The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker

HEY GUYS, it's Ethan.

The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker is a book written about a modern man’s thoughts during a simple, ordinary day at his job. While this book was written in 1988, it still seems scarily true when read in today’s perspective. 
The Mezzanine takes place in an ordinary city, where the main character, the narrator, resides and works. The main events of this book take place after a simple walk to the store, on his way back to his office (which is on a mezzanine). The ‘plot’ of the book takes the reader through the narrator's mind, as his mind wanders throughout basic, yet extremely detailed recounts of his day. There is no real flow to this novel, however everything seems to wind together. 
The concept of this book is difficult to grasp at first if you have not read it, however it is really basic. The whole book consists of the thoughts of the main character, as he ponders upon every little detail, which seem insignificant to the outer world, but very close and significant to him. For example, at the very beginning of the book, Baker wrote about 1,300 words about the concept of asking for a bag to hold purchased items at the grocery store. He discusses (with himself) the practicality of getting a bag if you are only buying one item, and his personal preference of always having one free hand, to brush on poles, fences etc.
My view of this book is extremely positive. While the things Baker writes about seem extremely specific and detailed, they are shockingly relatable. The narrator’s inner monologue takes him through everyday situations, while his mind wanders about almost every single detail regarding his actions and surroundings. The relatableness that comes from this book stems from the narrator’s seemingly random, but constant stream of thought. At all times, he is thinking of something that he finds intriguing, even if it has no real effect on his life.
I would rate this book a complete 10/10 because of how relatable many of the topics brought up in this book are, but be careful, as the 'story' is atypical.'

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalathini

Hey guys, it’s Andrew! It’s already almost the end of the year; it feels like it went by so fast. For my final blog post, I’ll be reviewing When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalathini, an autobiography published following the author’s inevitable passing to cancer. I hope you enjoy. When Breath Becomes Air is a far cry from what you’d normally expect from a story, even among other autobiographies, in the sense that he wrote the memoir with the full knowledge that his life would be coming to an end. His reflections on his life are heavily based on this fact, and he confronts his mortality all throughout the book. Kalathini opens with a short prologue running through some of his recent memories. We’re right there with him as he learns of his terminal condition, and we watch his pain as he’s forced to accept that everything he’s worked for is about to come to an end. He then transitions into a more linear recollection of his experiences, starting from childhood and stories of his homet...
Read more

Speak (Laurie Halse Anderson)

          Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, is about a freshman girl named Melinda Sordino, a complete outcast in her school because of an instance last summer when she had called the police at a party. However, no one knows the real reason behind her actions: at the party, she had been assaulted by a senior. The novel opens on the first day of school, and ends with the culmination and reveal of her secret.            Speak will appeal to a teenage audience with its vivid, keen descriptions of the gritty reality of high school life. Its passages are surprisingly accurate and skirt the line of cheesiness in a way very few young adult novels do.           Anderson uses art beautifully as Melinda’s coping mechanism, as an outlet for her pain and trauma. She shows how one individual, the art teacher, helped Melinda stand up and finally speak. Melinda’s journey is both poignant and hopeful, with the moment when she...
Read more

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

(spoilers) The Chronicles of Narnia  have always been one of my favorite series, a collection of classic high-fantasy novels I've read and loved as a child (the motion picture adaptations, too). After sorting through my dusty bookshelves in quarantine, I came upon my old copy of the  Voyage of the Dawn Treader , the third installment in the series. It's been years since I had last picked it up, and I was curious to see how the story as I would see it now compared to my rosy ten-year-old memories of it.  In this volume, the story follows the two youngest siblings, Edmund and Lucy, and their bratty cousin Eustace Scrubb. The three are magically transported to the fantasy land of Narnia, in which several hundreds of years have passed since their last visit. The three board King Caspian's ship the  Dawn Treader  (the same Prince Caspian from the last installment) and join him on his voyage to the unknown eastern waters in search of seven lords banished by his...
Read more