Sam Lipsyte

I figured this would be a good one to read right before my high school reunion, right? The premise is a loser-ish guy (nicknamed "Teabag" from a gross locker room incident) writing really literary, intense "updates" to his high school alumni bulletin. The writing is just awesomely smart and funny, but also dark and weird. There is very little plot holding the book together, but it all culminates in one sick, strange high school reunion or "Togethering," as it's called.

Things that stick out in my mind from this book: Lewis AKA Teabag has a recurring dream about a champion masturbation artist. Lewis' best friend Gary lives on money from suing his therapist for making him think his parents molested him as a child. The former high school principal, Fontana, has bondage-type sex with a woman whose husband is trying to kill him with a mace. The mace-toting husband is also a drug dealer and Gary's AA sponsor. Lewis' ex-girlfriend is in love with her film star brother. Lewis earns his meager living writing fake facts for a cola industry journal.

If I had to subtitle this book, I think "The American Nightmare" might work.… (more)

This is the first time I’ve read Lipsyte so I was not prepared for the number of flaws his characters have. Usually, a flawed character makes a story more realistic but in the book ‘The Fun Parts’ I feel like his characters are just a little too flawed and I kept wondering why these characters are able to stay in a normal society and wondering why they weren’t just locked up in an institution. It was because of this that I found the book hard to read and I had to struggle through just to finish. I actually started reading this as soon as I’ve gotten but just took me just until this month to actually finish

This does not mean the book was a complete disaster as I did actually enjoy the first couple of stories. The first three stores; ‘The Climber Room’, ‘The Dungeon Master’ and ‘The Deniers’ were very good and I found myself wishing for longer stories with these characters. I feel most of the stories started abruptly and also ended abruptly and I was left slightly confused on some of them.
This book will not be on my bookshelf very long and I think I will be donating it to the local library.… (more)