book review: eeeee eee eeee, by tao lin

As best as I could figure, Tao Lin's Eeeee Eee Eeee (the sound dolphins make) is the story of Andrew - a Dominoes Pizza delivery guy who pines for his ex-girlfriend while fantasizing about making a connection with his best friend's sister. Either due to boredom, depression, insanity, or the possibility that he's actually fallen into the proverbial rabbit hole, Andrew coexists with talking animals and aliens who, like Andrew, seem to every bit as bored and depressed as he is. Cameos are also made by Elijah Wood and Sean Penn who both meet violent ends at the hands of murderous dolphins, and the novel climaxes with Andrew, "the president", a dolphin, a bear, a moose, an alien and Salman Rushdie sharing an existential conversation over a vegan meal in a sushi restaurant.

Right. To be honest, I have no idea what to make of this book. If I had to guess, the author is attempting to play around with ideas of truth, sincerity, human connections, and how we can and often do delude ourselves. BUT, it also very well may be about absolutely nothing at all. Eeeee Eee Eeee reads a bit like a Salvador Dali painting, and my reaction to Lin's work is about the same as my reaction to The Persistence of Memory - I sort of enjoyed spending an hour in crazyland, but damn if I can tell you what it all was supposed to mean.

Eeeee Eee Eeee

Tao Lin

2007 (paperback), 211 pages