Shoplifting from American Apparel (The Contemporary Art of the Novella)
The Internet has spawned a generation exceedingly more awkward, apathetic and lost than any that has come before—at least, this seems to be the message and intention of Lin's underwhelming novella (afterEeeee Eee EeeeandBed). Sam, a young writer with good rankings on Amazon, works at an organic vegan restaurant and spends much of his time checking e-mails and instant messaging with his equally detached friends while wandering downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn. There is, indeed, the shoplifting of a T-shirt (and, later, earphones), the acts—both of which end in Sam's arrest—motivated by a need for variety. Though Lin strives to paint a portrait of a generation of disaffected youth caught in the soft blue light of Internet Explorer, this offers little more than lackadaisical pop culture reportage that reads mostly like a diary rendered in third person.(Sept.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.