Books by Tao Lin
Taipei (Vintage Contemporaries)
by Tao Lin
A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice
"[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."—Benjamin Lytal, New York Observer
"Here we have a serious, first-rate novelist putting all his skills to work."—Clancy Martin, New York Times Book Review
"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."—Dwight Garner, New York Times
"Amazing. . . . the best writer about what it's like to be f*cked up on drugs that I've ever read."—John Horgan, author of The End of Science
"One thing I like about Tao's writing is how beside the point for me 'liking' it feels -- it's a frank depiction of the rhythm of a contemporary consciousness or lack of consciousness and so it has a power that bypasses those questions of taste entirely. Like it or not, it has the force of the real."—Ben Lerner, author of Leaving the Atocha Station
"[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
"Lin is an existential writer, really, less interested in tracing the contours of his particular social group than in describing the very personal and sometimes unbearable tyranny of one's own mind. . . . the novel's climactic scene. . . . builds over a few pages to a revelation that, in its sheer unexpected beauty, recalls the powerfully moving ending of David Markson's Wittgenstein's Mistress."—Slate
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Trip: Psychedelics, Alienation, and Change
by Tao Lin
Part memoir, part history, part journalistic exposé, Trip is a look at psychedelic drugs, literature, and alienation from one of the twenty-first century's most innovative novelists--The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test for a new generation. A Vintage Original.
While isolating himself to work on his novel Taipei, Tao Lin discovered the prolific work of Terence McKenna--the leading advocate of psychotropic drugs since Timothy Leary. Tao became obsessed with McKenna, whose worldview (and particular theory of drug use) seemed to present an alternate way of being. In Trip, Tao's first ever book-length work of nonfiction, he explores parallels between McKenna's life and his own in a far-reaching search for answers to looming questions: Why do we make art? What is language for? And are there essential, universal truths out there, beyond our limited range of perception?
Trip takes readers on a trip through psychedelic culture, from D.A.R.E. to Aldous Huxley, from NYU's Bobst Library to a plant-drawing class in Santa Rosa, California. Drawing on first-person exploratory journalism as well as in-depth research, Tao details the experience of taking psilocybin, DMT, and cannabis, studies their chemical composure and legality, and ends his story with a pilgrimage out West, where he communes with McKenna's ex-wife and fellow "ethnobotanist," Kathleen Harrison.
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Leave Society (Vintage Contemporaries)
by Tao Lin
From the acclaimed author of Taipei, a bold portrait of a writer working to balance all his lives—artist, son, loner—as he spins the ordinary into something monumental. An engrossing, hopeful novel about life, fiction, and where the two blur together.
In 2014, a novelist named Li leaves Manhattan to visit his parents in Taipei for ten weeks. He doesn't know it yet, but his life will begin to deepen and complexify on this trip. As he flies between these two worlds--year by year, over four years--he will flit in and out of optimism, despair, loneliness, sanity, bouts of chronic pain, and drafts of a new book. He will incite and temper arguments, uncover secrets about nature and history, and try to understand how to live a meaningful life as an artist and a son. But how to fit these pieces of his life together? Where to begin? Or should he leave society altogether?
Exploring everyday events and scenes--waiting rooms, dog walks, family meals--while investigatively venturing to the edges of society, where culture dissolves into mystery, Lin shows what it is to write a novel in real time. Illuminating and deeply felt, as it builds toward a stunning, if unexpected, romance, Leave Society is a masterly story about life and art at the end of history.
A VINTAGE ORIGINAL
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Shoplifting from American Apparel (The Contemporary Art of the Novella)
by Tao Lin
A funny autobiographical tale about growing up in the digital age, from a groundbreaking author whose writing is “reminiscent of early Douglas Coupland, or early Bret Easton Ellis” (The Guardian)
This autobiographical novella is described by the author as “a shoplifting book about vague relationships,” and “an ultimately life-affirming book about how the unidirectional nature of time renders everything beautiful and sad.”
From VIP rooms in hip New York City clubs to central booking in Chinatown, from New York University’s Bobst Library to a bus in someone’s backyard in a Floridian college town, from Bret Easton Ellis to Lorrie Moore, and from Moby to Schumann, Shoplifting from American Apparel explores class, culture, and the arts in all their American forms through the funny, journalistic, and existentially-minded narrative of someone trying to both “not be a bad person” and “find some kind of happiness or something.”
“Tao's writing . . . has the force of the real.” —Ben Lerner, author of The Topeka School
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Bed: Stories
by Tao Lin
"Tao Lin writes from moods that less radical writers would let pass — from laziness, from vacancy, from boredom. And it turns out that his report from these places is moving and necessary, not to mention frequently hilarious."—Miranda July
A startlingly original voice announces itself immediately in this collection of award-winning stories. Tao Lin’s absorbing writing style matches a minimalist prose with a lyric sensibility, poignant compassion with a hysterical sense of humor, bitter reality with enchanting fantasy, and youthful outlandishness with a gentle, mature perceptiveness—all in shaped stories that are a tribute to the form.
In a series of pinpoint portrayals, Lin’s tales depict young people in a surreal place between irresponsible youth and workaday adulthood, wanting to reject both cultures in order to craft something different. But such rebellion is harder than ever in a culture dominated by outrageousness, and Lin sensitively portrays the struggle in a way that is highly entertaining, impressively smart, and ultimately moving.
It will leave some cheering the war against a dumbed-down culture, others laughing at the tactics, and all concerned feeling like they’ve got a new champion in Tao Lin.
Tao Lin, also author of the novel Eeeee Eee Eeee, lives in New York City.
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Eeeee Eee Eeee
by Tao Lin
"Tao Lin writes from moods that less radical writers would let pass--from laziness, from vacancy, from boredom. And it turns out that his report from these places is moving and necessary, not to mention frequently hilarious."
--Miranda July, author of No One Belongs Here More Than You
"Tao Lin is the most distinctive young writer I've come upon in a long time: the most intrepid, the funniest, the strangest. He is completely unlike anyone else."
--Brian Morton, author of Starting Out in the Evening
"I was immediately blown away: the stylistic audacity of [Eeeee Eee Eeee and Bed] is inspiring; despite the talking animals, these are dark works about the alienation of modern times."
--Tony O'Neill, The Guardian
"Eeeee Eee Eeee is an un-self-conscious yet commanding tour de force."--Powells.com
"Eeeee Eee Eeee is one of the first novels in a long time that made me laugh out loud--a wonderful, honest and cathartic laugh. Finally, someone published something written by a young person about a young experience that feels organic and real..."
--Jennifer Bassett, KGB Bar Lit Magazine
"Stimulating and exciting...It doesn't often happen that a debuting writer displays not only irrepressible talent but also the ability to undermine the conventions of fiction and set off in new directions. Tao Lin, who is 24, does it."--San Francisco Bay Guardian
"Later one day looking back at this review I'll know I wrote it after reading the novel twice straight through because it's hard to not want to write like Tao Lin but it's even harder to actually do it. I know people who don't read very often who should read this book because like Denis Johnson it's funny and addictive and talks straight into your ear instead of from somewhere far gone. I know people who read constantly who should read this because Tao Lin's sentences are so good they sometimes make me shudder. While doing so, or immediately after, or occasionally a long time after, they make me laugh. It's very hard to make someone shudder and then laugh. Tao Lin persists."--Blake Butler, Bookslut
"Tao Lin's fiction will kick your ass and say thank you afterwards!"
--Amy Fusselman, author of The Pharmacist's Mate
"A revolutionary."
--The Stranger
"Prodigal, unpredictable."
--Paste Magazine
"...wry, imaginative and off-kilter...charts the tribulations of a heartbroken pizza delivery guy living in a suburb where bears talk and dolphins attempt to commit murder."
--Time Out New York
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Pets
by Ann Beattie, DK Publishing, Blake Butler, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Christine Schutt, Tao Lin, Kathryn Scanlan, Sarah Manguso, Francesca Ferri, Sam Pink, Scott McClanahan, David Nutt, Mark Leidner, Annie DeWitt, Chelsea Hodson, Kristen Iskandrian, Nicolette Polek, Yuka Igarashi, Raegan Bird, Ryan C. K. Choi, Clune,Michael W., Patty Yumi Cottrell, Precious Okoyomon, Mallory Whitten
Puppies, kittens, hamsters, and goldfish are some of the pets that delight children. They�re all here in this warm and wonderful padded cloth book for baby, which comes in a clear plastic case with carrying handle. (Ages Infant�3)
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Pets
by Ann Beattie, DK Publishing, Blake Butler, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Christine Schutt, Tao Lin, Kathryn Scanlan, Sarah Manguso, Francesca Ferri, Sam Pink, Scott McClanahan, David Nutt, Mark Leidner, Annie DeWitt, Chelsea Hodson, Kristen Iskandrian, Nicolette Polek, Yuka Igarashi, Raegan Bird, Ryan C. K. Choi, Clune,Michael W., Patty Yumi Cottrell, Precious Okoyomon, Mallory Whitten
In Touch and Feel Pets, children will learn about their favorite pets through an engaging textured format, as they pet the silky dog, meet the whiskery cat, examine the glistening gold fish, and more. A sparkly irresistible jacket encourages toddlers to pick the book up, the bright bold interior pages help them develop object recognition, and the descriptive text builds their language skills — making this a favorite for both parents and children.
With a sparkling new look, these bestselling DK classics are sure to become favorites for a whole new generation of young readers. Babies and toddlers will be drawn to the captivating, tactile pages, and will want to touch, feel and explore every spread.
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Pets
by Ann Beattie, DK Publishing, Blake Butler, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Christine Schutt, Tao Lin, Kathryn Scanlan, Sarah Manguso, Francesca Ferri, Sam Pink, Scott McClanahan, David Nutt, Mark Leidner, Annie DeWitt, Chelsea Hodson, Kristen Iskandrian, Nicolette Polek, Yuka Igarashi, Raegan Bird, Ryan C. K. Choi, Clune,Michael W., Patty Yumi Cottrell, Precious Okoyomon, Mallory Whitten
This anthology collects original writing and art by novelists, poets, and academics about their pets, including a killer chihuahua, a catatonic toy poodle, a contraband cat, a backyard full of endangered desert tortoises, five forgotten parakeets, and a skinny ex-racehorse named Joe. From legends like Ann Beattie and Christine Schutt to cult figures like Scott McClanahan and Tao Lin, this anthology collects writing from some of today’s best literary talent. Edited by Jordan Castro with contributions by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Ann Beattie, Raegan Bird, Blake Butler, Ryan C. K. Choi, Michael W. Clune, Patty Yumi Cottrell, Annie DeWitt, Chelsea Hodson, Yuka Igarashi, Kristen Iskandrian, Mark Leidner, Tao Lin, Scott McClanahan, Sarah Manguso, David Nutt, Precious Okoyomon, Sam Pink, Nicolette Polek, Kathryn Scanlan, Christine Schutt, and Mallory Whitten.
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Richard Yates: A Novel
by Tao Lin
In a startling change of direction, cult favorite Tao Lin presents a dark and brooding tale of illicit love that is his most sophisticated and mesmerizing writing yet.
Richard Yates is named after real-life writer Richard Yates, but it has nothing to do with him. Instead, it tracks the rise and fall of an illicit affair between a very young writer and his even younger--in fact, under-aged--lover. As he seeks to balance work and love, she becomes more and more self-destructive in a play for his undivided attention. His guilt and anger builds in response until they find themselves hurtling out of control and afraid to let go.
Lin's trademark minimalism takes on a new, sharp-edged suspense here, zeroing in on a lacerating narrative like never before --until it is almost, in fact, too late.
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you are a little bit happier than i am
by Tao Lin
Poetry. Asian American Studies. Winner of the 2005 December Prize. Reading Tao Lin is like looking the wrong way down Frank O'Hara's ear trumpet at a 21st century Mayakovski IM-ing Lili Brik. This book is fun, smart, manic and ecstatic; it puts on a clean shirt before it loads the gun. "YOU ARE A LITTLE BIT HAPPIER THAN I AM has the energy and oddness of a thing that is rising very fast that is not supposed to be rising, or that is supposed to be rising but for a moment you forget that, and for a moment this ordinary thing looks very strange and exciting"--Deb Olin Unferth. Tao Lin is 23 and lives in New York City. Visit his blog reader-of-depressing-books.blogspot.com.
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Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: Poetry
by Tao Lin
"A revolutionary."-The Stranger
"Stimulating and exciting."-The San Francisco Bay Guardian
"Tao Lin writes from moods that less radical writers would let pass-from laziness, from vacancy, from boredom. And it turns out that his report from these places is moving and necessary, not to mention frequently hilarious."-Miranda July, author of No One Belongs Here More Than You
Tao Lin-author of the underground sensation Eeeee Eee Eeee-continues his deadpan existential-slapstick style with poems featuring titles such as: "I will learn to love a person and then I will teach you and then we will know" and "hamsters are heads with little characteristics on the head, part one."
It is, in short, a book of poetry in which the author attempts in a calm, sympathetic, and at times sarcastic tone, to explain to himself the possible origins and cures of anger, worry, frustration, obsession, and confusion-while concurrently experiencing those things.
Tao Lin is the poetry editor for 3 a.m. magazine, and proprietor of the blog Reader of Depressing Books. His stories and poems have appeared in Mississippi Review, Cincinnati Review, Other Voices, Punk Planet, and many other magazines. Lin, author of the novel Eeeee Eee Eeee and the short story collection Bed, was born in 1983.
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