Scotter Libby - The Apprentice

[Joe Allonby]

Key phrase: mountain trousers.

On 12/11/06, gp <wescac at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Apprentice-Novel-Lewis-Libby/dp/0312284535/sr=8-1/qid=1165896736/ref=pd_bbs_1/105-7826481-9650813?ie=UTF8&s=books
>
> One of the reviews:
>
> "Now we know what Lewis Libby doodles on his yellow pad when Vice
> Presidntial staff meetings get too boring. Boyhood dreams of treasure
> hunts and bad guys. And bestiality. And smallpox. In Japan. In a big
> snowstorm. Or something.
>
> Yes, it is this incoherent, one of the oddest, densest, most
> frustrating works of prose to hit the literary scene in years. The
> novel's synopsis on the back cover is far more compelling than the
> book itself--promising an "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" scnenario,
> with the inhabitants of a rural Japanese hotel wondering if each of
> the refugees from a furious blizzard might carry disease, or worse,
> into their midst.
>
> So there's an idea here. And a darn good publicist. But the most
> interesting thing about the body of the work is that it functions as a
> metaphor. The writing style, plotting, and characterization combine to
> create a blizzard of verbiage every bit as deadly and oppressive as
> the snowfall the book describes in excruciating, interminable detail.
>
> About ten pages into "The Apprentice," after you've suffered through
> the glacial pace and stultifying sentence structure for several
> paragraphs, don't be surprised to find yourself daydreaming about
> something more lively, like the sight of Harry Reid scolding the
> Senate appropriations committee about earmarking on C-Span last
> night."
>
> Has anyone actually read this?  Perhaps he's the unsung postmodern
> hero of our era.  Or just batshit fucking crazy.
>
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