How Howie Wants You to Read this Book
To say the least, reading The Mezzanine was an admittedly excruciating experience. Honestly speaking, it was quite difficult for me to adjust to reading a book with this premise. A plot, meaningful characters, twists – everything you come to expect from a typical novel, it's all greatly reduced or nonexistent here. I found myself deriving very little enjoyment throughout the first third of the book. Why do I care about what this random guy has to say about milk, which happens to remind him about straws, which happen to remind him about soda cans, which happen to remind him about the entire history of Western everyday-commodity manufacturing? I wanted something to happen. Maybe he'll get in an argument with his coworker, I would think. Maybe he'll find out his dog just died. I was consistently disappointed when nothing of interest sprang up to the reader outside of his thoughts. I really had to just read Howie ramble.
After 1/3 of the book, however, something became much more apparent to me. I gathered that, from the way Howie spoke to the reader, he didn't necessarily want everyone to agree with every single thing he said. I stopped trying to take the book at face value and thought struck a strange balance for my feelings towards Howie. I eventually figured that I either found him really relatable or funny, or completely insufferable. There was no in-between. The sections that I did find relatable (for example, I found that he described the section on earplugs extremely well – the numbing sensation feels cathartic and disorienting, yet very effective in narrowing focus) were among my favorite passages in all the books I have read in recent years. In the sections where he came across as borderline psychopathic and over-the-top (for example, when he nearly loses his mind over paper towels and hand dryers) I learned to not take what he says too seriously and just watch him throw his tantrum, finish, and move on to the next thing. I'm not sure if this book was written with an intention like this, but I got the impression that Baker wrote it so it could appeal to many different people, and serve as a personal experience for every reader. Howie maintains this friendly tone, joking tone throughout the entirety of the book as if you are his pal. I think Baker may have chosen to do this so that whichever point one reader finds relatable or interesting, they are able to enjoy it fully. A specific reader doesn't have to enjoy every section, but for the ones they do, Howie is engineered to treat the reader the same as another who enjoys different sections.
By taking this more subjective approach and looking out for the sections I did enjoy, I found myself liking the book a lot more. I realized that I did many of the same actions and thought many of the same thoughts as him unconsciously throughout my daily routines. It's like I've always thought about these micro-habits and have always had opinions on certain objects that don't affect my everyday life at all. Seeing that they are also shared by another human being was a pleasant surprise. By enjoying the sections I liked and trying not to make judgments on the ones I didn't, I found The Mezzanine to be a uniquely satisfying reading experience.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI find it very interesting that you said "I learned to not take what he says too seriously and just watch him throw his tantrum, finish, and move on to the next thing." I can feel the like sigh in those words, and it's like you've formed your own relationship with Howie. I think that is part of what Baker achieves in this book: the reader and Howie start as total strangers but at the end Howie has confided in you so much and built such trust that no matter where you started you can't help but feel some sort of affection for him, and build a strange fictional relationship.
ReplyDeleteHm, reading your blog post about Howie's narrative, it's really interesting that some of Howie's rambles were interesting to you (and for many other people), even if we're living in very different time periods. It's definitely one of the distinguishing abilities of Baker to be able to describe the thoughts of Howie in a way that makes it really clear and relatable (in addition to narrating a collection of thoughts that are intriguing to a wide range of people).
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that the mezzanine feels less like a dialogue with the character, but more like listening to a rant by the character. I as well feel fairly confident that this was intentional , but I do agree that this was very difficult to read at times. Sometimes when I saw the little number indicating a footnote, I would sigh. It is intimidating to see a multiple page footnote coming off the word 'staplers.' But I also think that in the end the book changed the way I looked at things and was quite fun.
ReplyDeleteThis post is very true. I often found it, for lack of a better word, excruciating to get through The Mezzanine at first. I started to like the book more when I started looking for examples in Howie's writing that I personally related to. What was even more fun for me was trying to make observations and analogies and think in the same way Howie did about technology, which I thought was a really fun aspect of the pastiche assignment.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a really interesting way to approach the book -- it makes a lot of sense to me once I think about it. I also felt that there were certain passages where it was almost impossible to continue reading. Even though I found The Mezzanine intriguing at first, I just found it harder and harder to focus on what Howie was talking about. I wish I thought of this while I was reading, because I think it really would have helped me get through the book better.
ReplyDeleteI would even say that Howie/Baker's "insufferable" qualities also have something to do with my affection for them--we get to "know" Howie over the course of this book, and while we're not maybe as enthusiastic as he is to follow all of these digressions (did you NOT "shout it out" when he implored you to yell "Perforation!"?), there is this sense of "there he goes again," with an eyeroll. "That's SO Howie, to rant about hot-air dryers!" At times Baker's prose seems to WANT to exasperate the reader; we really can't believe this footnote KEEPS GOING on the NEXT PAGE and the PAGE AFTER THAT. But we definitely get the sense that it would be "typical" of him to do so, and that means we "get" his style and approach and personality on some level. The character is reflected in the prose style, and that character is alternately exasperating and, much as we might not want to admit it, "Interesting."
ReplyDelete