Half Empty

Half Empty is not the sort of book that offers easy solutions or neat and tidy endings. The characters are flawed, sometimes self-destructive human beings. They do things that you know are wrong, that they know are wrong, but they do them anyway. There are no heroes in white hats or cookie cutter archetype characters. Even Denis, the main character, has moments where he is really an unlikeable person. Having been sober for 30 days he now has to deal with the result of his drinking: the rest of his life. His stuggle to find love, not strangle his boss, and somehow still have something like a social life when all his friends continue to drink is well written in a sparse, almost spartan style that doesn't hide the ugliness and struggle behind flowery words or rationalizations. Physically, my copy of the book was actually a cut above those issued by larger publishers with a good tight binding and crisp printing on good quality paper. There is some rather explicit sexual content so Half Empty is probably not a good book for the children, but other than that I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys good literature.

Tim Hall's Half Empty perfectly captures the twilight moments between your last drink (not that long ago) your next drink (not today) and all of the mind-numbingly horrific moments in-between when one has to deal with a lousy job and desperately trying to put up with people who you can tolerate drunk, but would rather kill yourself than talk with a second longer while sober. It's the mundanity of sobriety that Hall captures well, the lingering moments, the desperate attempts to kill time on weekends and evenings that makes this book not just another cautionary tale for newbie friends of Bill but a gripping tale of the search for an honest feeling in a dishonest world. I'll drink to that.

Half Empty is not only an engrossing read --compelling plot, witty voice, believable characters, in a vivid urban setting-- but it's an important novel. So much literature has either romanticized drunks and addicts as "hip" heroes, or demonized them as evil villains. At last, with Half Empty we get a novel that portrays the nitty gritty and hardships of maintaining early sobriety in a world that clings stubbornly to its myths and ignorance about addiction. More than that, this is a novel about resistance to change, about a struggle for human transformation just when it's needed most.

Half Empty is about a guy who was drunk for a long time and one day decided to stop drinking and realized that he had surrounded himself with idiots and that he drank because life sucks and to face reality head on without booze or drugs or religion ain't easy. The book is about him facing life and romantic relationships. It is better than junky novels because when you are on junk or booze you can hide in it. Because to face life without the booze or junk is where the horror is, where truth comes into play. It is easy to deny reality and lie to yourself when you are drunk. What is really great about this book that blew my mind is how accessible the prose is. If you read romance, pop horror, Bukowski, or Ellis you can easily get into this book. Tim Hall is obviously well read and has worked on his craft to the point of madness to get this kind of accessibility. It is a perfect synthesis of several genres in one, and he doesn't fail to displease anyone who reads those secluded genres. The book is action packed too, no filler. He wastes no time in the book. The prose uses concrete langauge with few big words and it always conveys a clear picture in the mind so your imagination can sink into the story. I call this review a new type of lit because the book appeals to so many different people, it is for everyone. I wouldn't even know what section of the store to put it in, romance, literature, or young adult it could easily fit into.

Tim Hall uses "Half Empty" as the gateway into the average, psychotic New Yorker's mind. At times, I felt as if he were reading my own mind and writing my internalized thoughts in his book. I was especially pleased to see heavy Camus influence in Hall's writing. Imagine if Camus were able to write "The Stranger" in a NYC setting with a twist of modernism and a hint of individualistic rebellion! And such wonderful ways to bring suspense and drama to the reader!