Shoplifting from American Apparel

Peppered with G-chat transcripts and MySpace references, Tao Lin’s Shoplifting from American Apparel could have come off like an extended blog post, but it doesn’t. This novella about the life and quotidian escapades of Sam, a rising young New York writer (a category that Lin belongs to himself), is a humorous reflection on the instantaneity of Internet-era life and relationships. We are presented with a chronological series of moments in Sam’s life: a party at a taco bar, G-chat exchanges about the art of writing, a night on the couch looking at a laptop with a date. One of the novella’s definitive traits is that none of these events add up to a greater sum—just a string of unattached moments with changing characters. Sam is the sole constant.

This lack of narrative structure, coupled with Lin’s distinctively simple writing style, can get irksome, but the writing stays fresh, thanks to occasional oddball dialogue about everything from Oscar Wilde to what exactly constitutes a fight with a girlfriend. And for all his meandering prose, there’s something charming about Lin’s directness. Writing about being an artist makes most contemporary artists self-conscious, squeamish and arch. Lin, however, appears to be comfortable, even earnest, when his characters try to describe their aspirations (or their shortcomings).

Still, Lin’s neoslacker text-messaging artists fumble for words. Sam half-jokingly sums up his peer group like this: “We are the fucked generation.” Whether or not statements like that resonate probably depends on how well-done you like your character analysis. In Lin’s case, it’s purposefully raw.—Josh Frank

Lin reads Tue 8 (see listings), Sept 10 at Spoonbill & Sugartown and Sept 13 at the Brooklyn Book Festival.

Buy Shoplifting from American Apparel from Amazon.com | Buy it on BN.com

See more Book reviews