Yes, I know. This is terribly overdue. And, I haven’t even been keeping up with my August Break project. Bad blogger. Bad writer. You could even go so far as to call me a bad reader, seeing as how it has taken me quite some time to get through 85 pages of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. It’s almost as if reading a whole book would seem daunting after working 6 days a week. I tell myself I will read, but then I always find an excuse to look at stuff online, or get caught up on my overwhelmed Hulu queue. Bad reader. Anyways, I am using this terribly slow Monday at work to do my review of Super Sad True Love Story.
Overall, I really did love this book. This book was recommended to me by a professor of mine a couple years ago. Upon going to a meeting to discuss my re-write for my essay on Heart of Darkness, we soon ended up discussing my goals with my degree, etc. I confessed that a world in which people no longer read books would be my ultimate dystopia, and fear. She immediately told me to read SSTLS, because it grapples with that same problem. Three years later, I finally read it, devoured it, despised it, feared its honesty, and respected its complexity.
Plot/Style: Focused on odd-ball, mid-aged, life-extender Lenny Abramov and his tumultuous relationship with the very young Eunice Park, the story is told in segments of Lenny’s journal entries (handwritten!) and Eunice’s social messaging inbox. Meeting randomly one night in Rome, Lenny is immediately attracted to Eunice and her closed-off-ness. Eunice, on the other hand, is lost and floundering, and looking for any kind of escape she can get. Not only does this emotional dystopia carry on between the troubles of the two lovers, it focuses on the strange internationally-affected collapse of the US government and the rise of some strange, financial, super power in its place. It’s really a story of what happens when shit gets tough and people are uncertain of themselves and their ability to survive. Who gives whom the best care and opportunity. Obviously not Lenny, as Eunice determines. (You can deduce from the title and the stress what happens to the two of them… but I’m leaving out the actual ending.)
Characters: Lenny – somehow not bad-looking, but pitiful all the same. Thirty-nine, works to help people extend their lives while constantly fretting over his own. Loves, adores, worships, and cherishes books (“printed, bound media artifacts”). People think books smell, but not dear Lenny. Delightfully simple-minded in some aspects but still very emotionally attached to everything; deep down, he’s a typical “nice” guy. Eunice – young, guarded and abused. Obsessed, like most other “young-minded” people, with weight, attractiveness points, and assertiveness. Her father was/is abusive to her, her sister and her mother, and she uses this as an excuse through her life. She loves Lenny for his real-ness and lack of connection to everything digital like pretty much everyone else she knows. She knows that really does love her, but it’s really not enough for her. Yes, there are more than two characters, but really, you should go read this on your own.
Overall: Caution: this book causes thoughts to occur. I mean real thoughts: internally reflective, pensive moments. I wouldn’t probably want to read it until I had gained some years and more life experience, but I would love to read it again. It might seem frustrating at first because Eunice’s messages are so shallow and enticing, and Lenny’s are a little more deep, slow-moving: just like their two characters. It’s worth every moment, especially if you cherish the hard-bound, smelly, written word.
Soft Bound Skeletons 