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Damn, Cliff, I'm both worried and utterly happy at how quickly you've churned out videos this week. Can't believe that this channel has only gotten better!

A story about anxiety where the character takes no risks, seems about right. Nice review, loved the reading. Now I should go take some risks

the duality of a man's haircut

Whenever I watch these videos I need to get a coffee. You’re my coffee companion this morning ☕️

It's a good novel about self-confidence and the ability to become honest with ourselfs and others. I think the author used the character precisely to point out several mistakes that many of us make in the process of growing up. I liked the book and found it amusing in some parts.

Cliff, maybe review some Chekhov short stories(and other great short story writers like Gogol(The Overcoat or The Nose), or Pushkin(Queen of Spades)in the future. Maybe try The Lady with The Dog or my personal favorite The Black Monk. I'm reading Ward No. 6 currently, that's also great. He has tons of great stories. Short stories are satisfying and easy to read, u can read a bunch of them in a short time or one or two a day, when u have don't want to read something that's too long to finish in one sitting.

I like the idea of all art being articulated anxiety (but I’m also slightly stressed by that at the same time)! Sounds like an enjoyable, if frustrating, read.

Love the animated hair -

Great review Cliff! You should check out The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt

Thank you so much for the book and the coffee, Mr. Sargent!

I read "10:04" a number of years ago, and remember it being fairly enjoyable. It definitely felt pretentious at points, but not as bad as this one sounds.

12:57 I vaguely remember hearing James Murphy saying in a podcast that he's friends with Ben Lerner

I read this a few years back and I loved it!

Just finished reading The Topeka School which I enjoy containing the same character Adam and his family set mainly in 1997.

"Go fight a bull!" - a message to all American men.

How about 'Contempt' by Alberto Moravia. I read it when I first moved to Italy and found it very affecting.

I just finished the book and it seemed the same first 20 pages on a loop….I was hoping for some sort of conclusion. It felt like eating a pizza with delicious toppings but no base and at a high end price, which in this case was paid through time.

this video was brilliant. no particular reason why. it was just a terribly, brilliant video.

You nailed it, Cliff. I read this novel upon its release and couldn't understand the rave reviews it was getting.

Brilliant video. Ended up in the hospital after obssessing over your hair changes 10/10

Love your reviews big Cliff! I bought Atomised (having read Submission and Serotonin...)....I think you may like Arthur Machen (A massive influence on Lovecraft!) ✌🏻

Currently in a bit of a reading slump and am considering reading this… hmmm… not sure… Dying to break the slump as it drives me nuts when work or life or nerves or whatever get in the way and I can’t seem to allow myself to settle on anything. Might go to the bookshop and get this. Might not. Great video, but has left me no better decided 😅

I felt the same way about Eduardo Lalo’s “Simone”. Felt just like a professor talking about professors. Non issues. Non crisis. Navel gazing. Astute observations. But not much. Still had fun reading it, but not my thing.

You should cover Chernobyl Prayer by Svetlana Alexievich, it’s such a beautiful and haunting novel

I would HIGHLY recommend Antkind it was a super awesome read at least coming from a newcomer in book culture

Goodwilll taking out the fun in Goodwill shopping. Savers is where it's at!

Your synopsis put me mind of Kerouac's Big Sur. No connection except in my mind. Thank you for this.

Hey Cliff! Fell off the BTF bandwagon but I'm back on it again. I figure you've gotten this question a billion times but have you read any Burroughs? Would you ever review Naked Lunch

Yeah sounds like the kind of book I might read if there weren’t like 500 other more interesting books I might still not read. But now must skim it out of curiosity to see if not reading could be the worst mistake of my life, though it would appear statistically impossible at this point, given my rate of not yet reading only those books I should never have been written in the first place.

I can’t believe you haven’t reviewed Chekhov yet. 😩

Cheers Cliff. Gonna start turning the page man.

Why do Gen-X writers' characters are always so apathetic?

Might give this one a go since it's base in very near where Im from! Im always fascinated to see my hometown framed through the eyes of a foreigner Cheers!

Impressive how you can finish books that are not to your liking. If a book can't keep me interested after 100 pages or tbh an hour of listening, I move to the next one.That does leave me with this unsure feeling like I can't criticize the book, since I didn't finish it. Happened last listening to People We Meet on Vacation(my first "chic-lit" and probably the last) and with The Master and Margarita. Very highly regarded works and all I can say is "too boring"

"I know, I live it everyday."😂

That's a great review Cliff!

I really like your Rust Chole vibe.Do you use any hair product for your hairstyle? Also your channel is awesome.Congrats!

Tim Ferriss impression👌

I’ve actually read this book before. Thanks for doing a review. Please read beelzebubs tales to his grandson

Well this vid brushed aside anxiety rather elegantly

Well this is cringe-inducingly familiar. I stayed for a few days across the street from the Atocha station about 2 months after the 2004 bombing and saw “Guernica” that same week. I’ll add this one to the stack and try to judge it for myself. Thanks as always.

Really sounded like Tim Ferris there Cliff

I just finished this as well. Thought it was pretty OK as well. Doesn’t really take off. But did you compare this to DFW towards the end?!

You make The Passenger sound like a Jason Bourne thriller 😉😉

This man is a legend 🙌🙌🙌

Hey Cliff, Please review The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster! I think you may really enjoy it. Love your reviews! Greetings from Germany

I'm glad to call Raimundo my friend and so glad he won the coffee lottery. Also, this channel just gets better and better. Better than food if you ask me.

this is spot on

Completely non related: I think you'd have fun reading "Tortillla Flat" - John Steinbeck

Having read The Topeka School last year, i can understand why he is lauded but, for me, he was disappointing. Someone really needed to tell Lerner that just because you say the word "language" throughout a book does not mean the message about language is conveyed well. From the one novel, he seems like the kind of guy who, while trying to be truthful and write something with beauty, gets a bit too far up his own ass

Ongo Gablogian

I love your reviews, but this was like a million and one jump cuts. I know it's youtube standard by now, but it does become quite tedious when each sentence is bracketed by cuts.

You one funny dude!

I am that person getting their mfa at Columbia lmao...

This is the first time I've heard Clif mention Franzen. I appreciate that. I picked up The Corrections after hearing talk it was bound to be the "great millennial novel". It was a tome. Just by appearance seemed impenetrable. At this time I was a singer and guitarist in a rock band touring every weekend Thurs-Sun and working with kids at a school during my weekdays. I could not understand for the life of me what was remotely appealing about Franzen's writing. Every character was truly pathetic, many of them despicable, and yet in such an inconsequential manner, like how drygoods tapioca pudding is despicable. His prose was painfully ordinary. There was no dread, no real conflict aside from everyday bullshit we all face. Ugh Franzen

Leaving the Atocha Station was one of the worst novels I have ever read. Incoherent, sloppy, simplistic...

Never before have so many humorous and beautiful sentences been accumulated to produce such a mediocre novel. I kept hoping Adam would overdose on hash and that the novel would just end in mid sentence; it would have been a more interesting ending and an actual innovation.

Self-indulgence and profligacy… hardly a solid starting point

Go fight a bull!!

Uncoupled from what's going on in the world...yawn. I used to like this channel..'Articulated anxiety'...what does that even mean?