Armchair Essays: A decade later, Zadie Smith’s The Autograph Man is still an easy recommendation
3.5 out of 5 stars
A decade later, Zadie Smith’s The Autograph Man is still an easy recommendation
by Evan Giannobile
Zadie Smith’s latest novel The Autograph Man will be familiar territory for the cultural studies major. Characterized by the strange place occupied by popular culture in the intellectual realm, Smith delves into a world where fiction has eclipsed real life. Published in 2002, the novel chronicles the stunted growth and uncanny obsessions of Alex Li-Tandem, a half-Chinese, half-Jewish 27 year old who has turned his childhood hobby, collecting autographs, into a rather unrewarding job and unhealthy obsession. He doesn’t deal directly in the realm of the famous but in their scribbles, their sanctified chicken-scratch meant to be collected, bought, and sold. Through this medium the novel offers a thoughtful critique on the dark and lonely realm of cultural obsession.
As her second novel, there were high expectations following the commercial and critical success of her first novel, White Teeth, which beautifully explores the conflict between the preservation of cultural identity and the pressures of assimilation experienced by immigrants of various ethnic backgrounds.
While the novel didn’t quite win over critics and the public as did her first novel, The Autograph Man still speaks to Smith’s literary prowess. Her writing style is strong and well-developed, making the book more of a quick read and less reminiscent of a competition to see who can write the longest grammatically correct sentence (13,955 words, ugh). Smart and savvy, Smith’s attention towards the natures of representation, desire, and transcendent religions paired with a literary playfulness makes for a novel dense with ideas sans the abject seriousness and melodrama.
The life of Alex Li-Tandem revolves around the procurement of an autograph by the Golden-Age cinema star Kitty Alexander, and since turning all of his attention to this incredibly sad goal, all other aspects of his life have wilted considerably. The reader finds Alex awaking from an acid trip—his car totaled, his girlfriend injured and incensed, his friends legitimately concerned over his mental health, and it’s the 15th anniversary of his father’s death, which he is still grieving.
Armchair Essays: Local author John Jodzio’s Get In If You Want To Live is laugh-out-loud funny
4 out of 5 stars
Local author John Jodzio’s Get In If You Want To Live is laugh-out-loud funny
by Evan Giannobile
(Pictures courtesy of Paper Darts)
John Jodzio’s Get In If You Want To Live is weird. Not the ‘weird!’ whispered by children during an M. Night Shyamalan movie, but a weirdness that flaunts itself, embraces discomfort, and utilizes the absurd. As a collection of short-shorts with long titles, Jodzio delves into a mystical world where the idiosyncrasies of kidnappers, Stockholm-syndromers, drunken bears, and forlorn suicidal mattresses take precedence.
Paper Darts published the book last year, but even before that, Jodzio had been getting around. His work has been featured in national publications such as McSweeny’s and Opium, but also locally, such as METRO Magazine, Minnesota Monthly, Vita.mn and The Tangential.
His form is that of the short-short, a boiled-down short story which places emphasis on brevity. So don’t expect some fully hashed out story where the main character explains what he or she learned at the end. Jodzio takes a figurative dump on the school of blunt didacticism, and more power to him. His stories read like fantasy mixed with grotesque back-alley harlotry and moral degeneracy, and the result is a surprisingly beautiful collection of bizarre vignettes perfect for those of us with fetid imaginations and ailing attention spans.
