Home Land by Sam Lipsyte is genius. Really. Your social commentary doesn’t come much better than this. It’s absurd, and it’s true.
Home Land’s anti-hero, Lewis (or “Teabag” as he has come to be known since the “incident”), is a slob who by his own assessment has failed to live up to his own potential. He “did not pan out”. Annoyed by the phonies who submit over-the-top success stories to his high school alumni newsletter, Lewis decides to write in to the newsletter with the unvarnished truth of his own failings. The book is written as a collection of the rambling submissions that Lewis sends in to the newsletter.
Through each missive to the newsletter, none of which are actually published, we slowly learn the story of Teabag’s life. He also spills the dirt on those other East Valley High School Catamount alumni in the interest of clearing the air. The story leads up to the climactic big reunion, “Time Will Take You On! A Togethering”. That togethering thing killed me.
This book is great. It seems to have had a strange publishing history as well. It was first published in England (it’s an American story written by an American). Then it was released straight to paperback. That’s all I know about that story. Anyway, I have a high school reunion of an impossibly large number of years coming up this very weekend. With luck, it will be nothing like the Togethering of the East Valley Catamounts.
May 22nd, 2005 at 1:49 pm
Let me be the first to commend the fine MC for bringing this book to my attention. I just finished it while on a plane going to a high school friend’s wedding, and I couldn’t look at the people I encountered without thinking of this book. I personally thought the book started out kind of slow, but by about halfway through, it picks up pretty well. And the denouement at the Togethering was one of the best scenes I think I’ve ever read. When Teabag finds himself with the microphone and forced to speak, his ramblings were pure genius. I myself got a lot of mileage out of “Don’t sweat the sweaty stuff” while at my friend’s reception last night.
March 29th, 2006 at 12:03 am
[...] In The Tournament of Books, the book that we read has once again beaten the book that we didn’t, which makes us look much smarter than we are. Our NCAA brackets should look this good. If history is a guide, Home Land by Sam Lipsyte will easily crush that book we didn’t read in tomorrow’s round (our take on Home Land). [...]
May 30th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
[...] New York Magazine asked 61 critics to name the best “under-the-radar” books of the past decade. Of the 60 books listed, we’ve reviewed only one: Sam Lipsyte’s Homeland. The winning author (read the article to find out who won) received two votes — but for different books. The article contains lots of great looking books that you may want to check out. Be the first kid in your area code to pick one up. [...]