Person Kindle Edition

This is my second Sam Pink book. I won't try to poorly mimic his writing style like so many fanboy reviews on here have done. I'll leave the author's voice to be his own.On one hand, moment-to-moment you're hard-pressed to find a better writer who, as everyone else has noted, captures those fleeting thoughts everyone has but has never recorded. He's got some great moments and perspectives.That said, I couldn't tell the difference between Person and Rontel. Both involved a depressed, witty guy wandering Chicago and were written in the same exact style. I get that there's something unique about a story that goes nowhere beyond a character's head and I enjoy his style, but two stories that go nowhere? I got to the point where I was struggling to justify turning the page because I knew it wasn't going anywhere.I'd like to see this author push himself more. Apparently this is how he actually talks and thinks, but many readers seem to mistake that for brilliance when I see it as taking the easy way out by stringing together a bunch of unrelated observations for enough pages to justify publishing. That's a lot easier than creating multidimensional characters and action that rises and falls and pays off in some way.But, maybe that would ruin what makes this great writer stand out from the crowd. At its core, I think the people who relate most to these stories have a rather nihilistic view of the world and these stories echo it. I think the world is great and am driven to do things with my time here, which immediately would make me a target of scorn in one of his books, but his character(s) don't strike me as being above it all. They just seem kinda boring and I don't think they have to be.

Person is a novel by my favorite weirdo Sam Pink. The novel is about an ordinary person. He could be you. He could be me. We go page by page living the every day life of the person. That's pretty much it. We observe the person's daily routine and the utter banality intertwines it. We explore his psyche in the most in depth and personal way possible. What may appear bleak and bland to some will be gorgeous exploration of the bowels of nothingness to others. Information and description is sparse throughout. It is the reader's job to figure out what is in between each sentence, each chapter, and navigate their own way through the void that is the person. I may have found more of myself in the person than I have ever found in another book character. There were moments where I felt as if someone had read my mind or my journal. I annotated and wrote whole extra paragraphs in my copy. I felt a strong amount of food for thought reading this short book. I loved it. It is something I will come back to and read over and over again because the message struck me in such a way. Admittedly, I have been a huge fan of everything I have consumed by Sam Pink in the past. This is absolutely no different and will be on the top of my shelf for many years to come.

Like the narrator in PERSON who regales us with a flood of sad and funny inner dialog, author Sam Pink in person is a nonstop thinker and (in the right setting) a nonstop divulger of secrets. Google the three words, Sam Pink Interview, to find a slew of recent examples worth exploring. Read them and weep -- honestly. Laugh in recognition too. Don't overlook the the 8-minute video on Vimeo catching Pink in the middle of a beer-fueled conversation in a club.About the time PERSON was published Pink answered a question about which philosophers interested him: "Right now, I am only interested in Nietzsche and Heidegger. I like Nietzsche because he writes with a happy anger and his work is tonally dynamic for philosophy. I like Heidegger because I haven't read anyone with thought processes like his. So it's a good combination I think and I like to let it indirectly influence what I write: Nietzsche for the wild sweeping joyful negativity and Heidegger for depth of thought."Speaking of which, be forewarned the negativity quotient in PERSON is off the charts. Thinking negatively, living negatively, and being negatively, the book's unemployed 20-something narrator slumps around in a passive, low-self-esteem, wounded condition ("I have nothing to do. No one expects anything of me right now."). Depressing thoughts come naturally ("One day there will be no evidence of me ever having lived. No evidence identifiable."). It's your choice as a reader whether to imagine such lines delivered in the voice of an anguished existentialist or in the voice of Woody Allen.In those moments when the narrator is not wholly absent from his own life, he is painfully clinging to it. He yearns for a feeling of connectedness but seems almost reconciled to his apartness. At every bad turn -- and there are many -- he remarks with resignation, "It feels like practice." Fleeting plans for self-improvement ("I definitely want to get better about doing things I don't understand") provide comic relief. Ditto for word play ("There's a small jewelry store. The store is small, not the jewelry I mean."). Ditto again for casually tossed off ironies ("Sometimes I definitely feel a sense of accomplishment but it's never after accomplishing something").The book, a slim 87 pages, is an accessible and easy read -- certainly so for readers still in their 20s and for the parents of such persons, regardless of whether they've escaped the narrator's woebegone condition. It's also for anyone else of strong empathy. The book activates your inner therapist skills. Apply them as you encounter that most fascinating subject: another human being in distress. Think what it means to hear another Person say,"In my dreams now I walk through fields populated with much smaller versions of myself and they are easy to smash with my feet."

This book was worth every penny and time spent reading. It's such a bittersweet, brutally honest, true to life portrayal of a lonely & unable to relate to the chaotic world. He sees himself as a social outCast and so he hides away from human interaction and obsesses over his misconceptions about his self worth. He is unable to recognize his value and doesn't understand that his fears are things everyone experiences in life. I appreciate the quirky nature of the characters and how they interact . I cannot believe the inisight and depth of understanding that the author was able to bring to life in the characters. It has dark humor, funny descriptions detailing the characters phobias, enough weird to get you through some of the bittersweet scenes and it's funny. I love the author and appreciate her slightly off, way of hecharacters behavior. It's unusual & you have to appreciate human nature and all its quirks to enjoy the book.

Great stream of consciousness, reality and life. Puts you straight into this guys shoes. Although he's sad, depressed etc, it's somehow appealing. Just wish it was longer!

The words "wonderful read that left me smiling" scrolls through my head-hole in neon letters.A great subversive mind at work. True beauty that is found in nothing. Modern literature to be proud of living in the same time of.

Actually i don't know if there are similar novels out there but i guess the other novels of Sam Pink would be a good place to start looking and I'll probably do that at some point. Person is a very believable protagonist and maybe the ultimate absurd hero. It's a clever book

Should be required reading for all humans.

Disturbing, sad and funny, "Person" is a great book in pure Sam Pink style. I still prefer "Rontel", anyway. Recommended.