Started this yesterday and I'm nearly finished with it. Another outstanding novel from Mr. Castro. He has a real gift at transcribing thought and fractured way the mind works onto the page. I, too, often find myself pretending I'm on a podcast while I develop an argument in my head, as Harold does in Muscle Man. I'm just hoping Harold doesn't end up like the protagonist of Tony Tulathimutte's The Feminist. Because that would mean I'm mentally ill...I probably won't be around to respond until tomorrow because I'm going to my girlfriend's place to have sex with her (yes, Jordan Castro readers are sex-havers, so you should read him), but I'll try to monitor the thread and reply.
Ok, I just finished it. What the fuck was that ending with Casey? Did I miss something? Casey gets cancelled and all of a sudden the protagonist's mindset does a complete 180? What?
Damn...no love for Jordan Castro, one of 4chan's own? Are there any archivred threads on warosu where people discussed his new book?
>>24833207It's been talked about a bit, but not by anyone who has finished it, I don’t think. The Novelist was received quite poorly here.
>>24833221>The Novelist was received quite poorly hereI never understood this. /lit/ loves Nicolson Baker and Thomas Bernhard. The Novelist should be right up there alley. For me, The Novelist was a 21st Century update to The Mezzanine. Castro is really good at capturing the nebulous web our thoughts weave. That's why I think he's a writer to watch. He's also really good at satirizing the zeitgeist of our online era, plus he throws in a bunch a "winks" to /lit/ and /lit/ memes and even /lit/ posts. You remember that one anon that wrote some posts about how Southerners are extremely fake and play up a faux caricature of Southerness? Castro writes about that in Muscle Man. It was basically a cleaned up /lit/ post with some Faulkner-posting about having lost the war thrown in
>>24833309>He's also really good at satirizing the zeitgeist of our online era, plus he throws in a bunch a "winks" to /lit/ and /lit/ memes and even /lit/ posts.thats so embarrassing.
>>24833309>Castro is really good at capturing the nebulous web our thoughts weaveFuck off.
>>24833341What is your problem with that statement? Have you read Ducks, Newburyport? That's another good example of a "novel of the mind." I don't know if you noticed, but you can see it peeking out from behind the Bond novels in the OP picture.
>>24833309Hi JordanSorry but My Father’s Diet did the muscleman better
>>24833375Thanks, I'll check that one out. I'm always looking for new, contemporary /lit/. I'm liking that Adrian Nathan West comes recommended by Joshua Cohen. That's a really good sign.
Bump? I really wish Jordan Castro would get some more attention. At least consider checking out The Novelist.
>>24833309>>24834105I read the Novelist and hated it. I read Woodcutters because of the Novelist and enjoyed it. Maybe Woodcutters has the benefit of being about a sort of people less familiar to me, and in scope and style is very distinct from the Novelist despite them both being "narrator bitches in his head" at the surface.Someone tell me what sort of insight I was supposed to gain from the Novelist that actually required a novella to impart. There were briefly ideas that I thought were interesting (some times where the narrator is discussing the in-book Jordan Castro), but I found the book to be a huge bore otherwise. Maybe an accurate depiction of a modern variety of self-defeating wannabe writer, but not one I found insightful.
>>24831362I read his first book and the only part I enjoyed was when he gave a really detailed description of taking a shit
>>24833309he's an edgelord who only got any relevance by licking Tao Lin's scrotum
