Shoplifting from American Apparel (The Contemporary Art of the Novella)

Tao Lin writes in a sort of generation idiom, a casual narcissism/self-concern, where concerns about others are invariably caught up in the whole thing about how one's self is perceived. Is this brutally naked emotional honesty? Does it derive from the author's role as a public artist? I don't really know and I waver between caring and not caring about it. Some days I barely have the energy to crawl out of bed, let alone Plato's cave, right?Shoplifting from American Apparel follows the protagonist, a lightly fictionalized or not-fictionalized-at-all version of Lin, through some stuff, where he thinks about--and to a much lesser extent, assumes some agency in regard to--girls and life and veganism and, yes, shoplifts from American Apparel. (For background on that particular aspect of the work, please consult this critical behemoth: [...]) Rarely has so little plot been so polarizing among the people I've spoken to.I read the majority of this novel in the back patio of 4th Avenue Pub in Brooklyn. At some point, I was joined by a number of people from BAM and their various artistically-inclined associates. I assumed that they fit the basic target demographic for his work, but no one in the crowd registered awareness of Tao Lin until certain details about the author and his writing were mentioned, at which point the mood turned sour. Comments were made to the effect of disapproval of his public persona and "provocative" behavior e.g. the title of this novel.It was hard to make the case in favor of Lin. I don't know if that's intentional on his part. Much noise is made about his unlikableness but when its coming from Gawker and the like I'd chalk that up to the narcissism of small differences more than anything else. His aggressive social media campaign also sends mixed signals about his desire to be liked or disliked by a mass audience, if that's even relevant to the discussion.(Full disclosure: This series of Tao Lin reviews was prompted by an email exchange with the author. These conversations were too brief for me to provide any first-hand accounts on this subject, though he seems like a nice enough guy.)The best reason I can give you to read Shoplifting from American Apparel might not exactly inspire you but I hope you understand where I'm coming from on this. I adhere to the theory, which I first saw articulated in Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself, that reading a good book is like having a great conversation with a friend. I'm sitting here eating vegan chicken salad and drinking iced coffee as I write this. I alternate between a vague detachment to everything or a paralyzing emotional connection. I want to write and feel enormous dread about my abilities as a writer, my prospects for making any sort of living at it. I feel like when Lin writes about himself, in the way intimacy among friends often goes, he also reveals things I didn't really recognize about myself and provides a safe space to come to grips with them.

unlike many of the other reviews ive seen of tao's books, i acknowledge what the book is without thinking of those characteristics as faults. that being said though, this book kinda just slid by for me. thats probably what he wanted to make as a book though, so thats cool. im glad this book exists because sometimes people who havent read in a while (cuz they cant find books they like) need a book like this. its simple and easy to read and (for me and others of my generation b. 1987) it depicts life in a similar way to how i experience it.and that serves an important function. discovering tao and the other alt lit stuff is for writers like what discovering punk rock is for musicians: it shows you that to do what comes naturally is ok, that what other people think of as good is actually irrelevant and that you should just do what you want. its liberating. its liberating because you read it and see that the writing is simple and autobiographical and that hey "i can do this too!"the reason i give it 3 stars is because thats what i think it deserves, but i dont mean it as an insult or anything. the world needs 3 stared books. they serve a purpose, and serving purposes is something tao is great at and its something that is missing from most people who do things in the world

When I was handed this book, as I glanced down at the title, the words I heard from the acquaintance (who is now no longer an acquaintance) were: "This is the new minimalism". First off, as an artist who founded his passion for art in writing, and like all good artists in my opinion, isms are the last thing I look for in artists- especially writers. The belief I hold to, which has also been the belief of many great writers, is that a writer- or anyone that expresses themselves for that matter, should not rely on isms; they don't need it, they have instinct.Tao Lin appears to only lack, and gets by on griping about it. Therefore I can only assume that he gets by on pity by the self pitying of this generation of people who were raised with the promise that they could be whatever they wanted- however, realized upon growing up that following your dreams is more than often not glamorous and requires hard work. With Tao Lin's constant use of "we're f***ed" in his dialogue- which is basically just the shallow characters talking at each other about their insignificant and superficial disgruntlements, and his painful and shameful allusions to emo (which come off as distasteful pandering), he definitely appears to hope he can ride on the ironic taste of hipsters.That I should have assumed by the title alone. Now I love shoplifting as much as any petty theft or commercial burglar- but there's a code d*** it!First off, never steal clothes. That's like stealing jewelry, accessories, perfume, etc. That is all vanity. With the amount of people I know in retail, including my brother who is in management at an Urban Outfitters and my mother who is a personal shopper at Nordstrom- I believe its safe to say that 95% of people who shoplift from retail department stores get caught- if not more. I can also back up that statistic based on time I spent on rounds with friends who were mall security guards as well.It's always the same kind of person as well, the kind which I think fits Tao Lin well- self involved people that display the most limited thinking abilities and have an undeserved sense of importance.That is the kind of person that probably love Tao Lin as well.So getting to the story. There are many writers that write about the struggle of being a writer- this is not one of them. This is a severely confused trendy brat that only manages to present infantile attempts at portraying a person that simply WANTS to be a writer. There is a difference between being and wanting to be a writer. As Jack Kerouac said, ANYONE can LEARN to write, but few are born to. Jack was a smart enough person to be able to admit with honest humility, that he was not a born writer. That's what makes him worth reading. Tao Lin seems to simply try to milk on the "sense of entitlement" this generation has- he drools out confused short lines for the Occupy Wallstreet movement. Those who want so much, but don't discipline themselves to learn be able to figure out WHAT they want or HOW to actually DO the work to get it.And so Tao limps along through this drivel talking about American Apparel, soy milk, smoothies, veganism- using these trendy things a much as possible to remind the reader of HOW NOW this writing is. Though in the end, if you take a step back, you see can see that it is merely shabby scaffolding used as attempts to hold up the weak and terribly crafted structure of the "novella".That Miranda July endorses this crap confuses me greatly. Stephen Elliott I can see. What else would you expect from an ex stripper that is either very uninformed or else trying to save as much face as possible by abusing Adderall and not just using crystal meth.I suppose the trend surfers have to look out for one another. Elliott did a wonderful job in his attempt to bank on the trend of prescription drug abuse with "The Adderall Diaries". Thank god! And just when the national problem is spiraling so out of control, there are now unheard of shortages of generic and non-generic Adderall nation wide, making it impossible to find for those of us who require it and actually take it as needed.Thanks a lot Elliott! I'm sure writing your book will do wonders for future availability of the drug! I know its a great read for all the kids I know who loved it so, and call me weekly to beg me to sell them my meds.And just to set the record straight, Elliott saying that "shoplifting from American Apparel" belongs on the same shelf as "Last Exit to Brooklyn" and "Ask the Dust" just show how little he knows about writing.Tao Lin, like Elliott, lazily slouch toward "infamy" by using cheap gimmicks. They have nothing to say, they only leave questions. Which would not be so bad, except they are terribly idiotic questions.This book had me straining to pay attention- even with the help of adderall! Toward the end (and I read it in less than an hour) my head was throbbing and I had given in to bouts of shouting "WHY THE F*** SHOULD I CARE ABOUT THIS!??? PLEASE DEAR GOD, GIVE ME SOME REASON WHY I SHOULD CARE ABOUT THIS F***ING S***!!!!!".So this, like all of Tao's other books, as well as Stephen Elliott's while we're at it- are good if you want to get an idea of truly TRRRUUULLLYY terrible writing.AND, if you're given to bouts of heavy drinking after suffering through crap that is somehow considered a social phenomenon, you'll find that the book gives off a great glow when put under the flame of a propane blow torch.Don't think of it as burning a book- that's giving it too much credit. Think of it as burning a paper bag full of dog crap. After all- it is just paper filled with s***.

i laughed out loud reading this

It's fitting that this book references Brett Easton Ellis, since the style of the prose is a total copy of Less Than Zero. It's a massive downgrade, of course, just like almost all of the other young authors who have emulated him in writing minimalist stories about vapid people. Less Than Zero had a natural, fresh feel to it, and the cultural references don't feel forced, unlike here, but maybe that's just the benefit of hindsight.Just because a book isn't as good as something by Brett Easton Ellis doesn't make it bad, but this work has problems beyond that. The characters are so bland; other than the protagonist who you recognize because his name crops up the most, there is nothing to distinguish these people from each other, and you quickly lose track of who is who. There is no reason to care about any of them, or even to be fascinated by them. They are simply uninteresting.The plot is also nonexistent. The dude gets arrested a couple of times, is confused about his feelings towards various women and that's about it. A novella can get away with a slightly nondescript plot if the characters are original and the writing is compelling, neither of which are the case here. It gets a couple of stars because it's a competent work, with a few neat observations and an attempt to describe the time we're in. Plus the jacket is stylish, and it looks sleek on your glass coffee table. Otherwise, it's a waste of the few hours it'll take to read it, dull and derivative.

Not my bag, is just a short extract of one teenagers life - it has been compared to BEE, but I don't see the similarities here.

And would be shoplifters. Echoes of Douglas Coupland & Richard Brautigan, dialogue centric, pacy and with filmic scene editing - if you are new to the work of Tao Lin this is a great place to start.

I love this slim coolly designed book. Melville house are fast becoming the biggest of the go-to presses for contemporary fiction.Some books are inflected with the rhythm of walking; some books seem more 'driving' in style, some are contemplative, or very writerly, or very readerly, or talkative or 'stalking' books. The prose of 'Shoplifting From American Apparel' is inflected by the rhythms of gmail chatting, and by standing around at parties, and by breaking up, and by shoplifting. I guess that seems obvious because these are the events of the novel's plot, but it's not always the case that a novel has the rhythms of the act it describes. Tao Lin's prose is extremely minimal. But when something is minimal, I always want to ask what's left out. Here it's description of emotions, descriptions of feelings, authorial comment on any of these.I'm sure it's of no relevance and risks grossing the more imaginative among you out but I read this book in one sitting, in the bath, as the water cooled and cooled and cooled. I think it probably gave a special focus to the dynamic in the novel between urgency and aimlessness. Between matter-of-fact-ness and wackiness too. Being in the bath while reading also meant I couldn't stop thinking about surface and depth and I also couldn't help feeling kind of bare and exposed and uncomfortable. Especially after the bubbles melted. The white walls and bowls and tiles and ultra-cool water complemented Tao Lin's Minimalist prose quite well too. I wish I could have written this review in the bath but I'm too precious about my laptop to risk submerging it.SFAA is very funny and very sad and I guess a little boring and aimless but also somehow affirmative. It affirmed that I ought to get out of the bath.I realize now that I read other Tao Lin publications in similar situations. His novel 'Eeeee Eee Eeee', I read on an airplane, in considerable discomfort. His two books of poetry were read in one sitting too, at home this time, but I don't have that comfortable a home. Thinking about those books it's striking to see how much Tao lin has actually changed- more stripped down, more achingly realist and minimalist and hard.I am very very excited to see where Tao Lin goes next.

Some may try and claim this has some artistic merit. But it really doesn't. I enjoy novels with an unfocused style, but this is just like random moments and scenes over and over until it ends. And it's extremely short. Pretty bad.