Makeout

by Michael J. Seidlinger

At the center of Makeout is a fantasy rooted in fantasy itself. An archetypal student drives home from college, using his second-hand camera to film the “American experience” for his agoraphobic sister. There are two versions of the road-trip: the actual experience and the experience as viewed on video. Both versions converge in the imagination to create a third version, one that might show itself in one or both of the others if viewed and experienced with the right (or wrong) intentions. His fantasies are the fantasies of the masses, dreams of exploitation and deviance--the only thing left giving them any hope in a landscape collapsing under the weight of its own imagination.

112 pages, Unknown Binding

About the author

MICHAEL J. SEIDLINGER is the Filipino American author of The Body Harvest, Anybody Home?, and other books. He has written for, among others, Wired, Buzzfeed, Thrillist, Goodreads, The Observer, Polygon, The Believer, and Publishers Weekly. He teaches at Portland State University and has led workshops at Catapult, Kettle Pond Writer's Conference, and Sarah Lawrence. You can find him at michaeljseidlinger.com.

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

You better hope that you got one of the 50 copies of this while they were available, because you're going to want to read this one. I suppose you might get a chance to read someone else's copy, or this could somehow become available in a less limited form, but I wouldn't chance it. It is a fitting companion to "My Pet Serial Killer" but is at the same time, something else entirely. A guy takes a roadtrip home from his first semester at school and makes a film of the trip for his agoraphobic sister. Only, someone else, just ahead of him, is apparently making a film of a parallel but much darker road trip and leaving tapes for the guy to find...a film that strangely also parallels the guys darker fantasies. The book is dark, enthralling, and strikes me as something Ed Wood would have loved to have made if the censors wouldn't have just executed him outright. You really better hope you didn't miss your chance at this.

[Michael Seidlinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is not at all pleasant making out with yourself.

But I wouldn't know. Nope. No self-love here.

[Corynn Robinnson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m not exactly sure what I just read. It took a really long time to finish - and I have to admit I skipped to the end after a while.

Sadly I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I didn’t care for the writing style, the content, any of it really.

The plot was a great idea- the execution just didn’t do it for me.