John Strelecky returns, I mean literally, he himself, inserted into this "fictional" story with his "fictional" characters, to the Why Are You Here Cafe and lets his simple legacy explode in an allegoric mess. I felt myself mentally regress whilst reading this book after going through the work of understanding great minds like Hesse or Kafka who impactfully question our society in a way that will leave you stuck with your newfound knowledge. Branding knowledge that Strelecky tried so much to give, but failed.
Let's start with the cafe itself:
In the first book we are introduced to two characters that we meet yet again in this continuation; Mike and Casey. Other than that we know that there is a menu card, in which you'll find three essential questions to start an apparently much needed existential crisis. We find out that in this scenario, these three questions change for every. single. person. Now how many of these questions can one actually manifest to really put your existence into question??? Okay, whatever, I mean, he just wanted to talk about slightly different views he has on what makes life meaningful, not something I should complain about, correct? Not exactly. The cafe lost its meaning for me as soon as it became more logical and rational. The reader is left to wonder if the cafe itself is a real concept or if its meant to be another allegory. In the first book this was quite clear. The cafe existed in a limited space with limited figures. John decides to throw this overboard and that magical touch that even made it possible in the first place for Strelecky to make money off of his simplistic thoughts, is gone.
We get introduced to a god awful shallow character named Jessica, who's terrible past makes her apparently gullible and naive. She's the new John, John becomes the new Mike and Mike has a daughter now who's existence can be applied to all children in this world. Atleast Strelecky thinks that. Truth is, he has actually no idea how children work and it shows, yet he still gives them a crucial role in his story.
Throughout these 57 chapters, that are mostly chunky bits of Strelecky's opinions morphed into life lectures, I sure as hell don't know what the author tried to tell me. At some points it felt as if the privilege of one person and their experience was being made out to be the greatest achievement, an achievement that not many have the chance to complete. Which brings up another huge problem: the narcissistic vibes I get from this dude. By dude I mean John Strelecky himself and his self inserted character in his own book, in which he describes that John, so he himself, doesn't judge people for living their capitalistic lives with their shallow materialistic needs, but proceeds to phrase it in an incredibly insulting manner that it almost seems mocking. He speaks so highly of himself and his way of living and his pride to ignore all evil in this world and live out his ignorance in total peace while having an underlying fit about people reacting negatively to his attitude makes the whole thing even more ridiculous. I mean, come on, can you really believe that if every person was able to act like Strelecky, we would even have the chance of the act itself in our society? That f.e. every person is "so incredibly talented in their job" that their financial security is an absolute given fact?
Now I'm going to get through the last point quickly because I've wasted enough time with this lecture. Strelecky keeps using pseudo science to make his points valid and anyone with just the least bit of knowledge of sociology or psychology knows that this man has either recycled thoughts long spoken or made up seemingly logical thought processes that truthfully are plain and simple bullshit or so easy to imagine on your own that it is incredible that some guy is taking away this much profit from it. This book is one for vulnerable people that are prey to the cult following of this series and not always without any least bit of danger.
I would say if John had stuck to his guns back from the first book or stuck to the ideas that are truly wholesome like those 4 pages only where he talks through his character Tutu, then maybe I would've been more forgiving.
Bye.