I read Eat When You feel Sad by Zachary German quite quickly, and the lag in review is because I really didn’t know what to say about this book. It’s clear the author is trying to do something. I looked at the bio, and German is very young. So on one hand, Eat When You Feel Sad is somewhat of an achievement, a young writer publishing a very different book, but on the other, this book was monotonous, staccato, and simplistic.
I read a few paragraphs aloud to my husband and he said, “I can’t believe you read the whole thing.” It read easily, though. It wasn’t hard to read, and I never even considered stopping. But looking back on this book, I realize I didn’t get anything out of it. I’m not one to hate on hipsters too much, but in essence, this book was a distillation of one apathetic, unambitious, semi-boring hipster character living in Brooklyn. The entire book is a string of name dropping bands and books, which gets tiresome. The boring conversations Robert, the protagonist, has are excruciating.
I had been excited to read this book because it’s published by Melville House Press and blurbed by Tao Lin, who I like, but I was ultimately disappointed. Here’s a sample so you can see why:
“Robert is lying on his stomach. He thinks “My bedroom is clean.” Robert walks to his laptop computer. He checks his email. Robert plays the song “Lord Anthony” by Belle and Sebastian.”
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