Taipei by Tao Lin is an ode—or lament—to the way we live now. Following Paul from New York, where he comically navigates Manhattan's art and literary scenes, to Taipei, Taiwan, where he confronts his family's roots, we see one relationship fail, while another is born on the Internet and blooms into an unexpected wedding in Las Vegas. Along the way—whether on all-night drives up the East Coast, shoplifting excursions in the South, book readings on the West Coast, or ill-advised grocery runs in Ohio—movies are made with laptop cameras, massive amounts of drugs are ingested, and two young lovers come to learn what it means to share themselves completely. The result is a suspenseful meditation on memory, love, and what it means to be alive, young, and on the fringe in America, or anywhere else for that matter.
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"[A] modernist masterpiece…True, his characters are young people living in Brooklyn. And he writes about the Internet. But we should stop calling Tao Lin the voice of his generation. Taipei, his new novel, has less to do with his generation than with the literary tradition of Knut Hamsun, Ernest Hemingway, and Robert Musil…I cheerfully wrote “Proust” in the margin early on—because the hero, a young writer named Paul, takes such a meta attitude toward his own memories.”
— New York Observer
“Mr. Lin casts a spell in Taipei…[It is] his strongest book. At its best, it has distant echoes of early Hemingway, as filtered through Twitter and Klonopin: it’s terse, neutral, composed of small and often intricate gestures…it’s about flickers of perception, flickers that the author catches as if they were fireflies.”
— New York Times“[A] novel about disaffection that’s oddly affecting…for all its emotional reality, Taipei is a book without an ounce of self-pity, melodrama, or posturing.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)Taipei is a book without an ounce of self-pity, melodrama, or posturing, making the glacial Lin the perfect poster child for a generation facing-and failing to face-maturity.
— Publishers Weekly Starred ReviewBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Tao Lin is the author of several books of fiction and poetry, including Eeeee Eee Eeee, Richard Yates, You Are a Little Bit Happier than I am, and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy.
Kirby Heyborne is a musician, actor, and professional narrator. Noted for his work in teen and juvenile audio, he has garnered over twenty Earphones Awards. His audiobook credits include Jesse Kellerman’s The Genius, Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother, and George R. R. Martin’s Selections from Dreamsongs.