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Bed Paperback – May 15, 2007

4.3 out of 5 stars 55


Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This set of nine pseudo-autobiographical, woe-is-our-generation absurdist tales updates Oblamov for worried 21st century slackerdom. Lin's characters will be familiar to MySpace denizens, whether they're struggling through college in a busy city, stifling in an exhausted relationship just for the body heat, or missing their parents (but not knowing how to tell them without sounding as if asking for money). Settings are cheekily vague: "Love Is A Thing On Sale For More Money Than Exists," about a much-needed break-up, takes place during "the month that people began to suspect terrorists had infiltrated Middle America," while "Nine, Ten," a love story about two nine-year-olds and their divorced parents, occurs during the year that people "got a bit careless." As precocious children, depressing descriptions of urban pollution and beached marine life pile up, it becomes clear that Lin's subject is the inadequacy of conventional tools and wisdom for coping with the era of the War on Terror: "Was the future now? Or was it coming up still?... all that was promised... was not here, and would probably never be here. They had lied. Someone had lied." Such observations make the flat, matter-of-fact prose and aimless pop culture references come into vivid focus.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"In structure and tone, [the stories in Bed] have the feel of early Lorrie Moore and Deborah Eisenberg. Like Moore's characters, there are a lot of plays on language and within each story, a return to the same images or ideas--or jokes. And like Moore, most of these characters live in New York, are unemployed or recently employed, and are originally from somewhere more provincial (Florida in Lin's case, Wisconsin in Moore's). However, Lin knows to dig a little deeper into his characters--something we see in Moore's later stories, but less so in her early ones."--Jennifer Bassett, KGB Bar Lit

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Melville House; Third Printing edition (May 15, 2007)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 278 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1933633263
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1933633268
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.5 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.31 x 0.84 x 7.47 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 out of 5 stars 55

About the author

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Tao Lin
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Tao Lin is the author of ten books, including Leave Society (2021), Trip: Psychedelics, Alienation, and Change (2018), and Taipei (2013). He's working on a nonfiction book titled Self Heal: How I Cured My Autism, Autoimmune Disorder, Eczema, Depression, and Other Health Problems Naturally. He lives in Hawaii. Visit his website at https://taolin.us.


Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
55 global ratings

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