A book about nothing?

Mastodon Farm

By Mike Kleine

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Do you remember the TV sit-com Seinfeld? There was one episode that was deemed "about nothing". That describes Mastodon Farm; a book about nothing. The difference is that Seinfeld was as least funny, interesting, and not a waste of time. Kleine's exercise into nothingness is a strange tale told in second person narrative. You hang around with celebrities, listen to bad music, and makes lists in your head about rock music, celebrities, and other in-things. Something similar was done in American Psycho except that had a plot and a reason. You also name drop a lot and go to cool places like Lake Mead not quite knowing what to do there. If I had to make a guess at the theme, I would say Kleine is trying to illustrate the banality and meaningless of the "good life" that many people crave. I'm sure there could have been a better way than writing a banal and meaningless book. The maddening part is that the author is a good writer and I kept going, hoping that something would happen. Fortunately this book is short at 126 pages so I didn't have to wait long for nothing to happen, So two stars because it is well written and shows promise for the writer...with a different book.

Method Acquire: Purchased