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The Enthusiast
kmac1987 is sneaking through a fence with a group of strangers to catch a glimpse of new train on the Washington Metro. Kate Berkowitz and a movie star are making jokes online about a fifty-year-old soap opera comic strip. kmac1987 and Kate Berkowitz are the same person, and her job is to get you excited about her clients without you noticing that she's doing it. Kate loves her job. She's a professional enthusiast. But it's about to get complicated.
- GenresFictionContemporaryHumor
310 pages, Paperback
First published November 26, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
December 17, 2015
You wouldn't think the politics of mass-transit decisions and the machinations of turning a comic strip into a movie would fit together in the same book. Or maybe you would, and in that case maybe you have something in common with Josh Fruhlinger, the author of The Enthusiast.
Kate Berkowitz works in the Enthusiasm Channel of Subconscious Agency (“Enthusiasm Is Our Business”), which, although it sounds like something out of 1984, is more like a cross between a PR firm and an ad agency. Kate's job (not surprisingly) is to build a select audience's enthusiasm for the projects of the agency's clients. (The other side of the Agency is the Thought Leader Alliance, an equally Orwellian title.) She and her fellow agents do their jobs mainly online, inserting themselves into groups dedicated to various interests – Facebook pages, blogs, message boards – in order to both gauge existing enthusiasm and increase it. The story follows Kate as she works on two different projects: the aforementioned comic-strip movie, and an upcoming decision by the Washington, D.C. Transit Authority about which company's new trains they will purchase. It all sounds pretty straightforward, but of course if that were the case, there wouldn't be much to write about, would there? The worlds of the two separate projects begin to intersect with each other as well as with Kate's personal life. Even her perception of who exactly her clients are and what they want isn't quite what it seems, and if things don't exactly spiral out of control, they're certainly teetering on the brink. This isn't “Mad Men,” but there are shades of it here as well as of Orwell. But there's humor as well, sly and subtle rather than broad. The fictional comic strip of the book, “Ladies Who Lunch”, clearly references the real-life “soap opera” strips Fruhlinger lampoons in his blog, “The Comics Curmudgeon”, and readers of the blog (like myself) will especially appreciate that aspect of The Enthusiast. I even liked the way the text was occasionally formatted to include “screenshots” of text messages and blog comments; too much of that would have been annoying, but in this case it was used just enough to give an added dimension to the reading experience.
If I had to say one negative thing about this book, it's that it seemed to be over too soon. The story wraps up satisfactorily while leaving the next chapter of Kate's life open-ended, but I just wanted it to go on longer. I found this an enjoyable read, especially for those moments when it started to make me wonder if, just maybe, something like the Subconscious Agency really exists. On the face of it, the premise of agencies that exist to subtly influence people's enthusiasm for products, people, and concepts, might seem a bit like a conspiracy theory. But one only has to spend enough time poking around social networks and the Internet in general to sense something lurking in the background. Or maybe that's just Google Ads?
January 7, 2016
Up to very recently, Josh Fruhlinger was only known as the creator of a funny but throwaway blog called "The Comics Curmudgeon," in which each day he makes snide jokes about the kinds of "legacy" newspaper comic strips that can only be loved by a half-senile grandparent; so last year when he started a Kickstarter campaign to finance his debut novel, The Enthusiast, there wasn't much reason to believe that the book would be anything other than a noble but probably only so-so vanity project. (DISCLOSURE: Although I don't know Fruhlinger personally, I was one of the contributors to that Kickstarter campaign, which is how I secured my review copy of this book.)
Imagine my surprise, then, when I sat down and read The Enthusiast over Christmas vacation, and realized that it is in fact one of the best novels I've read in the last few years, a book that could've easily gotten picked up by a mainstream press like Random House which makes its self-published status even more remarkable. At its heart it's the kind of witty, smart, almost science-fictiony look at contemporary corporate culture that also marks Douglas Coupland's writing at its best -- the story of a woman who works for a secretive PR firm whose job is not to create promotional campaigns for their clients, not even to create guerrilla marketing campaigns, but literally to "build enthusiasm" for their clients' products among the back alleys of forgotten website forums and inner-city warehouse parties, so that these strange fanboy screeds on the edges of the internet are then picked up by jaded hipster sites like Gawker, which only then bubbles up into the world of Twitter and Facebook and then the New York Times.
Our hero Kate works on two different campaigns over the course of the book -- convincing amateur trainspotters to talk in positive terms about a new rapid-transit prototype for the Washington DC Metro being provided by German company Siemens, literally by doing things like convincing them to illegally break into the trainyard one night to see the prototype in action; and a "testing the waters" campaign for the exact kind of tired old legacy comic strip that Fruhlinger writes about in real life (quite obviously based on the actual comic strip "Apartment 3-G" which Fruhlinger has publicly declared an obsessive fascination with in the past), one which has picked up an ironic young audience in recent years as its actual quality has become worse and worse, and which has recently attracted the attention of a James-Franco-type actor who is thinking of making a Postmodernist movie adaptation as a personal starring vehicle. (See, its young ironic fans have noticed that the octogenarian currently drawing the strip happens to draw every single male character so that he vaguely looks like James Franco; and Franco is now thinking of making a movie version where he plays every single male part via CGI scene-splitting, and has hired our secretive PR firm to see whether enough enthusiasm could be generated for the idea among these ironic web-forum fans to convince a movie studio to greenlight the project.)
To divulge any more of the airtight plot would be a shame, because it's the various surprising twists and turns that makes this book so enjoyable; but needless to say that Fruhlinger does a shockingly remarkable job at it all, penning a story that is by turns creepily analytical and heartwarmingly relatable, ping-ponging between the high-functioning sociopaths behind such secret PR campaigns and the Cheetos-scarfing fanboys who are being manipulated, the bottom-line Hollywood executives who just want to sell more hamburgers, and the elderly Mid-Century Modernist creators of these projects who resent the Gen-X hipster detachment that has been latched onto their creative babies. A novel that creates 50 years of a complex and very believable history to this crappy comic strip, including example strips from its heyday actually drawn and inserted into the book by Don Sparrow, The Enthusiast blew me away with its deft handling of so many different balls it keeps in the air; and I'm more surprised than anyone else to declare it a nearly perfect novel, a grand-slam home run from Fruhlinger's very first turn at bat. It comes very highly recommended to one and all, and is a strong contender even at this early date to make CCLaP's 2016 best-of list way off in another eleven months from now.
Out of 10: 9.9
Imagine my surprise, then, when I sat down and read The Enthusiast over Christmas vacation, and realized that it is in fact one of the best novels I've read in the last few years, a book that could've easily gotten picked up by a mainstream press like Random House which makes its self-published status even more remarkable. At its heart it's the kind of witty, smart, almost science-fictiony look at contemporary corporate culture that also marks Douglas Coupland's writing at its best -- the story of a woman who works for a secretive PR firm whose job is not to create promotional campaigns for their clients, not even to create guerrilla marketing campaigns, but literally to "build enthusiasm" for their clients' products among the back alleys of forgotten website forums and inner-city warehouse parties, so that these strange fanboy screeds on the edges of the internet are then picked up by jaded hipster sites like Gawker, which only then bubbles up into the world of Twitter and Facebook and then the New York Times.
Our hero Kate works on two different campaigns over the course of the book -- convincing amateur trainspotters to talk in positive terms about a new rapid-transit prototype for the Washington DC Metro being provided by German company Siemens, literally by doing things like convincing them to illegally break into the trainyard one night to see the prototype in action; and a "testing the waters" campaign for the exact kind of tired old legacy comic strip that Fruhlinger writes about in real life (quite obviously based on the actual comic strip "Apartment 3-G" which Fruhlinger has publicly declared an obsessive fascination with in the past), one which has picked up an ironic young audience in recent years as its actual quality has become worse and worse, and which has recently attracted the attention of a James-Franco-type actor who is thinking of making a Postmodernist movie adaptation as a personal starring vehicle. (See, its young ironic fans have noticed that the octogenarian currently drawing the strip happens to draw every single male character so that he vaguely looks like James Franco; and Franco is now thinking of making a movie version where he plays every single male part via CGI scene-splitting, and has hired our secretive PR firm to see whether enough enthusiasm could be generated for the idea among these ironic web-forum fans to convince a movie studio to greenlight the project.)
To divulge any more of the airtight plot would be a shame, because it's the various surprising twists and turns that makes this book so enjoyable; but needless to say that Fruhlinger does a shockingly remarkable job at it all, penning a story that is by turns creepily analytical and heartwarmingly relatable, ping-ponging between the high-functioning sociopaths behind such secret PR campaigns and the Cheetos-scarfing fanboys who are being manipulated, the bottom-line Hollywood executives who just want to sell more hamburgers, and the elderly Mid-Century Modernist creators of these projects who resent the Gen-X hipster detachment that has been latched onto their creative babies. A novel that creates 50 years of a complex and very believable history to this crappy comic strip, including example strips from its heyday actually drawn and inserted into the book by Don Sparrow, The Enthusiast blew me away with its deft handling of so many different balls it keeps in the air; and I'm more surprised than anyone else to declare it a nearly perfect novel, a grand-slam home run from Fruhlinger's very first turn at bat. It comes very highly recommended to one and all, and is a strong contender even at this early date to make CCLaP's 2016 best-of list way off in another eleven months from now.
Out of 10: 9.9
December 23, 2015
Enthusiasm is contagious. That's the central tenet of the Subconscious Agency, the secret to its success in the world of PR. But it's also why The Enthusiast works.
Josh Fruhlinger is best known online for the Comics Curmudgeon, his blog of often-ironic commentary on newspaper comics, and Citation Needed, which collects the strangest, most obsessive parts of Wikipedia. As such it's perhaps no surprise that much the story revolves around an obsessive online community providing often-ironic commentary on newspaper comics. But vintage comics, internet obsessives, and local transport are clearly all topics that he loves, and that love shines through both in the description and in the characters themselves.
Virtually everyone in the cast could have been the target of mockery - the narcissistic Hollywood actor, the asocial trainspotters, the corny comic fans, and the old media types who just don't get it. Instead, every character gets a sympathetic portrayal. You understand why they do what they do - because they feel a real love, a real loyalty, to the object of their obsession (be it a train, a comic from the sixties, a German noise band, or their own face). They just express it in different ways. As a result, the book is warm and sweet - warmer and sweeter than a satire on modern social media marketing has any right to be.
To enjoy the book fully, you probably do have to be receptive to this sort of enthusiasm - if you didn't come to the book through the Comics Curmudgeon, the comic plotline probably seems rather farfetched. But then, if you're immune to the enthusiasm contagion, why are you reading reviews?
Josh Fruhlinger is best known online for the Comics Curmudgeon, his blog of often-ironic commentary on newspaper comics, and Citation Needed, which collects the strangest, most obsessive parts of Wikipedia. As such it's perhaps no surprise that much the story revolves around an obsessive online community providing often-ironic commentary on newspaper comics. But vintage comics, internet obsessives, and local transport are clearly all topics that he loves, and that love shines through both in the description and in the characters themselves.
Virtually everyone in the cast could have been the target of mockery - the narcissistic Hollywood actor, the asocial trainspotters, the corny comic fans, and the old media types who just don't get it. Instead, every character gets a sympathetic portrayal. You understand why they do what they do - because they feel a real love, a real loyalty, to the object of their obsession (be it a train, a comic from the sixties, a German noise band, or their own face). They just express it in different ways. As a result, the book is warm and sweet - warmer and sweeter than a satire on modern social media marketing has any right to be.
To enjoy the book fully, you probably do have to be receptive to this sort of enthusiasm - if you didn't come to the book through the Comics Curmudgeon, the comic plotline probably seems rather farfetched. But then, if you're immune to the enthusiasm contagion, why are you reading reviews?
February 6, 2021
I enjoyed it; it's reminiscent of William Gibson's Blue Ant books, in that it seems like near-future science fiction but is actually just set in this Internet-saturated world we've created. An interesting take on fan cultures and marketing.
January 16, 2016
Josh Fruhlinger writes, and has been writing, an blog called the Comic Curmudgeon, for about 10 years. He is very funny, as are the comments people leave on his blog. I still read his blog, though I don't spend time reading the hundreds of comments that people leave, as I just don't have the time. Why is this important to knowing about this story? Because this story is about a comic strip, a made up comic strip that people snark because it is so out of date. It is based, I would say, mostly on Apartment 3G, which ceased to exist recently, which is sort of sad, as that was what he made fun of the most. (But there is still Mary Worth and Rex Morgan and all to make fun of).
But snarking a comic strip is only half of this plot. The other is about subway cars enthusiasts in Washington DC. Then thrown in a minor Hollywood movie star, and you have a very interesting plot about a sort of PR firm that is trying to drum up enthusiasm for both a potential movie of the comic strip The Ladies who Lunch, as well as the new subway cars.
It works, although it works more for me with the comic strip, as it is a world I am very much more interested in and know a lot about. It doesn't work for me about the subway cars, as the nearest one to me, presently is about an hour or so away, and I rarely ride them.
I wavered on choosing 3 or 4 stars. This is probably a 3.5 stars. It is funny in places, rips along in others, and slows to a crawl, for m, when the subway plot is being discussed.
For a first novel, I think Josh did quite well, and I contributed to the kickstarter to get this book published, because I do love his writing. If you are one of his fans, or love making fun of legacy comic strips, I would recommend this for that alone. If you aren't interested in that, or subway cars, you will have to find something else to find to like in this book. Being enthusiastic about anything, being a fan, being part of a group is what this book has fun with, so you might just give it a try.
But snarking a comic strip is only half of this plot. The other is about subway cars enthusiasts in Washington DC. Then thrown in a minor Hollywood movie star, and you have a very interesting plot about a sort of PR firm that is trying to drum up enthusiasm for both a potential movie of the comic strip The Ladies who Lunch, as well as the new subway cars.
It works, although it works more for me with the comic strip, as it is a world I am very much more interested in and know a lot about. It doesn't work for me about the subway cars, as the nearest one to me, presently is about an hour or so away, and I rarely ride them.
I wavered on choosing 3 or 4 stars. This is probably a 3.5 stars. It is funny in places, rips along in others, and slows to a crawl, for m, when the subway plot is being discussed.
For a first novel, I think Josh did quite well, and I contributed to the kickstarter to get this book published, because I do love his writing. If you are one of his fans, or love making fun of legacy comic strips, I would recommend this for that alone. If you aren't interested in that, or subway cars, you will have to find something else to find to like in this book. Being enthusiastic about anything, being a fan, being part of a group is what this book has fun with, so you might just give it a try.
January 5, 2016
The Enthusiast is a book made for the Internet age. It's the story of Kate Berkowitz, a Agent at the Subconscious Agency, a PR type company that goes into online communities of enthusiasts for their clients and ups their interests, whether it's Washington, D.C. metro trains or old soap opera comics with a dedicated audience of ironic readers.
The book takes a satirical look, with Kate's boss, a former lobbyist using the same euphemistic and jargon heavy language to justify the agencies work, the uncertain balance between professional and natural enthusiasm and the unlikely overlaps between a Hollywood funnyman, German techno-fans and counter-agents.
Josh Fruhlinger has been the author of The Comics Curmudgeon, a daily look at the comics that has run since 2004. His experience satirical reviewing soap opera comics make The Ladies Who Lunch feel real, though for a non-reader of the blog the references might not hit.
Overall this book is a humorous look and could be a useful novel when future "Webpunk" enthusiast is looking for a novel that grasped this era Internet.
July 16, 2023
The Enthusiast has a unique concept. It follows a couple of work projects for a young woman whose job title is enthusiast. She works for a company whose mission is to drum up enthusiasm for whatever its clients might ask for. It's not regular marketing, though: there are no press releases, no ad campaigns. An enthusiast's mission is to surreptitiously insert themselves into an online community and encourage discussions and real-life meetups supporting the client. 26-year-old Kate Berkowitz's tasks are to generate enthusiasm for a new locomotive in a DC-area trainspotting group, and to generate enthusiasm for a proposed movie based on a 50-year-old soap opera comic strip. She has to do both without the group members figuring out that she isn't one of them.
I don't know if such companies exist. Maybe they do, and if so, they'd probably want to keep as mum about what they do as Kate's agency does. Somewhere on the internet there's probably at least one group of genuine, organically-grown enthusiasts for any subject you can imagine, so it's not hard to imagine this being a thing.
The new train mentioned in the book is a fictional one, credited to the non-fictional Siemens company, which does manufacture trains. It's told with the enthusiasm that sounds like it would come from the mind of a genuine hardcore train enthusiast. Maybe Josh Fruhlinger actually is one. If he isn't, he sure built a convincing world.
The comic strip mentioned in the book, Ladies Who Lunch, is entirely fictional, as is its backstory. It does seem to be based on the real-life comic strip Apartment 3-G, which ended a few years ago. I know Apartment 3-G's backstory, and it definitely doesn't jibe with Ladies Who Lunch, as credible as the fictional backstory is. I do know that Josh Fruhlinger is a hardcore enthusiast of comic strips, since he's been writing the blog The Comics Curmudgeon since 2004. The idea behind his blog is for him to read every comic strip in his local paper and choose a few to make crotchety, disparaging comments about. And yes, Josh does have a thing for the soap opera strips, such as Mary Worth, Gil Thorpe, Judge Parker, Rex Morgan MD, and of course Apartment 3-G. I've followed his blog for years and sometimes comment on it along with hundreds of others who join in the fun daily. It's not hard to see his blog's influence in this novel.
Without spoiling anything, I have to add that I got the feeling that Josh might feel a little remorse for poking fun at these strips. I might feel the same way, too, in his position. Anyone who spends two decades making comic strips the butt of your own jokes must also like these comic strips, at least to some extent. I've seen it come through a lot in Josh's blog. He plays the curmudgeon almost constantly, but occasionally sprinkles some praise into his commentary. He's come right out and expressed admiration for some strips; his appreciation for The Lockhorns surprised me and warmed my heart at the same time. I guess it's no surprise that his novel would show respect and appreciation for both the fictional analogs of his Comics Curmudgeon community, as well as for the creators behind the strips themselves.
As someone who can't draw but wishes he could, I love stuff related to the comics world, especially comic strips. It's a bit different from The Enthusiast, but I'd also recommend J. Robert Lennon's 1999 novel The Funnies, which is a fictional imagining of the behind-the-scenes world of a strip much like The Family Circus.
I don't know if such companies exist. Maybe they do, and if so, they'd probably want to keep as mum about what they do as Kate's agency does. Somewhere on the internet there's probably at least one group of genuine, organically-grown enthusiasts for any subject you can imagine, so it's not hard to imagine this being a thing.
The new train mentioned in the book is a fictional one, credited to the non-fictional Siemens company, which does manufacture trains. It's told with the enthusiasm that sounds like it would come from the mind of a genuine hardcore train enthusiast. Maybe Josh Fruhlinger actually is one. If he isn't, he sure built a convincing world.
The comic strip mentioned in the book, Ladies Who Lunch, is entirely fictional, as is its backstory. It does seem to be based on the real-life comic strip Apartment 3-G, which ended a few years ago. I know Apartment 3-G's backstory, and it definitely doesn't jibe with Ladies Who Lunch, as credible as the fictional backstory is. I do know that Josh Fruhlinger is a hardcore enthusiast of comic strips, since he's been writing the blog The Comics Curmudgeon since 2004. The idea behind his blog is for him to read every comic strip in his local paper and choose a few to make crotchety, disparaging comments about. And yes, Josh does have a thing for the soap opera strips, such as Mary Worth, Gil Thorpe, Judge Parker, Rex Morgan MD, and of course Apartment 3-G. I've followed his blog for years and sometimes comment on it along with hundreds of others who join in the fun daily. It's not hard to see his blog's influence in this novel.
Without spoiling anything, I have to add that I got the feeling that Josh might feel a little remorse for poking fun at these strips. I might feel the same way, too, in his position. Anyone who spends two decades making comic strips the butt of your own jokes must also like these comic strips, at least to some extent. I've seen it come through a lot in Josh's blog. He plays the curmudgeon almost constantly, but occasionally sprinkles some praise into his commentary. He's come right out and expressed admiration for some strips; his appreciation for The Lockhorns surprised me and warmed my heart at the same time. I guess it's no surprise that his novel would show respect and appreciation for both the fictional analogs of his Comics Curmudgeon community, as well as for the creators behind the strips themselves.
As someone who can't draw but wishes he could, I love stuff related to the comics world, especially comic strips. It's a bit different from The Enthusiast, but I'd also recommend J. Robert Lennon's 1999 novel The Funnies, which is a fictional imagining of the behind-the-scenes world of a strip much like The Family Circus.
September 22, 2020
This book is an enjoyable read for sure, but I think its biggest sin is sketching out interesting ideas and relationships that are never quite as fleshed out or deeply explored as one wishes they could be. The book centers around a woman, Kate, working at a stealth marketing company which looks to build enthusiasm for products by infiltrating relevant communities of nerds and getting those nerds to unwittingly spread publicity for the desired product.
This premise very naturally lends itself to questions about the morality of marketing and about the deep ethical grey areas we live in today around social media and anonymous interaction. It also lends itself to interesting near-future dystopian world-building, where the author could present us with a vision of what marketing could look like if our current situation was a bit more extreme and further progressed.
Instead, the premise stays very realistic - if anything, too realistic, disappointingly so. The marketing employed by this company seems fully within the realm of possibility. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but then, if the situation described is real, it would make it all the more satisfying to have it delved into in a really deep way. However, while the ethics of this mode of advertising are questioned a bit, overall the book really just feels like a story about a woman working a fun but not perfect job. She has some occasional moral doubts, but everything always feels very surface-level.
Similarly, the characters and their interactions with each other in the book feel rather shallow. Kate has some romantic dalliances, she has some friendships, she has various professional encounters, but ultimately, nothing really feels like it has serious emotional stakes. The drama of the book is all so normal-feeling and mundane that it ultimately feels like kind of a pointless experience. I definitely enjoyed reading the book and thought it had some fun and interesting plots, but I came away with it with no deep thoughts or feelings, and feel like it didn't leave much of an impression on me.
This premise very naturally lends itself to questions about the morality of marketing and about the deep ethical grey areas we live in today around social media and anonymous interaction. It also lends itself to interesting near-future dystopian world-building, where the author could present us with a vision of what marketing could look like if our current situation was a bit more extreme and further progressed.
Instead, the premise stays very realistic - if anything, too realistic, disappointingly so. The marketing employed by this company seems fully within the realm of possibility. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but then, if the situation described is real, it would make it all the more satisfying to have it delved into in a really deep way. However, while the ethics of this mode of advertising are questioned a bit, overall the book really just feels like a story about a woman working a fun but not perfect job. She has some occasional moral doubts, but everything always feels very surface-level.
Similarly, the characters and their interactions with each other in the book feel rather shallow. Kate has some romantic dalliances, she has some friendships, she has various professional encounters, but ultimately, nothing really feels like it has serious emotional stakes. The drama of the book is all so normal-feeling and mundane that it ultimately feels like kind of a pointless experience. I definitely enjoyed reading the book and thought it had some fun and interesting plots, but I came away with it with no deep thoughts or feelings, and feel like it didn't leave much of an impression on me.
April 29, 2024
Realistic Yet Comedic Fiction About How Enthusiasm Works for Internet Communities
Josh Fruhlinger’s THE ENTHUSIAST is unlike any other book I’ve read before in terms of subject matter. The protagonist, Kate, works for the mysterious Subconscious Agency that helps drum up enthusiasm for their clients—mostly by interacting with passionate internet communities on message boards. The novel has two interesting plotlines involving (1) Siemens and its trains in the Washington D.C. metro area and (2) a long running comic strip named “Ladies Who Lunch” that has film potential.
As Kate navigates the world of diehard railfans and movie stars, she considers the Agency’s strategic principles such as, “There’s nothing that makes enthusiasm genuine like real topic knowledge, and real topic knowledge almost always engenders enthusiasm.” These maxims were such a pleasure to read. (By the way, I would love to read a compilation of the Agency’s enthusiasm principles in a separate book).
Throughout the story, the description of online interactions is highly realistic. I especially enjoyed the plot point where the characters track down an internet troll by noticing some breadcrumbs that he left on his Wikipedia page. Overall, I was impressed by how the book incorporated aspects of fan and internet culture while also giving the main character a satisfying transformation arc.
Josh Fruhlinger’s THE ENTHUSIAST is unlike any other book I’ve read before in terms of subject matter. The protagonist, Kate, works for the mysterious Subconscious Agency that helps drum up enthusiasm for their clients—mostly by interacting with passionate internet communities on message boards. The novel has two interesting plotlines involving (1) Siemens and its trains in the Washington D.C. metro area and (2) a long running comic strip named “Ladies Who Lunch” that has film potential.
As Kate navigates the world of diehard railfans and movie stars, she considers the Agency’s strategic principles such as, “There’s nothing that makes enthusiasm genuine like real topic knowledge, and real topic knowledge almost always engenders enthusiasm.” These maxims were such a pleasure to read. (By the way, I would love to read a compilation of the Agency’s enthusiasm principles in a separate book).
Throughout the story, the description of online interactions is highly realistic. I especially enjoyed the plot point where the characters track down an internet troll by noticing some breadcrumbs that he left on his Wikipedia page. Overall, I was impressed by how the book incorporated aspects of fan and internet culture while also giving the main character a satisfying transformation arc.
February 2, 2021
I started reading the Comics Curmudgeon website some time ago and really enjoyed it. When I saw that its creator was going to be writing a book, I wasn't sure what to make of it. Yes, his website was very amusing and fun, but writing a novel is a completely different set of muscles and I wasn't honestly sure he could pull it off. Turns out he can pull it off, and extremely well. This book has a really interesting premise that I found fascinating and unique but more importantly it has characters, characters that I quickly found myself invested in. Its hard to categorize the book...its not really a comedy, or an action story, or a romance or a thriller....yet I found it incredibly compelling and once I started it, I was anxious to finish it. Well done, and I hope that Fruhlinger writes more books, whether with these characters or with all new characters. Either way, I'd read it.
February 18, 2017
I really enjoyed this book which is a tough one to describe. It manages to deftly merge train culture with comic strip enthusiasts. Seamlessly I might add. It probably helps some that our protagonist lives in Arlington and commutes into DC each day on the Metro just like I do. I got all the references. The book is funny and unexpectedly poignant. I love Josh's Comic Curmudgeon blog and this book makes me want to see what else he writes.
July 17, 2017
This was a really solid book, and a lot of fun to read! Definitely un-put-downable. The premise of an Enthusiasm Agency that implants enthusiasts into certain communities to buck up support for a client's work is interesting, a sort of weird take on astroturfing. I enjoyed watching all the characters bounce off of each other in fun ways. And the main character, Kate, was written with a lot of depth and relatability.
May 19, 2018
Decent concept, surprisingly good execution for a first-time, self-published novel, despite many loose threads that never go anywhere. Fruhlinger never fully acknowledges the dystopian aspects of his setting, though, and it's hard to know if that's because the setting doesn't matter as much as the points he wanted to make about enthusiasm, or because the protagonist is a true believer, or because he genuinely doesn't see them as dystopian himself.
January 19, 2019
The Enthusiast follows a familiar arc with wit and polish. Fruhlinger adeptly uses his own eccentric interests to give insight and colorful specificity to his tale about fan cultures and the strengths and vulnerabilities inherent in deeply liking something.
2019 Read Harder Challenge
23. A self-published book.
2019 Read Harder Challenge
23. A self-published book.
May 31, 2017
Love the concept, and am convinced that it's actually already real and most people just don't know it yet. Enjoyed the characters. Worth the time it took to read.
August 2, 2019
A light and mostly enjoyable read. It’s got a few fun threads that don’t ever really tie together or pan out in a satisfying way but they’re all a good enough time. Josh is a friend.
August 4, 2017
A funny fictional look at how the internet is morphing fan culture; humorous without ever being condescending towards the fan communities it portrays.
February 8, 2017
A comedy novel about, basically, astroturfing – a method of creating enthusiasm for a product by having marketers join social media and pretend to be genuine fans, starting conversations and dropping names to make it look like there's a groundswell of support. Kate, the main character, belongs to a company that goes even further than usual, encouraging the employees to actually become fans and embed themselves long-term in message boards, facebook groups, fan clubs, and even in-person meetings. Kate is currently balancing two projects: one with die-hard railfans, paid for by a German company trying to sell their trains to the DC Metro, and one with hipsters who have an ironic love for an ancient newspaper soap opera comistrip (clearly largely based on Apartment 3-G), paid for by a celebrity who really wants to star in the possible movie adaptation. The book is breezy and funny and clearly written by someone who genuinely gets fan-culture (there's one reference to a Captain America tumblr that made me howl with laughter), which resolves in the end with a surprisingly philosophical turn into the ethics of Kate's job.
Fruhlinger writes The Comics Curmudgeon, a comedy blog about newspaper comics, which I've been a fan of for literally years. Even so, I was surprised by how well-written and constructed The Enthusiast is; you would absolutely never guess it's a first novel. As a side note, I was also very pleased by the racial diversity of the characters and the nonchalant handling of Kate's sex life. There's just so much to enjoy in this book! Seriously, check it out – I want more people to read it.
Fruhlinger writes The Comics Curmudgeon, a comedy blog about newspaper comics, which I've been a fan of for literally years. Even so, I was surprised by how well-written and constructed The Enthusiast is; you would absolutely never guess it's a first novel. As a side note, I was also very pleased by the racial diversity of the characters and the nonchalant handling of Kate's sex life. There's just so much to enjoy in this book! Seriously, check it out – I want more people to read it.
February 18, 2016
This witty book is for anyone who has been a member of an internet community. Josh Fruhlinger explores the concept of enthusiasm from its psychological roots to its manifestations online and in the real world, and he does so through engaging characters and a fun plot. It's refreshing to read an author who actually understands the Internet in the way I've personally experienced: the camaraderie of a message board, the defense of eccentric passions against trolls, the amazing creativity and humor, the inside jokes that made no sense outside of a very tight community. If this sounds like the internet to you, you will find this book hilarious.
My only concern is that this book is VERY rooted in a particular time. He references memes from 2015 that make current readers chuckle with recognition but will probably confuse readers in a few years. The characters' use of message boards, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr will probably feel idiosyncratic as real life social media platforms evolve away from their present state. That's not necessarily a bad thing -- I think the story and the writing itself will keep readers entertained, and the specificity of the setting may turn out to make it emblematic of the era rather than simply dated.
My only concern is that this book is VERY rooted in a particular time. He references memes from 2015 that make current readers chuckle with recognition but will probably confuse readers in a few years. The characters' use of message boards, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr will probably feel idiosyncratic as real life social media platforms evolve away from their present state. That's not necessarily a bad thing -- I think the story and the writing itself will keep readers entertained, and the specificity of the setting may turn out to make it emblematic of the era rather than simply dated.
April 13, 2017
Ok, so I've been reading Josh's blog and following him on the Internet for some time, and I backed the novel on kickstarter way back when, so I was definitely inclined to like it. But it totally exceeded my expectations and I couldn't put it down! The plot isn't really all that, but I was drawn into the world of Kate's work and the weirdos she encountered and was happy to just spend a few hours of my life hanging out with them. It's a book about nerds and geeks (and I use those terms with the utmost affection) and the niche subcultures that bring them together. And it's one of those rare novels (ok, in 2016 it is finally feeling less rare) that actually gets the Internet and doesn't awkwardly try to force in-person interactions when you know the characters would be texting or facebooking.
Overall just a really fun story that celebrates "enthusiasts," however weird and obsessive and obscure, and brings you in on their in-jokes and dramas. It made me feel like I do whenever I fall down a Wikipedia research rabbit hole and end up with 15 open browser tabs.
Overall just a really fun story that celebrates "enthusiasts," however weird and obsessive and obscure, and brings you in on their in-jokes and dramas. It made me feel like I do whenever I fall down a Wikipedia research rabbit hole and end up with 15 open browser tabs.
February 3, 2016
A really fun story about a consulting company trying to harness and direct the enthusiasm of online communities. Anyone who is a member of any tight-knit Internet community will recognize bits of their own group's dynamics. This makes the characters very relatable. A funny, humorous story, without being overtly jokey. The protagonist knows she's following two storylines in parallel and tries hard to keep them plus her offline life separate, but they all cross together anyway. A definite must read if you've ever ironically laughed at (while secretly following the plot out of real interest) the older serial comic strips in the newspaper (Apartment 3G, Mary Worth, etc.).
I read the entire book in 15-20 minute daily bursts while riding the Washington DC Metro on my commute, which I believe is the best way to enjoy the story, since one of the intersecting storylines is about WMATA itself.
I read the entire book in 15-20 minute daily bursts while riding the Washington DC Metro on my commute, which I believe is the best way to enjoy the story, since one of the intersecting storylines is about WMATA itself.
February 12, 2016
I was nervous about this book - I kickstarter funded it because I have loved the author's blog about newspaper comicstrips for the past 8-9 years, but I wasn't sure if that kind of humor would translate to a good novel. I was very happily surprised. With a bit of a nod toward the future parts of Visit from the Goon Squad, the plot focuses on a professional enthusiast whose Agency builds enthusiasm for, well, whatever people have hired them for. Kate's focuses in the book are trains and newspaper comics, and while they sound disconnected, the kinds of people who get excited about them (or about anything really) are pretty similar. I loved the interweaving plots and the concept behind the book and the writing style. Super glad that a kickstarter made this book happen. (Plus, now my name's in a book, at the back, where the funders get thanked.)
January 9, 2016
I've been following Fruhlinger's Comics Curmudgeon blog regularly for a decade. His sense of humor is offbeat but relatable, and he always tempers the snark with a central core of genuine affection for his targeted comic strips.
The Enthusiast combines his comics obsession with urban commuter rail trainspotting, while overlaying an eerie William Gibsonesque sense that all this really could be happening.
Well-written for a first novel and tightly plotted -- there is no fluff here. (Looking at you, every big name writer desperately in need of a strong editorial whip hand.)
Highly recommended!
The Enthusiast combines his comics obsession with urban commuter rail trainspotting, while overlaying an eerie William Gibsonesque sense that all this really could be happening.
Well-written for a first novel and tightly plotted -- there is no fluff here. (Looking at you, every big name writer desperately in need of a strong editorial whip hand.)
Highly recommended!
December 25, 2015
This is the first novel by Josh Fruhlinger, who writes the Comics Curmudgeon blog. If you haven't read his blog, you really should - it's one of those unexpected treats made possible by the Internet that you never knew was missing from your life. The same can actually be said about the Enthusiast, a book that came to be through Kickstarter, with a central conceit just a hair past now in our connected world. It's a great debut - funny and charming, well-plotted and paced. Completely recommended.
May 22, 2016
Social media commercialized/monetized. This is probably happening...
Kate has a job as an Enthusiast- i.e., using fake identities on social media to encourage enthusiasm- or to market- what her employer's clients want. At first she really enjoys it...but then things get complicated.
The novel was very readable, but I wish the moral/ethical problems Kate ran into had been more clearly addressed.
I did very much enjoy the perspective into the fans of an old, outdated comic strip, and the various ways in which they enjoyed it. I wish I could read it!
Kate has a job as an Enthusiast- i.e., using fake identities on social media to encourage enthusiasm- or to market- what her employer's clients want. At first she really enjoys it...but then things get complicated.
The novel was very readable, but I wish the moral/ethical problems Kate ran into had been more clearly addressed.
I did very much enjoy the perspective into the fans of an old, outdated comic strip, and the various ways in which they enjoyed it. I wish I could read it!
February 23, 2016
I absolutely loved this book! I was already a fan of Josh Fruhlinger's humour from reading The Comics Curmudgeon, but I wasn't sure how well it would translate to a novel. It turns out that it came through beautifully. All the characters felt fleshed-out and real, in that I could start to imagine "oh yes, Kate would think that" or "Mesut would definitely say that!" I may not be part of a subconscious enthusiasm agency, but I do hope that everyone gives this novel a read.
January 25, 2016
Excellent debut from a blogger I've enjoyed for years. The satirical
workplace he sets up is ingenious, and anyone who's ever frequented a message board or comment section would probably love for it to be real. It finished a bit too quickly and left me wanting more, but I guess that means Josh just has to get moving on a second book!
workplace he sets up is ingenious, and anyone who's ever frequented a message board or comment section would probably love for it to be real. It finished a bit too quickly and left me wanting more, but I guess that means Josh just has to get moving on a second book!
February 22, 2016
I was intrigued by a novel that brought together certain, very narrow, aspects of my own life: living in unofficial Washington, railfans, and internet chat boards. New, unfamiliar elements were fans of classic serial comic strips and a specialized form of strategic marketing. It was all an odd but interesting and enjoyable mix.
December 24, 2015
Frequently hilarious, great characters, and a fantastic concept. I might have to knock it down to four stars if I weren't a fan of the Comics Curmudgeon, because it would lose something if you're not familiar with the real-world comics referenced, but it would still be pretty great.
December 31, 2015
Clever, breezy, thoroughly enjoyable comic novel about the interlocking misadventures of an undercover marketing agent. A pleasant surprise - I bought the book to support the writer of a blog I like but it was a great read on its own merits.
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