The Year of Endless Sorrows

This novel is extraordinarily well written, no matter what you feel about the plot. The plot is nothing new, and that's why it's so great. This book shows real life from a hysterical perspective, written by an amazing author. It's even better if you're familiar with his other, very different, playwriting work.

Do you remember the way the East Village in NYC used to be only a few short years ago - overrun by homeless, drug dealers and squatters, with the cental area, Tompkins Square Park, basically a war zone? That was before the property values of the entire neighborhood sky-rocketed, making "Rent" outdated even as it continued to play on Broadway. In "The Year of Endless Sorrows," which takes place in the early 90's, an unnamed midwesterner, in his early twenties, attempts to stake his claim by writing a semi-autobiographic novel (on a manual typewriter yet) after he moves to the East Village from the mid-west. He rooms in what seems to be a rent free unheated apartment, using a broken refrigerator to store his novel, with bizarre roomates which include his artistic younger brother, Feick, and two others nicknamed "The Owl" and "The Loach." He works for peanuts in a publishing house with, as you might expect, colleagues who may actually be odder than his roomates. Basically "The Year of Endless Sorrows" describes our Midwesterner's travails and minor triumphs as he's surrounded by madness -- in his apartment and at work, with a full-fledged love story somehow worked in. Occasionally I wondered why he lived like he did, even given his low salary. Until the end of the book, Rapp's tone is comedic and sarcastic, sometimes to a fault. But, shockingly, the last few chapters pull the rug out from the reader and give us something very unexpected. I could see some people not liking this book because Rapp, whether it be the comical first 350 pages of the book, or the tragic final 50 pages, writes in an overly snappy, bombastic and hyperealistic style which can be difficult to take at times. However, he generally presents the characters and situations so deftly, that I, for the most part, found the book to be irresistible, and I recommend it highly. When he wants to be, Adam Rapp can also write in a quite literary manner. There's a lengthy letter that The Owl, while on a solo road-trip and deranged, sends to the main character towards the end of the book which is nothing short of brilliant. Why Rapp chose to end his novel the way he did is anybody's guess, but the impact is deeply felt.