Matt Meets Vik

by Timothy Willis Sanders

"I have no idea how Timothy Willis Sanders is able to accumulate so many small reflections into such a mesmerizing mass. Matt Meets Vik makes maybe the most stripped-down paragraphs I've ever seen somehow hold a hundred thousand colors, emotions, tones, like if there were a website that made you forget all other websites ever existed, or that you're even still online. Hilarious, moving, insane, real."
--Blake Butler, author of 300,000,000

Genres: Fiction

131 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 25, 2014

Reviews

[Bud Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was really good contemporary novel. I had been meaning to read it for a bit, and then when I went to buy it I found out it’s out of print. I hope it gets published again by an adventurous house. It deserves to be widely read.


The writing in this walks the line between hyper-real externally and fantastical in the imagination of the protagonist, whose thoughts are recorded in quotes often as things he wished to say but what he does say (often following theses restrained quotes) is more suited for ‘society’. Matt is a well developed character and so is Vik. By the end of this love story, I felt I knew both of them well. I enjoyed how often the rules seemed to be broken in this novel. Looking forward to more from Timothy Sanders. Five stttttars

[Grant Wamack · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are certain presses that always deliver the goods aka that literary dope and Civil Coping Mechanisms is one of them. The latest book I’ve read is Matt Meets Vik by Timothy Willis Sanders and it’s certainly worth a read.

Matt, the protagonist, meets a pretty Czechoslovakian girl at a bar and the narrative details all of the ups and downs of their budding relationship. One huge component that makes you feel for the narrator is the drug aspect.

It may not seem like the most original plot, but the way it’s told is what makes the book magical. Sanders employs this disarmingly simple prose to hook you and lets you in on these snippets of Matt’s wide spectrum of thoughts. You know those little fears and nagging doubts we have when we first start dating someone. It’s all here and then some.

Also, it’s really cool to see a black protagonist who isn’t in a bad neighborhood or selling drugs or any other stupid stereotypical shit certain writers like to do. Kudos to Sanders.

When I finished reading the last page on my kindle and stared the 99% completion bar. I couldn’t believe it was over. I laid on my bed slightly depressed and happy. I stared out the window and watched the birds move in cryptic patterns and wondered when the hell Sanders is going to come out with another book. I need another fix.

Matt Meets Vik is an engaging albeit unconventional boy meets girl type of of story, but it resonates like a mofo.

[Xian Xian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I published a review of this on Heavy Feather Review:
http://heavyfeatherreview.com/2015/03...

So yeah it's there.

[Patsy Gordon · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was okay. I didn't like the writing style and that threw me off, but he does develop some depth in his characters with very minimal plot

[Zuri · Rating 5 out of 5]

hilarious & brutal

like hemingway, or beattie, or tao lin, timothy willis sanders crafts sparse & convincing characters from the bare details of existence. a rare treat

[Downward · Rating 5 out of 5]

essentially this is a very simple love story about two people who meet and have a relationship where the emotions written in a really naturalistic way that is easy to relate to for anyone who has dealt with the frustrations of trying to make something work when you really care for someone but feel like something isn't going right. more interestingly there's a lot here about what an internal monologue is and how it pushes up against and is often defeated by the filter that we have to push through before we engage with people. structurally we're probably pushing the limits of what someone can do with subject-verb-object, but it's repetition (I think this is the structure for literally every sentence in the entire novel) self consciously moves us away from thinking about style (this is a paradox, whatever) so that the realism of the exchanges and the accurate cataloguing of internal motivators can be seen beyond style.

[Andrew Worthington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interview I did with the author: http://fivequestions.club/post/150253...

[David Catney · Rating 5 out of 5]

i enjoyed this book.

[Brooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

fine, but I'm not sure it's something that is going to stick with me.

I liked the style with internal and external monologue mixing to heighten the distance between Matt and everyone else.

[Veronica Dimitrov · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good read. The way it's written is simple and easy to follow although it provides an in depth view of Matt's thought process.