Welcome to Litsy!

The form of this novel---a footnote-heavy deep dive into one young man's trip up an escalator at the end of his lunch break---could have been clunky, but I actually found it fairly smooth reading. Maybe the narrator has an anxiety disorder or is just very particular, but either way I enjoyed the way his personality is revealed bit by bit through his interior monologue. I love his rant about people who stand still on escalators.

Yesterday was the car dealership, today is the hair salon. I haven't been to a salon for maybe seven years, and this is my first time ever under a dryer, but I knew enough to bring reading material (of course, I bring reading material everywhere, so it's perhaps not a testament to my wisdom as much as my consistency).

Intrigued to add this #novel to my #TBR stack.
#GreenvilleSC #JoesPlace

I really wanted to like this one, with the concept of the book being set in only one day and consisting of a regular guy and his introspective thoughts while taking his lunch break but this was so SO BORING. I can imagine someone in my brain on my break would find me just as boring. Having a whole chapter on the difference between paper and plastic straws, my mind wandered constantly. I'm glad it was a short book 👎

Never before have I been able to relate so personally and fully to a character. Taking place as a man reminisces about his work day, lunch hour, and life in general along his ascent to the mezzanine office where he works, via an escalator. A realistic look into the way our minds wander and each of our senses give way to memories and questions. Funny, thought provoking, and definitely worth the read.

My experience of this book was one of simultaneous boredom and hysteria, punctuated with moments of laughing out loud. It is an ode to escalators and shoe laces; it revels in the mundane. It's Seinfeld if Seinfeld wasn't asking for the laugh. Very quick read. Don't touch if you are annoyed by footnotes.

Can you take seriously a person's theory of language when you know he was delighted by ... cowboy movies?

"I was now permanently arrested at an intermediate stage of personal development."

One of a bunch I found on the "experimental fiction" display at Waterstones Deansgate.

Set over one lunch hour, it extensively explores topics you don't usually give a second thought - shoelaces, milk spouts, stapling.

The main character is quietly eccentric and I loved his shameless attention to detail.

I would recommend this be read with decent pauses in between chapters as it's quite intense without.