Shoplifting from American Apparel

    In the book "Shoplifting from American Apparel", by Tao Lin, an autobiographical novella. It explores communication, morals, solitude, economics, depression, and the unknown future of a young writer. Lin's style of writing is mundane, vapid, very simple and confusing at the same time. Sam, is a young writer living in New York City looking aimless and detached in his life. Just like the reading "Excessivism" by K. Silem Mohammad, I compare their writing styles to be similar where the writing doesn't flow from event to event in a clear progression, but rather wanders from seemingly random point to random point. There's a great deal of elision between sentences and sections. He does this throughout the book, and you see it on the first page when he says:

    Sam woke around 3:30pm and saw no emails from Sheila. He made a smoothie. He lay on his bed and stared at his computer screen. He showered and put on clothes and opened the Microsoft Word file of his poetry. He looked at his email. About an hour later it was dark outside. Sam ate cereal with soy milk. He put things on eBay then tried to guess the password to Sheila's email account, not thinking he would be successful, and not being successful. He did fifty jumping jacks. "God, I felt fucked lying on the bed," he said to Luis a few hours later on Gmail chat. "I wanted to fall asleep immediately but that is impossible. I need to fall asleep. Any second now. Just fall down asleep."

    Several hours are compressed into these short sentences. These elisions contribute significantly to the books fast pace of writing. 

    Sam, is a struggling writer, uncertain of his future. He spends a lot of time on Gmail, at the library, trying to fix his relationships, partying, and stealing. He works in a restaurant to make ends meet, he has no stable living environment. He lives with Sheila in a suburban area in Pennsylvania, and months later he is living in his brothers apartment in Manhattan. Sam like other young adults have no sense of direction, he just seems to take life day by day. I wonder if this played a role in his relationship with Sheila ? As she questions there relationship:

    "I'm trying to get myself to accept that you don't like me as much anymore and aren't interested in ever being with me again," said Sheila. "I feel really frustrated with myself." "We're you angry I didnt write a long email back," said Sam. "I wasn't angry just sad. I shouldn't be sad. I wish I wasn't sad.(17).

    I believe Sam is trying to find himself in this world, and before he can build a relationship with someone he needs to feel secure about himself and his future. He clearly, don't have a problem with the ladies, because they seem to come on to him, and he turns them down. Sam and Luis seem to drift aimlessly in life, have no motivation to do anything, besides being on the computer, playing video games, and talking senseless about meaningless stuff. He says " We are fucked" in a reference of being mentally and morally damaged in some way. " Do you sometimes look up from the computer and look around the room and know you are alone, I mean really know then feel scared," said Luis. (9)

   These readings all send a message to the readers about society, American culture,  and the obsession of things and how they affect people's lives.

   The plot  was uneventful, but the way Lin describes social situations feels very real. This book does a good job of observing life as we live it now, which is hard to do. Not a fan of his writing. I have a problem when the book doesn't go anywhere. I was expecting a better ending.