Benjamin Kunkel

I'm a similar age to the protagonist so I think I was somewhat predisposed to enjoy this book... I really miss the days when everyone wasn't so terminally online. Yes, probably the guy's shtick would get a little old, but I found him and his up-for-anything-ness charming. A very funny and engaging read with some interesting ideas.

For an outsider to this stuff you get a lot of bang for your buck here. The essays praising Jameson and critiquing Groys are quite boring and tough going - and it seems that is most likely because the writing of Jameson and Groys themselves are quite boring and tough going. One always enjoys a good takedown of Zizek, like one finds here. The essays on Harvey, Graeber, and especially Brenner, however, are pretty fantastic, the best chapters of the book - and the guide to further reader really show more helpful. It is not easy to strike the right tone between accessibility and academy, nor is it easy to do everything with one pop book, which is why the best response to this powerful little number might be more books similar to it. show less

It's funny reading a book about the whiniest generation, particularly when you belong to it. I really liked this book because it reflected back at me a lot of my own worst qualities, which is why I read these kinds of books. To, you know, remind myself of what I'm constantly in danger of being like (or, to be honest, what I'm like a lot of the time).

In fairness, I read this book during the roughest part of the quarter--a time of year when I shouldn't even be reading novels because I have so show more much work to catch up on because I've spent too much of the early part of the quarter reading novels instead of doing work.

So what are these "worst qualities" I mentioned in the first paragraph? I don't want to use adjectives, so I'll just say it was kind of like what I was like during and post-Namibia. That's probably not helpful, so I'll use a phrase Nathan and Libby should remember from post-modern poetry: THINKY DEATH!

And here's the opposite of thinky death: LIVE TO LIVE!

P.S. This review is so long and stupid because I should be writing my final paper for the quarter right now. show less

Indecision is about an unmotivated man named Dwight living in New York City. Dwight is in his late twenties and is stuck in a dead-end job and a dead-end life. Part of Dwight's problem is the pervasive indecision that, in Dwight's opinion, plagues his generation. As a solution to this problem, a pharmaceutical company develops a pill that cures the patient of his inability to make decisions. The pill taker will always know exactly what he or she wants at any given moment. That is as far as I show more got. I could not finish even half of this pedantic and obnoxious novel.

The premise gave this book so much potential. Too bad Kunkel squandered it with his need to impress and show off. Instead of attempting to write an engaging and interesting book, Kunkel used the writing of Indecision as an exercise in vanity. Every sentence seems to scream, "See how smart I am?!" The sentences and paragraphs are convoluted and annoying; the narrator’s voice insufferable.

Everyone knew “that guy” in either high school or college who felt his superior mental acuity gave him the right to condescend to everyone around him; who thought his putdowns were witty and amusing (even if only to himself); who read and quoted philosophers; and whose sarcastic vitriol was a really a shield protecting his inner pain. Well both Dwight and his creator, Benjamin Kunkel, are “that guy”.

If only there was a pill that could make me forget this book! show less