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revisins's review
5.0
Courtesy of the Goodreads First Reads program and Viking Publishing Ron Currie Jr’s latest Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles now graces my bookshelves. The book is a postmodern delight of our shared modern times. It is a deceptively simple book that unpacks its message and themes of reality, perception, and the concept of truth within grief in a kaleidoscopic swirl of a story.
If you prefer your stories to be linear and your characters likable, relatable, or just altogether able—one, you probably don’t enjoy most postmodern lit and would not pick up this book—and two…just look elsewhere. This is a story that escapes easy description and genre labels. Many will view this book as “literary fiction” a lofty and redundant description that is tossed onto material that people so that it becomes more precious. This is not a precious story. It’s grimy and gnarly. It plays like a rom-com gone wrong where Ferris Bueller after an extended alcoholic jag is the lead.
The book feels autobiographical, but the opening pages and dedication throw everything away and you have little choice but to accept the story turns as they come. Because if you like stories more simply because they are based on true events—Currie has some words for you to read.
There are no chapter headings. There are hardly chapters to speak of really—just a collection of fragmented thoughts, vignettes, and scene descriptions that cohere into a book that will challenge you at almost every page turn. This book may become standard reading in college classrooms as it shows how to be creative within the “mundane” associations of life.
To describe the plot would do the book and the inherent reading pleasure a grand disservice. Except to say the book tracks the rise and fall of the author’s avatar, appropriately named Ron Currie Jr, in the romantic, social, familial, and private aspects of his life. You know how the story ends before you get forty pages into the novel—and it just motivates you to read all the more.
If you have the opportunity to read the book—please do—at least twice. If you have the chance to buy the book—please do—twice. Understand that a book like Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles may not be your typical beach read or flip through bestseller—think twice before ignoring it on the shelf. Second chances don’t come all that often—this story will only remind of that.
[b:Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles|15811580|Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles|Ron Currie Jr.|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1351284917s/15811580.jpg|21536844]
If you prefer your stories to be linear and your characters likable, relatable, or just altogether able—one, you probably don’t enjoy most postmodern lit and would not pick up this book—and two…just look elsewhere. This is a story that escapes easy description and genre labels. Many will view this book as “literary fiction” a lofty and redundant description that is tossed onto material that people so that it becomes more precious. This is not a precious story. It’s grimy and gnarly. It plays like a rom-com gone wrong where Ferris Bueller after an extended alcoholic jag is the lead.
The book feels autobiographical, but the opening pages and dedication throw everything away and you have little choice but to accept the story turns as they come. Because if you like stories more simply because they are based on true events—Currie has some words for you to read.
There are no chapter headings. There are hardly chapters to speak of really—just a collection of fragmented thoughts, vignettes, and scene descriptions that cohere into a book that will challenge you at almost every page turn. This book may become standard reading in college classrooms as it shows how to be creative within the “mundane” associations of life.
To describe the plot would do the book and the inherent reading pleasure a grand disservice. Except to say the book tracks the rise and fall of the author’s avatar, appropriately named Ron Currie Jr, in the romantic, social, familial, and private aspects of his life. You know how the story ends before you get forty pages into the novel—and it just motivates you to read all the more.
If you have the opportunity to read the book—please do—at least twice. If you have the chance to buy the book—please do—twice. Understand that a book like Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles may not be your typical beach read or flip through bestseller—think twice before ignoring it on the shelf. Second chances don’t come all that often—this story will only remind of that.
[b:Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles|15811580|Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles|Ron Currie Jr.|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1351284917s/15811580.jpg|21536844]
jacksontibet's review
2.0
Waaaaaaaaaay too self-conscious...
The fictional version the author creates for himself comes across as a big "but seriously for real bro I'm super smart too" dude-bro, the kind of person that Ron Currie Jr. looks like in his dust jacket pictures (bulging biceps, shaved head, Clockwork Orange T-shirt). The shtick with this book is that Currie creates a thinly (?) veiled fictional version of himself to write a work of fiction that revolves around his fictional character fictionalizing himself and being ultimately persecuted by the world at large because of it. Then trying to redeem himself by being all, "but didn't you dummies like the fictional me better?"
I'm not sure if Currie is really that famous of an author for this to be his great big middle finger to the literary world or if he simply imagines himself to be that important that something like this is deserved. He/his character self really just spends most of the book getting drunk (being an alcoholic), fighting the natives on his unnamed Caribbean island, and whining about/propping up his old/forever flame/ex/childhood friend Emma (seriously, though, the whole time you read this book just put Bon Iver's "For Emma, Forever Ago" on repeat and get in the mooooood). Then sometimes he gets all worried about the SINGULARITY and spews some "didja know?" facts about Ray Kurzweil and machines taking over the stock market. THEME: Life is still worth it, even with all the sadness and pain. Woop-de-doo, bro, but you're not Hemingway.
The book does get a little interesting for the final 1/4 when he goes into hiding/accidentally-on-purpose kills himself, before he gets all self-important and masturbatory about defending his fictional self.
I liked his first book better, but have yet to read the middle one.
The fictional version the author creates for himself comes across as a big "but seriously for real bro I'm super smart too" dude-bro, the kind of person that Ron Currie Jr. looks like in his dust jacket pictures (bulging biceps, shaved head, Clockwork Orange T-shirt). The shtick with this book is that Currie creates a thinly (?) veiled fictional version of himself to write a work of fiction that revolves around his fictional character fictionalizing himself and being ultimately persecuted by the world at large because of it. Then trying to redeem himself by being all, "but didn't you dummies like the fictional me better?"
I'm not sure if Currie is really that famous of an author for this to be his great big middle finger to the literary world or if he simply imagines himself to be that important that something like this is deserved. He/his character self really just spends most of the book getting drunk (being an alcoholic), fighting the natives on his unnamed Caribbean island, and whining about/propping up his old/forever flame/ex/childhood friend Emma (seriously, though, the whole time you read this book just put Bon Iver's "For Emma, Forever Ago" on repeat and get in the mooooood). Then sometimes he gets all worried about the SINGULARITY and spews some "didja know?" facts about Ray Kurzweil and machines taking over the stock market. THEME: Life is still worth it, even with all the sadness and pain. Woop-de-doo, bro, but you're not Hemingway.
The book does get a little interesting for the final 1/4 when he goes into hiding/accidentally-on-purpose kills himself, before he gets all self-important and masturbatory about defending his fictional self.
I liked his first book better, but have yet to read the middle one.
kb_hg's review
3.0
I mean we all thought of what if would be like to fake your own death, but this made me feel yuck. Maybe because I had many in my life die by suicide.I liked the main character but I’m most likely gonna forget about this book
bluenemesis's review
4.0
(Psst - CLICK HERE to enter the giveaway for a chance to win a SIGNED COPY of Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles by Ron Currie, Jr! Enter by the time you go to sleep March 4.)
I couldn't get enough of Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles in the very beginning... and the second half. I am required to admit: There were moments during which I did not enjoy this novel... for a few bits in the the first half. In the end, I loved it, but it was definitely touch and go until Mr. Currie killed himself. Er, his character did. Er, attempted to kill himself.
I'm not spoiling anything, I swear; the impending suicide is laid out in first few pages. Why touch and go? Perhaps the very distinct maleness of the downward spiral, the violence of the sex (a little hard to stomach if you know my background), the one-that-got-away-ness (do all of you boys have a girl (or boy) that got away because you were a moron?) were all less than appealing to me, but then, I wasn't reading as fast as I should have. Had I been, I would have had the beginning's discussion of truth vs fiction fresh in my mind, the play on reality and perception, the relationship of narrator to writer to reader. I mean, the book begins with a comment on the audacity of epigraphs - how can you not end up liking it?
The novel is a continuous commentary on perception vs reality, fiction vs truth, and even the Singularity.(FLPM is actually the second book I've read in the past few months that mentions the singularity, and that mentions Garry Kasparov's defeat by a computer...is that eerie? Or just a normal case of synchronicity?) Anyway, to sum up...(more)
I couldn't get enough of Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles in the very beginning... and the second half. I am required to admit: There were moments during which I did not enjoy this novel... for a few bits in the the first half. In the end, I loved it, but it was definitely touch and go until Mr. Currie killed himself. Er, his character did. Er, attempted to kill himself.
I'm not spoiling anything, I swear; the impending suicide is laid out in first few pages. Why touch and go? Perhaps the very distinct maleness of the downward spiral, the violence of the sex (a little hard to stomach if you know my background), the one-that-got-away-ness (do all of you boys have a girl (or boy) that got away because you were a moron?) were all less than appealing to me, but then, I wasn't reading as fast as I should have. Had I been, I would have had the beginning's discussion of truth vs fiction fresh in my mind, the play on reality and perception, the relationship of narrator to writer to reader. I mean, the book begins with a comment on the audacity of epigraphs - how can you not end up liking it?
The novel is a continuous commentary on perception vs reality, fiction vs truth, and even the Singularity.(FLPM is actually the second book I've read in the past few months that mentions the singularity, and that mentions Garry Kasparov's defeat by a computer...is that eerie? Or just a normal case of synchronicity?) Anyway, to sum up...(more)
jelek86's review
2.0
I was really excited when I found this book on the new fiction shelf at my local library. I loved Everything Matters!, but I honestly didn't enjoy this novel, at all. I came as close as I have ever been to putting a book down 100 pages in when I gagged a little bit on this disgusting line: "With my heart squashed again like a kitten in a crush video..."
I guess my main problem with it is the same problem I have with a lot of modern, popular storytelling: there is a disturbing lack of hope in the telling of the story. (Sure, there is this strange yearning for the Singularity, but even those ramblings are laced with a fear of the unknown.)
Currie's character also seems to be this stereotypical "macho writer," who is an unbelievable lover, an unbelievable lush, and an uncontrollable narcissist. For this type of story to work, I need a main character who is motivated by a little more than just sexual attraction to his middle school sweetheart (who is painted as another stereotype: the quietly beautiful, confidently aloof, sex-crazed, on-again-off-again lover).
I'm also not really sure what all the "truth or Truth" hype is about, although the shining moment of the novel does come in its final pages, when Currie's character presents his monologue about the value of fiction to a courtroom full of people who are pissed off that his novel was not actually a memoir.
I guess my main problem with it is the same problem I have with a lot of modern, popular storytelling: there is a disturbing lack of hope in the telling of the story. (Sure, there is this strange yearning for the Singularity, but even those ramblings are laced with a fear of the unknown.)
Currie's character also seems to be this stereotypical "macho writer," who is an unbelievable lover, an unbelievable lush, and an uncontrollable narcissist. For this type of story to work, I need a main character who is motivated by a little more than just sexual attraction to his middle school sweetheart (who is painted as another stereotype: the quietly beautiful, confidently aloof, sex-crazed, on-again-off-again lover).
I'm also not really sure what all the "truth or Truth" hype is about, although the shining moment of the novel does come in its final pages, when Currie's character presents his monologue about the value of fiction to a courtroom full of people who are pissed off that his novel was not actually a memoir.
lindasdarby's review
1.0
This book was terrible. After 10 pages I thought it might be okay. 50 pages into it I decided the main character was a jerk alcoholic and his girlfriend was selfish and didn't really love him. It was so dark. I skimmed the rest of the book. Why? I'm not sure. I feel like I need to apologize to myself for staying up until midnight reading this garbage. The chapter on computers taking over the world were skimmed over quickly. The chapters about his father dying were sad and the chapter about him, his girlfriend, his fake suicide frustrated me. I feel like you need to like the main character in a book - at the least - to enjoy a book. This book got rave reviews. I am beginning to wonder if I can trust reviews. This book well and truly sucked the life out of me for a few hours don't let it do the same to you.
literatetexan's review
4.0
Ron Currie Jr. has been compared to Kurt Vonnegut elsewhere, and I suppose that Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles is his most Vonnegut-ish book. I didn't enjoy it as much as Everything Matters, but I did like it better than God Is Dead.
The protagonist, who is also named Ron Currie Jr, is in love with a woman named Emma. In fact, that might be understating his feelings for her. He actually seems obsessed with her. They have an on-again, off-again romance over the course of the years.
He also spends a lot of time getting drunk on a Caribbean island and getting into fights. He has affairs with other women to try to forget about Emma. And he spends a considerable amount of the novel contemplating the Singularity and what it's going to mean to his love life and the love lives of everyone around him.
It's beautifully written, and I related to Currie's attitudes and thoughts in more instances than I'm entirely comfortable with. Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles is one of my favorite books I've read this year, although I read it immediately after re-reading Everything Matters, which affected me more on every level.
The protagonist, who is also named Ron Currie Jr, is in love with a woman named Emma. In fact, that might be understating his feelings for her. He actually seems obsessed with her. They have an on-again, off-again romance over the course of the years.
He also spends a lot of time getting drunk on a Caribbean island and getting into fights. He has affairs with other women to try to forget about Emma. And he spends a considerable amount of the novel contemplating the Singularity and what it's going to mean to his love life and the love lives of everyone around him.
It's beautifully written, and I related to Currie's attitudes and thoughts in more instances than I'm entirely comfortable with. Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles is one of my favorite books I've read this year, although I read it immediately after re-reading Everything Matters, which affected me more on every level.
brookeworm88's review
5.0
Love the fragmented form and the way it adds emotion that a linear story wouldn't. Reminiscent of Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried in the way that the narrator deems fiction more representative of truth than factual events sometimes can.
dessa's review
5.0
Reread March 2017: I originally gave this four stars but I'm bumping it up to five and you can fight me about it. This is one of those books where the synopsis sounds super shady - author writes himself into a novel, fakes his own death, launches his novel onto bestseller lists everywhere - but the honest heart of it just sort of wings you in the head when you try to look away. You know? This is one of maybe five books I regret leaving in storage 5000 kilometers away. Thank god for the library, because I've been trying to ignore the hankering to read this book for probably a year.
lola425's review
4.0
I loved the way the story was told, the back and forth between memories of his father's lingering death, his exploits on the island, his tumultuous relationship with Emma. Just perfectly told. You could feel even through his alcoholic fog, his lack of affect regarding his (many) poor choices, his obsessive desire for the Singularity, Currie's (the character) desire to live and love, regardless of the Capital T truth he claims he is telling. So if Currie's intent (the character or the author) was to sell us on the inevitability and superiority of the Singularity, he's actually done the opposite. Probably could stand to re-read this and pay more careful attention to the sections on the Singularity, it requires more careful thought than I was able to give it.