I, in wild proclamation, is one for history and a half." ¿Gordon Lish "This is surely one of the darkest and most jarring books I've read. It is also pitch-perfect. Waste wastes nothing¿not a syllable, a beat, a ragged breath." ¿Dawn Raffel

Product Details

• Paperback: 132 pages
• Publisher: Ellipsis Press (September 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0963753614
• ISBN-13: 978-0963753618
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #722,281 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars School of Lish, October 31, 2008

By	Michael Hemmingson (Ross Island, Antarctica) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Raymond Carver Does Necrophilia, December 18, 2008

By	Monkey Deathcar (Philadelphia, PA United States) - See all my reviews

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.