Bed: Stories

By Tao Lin

An absurdist short story collection about the woes of 21st-century living—from an author whose writing is “moving and necessary, not to mention frequently hilarious” (Miranda July)
 
College students, recent graduates, and their parents work at Denny’s, volunteer at a public library in suburban Florida, attend satanic ska/punk concerts, eat Chinese food with the homeless of New York City, and go to the same Japanese restaurant in Manhattan three times in two sleepless days, all while yearning constantly for love, a better kind of love, or something better than love, things which—much like the Loch Ness Monster—they know probably do not exist, but are rumored to exist and therefore “good enough.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Dec 29, 2010
• ISBN: 9781612190273

Reviews for Bed

[birdsofparadise-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Bed was a random book selection after one of those long "what do I want to read next?" flits around the bookstore - I'm so glad that I made the choice.

Lin's writing is beautiful - expressive, modern, eccentric without being trite. Dissecting his characters' feelings of boredom, loneliness, dissatisfaction, alienation and unhappiness in a manner which occasionally took my breath away. It's funny, thought-provoking, and often quite moving (the final paragraph in the story 'Sasquatch' being particularly poignant).

Looking around at other work by Tao I wasn't surprised to see he's also written a book of poetry, as much of this book seems (to me at least) very poetic in its approach.

"There was a building that was Colin's future, a tall and glassy place that he'd have to enter, and if he didn't fill it, he'd end up wandering the floors, wheeling around on an office chair, rolling his own body on the carpet, like a log".

[anderlawlor · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Mono-tonal.

[kontam_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A funny witty and true collection of stories. I was intrigued by about the first half of the stories but as I neared the end the last 3 stories really made the book for me, they were laugh out loud funny and yet humbly human. Quite possibly my favorite part of Tao Lin's writing is how clear he can relate the feelings of this generations early adults. Some of his stories are very sad and felt depressing, but I was glad to read them for how intriguing he made the situations. I recommend EEEE EEE EEEEE greatly as well, there were a bit more laughs in the novel, but these stories aren't to be passed up.

[werdfert · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

dear tao, i read this whole book while holding my breath. i wanted to close my eyes as well to keep everything inside me, but i couldn't keep reading that way. i stayed in bed. i climbed onto the roof. i exhaled. it was marvelous and unusual and i couldn't believe it. i believed it.

[nancyjean19 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I really liked many of his words, phrases, images and ideas. The stories weren't coherent enough for me, but I think I'll like his more recent books. We shall see!