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Woke Up Lonely: A Novel
“Intricately imagined and timely . . . Maazel is an entertaining writer with a dry, droll sense of humor.” —The New York Times Book Review, Editor’s Choice
Fiona Maazel’s Woke Up Lonely follows a cult leader, his ex-wife, and the four people he takes hostage. It’s about loneliness in America, North Korea, espionage, a city underneath Cincinnati, cloud seeding, and eavesdropping. It’s also a big, sweeping love story.
Fiona Maazel’s Woke Up Lonely follows a cult leader, his ex-wife, and the four people he takes hostage. It’s about loneliness in America, North Korea, espionage, a city underneath Cincinnati, cloud seeding, and eavesdropping. It’s also a big, sweeping love story.
352 pages, Paperback
First published April 2, 2013
34 people are currently reading
2453 people want to read
About the author
Fiona Maazel
8 books70 followersFiona Maazel is the author of the novels LAST LAST CHANCE (FSG, 2008), WOKE UP LONELY (Graywolf, 2013) and A LITTLE MORE HUMAN (Graywolf 2017). She lives in Brooklyn, NY.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 164 reviews
June 19, 2013
So look, Amazon bought Goodreads so they could turn us all into data and capture the elusive beast "discoverability" (a beast in large part created because all the goddamn bookstores were driven out of business by, um, Amazon). Which makes me kind of want to cloak and deny what brings me to a book, right? Just to at least make them work for it. But then for fuck's sake, I often leave little breadcrumb-reviews of how I heard of a particular book for myself, because I do not go out and buy every book I want the very second I want it (if only!), and I will want to remember, many moons hence when I am scrolling through this list, why I to-read-ed something or another. Meaning that refusing to leave myself these notes would be a classic case of cutting off nose to spite face. So no.
And honestly, it's not like the discoverability I will lead Great God Amazon to would be such a surprise—I am a product of my demographic, my location, my habits. Obviously I read what Vice tells me to, what Flavorwire tells me to, what the wonderful authors I love and friends I respect tell me to. Isn't everyone like this? Why did goddamn Amazon have to buy Goodreads, presumably signaling the death of its innocence, its neutrality, and its candor, just to fucking find that out?
Gah, it is so sad and stupid. Whatever.
So look, let me just come right out with it: Hey Amazon Overlords, guess what! I read about this book in Flavorwire (which I love), wherein Heidi Juliavatis (whom I love) is quoted as saying this (which I love):
What do you know? That's three... what's the opposite of a strike? Unstrike? Fine, that's three unstrikes for Fiona, which means I now very very badly want to read this book.
Got that, Amazon Overlords? Now can you please retract your Goodreads purchase since I've gone ahead and solved the problem for you?
Please?
***
For a semi-refutation of part of this review (the part about discoverability being mappable) but a reinforcement of the main thrust of it (argh, Amazon), check out what I wrote about Hidden Cities .
***
Oh, and about Woke Up Lonely itself? This is rather anticlimactic after all that, but it turns out I really didn't like the book at all. Heidi promised me "sound art prose," and this book features nothing of the kind. It features instead a sprawling plot, too many unevenly developed and unlikable characters, some sort of wacky hijinks, international intrigue, heartstring-tugging, and a host of other things that are not what I expected and not what I particularly enjoy. Pretty disappointing.
And honestly, it's not like the discoverability I will lead Great God Amazon to would be such a surprise—I am a product of my demographic, my location, my habits. Obviously I read what Vice tells me to, what Flavorwire tells me to, what the wonderful authors I love and friends I respect tell me to. Isn't everyone like this? Why did goddamn Amazon have to buy Goodreads, presumably signaling the death of its innocence, its neutrality, and its candor, just to fucking find that out?
Gah, it is so sad and stupid. Whatever.
So look, let me just come right out with it: Hey Amazon Overlords, guess what! I read about this book in Flavorwire (which I love), wherein Heidi Juliavatis (whom I love) is quoted as saying this (which I love):
Woke Up Lonely is the novel equivalent of a sonic boom — it builds, it explodes, it leaves your ears, mind, and soul ringing for days. Who else writes sentences like this, who else writes sound art prose that transports a heart-killing story of human frailty, susceptibility, loyalty, and isolation? No one.
What do you know? That's three... what's the opposite of a strike? Unstrike? Fine, that's three unstrikes for Fiona, which means I now very very badly want to read this book.
Got that, Amazon Overlords? Now can you please retract your Goodreads purchase since I've gone ahead and solved the problem for you?
Please?
***
For a semi-refutation of part of this review (the part about discoverability being mappable) but a reinforcement of the main thrust of it (argh, Amazon), check out what I wrote about Hidden Cities .
***
Oh, and about Woke Up Lonely itself? This is rather anticlimactic after all that, but it turns out I really didn't like the book at all. Heidi promised me "sound art prose," and this book features nothing of the kind. It features instead a sprawling plot, too many unevenly developed and unlikable characters, some sort of wacky hijinks, international intrigue, heartstring-tugging, and a host of other things that are not what I expected and not what I particularly enjoy. Pretty disappointing.
July 14, 2013
I can’t think of a book I’ve disliked more than Woke Up Lonely. I’ve left books disappointed, unnerved, irritated or angry that I wasted my time. Woke Up Lonely left me feeling grateful to rid myself of the company of a smiling sadist.
There’s lots of great (and good…even passable) literature that deals with unpleasant, difficult, damaged and flawed characters. There’s just as many worthy works that shine light on tragic, fantastic and far-flung “realities”. I found no emotional or social truth in Woke Up Lonely…it feels like the glimpse into the mind of a sociopath looking into the hearts of men. It’s shocking—and unprecedented in my reading experience—how much contempt author Fiona Maazel has for her creations and, by proxy, her readers.
Admittedly, I never figured out the story’s stylistic locale. The book is tethered to (and utilizes) a very specific moment in U.S. history (2000 and 2005) and world geopolitics: the Bush-year mindset and contemporary world events very much drive story and plot mechanics. However, dialogue, action, character motivations and story elements are so farcical that they could not actually happen in even the most extreme state of fictional hyper-realism. It’s like the Scooby-Doo gang as the leads in Zero Dark Thirty (Zero Zoinks Thirty?). It’s not literary juxtaposition when elements are so incongruous that they undermine and invalidate the other. No one and nothing here is true.
I could go on explicating the broad, unreal characters, the muddy and confusing POV shifts, the nonsensical too-clever-by-half loop-de-loop metaphors and look-at-my-thesaurus dialogue, but it’s really not worth it. I try to judge a work on how well it accomplishes what it’s trying to do. I’m at an complete—unprecedented for me—loss for what Maazel is doing unless it’s to create a book that makes you hate humankind for being human. Whatever charity I can extend to a flawed work withers up in the face of the contempt Maazel exhibits for her characters, her readers and her fellow women and men.
Maazel may well have cut this feeling some with a series of happy endings for the characters. I don’t know…I quit reading on page 270 (out of 320ish) after I saw how she concluded one main character’s story.
Overwritten, self-pleased, misanthropic, emotionally false and contemptuous, Woke Up Lonely’s sole notable attribute may be that it somehow dislikes me more than I dislike it. And I hated Woke Up Lonely.
There’s lots of great (and good…even passable) literature that deals with unpleasant, difficult, damaged and flawed characters. There’s just as many worthy works that shine light on tragic, fantastic and far-flung “realities”. I found no emotional or social truth in Woke Up Lonely…it feels like the glimpse into the mind of a sociopath looking into the hearts of men. It’s shocking—and unprecedented in my reading experience—how much contempt author Fiona Maazel has for her creations and, by proxy, her readers.
Admittedly, I never figured out the story’s stylistic locale. The book is tethered to (and utilizes) a very specific moment in U.S. history (2000 and 2005) and world geopolitics: the Bush-year mindset and contemporary world events very much drive story and plot mechanics. However, dialogue, action, character motivations and story elements are so farcical that they could not actually happen in even the most extreme state of fictional hyper-realism. It’s like the Scooby-Doo gang as the leads in Zero Dark Thirty (Zero Zoinks Thirty?). It’s not literary juxtaposition when elements are so incongruous that they undermine and invalidate the other. No one and nothing here is true.
I could go on explicating the broad, unreal characters, the muddy and confusing POV shifts, the nonsensical too-clever-by-half loop-de-loop metaphors and look-at-my-thesaurus dialogue, but it’s really not worth it. I try to judge a work on how well it accomplishes what it’s trying to do. I’m at an complete—unprecedented for me—loss for what Maazel is doing unless it’s to create a book that makes you hate humankind for being human. Whatever charity I can extend to a flawed work withers up in the face of the contempt Maazel exhibits for her characters, her readers and her fellow women and men.
Maazel may well have cut this feeling some with a series of happy endings for the characters. I don’t know…I quit reading on page 270 (out of 320ish) after I saw how she concluded one main character’s story.
Overwritten, self-pleased, misanthropic, emotionally false and contemptuous, Woke Up Lonely’s sole notable attribute may be that it somehow dislikes me more than I dislike it. And I hated Woke Up Lonely.
April 16, 2014
Man, I hated this book. I've never been one to be down on MFA programs - I have enough friends who teach in them - and I don't see why writing can't be studied and improved like any other skill, but this book is a poster child for a certain kind of pretentious, overly stylized, wanna be hip, all in your head writing that I have heard other people perjoratively associate with MFA programs!
This is parody that is absolutely unfunny, satire that is totally blunt, a love story that will leave you utterly cold, a heavily plotted novel that moves in fits and starts - dragging in places, and rushing in others - and leaves a shawl's worth of loose ends dangling.
Maazel's style is profoundly annoying. She uses a lot of esoteric vocabulary words and disconcerting sentence constructions (lots of times you'll stumble over a sentence that feels like a grammatical mistake or a fragment, only to conclude - upon closer study - that it's technically OK enough, but still irritating). She sets up over a half dozen characters, several intricate plot devices, and a lot of deep backstory, only to leave almost all of it simply hanging until a rush conclusion that leaves most of the novel not making sense. Instead of development of any of these (all rather unlikeable) characters, we get trite yet convoluted meditations on loneliness, the limitations of love, and the State? (yeah, the State). Unfortunately, there's nothing about Maazel's writing that makes you remotely interested in any insights she might have to share on these subjects,
I wanted to quit 100 times. I should have quit. Ugh!!!!
This is parody that is absolutely unfunny, satire that is totally blunt, a love story that will leave you utterly cold, a heavily plotted novel that moves in fits and starts - dragging in places, and rushing in others - and leaves a shawl's worth of loose ends dangling.
Maazel's style is profoundly annoying. She uses a lot of esoteric vocabulary words and disconcerting sentence constructions (lots of times you'll stumble over a sentence that feels like a grammatical mistake or a fragment, only to conclude - upon closer study - that it's technically OK enough, but still irritating). She sets up over a half dozen characters, several intricate plot devices, and a lot of deep backstory, only to leave almost all of it simply hanging until a rush conclusion that leaves most of the novel not making sense. Instead of development of any of these (all rather unlikeable) characters, we get trite yet convoluted meditations on loneliness, the limitations of love, and the State? (yeah, the State). Unfortunately, there's nothing about Maazel's writing that makes you remotely interested in any insights she might have to share on these subjects,
I wanted to quit 100 times. I should have quit. Ugh!!!!
May 15, 2013
Oh man, I wanted to love this book. Sincerely. I love the concepts - exploring loneliness within the context of community - the power dynamics of loneliness between leaders & followers - political conceptions of loneliness (and East vs. West). The idea behind this book is SO strong and interesting.
And yet, the delivery is treacherous to get through. Maazel is a talented writer, no doubt. Amazing imagery, fantastic one liners; but this book was trying to do TOO much. It was mostly confusing, stuck between wanting to be a philosophy book or just fiction, and just chaotic- but not in an intended or satisfying way.
I would have preferred an unpacking of just one of the characters or story lines instead of minimal information about over 10 people with many different plots and chaos.
That being said, I finished it - which I normally don't do when I'm feeling frustrated. That's because I feel so much promise in the ideas behind this book. It made me conceptualize & think about loneliness (and togetherness) in very specific ways...but something important was off. I am so sad to report this!
And yet, the delivery is treacherous to get through. Maazel is a talented writer, no doubt. Amazing imagery, fantastic one liners; but this book was trying to do TOO much. It was mostly confusing, stuck between wanting to be a philosophy book or just fiction, and just chaotic- but not in an intended or satisfying way.
I would have preferred an unpacking of just one of the characters or story lines instead of minimal information about over 10 people with many different plots and chaos.
That being said, I finished it - which I normally don't do when I'm feeling frustrated. That's because I feel so much promise in the ideas behind this book. It made me conceptualize & think about loneliness (and togetherness) in very specific ways...but something important was off. I am so sad to report this!
October 1, 2013
Maazel can write amazing sentences. From the very first page:
"Thurlow had many epithets of notoriety, but this was his least known. Ex-husband. How about: Cult leader. Fanatic. Terrorist. On a bus in D.C., staring her down with those eyes. Not the pellucid blue of men who compel for being unreachable, but the crepuscular blue of day into night, a transition as reliable as it is fleeting and, for these twin qualities, emblematic of the thing you'd love all your life."
When I read that I thought I was in for an amazing book. But then I kept reading, and it continued to get weirder and weirder. This is one of the more oddly structured books that I've ever read. There are long tangents devoted to side characters that didn't hold my interest, and then the thrust of the story, a hostage crisis, is shown in small glimpses. The larger portion of the novel is devoted to the psychology of the two main characters, and I'll admit that they are richly conceived. I just felt that Maazel intentionally kept the reader at arms length with her odd approach to the book's structure. She litters revelations throughout that are just mentioned and left for you to pick up on, and they completely change your perception of the characters relationships to one another. You really don't get a good idea of how deeply flawed both the cult leader, Thurlow, and his ex-wife, Esme, are until half way through the book. From the beginning you know they aren't normal at all, but when you get a long section about their early relationship, as told by Thurlow, you start to see how much they are intertwined and screwed up. I really wish I had been more engaged by "Woke Up Lonely" because the themes are interesting and important, but I was continually put off by what I've been calling the "wonkiness" of the plotting.
"Thurlow had many epithets of notoriety, but this was his least known. Ex-husband. How about: Cult leader. Fanatic. Terrorist. On a bus in D.C., staring her down with those eyes. Not the pellucid blue of men who compel for being unreachable, but the crepuscular blue of day into night, a transition as reliable as it is fleeting and, for these twin qualities, emblematic of the thing you'd love all your life."
When I read that I thought I was in for an amazing book. But then I kept reading, and it continued to get weirder and weirder. This is one of the more oddly structured books that I've ever read. There are long tangents devoted to side characters that didn't hold my interest, and then the thrust of the story, a hostage crisis, is shown in small glimpses. The larger portion of the novel is devoted to the psychology of the two main characters, and I'll admit that they are richly conceived. I just felt that Maazel intentionally kept the reader at arms length with her odd approach to the book's structure. She litters revelations throughout that are just mentioned and left for you to pick up on, and they completely change your perception of the characters relationships to one another. You really don't get a good idea of how deeply flawed both the cult leader, Thurlow, and his ex-wife, Esme, are until half way through the book. From the beginning you know they aren't normal at all, but when you get a long section about their early relationship, as told by Thurlow, you start to see how much they are intertwined and screwed up. I really wish I had been more engaged by "Woke Up Lonely" because the themes are interesting and important, but I was continually put off by what I've been calling the "wonkiness" of the plotting.
May 20, 2013
graywolf is just tearing up the book world this spring and summer with "city of bohane", "translation of dr apelles", "on sal mal lane", "love is power, or something like that", "airmail", "my lesbian husband", "percial everrett by virgil russell" and this one, "woke up lonely" (and lots more really, graywolf press is set to take over the world in 2013, well maybe)
maazel was also picked top "5 under 35" by national book award
this story is about how isolated and lonely one can be in this our modern world. even couples, or even maybe especially couples.
LOTS of voices in the story, lots of story lines, from wash DC, to north korea, to a "cult" headquarters in Cincinnati ohio. the apocalypse and revolution has been a long time coming, but at least young authors have started thinking about it. this neat novel is in the smart, politically aware, doomsday style like Blueprints of the Afterlife or maybe also Zazen and most definitely The Snow Whale and the weather, of course The Weather Stations
maazel was also picked top "5 under 35" by national book award
this story is about how isolated and lonely one can be in this our modern world. even couples, or even maybe especially couples.
LOTS of voices in the story, lots of story lines, from wash DC, to north korea, to a "cult" headquarters in Cincinnati ohio. the apocalypse and revolution has been a long time coming, but at least young authors have started thinking about it. this neat novel is in the smart, politically aware, doomsday style like Blueprints of the Afterlife or maybe also Zazen and most definitely The Snow Whale and the weather, of course The Weather Stations
April 15, 2013
My review from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography, which you can find here: http://bit.ly/ZwLTyr
--
As the title would suggest, Fiona Maazel's second novel--after 2008's Last Last Chance--is concerned with loneliness. In its pages, we meet Thurlow Dan, who has founded a cult called the Helix to solve the problem of loneliness. It isn't working particularly well for him, and in the course of the novel he will go to desperate extremes to cure himself of this affliction once and for all. One of the people he is lonely for is his ex-wife Esme, an FBI agent and the leader of the team who is assigned to track him. Esme is lonely for him in return. Their daughter is lonely for her missing father, her workaholic mother, and her recently dead grandparents. The other FBI agents who Esme brings onto her team are all lonely, too. Anne-Janet has a sick mother and cancer to deal with, and has never had a serious boyfriend. Ned dresses up as a Stormtrooper and visits internet chat rooms. Bruce is a misunderstood documentary filmmaker. Olgo is lonely because his wife has run off and joined the Helix.
Maazel sums up what exactly the Helix is about midway through: "..everywhere and all the time, people are crying out for each other..." Thurlow says to a group of supporters, "and when you look back on your life you'll see it's true: woke up lonely, and the missing were on your lips." It's a nice thought, and lyrically expressed, but I have to admit that the premise of a movement founded to "cure loneliness in the twenty-first century" left me a bit confused.
I didn't understand why Thurlow had a greater claim as an authority on the kind loneliness specific to our current age than anyone else, especially since his loneliness is mostly a direct result of his alienation from his wife an child, and he founded the Helix before he and Esme ever met. I wasn't sure what this twenty-first century loneliness looks like to Ms. Maazel. I know she might assume it's obvious--something to do with communications technology, greater population density, a higher divorce rate, a move to more urban areas--but these are just guesses, because I am not an expert on the subject. One problem with Woke Up Lonely is that Thurlow Dan doesn't appear to be an expert on the subject either--I don't think he needed to be for this novel to be successful, but I would like to have known what got him started down this path in the first place. It felt to me like Ms. Maazel didn't want to state the obvious reasons why people today are especially lonely because to do so would have made the book less unique, but she has such a gift for observation that I wished she had given it a try. I'm sure that she could have made Thurlow's loneliness both universal and unprecedented, and it would have added a lot to the novel if his character was more than a bumbling sad sack (albeit a very funny one).
Last week in this review I wrote that there is a certain kind of modern novel where the male protagonist could always be played by Steve Carrel in the movie version. Since Woke Up Lonely is a book in the maximalist tradition, we have four male characters, all of whom are vying for maximum face time. And all four of them could be played by different versions of Steve Carrel. Suffice to say, every male character in this book is nice enough, fairly easygoing, easy to laugh at, kind of sad, and basically average.
To be fair though, Ms. Maazel saves her best character work here for Esme, whose character I thought embodied the conflicts at her core very nicely. Indeed, Woke Up Lonely could be read as a post-feminist novel where the most compelling conflict is the career vs. family struggle that's going on within Esme. She initially rejects Thurlow, then gets pregnant with their child, leaves him, reunites with him, marries him (although this decision is motivated by the opportunity for career advancement), finally falls in love with him, leaves him again, pawns her child off on her parents, adopts a foster child because she misses her own child, secretly follows her ex-husband's movements, never really stops loving him, struggles to connect with her estranged daughter, and eventually decides that family is the most important thing. I suppose Thurlow and Esme could even be read as allegorical to a great many twenty-first century relationships, where the world is full of background noise, careers are all consuming, its easy to know everything about a person without ever interacting in the flesh, and true connection can be difficult.
But, again, that plot arc isn't fully developed, and to read the novel that way is a bit of a stretch. What we have instead is a complex web of stories laid over top of each other, told in a way that seems intentionally confusing. A large section of the novel is told on a series of sixty or so note cards. Another large section involves sometimes confusing switches from first to third person when we are in the same character's point of view. Much of the story takes place in North Korea, and for whatever reason these sections seem a bit stale. Maybe this is due to all of the escalating talk about the new North Korean regime recently, maybe it's due to the recent Saturday Night Live skits, or maybe it's the appearance of The Orphan Master's Son last year. It might also be that the the scene about North Korea Ms. Maazel seems intent on making her big emotional reveal (that Esme is posing as Kim Jong-il while Thurlow is meeting with him) falls flat, since Thurlow never believed he was meeting with the real Kim Jong-il in the first place, and we already know Esme has a proclivity for disguise.
In another layer on top of all this, we have the stories of the members of Esme's team, all of which are told in some detail. It doesn't help that despite all the ingenuity on their surface, the team's stories are fairly conventional. Anne-Janet's story is about cancer, Bruce's is about pregnancy, Ned's is about adoption, and Olgo's is about infidelity. The team's stories provide a nice way for Maazel to clarify her theme and showcase her humor early on, but its a bit puzzling when she abandons Thurlow and Esme at the end of the book to wrap up the story of each individual team member instead of providing real resolution for our two protagonists.
This book reminded me of Ryan Boudinot's Blueprints of the Afterlife, which was unique, funny and entertaining, and which I also had trouble connecting to on an emotional level. Like Boudinot's novel, Woke Up Lonely is filled to the point of bursting with spot-on observations and laugh-out-loud funny lines, but all of these wonderful parts don't necessarily add up to a satisfying whole. Still, it's well worth picking up Woke Up Lonely, giving it a read, and discovering the good humor and great fun to be had in its pages for yourself.
--
As the title would suggest, Fiona Maazel's second novel--after 2008's Last Last Chance--is concerned with loneliness. In its pages, we meet Thurlow Dan, who has founded a cult called the Helix to solve the problem of loneliness. It isn't working particularly well for him, and in the course of the novel he will go to desperate extremes to cure himself of this affliction once and for all. One of the people he is lonely for is his ex-wife Esme, an FBI agent and the leader of the team who is assigned to track him. Esme is lonely for him in return. Their daughter is lonely for her missing father, her workaholic mother, and her recently dead grandparents. The other FBI agents who Esme brings onto her team are all lonely, too. Anne-Janet has a sick mother and cancer to deal with, and has never had a serious boyfriend. Ned dresses up as a Stormtrooper and visits internet chat rooms. Bruce is a misunderstood documentary filmmaker. Olgo is lonely because his wife has run off and joined the Helix.
Maazel sums up what exactly the Helix is about midway through: "..everywhere and all the time, people are crying out for each other..." Thurlow says to a group of supporters, "and when you look back on your life you'll see it's true: woke up lonely, and the missing were on your lips." It's a nice thought, and lyrically expressed, but I have to admit that the premise of a movement founded to "cure loneliness in the twenty-first century" left me a bit confused.
I didn't understand why Thurlow had a greater claim as an authority on the kind loneliness specific to our current age than anyone else, especially since his loneliness is mostly a direct result of his alienation from his wife an child, and he founded the Helix before he and Esme ever met. I wasn't sure what this twenty-first century loneliness looks like to Ms. Maazel. I know she might assume it's obvious--something to do with communications technology, greater population density, a higher divorce rate, a move to more urban areas--but these are just guesses, because I am not an expert on the subject. One problem with Woke Up Lonely is that Thurlow Dan doesn't appear to be an expert on the subject either--I don't think he needed to be for this novel to be successful, but I would like to have known what got him started down this path in the first place. It felt to me like Ms. Maazel didn't want to state the obvious reasons why people today are especially lonely because to do so would have made the book less unique, but she has such a gift for observation that I wished she had given it a try. I'm sure that she could have made Thurlow's loneliness both universal and unprecedented, and it would have added a lot to the novel if his character was more than a bumbling sad sack (albeit a very funny one).
Last week in this review I wrote that there is a certain kind of modern novel where the male protagonist could always be played by Steve Carrel in the movie version. Since Woke Up Lonely is a book in the maximalist tradition, we have four male characters, all of whom are vying for maximum face time. And all four of them could be played by different versions of Steve Carrel. Suffice to say, every male character in this book is nice enough, fairly easygoing, easy to laugh at, kind of sad, and basically average.
To be fair though, Ms. Maazel saves her best character work here for Esme, whose character I thought embodied the conflicts at her core very nicely. Indeed, Woke Up Lonely could be read as a post-feminist novel where the most compelling conflict is the career vs. family struggle that's going on within Esme. She initially rejects Thurlow, then gets pregnant with their child, leaves him, reunites with him, marries him (although this decision is motivated by the opportunity for career advancement), finally falls in love with him, leaves him again, pawns her child off on her parents, adopts a foster child because she misses her own child, secretly follows her ex-husband's movements, never really stops loving him, struggles to connect with her estranged daughter, and eventually decides that family is the most important thing. I suppose Thurlow and Esme could even be read as allegorical to a great many twenty-first century relationships, where the world is full of background noise, careers are all consuming, its easy to know everything about a person without ever interacting in the flesh, and true connection can be difficult.
But, again, that plot arc isn't fully developed, and to read the novel that way is a bit of a stretch. What we have instead is a complex web of stories laid over top of each other, told in a way that seems intentionally confusing. A large section of the novel is told on a series of sixty or so note cards. Another large section involves sometimes confusing switches from first to third person when we are in the same character's point of view. Much of the story takes place in North Korea, and for whatever reason these sections seem a bit stale. Maybe this is due to all of the escalating talk about the new North Korean regime recently, maybe it's due to the recent Saturday Night Live skits, or maybe it's the appearance of The Orphan Master's Son last year. It might also be that the the scene about North Korea Ms. Maazel seems intent on making her big emotional reveal (that Esme is posing as Kim Jong-il while Thurlow is meeting with him) falls flat, since Thurlow never believed he was meeting with the real Kim Jong-il in the first place, and we already know Esme has a proclivity for disguise.
In another layer on top of all this, we have the stories of the members of Esme's team, all of which are told in some detail. It doesn't help that despite all the ingenuity on their surface, the team's stories are fairly conventional. Anne-Janet's story is about cancer, Bruce's is about pregnancy, Ned's is about adoption, and Olgo's is about infidelity. The team's stories provide a nice way for Maazel to clarify her theme and showcase her humor early on, but its a bit puzzling when she abandons Thurlow and Esme at the end of the book to wrap up the story of each individual team member instead of providing real resolution for our two protagonists.
This book reminded me of Ryan Boudinot's Blueprints of the Afterlife, which was unique, funny and entertaining, and which I also had trouble connecting to on an emotional level. Like Boudinot's novel, Woke Up Lonely is filled to the point of bursting with spot-on observations and laugh-out-loud funny lines, but all of these wonderful parts don't necessarily add up to a satisfying whole. Still, it's well worth picking up Woke Up Lonely, giving it a read, and discovering the good humor and great fun to be had in its pages for yourself.
August 22, 2013
The publisher's letter to the reader in the front of my review copy of Woke Up Lonely suggests there are two ways to read the novel: speedily while being propelled by the action or taking one's time to savor Maazel's precision, wit, and prose. In my first reading I attempted the speed method but kept being foiled by the prose. I got to the end feeling supremely annoyed. Who is this Fiona Maazel anyway, I thought, and why is she considered to be so hot?
She tells us the story of Thurlow Dan, founder and leader of Helix, a cult that promises to cure loneliness. The opening pitch in Dan's words:
"Here is something you should know: we are living in an age of pandemic. Of pandemic and paradox. To be more interconnected than ever and yet lonelier than ever. To be almost immortal with what science is doing for us yet plagued with feelings that are actually revising how we operate on a biological level. Want to know what that means? I'll tell you."
Of course, in the way of people who found cults in an effort to solve their own problems, Thurlow Dan is hopelessly disconnected from other people. He deserted his wife and year old infant nine years earlier after being serially unfaithful and has wound up rich, famous, under investigation by the American government for possible acts of terrorism, still in love with his ex-wife, and lonely as hell.
Esme, the ex-wife, is a freelance agent working for Homeland Security. She does her best to raise her daughter Ida in her spare time while secretly trying to save Thurlow from himself. Time is running out though because the cult leader's misguided attempt to test his theories on North Korea's Dear Leader has landed him in some very hot water. The lunatic fringe of his cult harbors terrorist leanings and if Esme doesn't pull off something brilliant, the man she still loves is going down.
My problem was that I did not figure all this out until I had almost finished the book. Due to the author's impressive vocabulary, I had to keep stopping to look up words. Nothing wrong with that; I love words. But I kept losing track of the plot as Maazel's brilliant set pieces, such as the speed dating as procurement method for Helix and the creation of Esme's elaborate disguises and the mother/daughter scenes with Ida, kept flashing like rooms from a fun house. Not to mention that at least six of the main characters each has his or her own plot.
The advance-praise blurbs for Woke Up Lonely left me sputtering with refutation. "I may have bruised ribs from laughing." I didn't remember laughing. Once. "This is a book you need." Why do we need to be told how lonely and disconnected we are? "It leaves your ears, mind and soul ringing for days." Well, actually a few days later I had to admit it did. So I tried the second suggested reading approach. I began again, taking my time, paying attention, letting Fiona Maazel talk to me.
Sure enough, like meeting someone who at first comes across as despicable and later becomes a great friend, the whole thing fell out and I got it. This author writes with the absurdist sense of early Iris Murdoch. She comports herself with the linguistic showmanship of Michael Chabon. Woke Up Lonely is a satirical social critique, a modern day romance, a literary thriller, and a tragedy that as it turns out, is also comedy. In my second reading, I am laughing.
I am not worried about bruising any ribs though. I've come through denial, anger, and bargaining. We are in deep trouble. I am depressed and don't plan on achieving acceptance. In the final scene comes the ultimate mockery of achieving acceptance. Instead, I challenge readers to finish this book and report back.
May 27, 2013
This book was given such rave reviews:
"It's as if a Paul Thomas Anderson movie (The Master, There Will Be Blood) married a David Foster Wallace novel and had a baby. Which is to say, this story is weird, thrilling, and inimitable. The talented Maazel has plenty of imagination." —USA Today
"[Maazel] has a real talent for taking these existential millstones of modern life—fear of death, failure, being alone, everything—and filtering them into morbidly funny, troublingly familiar forms. . . . Woke Up Lonely easily refutes the idea that the novel is a staid, obsolete form of writing. The stakes in Maazel's book are at least as real as any work of nonfiction, and it's a good deal more fun to read than any manifesto." —The Daily Beast
"Woke Up Lonely is another wunderkammer, a deeply felt and wildly original novel that repays the attention it demands, and once read won't be soon forgotten." —Justin Taylor, Bookforum
"There's nothing better than a really good cult novel—especially a wonderfully written, brutally satiric one." —Flavorwire, "10 New Must-Reads for April"
“A great novel. Great, major, important—say it however you like. This is a book you need.” —Darin Strauss, author of Half a Life
Sounds amazing, don't you think? But no, this book is all over the place and just simply not very well written - I didn't care about any of the characters - and kept reading in hopes that it would somehow all tie neatly together. It didn't. I was very disappointed.
"It's as if a Paul Thomas Anderson movie (The Master, There Will Be Blood) married a David Foster Wallace novel and had a baby. Which is to say, this story is weird, thrilling, and inimitable. The talented Maazel has plenty of imagination." —USA Today
"[Maazel] has a real talent for taking these existential millstones of modern life—fear of death, failure, being alone, everything—and filtering them into morbidly funny, troublingly familiar forms. . . . Woke Up Lonely easily refutes the idea that the novel is a staid, obsolete form of writing. The stakes in Maazel's book are at least as real as any work of nonfiction, and it's a good deal more fun to read than any manifesto." —The Daily Beast
"Woke Up Lonely is another wunderkammer, a deeply felt and wildly original novel that repays the attention it demands, and once read won't be soon forgotten." —Justin Taylor, Bookforum
"There's nothing better than a really good cult novel—especially a wonderfully written, brutally satiric one." —Flavorwire, "10 New Must-Reads for April"
“A great novel. Great, major, important—say it however you like. This is a book you need.” —Darin Strauss, author of Half a Life
Sounds amazing, don't you think? But no, this book is all over the place and just simply not very well written - I didn't care about any of the characters - and kept reading in hopes that it would somehow all tie neatly together. It didn't. I was very disappointed.
January 20, 2014
This book has a lot of inconsistencies that made me not enjoy it as much as I might have otherwise. The characters have incredible power - one is an international cult leader so influential that North Korea has started developing a relationship with him and the feds are watching him, the other is a master of disguise and spying - but both fall apart because they miss each other (they were married at one point.)
Great portions of the book feel like the author got tired - at one point the cult leader is recording a message for his daughter in case he is killed (and so the author didn't even need to write dialogue or action in that entire section), at a later point his ex-wife is writing to him on hostage negotiation notecards, at a point in the novel which should be exciting but instead turns into one very long list. It felt lazy. The author teaches writing and I thought writing was about showing not telling. There is too much telling in this book.
I think there was a lot of unrealized potential here. I read it because it was listed for the Tournament of Books that will happen in March, and this book was one of two selected for the pre-tournament.
Great portions of the book feel like the author got tired - at one point the cult leader is recording a message for his daughter in case he is killed (and so the author didn't even need to write dialogue or action in that entire section), at a later point his ex-wife is writing to him on hostage negotiation notecards, at a point in the novel which should be exciting but instead turns into one very long list. It felt lazy. The author teaches writing and I thought writing was about showing not telling. There is too much telling in this book.
I think there was a lot of unrealized potential here. I read it because it was listed for the Tournament of Books that will happen in March, and this book was one of two selected for the pre-tournament.
February 23, 2014
Ok, I read this book because it's the play-in for the Morning Tournament, which is the reason I kept reading the book after I could already tell I loathed it.
Early on I was thinking, ok, this is a 3 star read, but the writer doesn't really understand how humor works, that it requires more than scenario and character setups that read like bad Saturday Night Live skits. But I thought the story itself could be redeemed from that.
It couldn't. It was just awful. The ... the sheer contempt that bleeds through this book is just ugly. The plot was, quite frankly, ridiculous and stupid and not well-thought out by the author. The characters were caricatures cut out of cardboard,all equally repulsive in different ways, sent into situations that didn't make sense ... which would have been ok, if it had been *funny* and managed to perform as satire. It didn't. Worse, the cardboard cutout characters weren't even internally consistent!
If I could give a book negative stars, I WOULD.
Early on I was thinking, ok, this is a 3 star read, but the writer doesn't really understand how humor works, that it requires more than scenario and character setups that read like bad Saturday Night Live skits. But I thought the story itself could be redeemed from that.
It couldn't. It was just awful. The ... the sheer contempt that bleeds through this book is just ugly. The plot was, quite frankly, ridiculous and stupid and not well-thought out by the author. The characters were caricatures cut out of cardboard,all equally repulsive in different ways, sent into situations that didn't make sense ... which would have been ok, if it had been *funny* and managed to perform as satire. It didn't. Worse, the cardboard cutout characters weren't even internally consistent!
If I could give a book negative stars, I WOULD.
January 12, 2014
The only reason I read this is because it was on the Tournament of Books finalist list. It is also the only reason I finished it. With all the books to choose from I'm really not sure what this is doing on the list. I found it to be on the ridiculous side. There is a scientology like cult that is supposed to help people deal with being lonely but that also has ties to North Korea. There are hostages and dysfunctional families and some stream of consciousness writing that is actually pretty good but the whole story just did not work for me.
December 5, 2012
An extremely rich book. The story is far-fetched -- est-like cult; secret Sin City beneath Cincinnati; undercover operatives from the West going deep into North Korea --- but despite the narrative extremes, the well-drawn characters and even more deeply felt situations and relationships keep us pinned to the ground, as we wish, perhaps more than some of the characters, that these people find what they are looking for.
June 8, 2017
I was so excited when I saw this book at the Harvard Book Store warehouse sale because I am fascinated by cults (*cough* Scientology), so a portrait of a maybe-cult with an unsatisfied leader? And the book's blurbs on the back making it seem like the greatest thing since sliced bread? Sign me tf up.
What's on the back of the book is not really an accurate summary though - which isn't necessarily a problem, except that the entire book seemed too lost to even have a summary. It meanders through all sorts of potentially interesting plot threads without resolving most of them or really delving deep enough to deliver what could have been juicy reading. It took me forever to read, not even considering the vacation I took in the middle, and I couldn't wait to be done. I understand why critics and authors would like it, but I like entertainment in my fiction, and all I found was frustration.
(Minor spoilers & monster review follow.)
Is it a book about a cult? Only loosely. The Helix is a thing, sure, and its origins are explained, I guess. Thurlow Dan, the founder, is certainly... a character. An insufferable one, though - am I supposed to find sympathy for him? I cannot. Maazel succeeds if her objective is to make him as unlikeable as possible, but the story clearly wants to humanize him. So sure, he's human, but a one-note asshole I never want to read about. And I guess that while we're supposed to sympathize with his moaning over being a powerful cult leader (but still being lonely and misunderstood :( ) he's also supposed to be frightening, or at least intimidating, given a scene with a Helix member hiding from him, but all we're given is a whiny manchild who I can't picture being scary to just about anyone.
My main beef with the Helix is that I just don't buy it. By Maazel's logic apps like Meetup are cult incubators. And let me be clear, being a carbon copy of any existing cults (including Scientology) would be a cop out. But considering how much research she did on cults (according to the interview in the back) I would have expected a more creative basis than "people are lonely" and "when people get together to talk about that loneliness, cults form." Are group therapy sessions cults? Are pub crawls, group tours, my high school's French club?
Maybe if Thurlow was more convincing I would have bought his innate magnetism as enough to create a devoted cult, but that didn't work for me, since every time his incessant monologue started up I wanted to quit the book.
Is it a spy novel? Again, if so, not quite. When it comes to the North Korea plots, I can only repeat other criticisms I've already said: underdeveloped, and I suppose with potential, except it was written in such a half-assed way. I feel that if you're going to talk about North Korea in your fiction you should at least give the people living and suffering there the respect of writing about it as a specific country. It may even have been more effective as a fictional dictatorship looming in the background. North Korea may be a mysterious "black spot" on our map (again, this comes from Maazel's back of the book interview), but she's not the very first person writing about this country! There are established facts out there which she doesn't seem to care for, which frankly is lazy and arrogant. (Thinking specifically about the ease of getting in and out of the country here.) I get that there's a certain parallel between North Korea and the Helix, and she successfully made that clear, but it still didn't sell me.
And then there's Esme, who might be the most effective character in the book, but that's not saying like, a whole ton. To me this is epitomized by describing Esme in disguise. It's kind of... cool... I guess? But it's such a focus for a chunk of the book and then basically not again. I also got the vague humor of hiring these soooo-not-spies to infiltrate the cult (and I actually didn't mind that it jumped in time after she roped them in) but either it went over my head or it wasn't actually that funny. So I'm left thinking it was mostly supposed to play as a dramatic book and a dramatic plot, with satirical touches, in which case the "gathering the team" section and then their kidnapping was just... shockingly boring, especially considering those are the most exciting parts of spy or heist fiction.
The "spies" themselves were unengaging at best. I found myself confused by why I was spending so much time with them, and then later confused by how little time we spent on them once they were kidnapped. Who was the focus of this book?! I understand ensemble dramas, but even an ensemble has to have some sort of through line or focus.
Is it a family drama? The parts I found most engaging were Esme's struggle to be a mother - the touch with the constant nicknames worked really well. But that was such a subplot which again, had very little resolution. In the end, she somehow gets back together with Thurlow and then her daughter is happy, requiring no real development or emotion from Esme, or their mother-daughter relationship. In the end, Esme's emotional arc centered on Thurlow, which was disappointing to say the least. Especially sosince almost all the other women in the book are either caricatures of sex workers, cheating wives, terrible mothers, dead, or Anne-Janet. (Not being a CSA survivor myself I can't speak to the latter's portrayal except to say that it rubbed me the wrong way.)
Also, Esme falling in love with Thurlow in general was unconvincing. (You'll notice "unconvincing" comes up a lot here.) Going from desperately seeking an abortion to suddenly being glad to have a baby is an overdone plot anyway but suddenly and inexplicably falling in love with the baby daddy (who by the way, she manipulated as part of her job), just because you banged him is even more of a boring cliche.
Finally, is it a noir novel about the city below Cincinnati? Again, this had so much potential! This was the part I liked reading about! This seemed like it could have been a whole book, or maybe a sequel if this novel had deserved one, but instead the tunnels popped up every once in a while and then were suddenly the focus... and then suddenly weren't (kiiind of like everything else). I didn't mind that most of the action in the B section took place in the mansion, but to keep this rich landscape hidden just to basically skip out on it is a shame.
In the end reading this book felt like when I read my least favorite book of all time, Freedom. Freedom was arrogant, pretentious, and pointless. Unfortunately, I can safely apply the same adjectives to this book, at least in my experience. Not only did I have to Google a truly and unnecessarily absurd number of words just figure out what was going on, in overly complicated sentences no less, but this book reeks of being a self indulgent MFA workshop book in other ways too. I can't help but think that Maazel just shoved in every single plot she thought could have been interesting, without really questioning whether or not they all contributed actively to the book.
I want to make it clear that I liked Woke Up Lonely quite a bit more than Freedom, and I almost considered giving it another star. Freedom's worst quality was its kind of masturbatory white male guilt and insecurity that hung over the entire book. That, and the antisemitism and rape. This book mostly avoids that (though Thurlow would not have been out of place in Freedom) which made this an infinitely less nauseating read.
This has been a lot of words and I don't know if I've really said much of anything. (Which is kind of in the vein of the book.) So let me summarize this way: I took a week-long family vacation in the middle of reading this book (maybe three quarters of the way through) and left it behind. When I came back, I felt myself dreading reading it. I finished it because I wanted to see how it ended, because I don't like leaving things left undone, and because when I decide I hate a book I want to give it the respect of a solid hateread until the end. But I can't in good conscience tell anyone else that they should read it. So that's what I'll leave you with.
Save yourself some time, read about Scientology, and don't get this book.
What's on the back of the book is not really an accurate summary though - which isn't necessarily a problem, except that the entire book seemed too lost to even have a summary. It meanders through all sorts of potentially interesting plot threads without resolving most of them or really delving deep enough to deliver what could have been juicy reading. It took me forever to read, not even considering the vacation I took in the middle, and I couldn't wait to be done. I understand why critics and authors would like it, but I like entertainment in my fiction, and all I found was frustration.
(Minor spoilers & monster review follow.)
Is it a book about a cult? Only loosely. The Helix is a thing, sure, and its origins are explained, I guess. Thurlow Dan, the founder, is certainly... a character. An insufferable one, though - am I supposed to find sympathy for him? I cannot. Maazel succeeds if her objective is to make him as unlikeable as possible, but the story clearly wants to humanize him. So sure, he's human, but a one-note asshole I never want to read about. And I guess that while we're supposed to sympathize with his moaning over being a powerful cult leader (but still being lonely and misunderstood :( ) he's also supposed to be frightening, or at least intimidating, given a scene with a Helix member hiding from him, but all we're given is a whiny manchild who I can't picture being scary to just about anyone.
My main beef with the Helix is that I just don't buy it. By Maazel's logic apps like Meetup are cult incubators. And let me be clear, being a carbon copy of any existing cults (including Scientology) would be a cop out. But considering how much research she did on cults (according to the interview in the back) I would have expected a more creative basis than "people are lonely" and "when people get together to talk about that loneliness, cults form." Are group therapy sessions cults? Are pub crawls, group tours, my high school's French club?
Maybe if Thurlow was more convincing I would have bought his innate magnetism as enough to create a devoted cult, but that didn't work for me, since every time his incessant monologue started up I wanted to quit the book.
Is it a spy novel? Again, if so, not quite. When it comes to the North Korea plots, I can only repeat other criticisms I've already said: underdeveloped, and I suppose with potential, except it was written in such a half-assed way. I feel that if you're going to talk about North Korea in your fiction you should at least give the people living and suffering there the respect of writing about it as a specific country. It may even have been more effective as a fictional dictatorship looming in the background. North Korea may be a mysterious "black spot" on our map (again, this comes from Maazel's back of the book interview), but she's not the very first person writing about this country! There are established facts out there which she doesn't seem to care for, which frankly is lazy and arrogant. (Thinking specifically about the ease of getting in and out of the country here.) I get that there's a certain parallel between North Korea and the Helix, and she successfully made that clear, but it still didn't sell me.
And then there's Esme, who might be the most effective character in the book, but that's not saying like, a whole ton. To me this is epitomized by describing Esme in disguise. It's kind of... cool... I guess? But it's such a focus for a chunk of the book and then basically not again. I also got the vague humor of hiring these soooo-not-spies to infiltrate the cult (and I actually didn't mind that it jumped in time after she roped them in) but either it went over my head or it wasn't actually that funny. So I'm left thinking it was mostly supposed to play as a dramatic book and a dramatic plot, with satirical touches, in which case the "gathering the team" section and then their kidnapping was just... shockingly boring, especially considering those are the most exciting parts of spy or heist fiction.
The "spies" themselves were unengaging at best. I found myself confused by why I was spending so much time with them, and then later confused by how little time we spent on them once they were kidnapped. Who was the focus of this book?! I understand ensemble dramas, but even an ensemble has to have some sort of through line or focus.
Is it a family drama? The parts I found most engaging were Esme's struggle to be a mother - the touch with the constant nicknames worked really well. But that was such a subplot which again, had very little resolution. In the end, she somehow gets back together with Thurlow and then her daughter is happy, requiring no real development or emotion from Esme, or their mother-daughter relationship. In the end, Esme's emotional arc centered on Thurlow, which was disappointing to say the least. Especially sosince almost all the other women in the book are either caricatures of sex workers, cheating wives, terrible mothers, dead, or Anne-Janet. (Not being a CSA survivor myself I can't speak to the latter's portrayal except to say that it rubbed me the wrong way.)
Also, Esme falling in love with Thurlow in general was unconvincing. (You'll notice "unconvincing" comes up a lot here.) Going from desperately seeking an abortion to suddenly being glad to have a baby is an overdone plot anyway but suddenly and inexplicably falling in love with the baby daddy (who by the way, she manipulated as part of her job), just because you banged him is even more of a boring cliche.
Finally, is it a noir novel about the city below Cincinnati? Again, this had so much potential! This was the part I liked reading about! This seemed like it could have been a whole book, or maybe a sequel if this novel had deserved one, but instead the tunnels popped up every once in a while and then were suddenly the focus... and then suddenly weren't (kiiind of like everything else). I didn't mind that most of the action in the B section took place in the mansion, but to keep this rich landscape hidden just to basically skip out on it is a shame.
In the end reading this book felt like when I read my least favorite book of all time, Freedom. Freedom was arrogant, pretentious, and pointless. Unfortunately, I can safely apply the same adjectives to this book, at least in my experience. Not only did I have to Google a truly and unnecessarily absurd number of words just figure out what was going on, in overly complicated sentences no less, but this book reeks of being a self indulgent MFA workshop book in other ways too. I can't help but think that Maazel just shoved in every single plot she thought could have been interesting, without really questioning whether or not they all contributed actively to the book.
I want to make it clear that I liked Woke Up Lonely quite a bit more than Freedom, and I almost considered giving it another star. Freedom's worst quality was its kind of masturbatory white male guilt and insecurity that hung over the entire book. That, and the antisemitism and rape. This book mostly avoids that (though Thurlow would not have been out of place in Freedom) which made this an infinitely less nauseating read.
This has been a lot of words and I don't know if I've really said much of anything. (Which is kind of in the vein of the book.) So let me summarize this way: I took a week-long family vacation in the middle of reading this book (maybe three quarters of the way through) and left it behind. When I came back, I felt myself dreading reading it. I finished it because I wanted to see how it ended, because I don't like leaving things left undone, and because when I decide I hate a book I want to give it the respect of a solid hateread until the end. But I can't in good conscience tell anyone else that they should read it. So that's what I'll leave you with.
Save yourself some time, read about Scientology, and don't get this book.
July 4, 2014
Quick plot synopsis.
Man establishes cult that spreads quickly, drawing in lonely hearts like a vacuum cup, but man really only wants to get back with wife who is a master of disguise and also some kind of Federal agent tasked with capturing her husband because he has become a threat to National security following his naïve relationship with North Korea, but her plan goes awry and leads to a hostage situation that can't possibly end well.
This could be the synopsis for a brilliant piece of literature, or for something totally lame. I thought Woke Up Lonely tended towards the latter.
I was captivated by the tone of the writing every time I picked this up. It's clever and biting and often left me in awe. But setting aside some beautiful phrasing, I didn't think it worked as a novel. Interesting plot lines rose to the surface only to sink just as quickly. Amazing characters were introduced only to be abandoned. The story was uneven and the conclusion disappointing. To summarise, the many brilliant parts weren't successfully woven into a whole.
I'm going to finish with a rant. A few weeks ago, I started following someone on this site - her reviews totally awesome. A couple of days later she announced that she would only be reading books from female authors from now on and that she was comfortable with this decision. Wow, how bizarrely reverse-sexist! The only reason I bring this up is that I'm not sure what the sex of an author has to do with the content of a novel - Woke Up Lonely is a case in point. There's nothing 'feminine' about the writing. With a rather silly boys-own plot, generous helpings of smut that would be at home at a male frat house and extreme objectification of women, it a perfect demonstration that literature does not need to be genderized. I get disappointed when a novel is judged on anything but its content.
Man establishes cult that spreads quickly, drawing in lonely hearts like a vacuum cup, but man really only wants to get back with wife who is a master of disguise and also some kind of Federal agent tasked with capturing her husband because he has become a threat to National security following his naïve relationship with North Korea, but her plan goes awry and leads to a hostage situation that can't possibly end well.
This could be the synopsis for a brilliant piece of literature, or for something totally lame. I thought Woke Up Lonely tended towards the latter.
I was captivated by the tone of the writing every time I picked this up. It's clever and biting and often left me in awe. But setting aside some beautiful phrasing, I didn't think it worked as a novel. Interesting plot lines rose to the surface only to sink just as quickly. Amazing characters were introduced only to be abandoned. The story was uneven and the conclusion disappointing. To summarise, the many brilliant parts weren't successfully woven into a whole.
I'm going to finish with a rant. A few weeks ago, I started following someone on this site - her reviews totally awesome. A couple of days later she announced that she would only be reading books from female authors from now on and that she was comfortable with this decision. Wow, how bizarrely reverse-sexist! The only reason I bring this up is that I'm not sure what the sex of an author has to do with the content of a novel - Woke Up Lonely is a case in point. There's nothing 'feminine' about the writing. With a rather silly boys-own plot, generous helpings of smut that would be at home at a male frat house and extreme objectification of women, it a perfect demonstration that literature does not need to be genderized. I get disappointed when a novel is judged on anything but its content.
April 25, 2013
When you crack open Fiona Maazel’s Woke Up Lonely, strap in and just go with it. The more you give yourself over to Maazel’s dark satire the more you will enjoy your ride. Here’s where I exhort yourself to give in and don’t think about it too much. Because if you start the “but, really, is that even plausible?” you’ll just ruin everything and the ending of this book is so touching and sweet that it’s worth all the “hrmmm. . . .”
Oh, and before I forget, if you dig Vonnegut you will dig this one. Maazel’s got some Vonnegut about her and the fact that she drops his name early on in this novel means she gets it. Read more.
Oh, and before I forget, if you dig Vonnegut you will dig this one. Maazel’s got some Vonnegut about her and the fact that she drops his name early on in this novel means she gets it. Read more.
September 18, 2012
This book is great! The language is so strong, and the story's action chugs ahead without pausing to breathe.
But then, when you're finished, you can think back on all of the poignant moments of the novel. Because there are a lot of them.
Read this one in April 2013.
But then, when you're finished, you can think back on all of the poignant moments of the novel. Because there are a lot of them.
Read this one in April 2013.
April 9, 2014
If I read the word "wrest" one more time, I am done.
December 6, 2017
Onvan : Woke Up Lonely - Nevisande : Fiona Maazel - ISBN : 1555976387 - ISBN13 : 9781555976385 - Dar 323 Safhe - Saal e Chap : 2013
June 25, 2017
I really loved this book. It's sad, lovely, funny, strange, and fantastical. It's complex and multi-layered, challenging without being difficult to read.
That being said, I get that some people won't feel the same way about it. In fact, some of the negative reviews on GoodReads are what encouraged me to read it. Many of the complaints (trying to hard to be like David Foster Wallace, overly complex sentences, lots of disconnected character story lines, etc.) put me in mind of exactly the kind of book I wanted. That's okay! Books don't have to be universally loved to be excellent.
I do want to disagree with the common comparison of Maazel's novel to David Foster Wallace. I found it closer to something by George Saunders. Saunder's earlier short stories and novellas are all about loneliness and guilt mixed with a funhouse view of reality (most commonly bizarre theme parks). But since you could probably describe Wallace that way too, I suppose it's close enough. I guess "loneliness and guilt set in slightly fantastical versions of reality" is a subgenre of literary fiction. Sign me up.
This book really works on multiple levels, by which I mean that the thematic content is expressed in by several methods. Many of the plot devices tie back to the main themes. For example, the most obvious the use of disguises and multiple lives: spy-craft is central and Esme is a master of disguises, of course, though many other characters are also harboring secrets; the loneliness cult is both a support group and a potential armed force; in fact, the entire city of Cincinnati lives a double life. To me, these all tie back to the everyday struggle to deal with loneliness, accept (or forget) our pasts, and connect with other people. But there are also plenty of other threads woven through the story, such as obsession, the struggle for control over nature, and the burden of our pasts, each cropping up over and over, sometimes explicitly, and sometimes in asides or descriptions of the landscape.
I also think the multiple levels happens from the bottom up, with the structure itself reflecting the content. The novel jumps between characters and switches from third to first person, and forces the reader to make a connection between these disconnections. The whole book itself therefore plays with the disconnection we all feel. At first it took me a while to follow the story of someone I considered a minor (or less central) character until I realized that these alternate paths were just as critical. This book isn't about how two protagonists are lonely, it's about loneliness on a grand scale.
Nothing is wrapped up neatly, and, in fact, just about everything is wrapped up messily or not at all. But, at the same time, I was so moved by where all the characters ended up, and by the small resolutions they achieved.
In fact, if there is a larger point to this book I believe it's about not letting the search for greater resolution obscure the simple release. All of these characters are desperate for connection and compassion and want to banish all loneliness from their lives, but the novel shows us that maybe just a day or an hour of that kind of connected intimacy is enough to support us through all the rest.
That being said, I get that some people won't feel the same way about it. In fact, some of the negative reviews on GoodReads are what encouraged me to read it. Many of the complaints (trying to hard to be like David Foster Wallace, overly complex sentences, lots of disconnected character story lines, etc.) put me in mind of exactly the kind of book I wanted. That's okay! Books don't have to be universally loved to be excellent.
I do want to disagree with the common comparison of Maazel's novel to David Foster Wallace. I found it closer to something by George Saunders. Saunder's earlier short stories and novellas are all about loneliness and guilt mixed with a funhouse view of reality (most commonly bizarre theme parks). But since you could probably describe Wallace that way too, I suppose it's close enough. I guess "loneliness and guilt set in slightly fantastical versions of reality" is a subgenre of literary fiction. Sign me up.
This book really works on multiple levels, by which I mean that the thematic content is expressed in by several methods. Many of the plot devices tie back to the main themes. For example, the most obvious the use of disguises and multiple lives: spy-craft is central and Esme is a master of disguises, of course, though many other characters are also harboring secrets; the loneliness cult is both a support group and a potential armed force; in fact, the entire city of Cincinnati lives a double life. To me, these all tie back to the everyday struggle to deal with loneliness, accept (or forget) our pasts, and connect with other people. But there are also plenty of other threads woven through the story, such as obsession, the struggle for control over nature, and the burden of our pasts, each cropping up over and over, sometimes explicitly, and sometimes in asides or descriptions of the landscape.
I also think the multiple levels happens from the bottom up, with the structure itself reflecting the content. The novel jumps between characters and switches from third to first person, and forces the reader to make a connection between these disconnections. The whole book itself therefore plays with the disconnection we all feel. At first it took me a while to follow the story of someone I considered a minor (or less central) character until I realized that these alternate paths were just as critical. This book isn't about how two protagonists are lonely, it's about loneliness on a grand scale.
Nothing is wrapped up neatly, and, in fact, just about everything is wrapped up messily or not at all. But, at the same time, I was so moved by where all the characters ended up, and by the small resolutions they achieved.
In fact, if there is a larger point to this book I believe it's about not letting the search for greater resolution obscure the simple release. All of these characters are desperate for connection and compassion and want to banish all loneliness from their lives, but the novel shows us that maybe just a day or an hour of that kind of connected intimacy is enough to support us through all the rest.
August 6, 2013
The Helix is a belief system - like Scientology in structure - that takes over the lives of its adherents. It was founded by Thurlow Dan, who was looking for a way to feel connected to his loved ones. Even after his marriage to Esme, a sort of super government agent, and the birth of their daughter Ida, Lo cannot deal with intimacy. He expects too much and expects to fail and he runs away to form his group of deluded searchers. There is some sex involved. Esme has a factotum who makes her incredible disguises so that she can infiltrate organizations without being identified. The problem is, while supposedly gathering information on Lo so that the government can shut him down and maybe prosecute, she has secretly been preventing the government from doing same - protecting him. Although not gifted at loving or parenting, Esme cannot give up on her husband. The climax comes as Thurlow, realizing that his elaborate system of control isn't working for him, kidnaps four agents, specially picked by Esme to be incompetent, and struggles to figure out his next move. In the process, we discover what Esme has been up to all these years, why the US government is concerned about Thurlow's activities, and what the heck is happening underneath Cincinnati. This is a very weird book. I loved the inventive nature of the plot, the portrayal of Esme was perfection. She is irreverent, unique, invincible, persistent, sexy and sarcastic. The problem for me was the core issue of isolation; failure to be able to feel that love was enough to get you through this life. I thought Thurlow was a dangerous fool and control freak and that Esme deserved better than she got.
February 27, 2013
This is a strange novel that I have mixed feelings about. Mazel creates many beautiful moments in this story about a cult leader who kidnaps four government agents. The cult leader is kind of a sad sack and the agents aren't really agents just four messed up people who are being manipulated by the cult leader's ex-wife, who is an agent. The cult called Helix, isn't exactly a cult either. It's a movement to ward off the loneliness of contemporary America. All of this should make for a powerful comment on our society, but it never quite gets there.
There's a real heart buried deep in the story. Thurlow Dan, Helix's leader, longs for his ex and dreams of the child they had together. Esme, the ex, longs for Thurlow and the poor child just is a walking ache. You have to get through the cartoon characters and the absurd escapades of the first half of the book to really get to the emotion. Despite the fact that we are in Bush era America of just a few years ago it often seems we are in some strange science fiction universe, with secret underground cities and agents who can so thorougly alter their appearance that their closest relatives and friends wouldn't recognize them from two feet away.
In it's slightly askew view of the world, this novel reminded me of some of J.G. Ballard's works. Maazel like Ballard can really write. The final section of the novel detailing what happens to the hostages as well as Thurlow Dan's family is quite beautifully done.
There's a real heart buried deep in the story. Thurlow Dan, Helix's leader, longs for his ex and dreams of the child they had together. Esme, the ex, longs for Thurlow and the poor child just is a walking ache. You have to get through the cartoon characters and the absurd escapades of the first half of the book to really get to the emotion. Despite the fact that we are in Bush era America of just a few years ago it often seems we are in some strange science fiction universe, with secret underground cities and agents who can so thorougly alter their appearance that their closest relatives and friends wouldn't recognize them from two feet away.
In it's slightly askew view of the world, this novel reminded me of some of J.G. Ballard's works. Maazel like Ballard can really write. The final section of the novel detailing what happens to the hostages as well as Thurlow Dan's family is quite beautifully done.
March 16, 2014
In "Woke Up Lonely," Fiona Maazel examines the plight of 21st century loneliness by presenting the stories of six individuals, one of whom is the leader of a cult that has as its purpose the creation of a community that transcends loneliness. Think "Bowling Alone" with a plot. Of sorts. Maazel challengers herself with the novel's subject matter but the reader feels too cut off from the story, as if the tale is unfolding on the other side of an as yet unreached corner or as if the book is, at times, narrated in a language which assumes an institutional language which the reader is not privy to. Perhaps like David Foster Wallace's "The Pale King" which was underscored with boredom, Maazel deliberately crafted "Woke Up Lonely" in order to convey the sense of loneliness to the reader but this conceit, as with Wallace's novel, has a tendency to alienate the reader, to march the reader through 400 +/- pages in order to follow a story about characters who arouse, at best, middling interest in the reader. Make no mistakes, Maazel is an excellent writer. And this novel seems to have succeeded in capturing the zeitgeist of chronic loneliness but the told tale is likely to be unread if the reader feels too adrift. And the loneliness cult presents itself, at times, as a quirky dating service rather than as a cult that draws the existentially lonely into its enchantment.
February 8, 2014
Ugh. I mean, lots of bits of it were funny. And lots of times I found myself interested in individual characters. But: never the main ones. Low was constantly painted as being unappealing in various ways (weak, whiny, obsessive, a bad son, disloyal) which, fine, no cult leader in infallible, but to make me believe (or care) that he was capable of holding forth for hours at a time of captivating speech-making, there ought to have been a *hint* of charisma in there. And she was even more ridiculous. Okay, fine, super disguise skills, language skills, something about her brother when she was 13 or 14 leading to the entire change of course of her attitude towards life, whatever. But every facet of her career strained not only credulity, but common sense. Or even "well it's the government, common sense doesn't apply hahaha' sense. I just couldn't be bothered about either central character to this long, long, long (feeling) book. (And don't get me started on their poor kid.) And then none of the hostages, all of whom I basically enjoyed getting to know, had any kind of satisfying narrative payoff at the end of their stories. I just wish so much more had been done to shape this into a better book.
August 5, 2015
I both really loved and really did not love this book. I could not put it down due to a combination of being enthralled and wanting to be done with it.
The writing was beautiful, the characterization was unique. At some points the over-uniqueness seemed a bit pretentious but it didn't take away from the quality as much as I expected it to.
This book confused me, excited me, and shared something special with me. But I do not know if I love it. It's a bit meta.
The writing was beautiful, the characterization was unique. At some points the over-uniqueness seemed a bit pretentious but it didn't take away from the quality as much as I expected it to.
This book confused me, excited me, and shared something special with me. But I do not know if I love it. It's a bit meta.
June 12, 2015
Guys, this is a literary fiction book with an actual plot. It's great! On a sentence level it is sometimes over-written and awkward, but I still found it to be compulsively readable. Pynchonesque in its character names, weird sex, use of niche vocabulary words, and deep exploration of interesting but esoteric topics (e.g. nuclear treaties in North Korea). Not pynchonesque in that it has an ending.
November 1, 2015
Who doesn't want to read a well spun wild yarn about cults, paired with espionage and multi-dimensional characters you feel like you dated once? Sort of Pynchon meets early Lethem (Motherless Brooklyn etc.). I might have bought it because of the title, in a fit of self-pity, but I was very impressed.
May 24, 2013
Here's my review:
http://richardgilbert.me/2013/05/23/f...
http://richardgilbert.me/2013/05/23/f...
June 15, 2015
long, winding, and beautifully written, each individual narrative twists and turns and connects to the other in rewarding, wonderful, and often bleak ways.
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