Best Behavior

by Noah Cicero

BEST BEHAVIOR, the new novel by Noah Cicero, is his boldest work yet. As the subject matter becomes increasingly autobiographical, the landscape more bleak, its impact is blunt, brutal, but somehow still hilarious. This is the literature of of living in a world where nothing is right—a temple to capitalism with no room for any kind of human spirit—and, despite everything, trying to find some way to deal with it; then eventually failing. BEST BEHAVIOR might be the truest story ever told.

Genres: Fiction, The United States Of America, Literature, American, Novels

304 pages, Paperback

First published March 3, 2011

Reviews

[Always Becominging · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic novel in typical Noah Cicero style. More autobiographical than his previous work. The writing seemed very cyclical to me, the narrator would go off on tangents and eventually cycle back to the main action of the story, the story itself came full circle. Great document of a moment in this literary 'scene'. Made Zachary German seem really crazy to me. My only complaint is the copy-editing, step your game up Civil Coping Mechanisms

[Xian Xian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like this review will piss people off. I didn't really love this, I liked it, but I just couldn't wait to finish it. Noah Cicero was introduced to me through the Other People podcast and I really enjoyed that episode.

So what I did like about this novel, well it's pretty much what the narrator wanted to do. The novel that defines a generation. The generation of young people who are jobless, lonely, obsessed with drinking and drugs, and kind of just depressed about their dreams that they've fought so hard to achieve. So yeah this book is obviously not a happy one. It takes place in two areas, the depressing Youngstown, where people seem to accept their misfortune and New York, where everything seems so happy but it's all a facade. It's all about being unhappy with what you have and never being happy with whatever you get.

Everyone seems so satisfied with their filled wallets and the temporary spots of fame that will later be forgotten in a few years. Struggling writers that work for the art but feel like life is pointless, they secretly desire fame, but feel that it will corrupt it. Men and women search for each other, most of the time they're drunk, but out of loneliness, they look for their presence and their attention. However, they push away later, because everything is just pointless in life. The numbing feeling of boredom and isolation.

The book is pretty similar to Tao Lin, but the writing style is similar to the minamalistic prose, maybe a morph of Tao Lin and Haruki Murakami. I might be horribly wrong, but I'm writing this review two or three days after I finished it. So the thoughts I had for this book are slowly running away from my grasp. I have read Tao Lin before and he is definitely an influence, but I feel like Noah's writing is more like the Thinker, the guy that constantly thinks of the politics and the societal ideas that seems to be the mechanic behind everything in our lives.

I liked it but there were some things that bothered me. Noah kind of has a weird obsession with Asian girls and the main character sees them all as cute, little, sexy girls to the point of objectification, especially when it came to the sex scenes. It kind of annoyed me, That was really the only thing that bothered me, the Asian fetish thing going on. I am of mixed race, I have a Latino and African American mother (she's biracial) and a Chinese father. Like me, some of the female characters in the novel are also mixed with Asian. There "Asianness" was so objectified to the point where there were just there for the main character to have sex with and be depressed with.


Despite that annoyance, the novel was fairly comedic, yet intelligent. Some political things thrown in with satire and drunk comedy. Most of the novel was pretty fun to read, some parts were so achingly dreary. Unfortunately reality is pretty damn sad. I guess I started off with the wrong Noah Cicero novel, I will be reading more of his work. I just had mixed feelings for this one.

Rating: 3/5

[Scarlet Cameo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Más un 3.5, pero tarde mucho en decidirme a leer este libro y estoy deprimida en el sentido no médico, así que...well que sea 4

-RTC-

[Ryan Bradford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great stuff here. I was initially curious about this book cuz I heard it was a thinly-veiled recount of Cicero's travels to NY to get interviewed by Nylon Magazine (along with a bunch of familiar faces if you pay attention to Muumuu House/Tao Lin). So, while I was hoping for maybe a tabloid-style, dishing on people who are more famous than me, I found a very hilarious, honest, and heartbreaking memoir. Cicero's barely tries to hide his contempt and boredom with the people he surrounds himself with, and in turn, provides some really great to the modern state of writing.

[Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were times while reading Noah Cicero’s Best Behavior that I felt like I might be reading a less insane, more introspective Bukowski. Yeah, I know—saying someone writes like Bukowski has almost become meaningless, a kind of anti-populist currency that people tend to squander without much thought. But there are some Bukowskian moments in this book. Take for example the last few paragraphs of the foreword:

"But there are consonants between the generations that must be recognized, everybody from every generation shits, eats, needs shelter, has sex, and doesn’t enjoy when bad things happen.
So the questions are:
How do they shit, how do they inhabit those shelters, how did they have sex and respond to bad things. I guess those are the questions, and here is the really long answer:"

And answer he does. In fact, another way that Cicero’s Bad Behavior resembles Bukowski (aside from it being auto-biographical fiction) is the sparse, linear plot of the “novel.” In fact, the plot is more of a time-line on which the author hangs poignantly witty vignettes and pleasing bizarre character sketches. And each is an attempt to answer the question, how do they shit, eat, inhabit shelters, and have sex? Some of these vignettes are gold, as the characters run the gamut on socio-political leanings and bents.

But taken as a whole, Best Behavior doesn’t read like a novel. It’s more like the personal travelogue of a journey—yes, to NYC—but more importantly, a journey inward. A journey in which the author explores his place or lack thereof, as it turns out, in a self-aggrandizing literary scene and increasingly cannibalistic sub-culture.

There’s some beautiful writing here.

"Walk to the beach first. There was an ocean. It was large and blue. The wind hit me hard. Loved the wind. There was no wind in the city. Feeling the wind was good."

That kind of taut, pared down language hits like a low blow, a knot in the bowels. Dare I say, it’s Bukowskian in tone if not sentiment? And there’s plenty more where that came from. Plenty more.

Admittedly, Best Behavior was my first exposure to Cicero, and frankly, I’m impressed. More than impressed, truth be told. I now feel certain I’ll be spending some time with Cicero’s earlier works. And I’m looking forward to it. (4 stars)

[J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely amazing, sad, and hysterical all at the same time. The narrator here has the same trouble that the narrator of The Insurgent has--trying to figure out how to exist in late-Capitalism, where day to day life is defined by a feeling of disconnect and unease. Unlike that narrator, though, this one finds no way out. In fact, rather than follow the Kerouac example, this narrator rejects the Beats entirely. What is unsaid by the characters is much more important than what they say, and at one point a character even asks another for the definition of irony, a move which is, in itself, ironic. Make sure to read the epilogue, as well as the introduction, as they deepen the blurring of the boundaries between author and narrator. Recommended.

[Adam McPhee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really liked this.

I tried to remember the first time I read each book. I was still in high school when I read The Sun Also Rises and On the Road. They made me very excited about life. The books assumed that life was really great and that happiness was awesome. I learned recently that much of the 20th Century's happiness was caused by the industrial use of oil, natural gas, and coal. Which led to a food surplus. Which meant these old great novels, where the reader is supposed to assume that the zeitgeist is creating all this new happiness, it is actually false and that many of the books of the 20th Century can be shelved under, “Massive Oil use and its Effects on Humans.”


Amanda didn't know what to do with her life. That phrase was said a lot this past decade. People back in the day didn't do things with their lives. They went where the jobs were. They went to the coal mines, to the factories, to the good soil. But the world had changed in the last 50 years. We had choices now. We could choose what type of job we wanted to do. This was unusual to humans. Perhaps as unusual to the tribes of Northern Europe when the Romans showed up and said, “Look, we need organization, laws, and ownership.” The Northern Europeans stared them and stumbled through it for 1000 years before getting it right.
Our parents didn't know what to do with us. They didn't have a choice either. Most of them went to the areas with jobs and took the first one they could get, and worked their way up to management. Even if they were white collar, the same thing applied, they went where the jobs were. They took the job and worked to get raises.
Things were different now.
Now, in that strange place called America a person could choose what their role in society would be. But we didn't think about it as a role. We thought about as, “How we want to live.” We didn't discuss roles; it was too Catholic, too medieval. Instead of role we had status and prestige; instead of a job being what a human did to benefit their society, it became a psychological symbol of status. People wanted to become lawyers because prestige and money went along with it. People wanted to become social workers and school teachers because that would represent they had some money but were getting the money from helping people. People wanted to become businessmen for money to buy impressive things. People wanted to become managers of restaurants, auto-body shops, hotels, and Walmarts because that would show they were in a position of power and it supplied enough money to buy houses and feed the children. And of course there was still the rabble. The rabble worked the low paying jobs, trying to feed themselves and their children. Even though they were poor and had little opportunity to become white collar there were still many programs to get them to become nurses, truck drivers, construction workers and auto-mechanics. Because the new cars were so complicated the job of auto-mechanic became a job that paid well and even had a little prestige. One would notice that I omitted the job of doctor. My generation gave up on the dream of being a doctor several years back. Going to medical school was too expensive even for white collar children, so America began to import doctors from India and South America where medical school was much cheaper. The ideal of a doctor being a person that helps somehow disappeared from the American landscape. Instead it got turned into a money-making device and turned off would be doctors, instead opting out for social worker jobs and nursing. People began to see doctors as agents of insurance and pill companies and not people trying to cure the sick. The role of the doctor was lost in America, and India with its billion people was glad to send us some of theirs to replace our lost doctors.



“Zombies,” I said in monotone voice.
“Yeah, man, zombies. Like people are in a building and they are trapped with zombies.”
“How about a movie about 30 normal people trapped in a high school with machines and a million dollars.”
“Then what?”
“Then everyone kills each other for the money.”
“That would be dumb.”
“How about this, we call the movie State of Nature. The movie has a godlike creature who has a deal for humanity. The godlike creature has a resource that will allow everyone to drive and transport goods and grow more food than they ever dreamed of. But there's a catch after three generations the resource will run out and their entire civilization will collapse. Now it won't matter to them because they will be dead. But their great great grandchildren will die of starvation and violence because the resource will run out and all their motorized vehicles will stop running.”
“I don't think anyone would make that deal.”
“You don't think so?”
“No, of course not.”

[Bob Comparda · Rating 4 out of 5]

About a writer from Youngstown, Benny, who travels to New York to be interviewed for a magazine and to hang out with his writing friends. This reminded me a lot of Kerouac, not in style, but in that it felt extremely autobiographical, and the characters in the novel seemed like versions of his real life friends with changed names. Lots of social and political commentary here, most of the conversations involve politics/government, spirituality/religion, or literature. The narrator's thoughts poke fun at the oddness of our society, and how he feels like an outsider. Being a group of friends, there's also a good amount of hilarious/goofy banter as well.

[Maddy]

this was the first book i checked out from my new college library :) i think i checked it out from my old college library in 2012 and returned it without having opened it when it was due six weeks later. at this library it’s not due until december 24th, which is four months from now, which seems so crazy. when i saw that i was entitled to keep it for four months, i said “welcome back to college, dang,” to the people at the check-out desk. the copy i checked out from this school is much thinner than the one i checked out from my old school, which motivated me to try harder this time.

i imagine like a hot guy who’s kind of mean lending me his copy of this book like “this is the real shit… this is real” and i mostly read it because i want him to like me lol

i like the books sense of humor. i like the way benny gives other characters’ personal histories and a couple of good stories about them when introducing them, and sometimes even more when they appear subsequent times. i like books where everything everyone does reminds you of something they did a different time, and i like books where the narrator takes a stance of “explaining” things to the reader, as opposed to playing it cool like the reader isn’t there.

sometimes the characters in the book seem like a room full of fucked little tops, spinning and crying, and benny leads you between all the tops and you can’t really talk to them because they’re in their own little fucked spinning world, he can just explain each one to you and have you look at it for a second before you move on to the next one.

many times he describes people as having “no hobbies,” or nothing that makes them happy except sex and drinking, or ‘she watched a lot of television and had no political opinions.’ funny, strong, evocative way to describe fucked ppl. boredom seems key… describing states of boredom in a way that is fun to read seems like an impossibly advanced magic spell… sense of humor is potentially an in (??????)

i like that the book has overt political ideals. i’m remembering from “mfa vs nyc,” which i don’t remember that well anymore, someone making a point about american literary fiction being purposefully not “a fiction of ideas” and instead just “gritty” (if white) or “cultural” (if non-white) detail porn. i like that the book is self-conscious about making sure it’s concrete in time as a document of 2008, even though it came out pretty soon after that, and people often tell you to shy away from “instantly dated” type of contemporary details in the interest of “timelessness.”

there’s something about the writing style that i feel mixed towards, or oscillation, or something, seems uneven maybe. i love sentences like “I’m 28, he’s like 26,” and and feel unfond of sentences like “Sarah grew to love the child.” a certain urge to clean out turns of phrase like ‘grew to’ and gobble up ones like ‘like’. quotidian-ass.

seems tragic (for me) that noah cicero is describing our generation as having a lot of sex, lol… the refrains about ‘our generation’ are part of the thesis of the book, and i like them generally and i feel excited and refreshed that the book feels entitled to make them instead of being on the usual ‘in the particular lies the universal’ tip, but they do sometimes derail me into thoughts like “is this true of me… how true is this of the people i know… is he just saying this or what”.. he risks alienating me if any of the grand sweeps ring untrue.. seems cool to be risky (??????)

lol, imagine if i ended a novel "(??????)"

there is a background program that runs when i read books like this, called “no one on the internet will ever like me”

even though i said i liked that the book was political, i skipped the long political monologue by tom the publisher when benny first gets to new york. i thought “oh god” when i looked at the first page-long paragraph of it, then skipped until he was done talking.

i know the book is supposed to be about alienation but especially after he gets to new york, and seems to have things like cool friends, professional success, a well of creativity inside his soul, girls who are interested in him, i feel an enhanced sense of my loneliness, like i’m losing compared to him, lol, ugh

the paragraphs describing john walters are some of my favorites in the whole book. he is the funniest character. i enjoyed the paragraphs describing hu chin too, these autobiographical books by people who know each other are fun…

hey this book was surprisingly dope. gave me feelings of wanting to chastise myself about my life. i feel that i have already made irreversible decisions so that i would never “qualify” for this book. i wonder what makes me compare myself to it so obsessively…? prob mainly my vague knowledge of these ppl’s scene, their young success, the conflation of the (good) work and their (cool) lives. i hide all of them on facebook because they make me feel bad. the book made me feel kinda good though. i read it in one day which is pretty exceptional for me. theres something very compelling about these books to me, i always read them fast and start talking like them after. idk… maybe theres dignity coming to me someday but for tonight i need to go to bed to wake up early and have my picture taken for my new college even though i have a mean zit coming in wah wah wah

[Tim Larson · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's about millenials and how nothing has meaning. It's alright. Fun to read.

[Piesito · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me ha gustado, no puedo decir lo contrario.

[Joan Planells · Rating 4 out of 5]

Que no us enganyin. El “Best Behavior” de Noah Cicero no és una novel·la. Pot semblar-ho, però si un se’l mira de prop, no ho és. Sí, hi ha algun personatge, li passen algunes coses, però tot plegat és una excusa per a que Cicero connecti reflexions, impressions i idees sobre la seva vida i el context en el que viu.

Benny Baradat és el protagonista. Un alter-ego de l’autor que hi comparteix origen, edat, professió i, se suposa, molts més aspectes de la vida. Costa, de fet, imaginar-se què pot haver-hi de fictici en el recompte. Formalment, la “novel·la” relata un petit fragment de la vida de Baradat, un jove que s’apropa a la trentena, té ja cinc llibres publicats, però segueix treballant a un cafeteria i barbacoa.

Ressenya completa, aquí.

[crowjonah]

okay behavior

[Jeremy Maddux · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite Cicero book. It's not a 'multilayered extravaganza', nor is it a 'mosaic novel of different American cultures' or any of that crap that a book critic would ordinarily dream up. It's just solid writing that is Zen in its simplicity.

We see many different facets of American behavior, each one equally as stunning as the next in its own way. We have Amanda crying as she writes checks to pay the bills. Fresh from earning a Masters Degree, she has emerged as a force in the white collar class, and the epiphany of her newfound responsibilities is enough to intimidate her as she realizes she grew up around mostly blue collar influence.

Then we have the old lady on the bus as Benny Baradat travels to New York for a photoshoot/interview feature for a popular alternative magazine. She regales Benny with stories of how picaresque and ideal her life once was until her husband, the love of her life died and she and her daughters 'dropped out' to do drugs to ease their pain. She's so sex starved that out of sympathy, Benny offers to finger her on the bus. The beautiful thing is that he follows through on his promise, despite the fact that he's not remotely attracted to her. A sad old woman and a sad young man, connecting through pleasureless sex is such an alien panacea for sorrow, but it works beautifully on the page.

There's The Big Smooth, a man with a taste for whiskey and a temper to match who has plenty to go around in both the height and weight department, but whom everyone loves, like one of those 'characters around town' which we've all known at one time or another.

Then there's Tom White, who greets Benny upon his arrival in New York and proceeds to diagnose the American sickness better than any psychotherapist, sociologist or author (except for Cicero, giving him lines, I suppose) has ever done. You'll just have to trust me that Tom White succinctly measures up everything that's wrong with America in roughly one chapter, but none of it is practical or applicable by anyone in politics.

Petra is the last fascinating character we meet in this fascinating masterwork of angst and ennui visited early upon a generation that is too self aware to ever really accept the mechanics of any given situation.

I would mention as a bonus that either right before or after the scene with Amanda realizing her newfound white collar identity, there is a really convincing argument laid out by a drunken female friend for Monopoly being one big power grab of sexual status. I couldn't argue with Marissa's logic by the end of that chapter, and I was sober when I read it.

[BeccaAudra Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was published last year, and reading it, it felt very current, very internet motivated. Lines like, 'the television notifies you what to wear and eat. (p.109). I had moments of empathy, ''Marissa screamed, FUCK YEAH! MONOPOLY!'' I was terrified of Monopoly' (P.49). This felt very accurate. The way he introduces each character with a short paragraph explaining their demographic, their way of life and philosophy, if they had any, was initially amusing, and then saddening. My favourite bit was page 144. I found this music reference hilarious: 'Lin's hair was long. She looked older, her face wasn't so innocent. Cat Steven's 'Wild World' played in my head.' (p.160). I liked the randomness of the sex scene on the bus, it was like the sort of thing that played with crossing the line of what we expect from human behaviour. I enjoyed the footnote and epilogue.

[Álvaro Delineante · Rating 2 out of 5]

No seré yo quien critique la labor y las publicaciones de Pálido Fuego, pero va siendo hora de que alguien le diga que su línea editorial -excelente- queda reducida a nada si cuenta con unas traducciones tan pésimas. En este caso, la traducción no es de Jose Luis Amores, pero en mi opinión de mierda, tengo la sensación de que es muy floja, como sucede con el resto.
Con este libro me ha ocurrido como con otros leídos de la editorial, llega un momento que me chirría tanto lo que estoy leyendo que me pongo de mala hostia y mi valoración de la novela cae en picado. Uno dice: es culpa de la novela, que es una mierda; ok, podría ser. Diría que es una jodida basura ahora mismo. No obtante, no estoy totalmente convencido de ello.

Que haga un crowdfunding o algo, pero a este paso compraré solo lo que edite en castellano.
Igual solo es una impresión mía. ¿Alguien más en la sala?

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a book concerned with disconnection and living daily in a world that seems to have had the life drained out of it, Cicero brings out some surprisingly beautiful moments. Yeah, our world is crushed at the same time that is capable of functioning endlessly that way. No, we have no idea what to do about it or perhaps even capability to do anything. However, Cicero finds a human approach within a life lived in such a dehumanized environment. There are some wonderful images and some absolutely dynamite lines. I definitely dug the book.

[Jesús · Rating 5 out of 5]

Después de pasarme todo el invierno leyendo a Cicero, desde de 'The Humar War' (2003) a 'Go to work an do your job. Care for your children. Pay your bills. Obey the law. Buy products' (2013), creo que 'Best Behavior' es su mejor novela, aquella en la que consigue componer un relato reconocible de su generación y en la que mejor encuentra el equilibrio entre la biografía, la filosofía y la política, entre el existencialismo y el aburrimiento, entre la frustración y la belleza fea de lo cotidiano, entre la fast-food y el trabajo basura.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's when author Noah Cicero breaks from political motivated structure --even though I truly love those sentences -- that he connects with people, their pain, and their desire to feel something. In that Best Behavior glides to be one of his best pieces of work. From fingering a girl on the bus to not telling a girl she's pretty because she expects it that huma nature and the longing that defines us as that Best Behavior cannot be missed.

[Damion · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book. When you read Noah Cicero, you feel like you are reading great fiction like Hemingway or Bukowski. I loved the descriptions of working in the chain restaurants, and love how living in Youngstown Ohio is contrasted with living in New York. He has an uncanny eye as a writer. Highly recommended. You won't be able to put the book down.

[Dan McGrady · Rating 4 out of 5]

My introduction to alt-lit (not including some VICE articles by Tao Lin).

This was great. The intro referencing other authors who defined a decade (norman mailer, hunter s thompson etc) or era is what drew me in. One of the best overviews of the hipster/over-educated but unemployed urban culture that exists today.

[Carmen Daza Márquez · Rating 2 out of 5]

El autor es bueno, eso es innegable, y su poder de observación es también indiscutible. Pero le falta distancia y perspectiva, además de no saber muy bien a qué carta quedarse: es parte de los desencantados pero no del todo, quiere integrarse en el grupo pero al mismo tiempo distinguirse de él. Mucha nada para tan poco libro.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oddly charming and graphic and depressing.

I charged through it because I'm not sure how long I could live in Cicero's world without becoming angry. Or sad. Or . . . I dunno. Whatever emotions normal people experience.

[Jonny Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

pretty dope

["Hipster" · Rating 4 out of 5]

A 'poignant' vignette of post-Bush America.

[Carolyn DeCarlo · Rating 4 out of 5]

a whole lot of hours/pages of mundane leading up to a small assemblage of disappointing experiences in nyc. fantastic epilogue. distracting lack of copy editing from ccm.

[Omar Z · Rating 5 out of 5]

*effeminate male voice* loves it!

[Bill Shaner · Rating 4 out of 5]

my comments: http://thingsbillshanerwritesdown.tum...

[Muumuu House · Rating 5 out of 5]

http://muumuuhouse.com/nc.fiction2.html

[Bernie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buen libro, tras realizar un detenido análisis. Novela con un estilo especial y alternativo.