Book Bites: I'm Starting to Worry About this Black Box of Doom

I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I really wanted to like this one. Pargin is a smart guy and a gifted communicator, and the setup--nuclear road trip--feels like its right up my alley. Which is why I gave it nearly 200 pages before I cried "matae" and gave up. 

The main issue is that "I'm Starting to Worry..." foregrounds its theme--isolation and misinformation in an increasingly connected world--over any plot or characters. This makes for a narrative that flows like chewing dry toast. Instead of dialogue, characters monologue at one another. The plot is built atop shaky logic, requiring tech savvy protagonists to intentionally disconnect from the internet in a way that feels ingenuine. That two digital natives wouldn't even think to check for air tags (and then quickly try to patch that plot hole with some brief dialogue once they do find said air tag) is too much. Pargin is a smart guy and a capable author, and the themes here are rife for exploration, but the execution falls flat. The text is bloated, feeling more like a lecture than a novel.

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Book Bites: Assistant to the Villain

Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

DNF @ 50%
Assistant to the Villain is perfectly fine. It feels like a "falling in love with the boss" romance novel dressed up in fantasy clothing. The text is swoony and slightly bloated; we could lop off the first twelve chapters and not really miss a beat. There's a plot involving a mole in the titular Villain's organization trying to kill him, but it felt like the mystery plot and the romance plot were wrestling against one another rather than working together. If you want a secretary swooning over her own Mr. Darcy, spiced with a dash of dragons and magic, then this book is for you. It's a perfectly fine, if uninteresting, bit of fluff.

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Book Bites: Good Game, No Rematch

Good Game, No Rematch: A Life Made of Video Games―A Comedian's Memoir of Gaming and Comedy, From Nintendo to The Tonight Show by Mike Drucker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Mike Drucker’s “Good Game, No Rematch” is a delightful dead center bullseye in the humor / video games Venn Diagram. Drucker’s affinity for video games saturates essays on early Nintendo, on his grandparents and Gameboy Golf, on his massive, unplayed Steam library. His bona fides as a standup and Late Night staff writer ensure the text vibrates with actual jokes and laughter. As with any essay collection, some essays drag (hearing about a past D&D adventure is very near listening to someone tell you about a dream they had), but Good Game, No Rematch is so funny, so insightful and, in places, poignant, that even casual gamers will find enjoyment.

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Book Bites: All Fours

All Fours by Miranda July
My rating: 3 of 5 stars (or 4 of 5 stars? I still honestly don't know)

All Fours begins as a masterclass in tension and release. Early sections are pure, ecstatic tension, deeply erotic and overtly sexual (albeit without any actual sex) as our unnamed narrator diverts from her road trip, diverts from her family, and begins nesting in a motel, incubating new relationships and a life. July’s writing is superlative; wry without ever being snarky, honest and raw. There are genuine laugh out loud moments. Themes abound for anyone who cares to sink their teeth into them: marriage and motherhood and inspiration and suicide and art and menopause and aging, and, and…

Where other authors often unleash their characters only to rein them back to safety and normalcy in the third act, July gives her characters freedom to be unlikable, to truly metamorphose. However. The narrative often drags, especially in its closing pages. Everything here is also built on unrecognized privilege (husband and wife are both wildly-successful and wealthy artists) that can't help but read as "spoiled." I've sat with this book for awhile now and I'm still not entirely certain if All Fours is truly good, or merely interesting.

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