There are parts of Apathy and Other Small Victories that just
wanted me to throw it down because the character of Shane is someone I would
never want to spend time with. He’s nihilist that conservatives rant about, and
he has this overwhelming sense that he’s funny. Well, maybe. Because there are
times in this novel where I was not sure if the character was narrating or the
author was doing stand-up.
All Shane cares about is leaving. Usually on a Greyhound
bus, right before his life falls apart again. Just like he planned. But this
time it's complicated: there's a sadistic corporate climber who thinks she's
his girlfriend, a rent-subsidized affair with his landlord's wife, and the
bizarrely appealing deaf assistant to Shane's cosmically unstable dentist. When
one of the women is murdered, and Shane is the only suspect who doesn't care
enough to act like he didn't do it, the question becomes just how he'll clear
the good name he never had and doesn't particularly want: his own.
The book has a great opening line, but the novel is a bit
all over the place. It was recommended by a friend, but this weirdly, often
funny novel collapses under its insistence that someone like Shane can actually
exist. It’s like Neilan watched too much Twin Peaks and tried to create a less
complex version of that show, but with all the weird people. It works to an
extent, but Shane is rather pathetic, clownish guy who probably would have
killed himself long ago, but can’t seem to care.
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