❤️ loved
this book because...
David Foster Wallace once said “Fiction’s about what it is to be a fucking human being. If you operate, which most of us do, from the premise that there are things about the contemporary U.S. that make it distinctively hard to be a real human being, then maybe half of fiction’s job is to dramatize what it is that makes it tough. The other half is to dramatize the fact that we still 'are' human beings, now. Or can be.”
In this dazzling debut, Pemberton offers both of Wallace’s halves – the forces that make it hard to live in the US right now, and the things we do despite them – in abundance. As we follow the narrator, V, across the country and through various jobs, she describes Tinder, temp work, breakups, hookups, dystopian politics, road trips, memories of a not-so-happy childhood, and moments of soul-nourishing friendship. The book crackles with life, lust, pain, and raw beauty.
-
Loved Most
🥇 Writing 🥈 Emotions -
Writing style
❤️ Loved it -
Pace
🐕 Good, steady pace
1 author picked Still Alive as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
A hero's journey through a dying empire. On the Road for a beaten generation. After V meets Lex, a butch painter, at an underground punk show, they enter a multi-year relationship that ranges from Portland, Oregon, to New York City, and finally Los Angeles, with V's family of origin ever interjecting with dysfunction and neediness. Her brother has retreated into a hodgepodge of Eastern religiosity and their mother's addictions are worsening. Meanwhile her father is busy building a new family, as sunny as V's childhood was grim. Leroy, V's gay best friend, has chosen rural peace, but V can't find…
- Coming soon!
