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Product Description
Product Description
The only thing Shane cares about is leaving. Usually on a Greyhound bus, right before his life falls apart again. Just like he planned. But this time it's complicated: there's a sadistic corporate climber who thinks she's his girlfriend, a rent-subsidized affair with his landlord's wife, and the bizarrely appealing deaf assistant to Shane's cosmically unstable dentist. When one of the women is murdered, and Shane is the only suspect who doesn't care enough to act like he didn't do it, the question becomes just how he'll clear the good name he never had and doesn't particularly want: his own.
About the Author
PAUL NEILAN recently left his mind-numbing job at an insurance company in Portland, Oregon, where he spent most of his time hiding in the bathroom and weeping. Born of this and many, many other humiliations, Apathy and Other Small Victories is his first novel.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
If your feeling somewhat despondent with the world, and your office job really isn't making you feel as though your achieving all the things you were promised in your childhood, this is a perfect evening's release.
The book is incredably sharp, the wit is fantastic and as others have mentioned it is literally laugh-out-loud funny. The main character is someone you feel a great connection with as he acts out all the different things that you wish you could do in your office job (feel asleep during work, cut people down with comments, not care about anything generally). The plot, characters, dialgoue and pace all compliment each other in creating a cynical and cutting view of everything around.
The comedy within the book is memorable, particularly the one liners that suprise you in their delivery that makes the you burst out laughing when you least expect.
You will be using lines and ideas from this to amuse people around you who are unfortunate enough not to have read this book for a long time!
The book is incredably sharp, the wit is fantastic and as others have mentioned it is literally laugh-out-loud funny. The main character is someone you feel a great connection with as he acts out all the different things that you wish you could do in your office job (feel asleep during work, cut people down with comments, not care about anything generally). The plot, characters, dialgoue and pace all compliment each other in creating a cynical and cutting view of everything around.
The comedy within the book is memorable, particularly the one liners that suprise you in their delivery that makes the you burst out laughing when you least expect.
You will be using lines and ideas from this to amuse people around you who are unfortunate enough not to have read this book for a long time!
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Apathy is, of course, a hysterically funny book, and I can honestly say that I laughed at least once a page; Neilan's wit is razor sharp and, given that both the author and the protagonist have a pervasive (wait for it) apathy about essentially everything, his ability to keep every page fresh is little short of astounding.
Saying that the plot is thin is, to some extent, missing the point; the main idea behind the book is that nothing of any interest ever happens, ever, and so with a character who is fundamentally disinterested in ever doing anything, we shouldn't be surprised if it isn't filled with car chases and explosions (although death and sex play a fairly heavy part, even though Shane doesn't care about either of them). The charm of the book, aside from Shane's constant disaffected narration, is the quality of the characters. Words like "quirky" and "neurotic" get bandied about an awful lot in a positive and endearing sense, but every one of them is so deeply flawed that it's little wonder that everything collapses around Shane as he tries desperately to avoid making a connection with them.
Ultimately, however, the success of the book is to create a strong sense of empathy with Shane's situation. When we consider his surroundings of self-absorbed and self-deceiving people living in a world based on lies and desperation, Shane emerges as the only one with the right response to it. His constant rejection and disinterest, when viewed against the world he's expected to be a part of, isn't, in the end, really that surprising. If you think that's charming, then buy the book. If you don't, then buy it anyway, because it's nothing short of amazing.
Saying that the plot is thin is, to some extent, missing the point; the main idea behind the book is that nothing of any interest ever happens, ever, and so with a character who is fundamentally disinterested in ever doing anything, we shouldn't be surprised if it isn't filled with car chases and explosions (although death and sex play a fairly heavy part, even though Shane doesn't care about either of them). The charm of the book, aside from Shane's constant disaffected narration, is the quality of the characters. Words like "quirky" and "neurotic" get bandied about an awful lot in a positive and endearing sense, but every one of them is so deeply flawed that it's little wonder that everything collapses around Shane as he tries desperately to avoid making a connection with them.
Ultimately, however, the success of the book is to create a strong sense of empathy with Shane's situation. When we consider his surroundings of self-absorbed and self-deceiving people living in a world based on lies and desperation, Shane emerges as the only one with the right response to it. His constant rejection and disinterest, when viewed against the world he's expected to be a part of, isn't, in the end, really that surprising. If you think that's charming, then buy the book. If you don't, then buy it anyway, because it's nothing short of amazing.
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
"I was stealing saltshakers again. Ten, sometimes twelve a night, shoving them in my pockets, hiding them up my sleeves, smuggling them out of bars and diners and anywhere else I could find them. In the morning, wherever I woke up, I was always covered in salt. I was cured meat. I had become beef jerky. Even as a small, small child, I knew it would one day come to this..."
And that just the first paragraph - this book will make you laugh out loud. Do not read on the Tube unless you want people staring at you.
And that just the first paragraph - this book will make you laugh out loud. Do not read on the Tube unless you want people staring at you.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Awesome!
It's one of the funniest, cleverest books I've read in a long time. In one of the praises of the cover, it is compared with "A confederacy of dunces" and I think that, although... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Daniel from the River
Bizarre, witty and highly recommendable
Shane's not too keen on his job, nor much else in life for that matter. He opts instead to indulge in his twin obsessions of stealing salt shakers and drinking pitchers of beer. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Book Republik
Amusing, 'laugh out loud funny' may be stretching it
It was good, easy to read, pretty funny in places and well written, despite the poor plot. A really quick read and something nice and light! Read more
Published 10 months ago by rabbitrun
Just terrible
This is quite simply a pointless book with no particular storyline, a fact which is reflected in the poor ending. Read more
Published 19 months ago by small beer
Fight Club Lite
As a couple of previous reviews have mentioned this book is similar in style to Chuck Palahnuik's work. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Mr. D. Maddox
very disappointing
I read the reviews on amazon and thought why not, it seemed an interesting book, got the book and read the reviews on the back, one stood out "crying with laughter".. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Tallulah
Great Read
Read this book. It is one of the very few books I have raved about to anyone that will listen - will you?
Published 22 months ago by M. Daniels
Worth a read
An interesting, funny book that tries a bit too hard at times to be funny. Definitely worth reading, especially if you enjoyed Fight Club - even though this book is ideologically... Read more
Published on 30 April 2010 by Igor Orlowski
Apathy & Other Small Victories
I bought this because I read a blurb that made a reference to the film OFFICE SPACE. That was a clever, funny film by Mike Judge, and whilst I understand why the reference was made... Read more
Published on 31 Jan 2010 by PJM
Slightly disappointing, but worth a read.
I bought this after reading the reviews on this site and after Max Barry plugged it. The book is mildly amusing at times but didn't manage to make me laugh out loud once which was... Read more
Published on 4 Nov 2009 by BH Johnson
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