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@UGMan
#digitalwasteland
Tap into the tumultuous world of Mark Sarvas' third novel, @UGMan, where disillusioned protagonist UGMan wastes his days spewing on pre-Musk Twitter. Readers will be drawn in by UGMan's unsettling monologue, which skillfully weaves together references to history, pop culture, poetry, Dostoevsky, and UGMan's lifelong obsession with the Beatles. But don't be fooled by his online persona. Beneath the surface lies a sensitive man consumed by social media's alienation and the world's brokenness.
Mark Sarvas, acclaimed author of Harry, Revised and Memento Park, delivers an urgent narrative that puts a necessary spotlight on the psychological damage of social media.
@UGMan is a tour de force exploration of obsession, disillusionment, and the dark humor that accompanies them. Prepare to be riveted, shocked, and ultimately moved by this unforgettable tale of a man lost-perhaps forever-in the digital age.
Tap into the tumultuous world of Mark Sarvas' third novel, @UGMan, where disillusioned protagonist UGMan wastes his days spewing on pre-Musk Twitter. Readers will be drawn in by UGMan's unsettling monologue, which skillfully weaves together references to history, pop culture, poetry, Dostoevsky, and UGMan's lifelong obsession with the Beatles. But don't be fooled by his online persona. Beneath the surface lies a sensitive man consumed by social media's alienation and the world's brokenness.
Mark Sarvas, acclaimed author of Harry, Revised and Memento Park, delivers an urgent narrative that puts a necessary spotlight on the psychological damage of social media.
@UGMan is a tour de force exploration of obsession, disillusionment, and the dark humor that accompanies them. Prepare to be riveted, shocked, and ultimately moved by this unforgettable tale of a man lost-perhaps forever-in the digital age.
177 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 24, 2025
26 people want to read
About the author
Mark Sarvas
7 books56 followersMark Sarvas is the award-winning author of the novels @UGMAN (ITNA Press), MEMENTO PARK (FSG, Picador) and HARRY, REVISED (Bloomsbury). MEMENTO PARK is the winner of a 2019 American Book Award (Before Columbus Foundation), and the 2019 American Jewish Library Association Fiction Award. It was a finalist for the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, and was shortlisted for the JQ Wingate Literary Prize and longlisted for the Sophie Brody Medal. His debut novel, HARRY, REVISED, was published in more than a dozen countries around the world, earning raves from Le Monde to The Australian. A finalist for the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association's 2008 Fiction Award and a Denver Post 2008 Good Read, HARRY, REVISED has been called "A remarkable debut" by Booker Prize winner John Banville, and was compared to John Updike and Philip Roth by the Chicago Tribune. He was awarded a 2018 Santa Monica Arts Fellowship and is a 2021 Guild Hall Artist in Residence.
His book reviews and criticism have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Threepenny Review, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Bookforum, The Huffington Post, The Dallas Morning News, The Barnes and Noble Review, Truthdig, The Modern Word, Boldtype and the Los Angeles Review of Books (where he is a contributing editor). He is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and PEN/America, PEN Center USA and has judged the PEN Center USA Fiction Award, the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize, the Kirkwood Prize and The Tournament of Books.
He began his literary career as the host of the popular and controversial literary weblog “The Elegant Variation”, a Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog, a Forbes Magazine Best of the Web pick, and a Los Angeles Magazine Top L.A. Blog. It has been covered by The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Scotsman, Salon, the Christian Science Monitor, Slate, The Village Voice, New York Newsday, The New York Sun, NPR's Day to Day and All Things Considered, and others. His short fiction has appeared in The Drawbridge, Troika Magazine, The Wisconsin Review, Apostrophe, Thought Magazine, Pindeldyboz and as part of the Spoken Interludes, Vermin on the Mount and Swink reading series in Los Angeles. He maintains an irregular newsletter, Eternal Recurrence.
He teaches advanced novel writing in the UCLA Extension Writers Program and holds an MFA in Creative Writing & Literature from Bennington College. He lives on the Monterey Peninsula.
His book reviews and criticism have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Threepenny Review, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Bookforum, The Huffington Post, The Dallas Morning News, The Barnes and Noble Review, Truthdig, The Modern Word, Boldtype and the Los Angeles Review of Books (where he is a contributing editor). He is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and PEN/America, PEN Center USA and has judged the PEN Center USA Fiction Award, the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize, the Kirkwood Prize and The Tournament of Books.
He began his literary career as the host of the popular and controversial literary weblog “The Elegant Variation”, a Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog, a Forbes Magazine Best of the Web pick, and a Los Angeles Magazine Top L.A. Blog. It has been covered by The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Scotsman, Salon, the Christian Science Monitor, Slate, The Village Voice, New York Newsday, The New York Sun, NPR's Day to Day and All Things Considered, and others. His short fiction has appeared in The Drawbridge, Troika Magazine, The Wisconsin Review, Apostrophe, Thought Magazine, Pindeldyboz and as part of the Spoken Interludes, Vermin on the Mount and Swink reading series in Los Angeles. He maintains an irregular newsletter, Eternal Recurrence.
He teaches advanced novel writing in the UCLA Extension Writers Program and holds an MFA in Creative Writing & Literature from Bennington College. He lives on the Monterey Peninsula.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 4, 2025
85th book read in 2025
Back in the early days of blogs, Mark Sarvas had one of my favorites. In fact, he inspired me to start my own blog. His was called The Elegant Variation. It was witty, deeply literary and entertaining.
UGman is his latest of three novels. It shows us a man who is bitter about his own life, about the world, and spends his days alone tweeting a spew of hateful messages. Example: “Why isn’t that turtle-faced motherfucker dead yet? Will no one rid me of this turbulent politician?” It is 2019.
Inspired by Dostoevsky’s Notes from the Underground (which I have not read) and Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter (which I have), bitterly divorced, and a Beatles fan for life, he has no followers but follows thousands on the site formerly known as Twitter.
So not a pleasant read. But necessarily a quick one with short punchy chapters. At first, I asked myself why I was reading it, besides the fact that I read and admired his second novel, Memento Park. Truthfully, this diatribe against any and everyone who has wronged UGman, grew on me.
Also, truthfully, the author redeemed himself by the end. If you have ever loved the Beatles or been in a band or had a marriage go bad, you might also find yourself rooting for this sad, mad, crusty guy with a soft center.
Back in the early days of blogs, Mark Sarvas had one of my favorites. In fact, he inspired me to start my own blog. His was called The Elegant Variation. It was witty, deeply literary and entertaining.
UGman is his latest of three novels. It shows us a man who is bitter about his own life, about the world, and spends his days alone tweeting a spew of hateful messages. Example: “Why isn’t that turtle-faced motherfucker dead yet? Will no one rid me of this turbulent politician?” It is 2019.
Inspired by Dostoevsky’s Notes from the Underground (which I have not read) and Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter (which I have), bitterly divorced, and a Beatles fan for life, he has no followers but follows thousands on the site formerly known as Twitter.
So not a pleasant read. But necessarily a quick one with short punchy chapters. At first, I asked myself why I was reading it, besides the fact that I read and admired his second novel, Memento Park. Truthfully, this diatribe against any and everyone who has wronged UGman, grew on me.
Also, truthfully, the author redeemed himself by the end. If you have ever loved the Beatles or been in a band or had a marriage go bad, you might also find yourself rooting for this sad, mad, crusty guy with a soft center.
June 3, 2025
I am so thankful to ITNA press, Netgalley, and Mark Sarvas for granting me advanced access to this darkly hilarious and humbling depiction before it hits shelves on June 24, 2025.
Our main character, who goes by the username @UGMan, harbors a rage like no other to unjust political agendas, his too loud neighbors, his former band mates, and just about anything he sees while doom scrolling through a pre-Elon Twitter feed.
Told through mixed media format, readers see inside the madness of a digitally self-absorbed man, whose alienated himself to the confines of his apartment, casting out those who once cared for him the most. In a way, our author is notating how social media is the death of all things good, when we quite literally live in a constant state of hate and comparison for those around us.
There is some character redemption for our MC, and lessons are learned in the long run, but shew this one is a trip. Highly recommend.
Our main character, who goes by the username @UGMan, harbors a rage like no other to unjust political agendas, his too loud neighbors, his former band mates, and just about anything he sees while doom scrolling through a pre-Elon Twitter feed.
Told through mixed media format, readers see inside the madness of a digitally self-absorbed man, whose alienated himself to the confines of his apartment, casting out those who once cared for him the most. In a way, our author is notating how social media is the death of all things good, when we quite literally live in a constant state of hate and comparison for those around us.
There is some character redemption for our MC, and lessons are learned in the long run, but shew this one is a trip. Highly recommend.
August 12, 2025
Think Dostoevsky, Kafka, and John Kennedy Toole, filtered through the miasma of Twitter, illustrating the distortion of a mind through well-crafted, fast-paced, darkly humored snippets. I’m not usually one for the unlikeable (at times, loathsome) narrator, but something about this novel gripped me.
Maybe it was because the protagonist, though lost in a sad, isolating, and disturbing obsession with the dark side of Twitter, is still tethered by a thin skein of humanity to memories of family and friends he used to care about—still does care about. These flashes of sensitivity and even sweetness are startling and moving.
Maybe it was the shrewd, satirical social commentary on our unhinged online spaces, a much-needed cautionary tale as our world grows correspondingly more absurd, paired with a stirring and equally-needed breath of hope.
Maybe it was the unexpected treat of assorted Beatles references, strewn about like Easter eggs (both @UGMan and I happen to be Beatles fans, probably the only thing we have in common). Since the songs were not explicitly named, it was fun to decipher the oblique allusions!
Whatever it was--likely all three and more-- @UGMan snuck up on me and has left an impression.
Maybe it was because the protagonist, though lost in a sad, isolating, and disturbing obsession with the dark side of Twitter, is still tethered by a thin skein of humanity to memories of family and friends he used to care about—still does care about. These flashes of sensitivity and even sweetness are startling and moving.
Maybe it was the shrewd, satirical social commentary on our unhinged online spaces, a much-needed cautionary tale as our world grows correspondingly more absurd, paired with a stirring and equally-needed breath of hope.
Maybe it was the unexpected treat of assorted Beatles references, strewn about like Easter eggs (both @UGMan and I happen to be Beatles fans, probably the only thing we have in common). Since the songs were not explicitly named, it was fun to decipher the oblique allusions!
Whatever it was--likely all three and more-- @UGMan snuck up on me and has left an impression.
June 18, 2025
Publishing date: 24.06.2025 (DD/MM/YYYY)
Thank you to NetGalley and ITNA for the ARC. My opinions are my own.
This is one of the strangest books I have read so far this year. And to be honest? I am not sure I enjoyed my time with it.
To preface, this is a book about a chronically online man who has a lot of rage about what has happened to him in his life and now is taking it out on anyone and everyone he can. Some kind of justice for himself if you like. We all know the type, the ones who tweet and talk on the internet before thinking.
You get a few "tweets" in the book, but I honestly expected a few more. Most of it is structured like what I like to call "brain-vomit". Paragraphs upon paragraphs of unfiltered thoughts from our main character. It reads quickly and easily, I was glued to the pages, but it all blends together pretty quickly.
I think this does qualify as a "weird-person-book" like I usually enjoy. But it all made for a somewhat unsatisfying experience. Not much learnt (there is character development, it just felt a little fake), not much done at all.
As I said, I don't think this is a bad book, it is entertaining. I just don't think I liked it all that much. Kind of like a car crash you can't take your eyes off of. There is potential for the right audience, but that isn't me.
Giving this 2 stars. Fascinating little book. but left me slightly disappointed.
Thank you to NetGalley and ITNA for the ARC. My opinions are my own.
This is one of the strangest books I have read so far this year. And to be honest? I am not sure I enjoyed my time with it.
To preface, this is a book about a chronically online man who has a lot of rage about what has happened to him in his life and now is taking it out on anyone and everyone he can. Some kind of justice for himself if you like. We all know the type, the ones who tweet and talk on the internet before thinking.
You get a few "tweets" in the book, but I honestly expected a few more. Most of it is structured like what I like to call "brain-vomit". Paragraphs upon paragraphs of unfiltered thoughts from our main character. It reads quickly and easily, I was glued to the pages, but it all blends together pretty quickly.
I think this does qualify as a "weird-person-book" like I usually enjoy. But it all made for a somewhat unsatisfying experience. Not much learnt (there is character development, it just felt a little fake), not much done at all.
As I said, I don't think this is a bad book, it is entertaining. I just don't think I liked it all that much. Kind of like a car crash you can't take your eyes off of. There is potential for the right audience, but that isn't me.
Giving this 2 stars. Fascinating little book. but left me slightly disappointed.
September 22, 2025
@Ugman kept me coming back both to find out what happens next in this madcap story and for the sheer delight of reading the prose, which was full of intelligent quirks and teasing. I really felt for this protagonist, despite his bent mind and profane language. His emotions and actions were extreme, yet the drive behind them was often a little too familiar and even scarily satisfying. (Like digging out the stuff you never tell people or maybe finding your inner @Ugman.) And to observe his family, the bit-too-humane wife and the canny, unblinkered daughter, hanging on the fringes, while watching his hopeless charade of a life online was heart-rending. But where there is light, there is hope and the end was more than satisfying.
July 2, 2025
Brilliant. What is immediately clear is the depth and complexity of this portrayal of a troubled psyche, and more generally, a troubled world. What becomes clear by the end is the depth of sensitivity, heart, and dare-I-say optimism of this most remarkable novel.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews