Very rarely does a writer capture both a character’s emotional depths and the culture which produced them. Seth K. succeeds at both. He succeeds at drawing a realistic portrait of our celebrity-addled culture and conjuring a remarkable representative for that culture.
When I first read the novel, I became carried away by the beauty of the language. Ironically, this very language is being contested within the WFG forums; see Eli’s criticism. But to me, Seth has an incredibly light hand at prose, his paragraphs flow seamlessly from one into the other, and I admire the sharp observations and consistent voice.
But quality of writing aside, what drives a good story is often a good idea. What we love about Anna Karenina or 100 Years of Solitude or Fahrenheit 451 is the vision—the potential space it offers our imagination.
The Tom Drake Experience takes a couple dominant themes in our contemporary culture and explores them through the rampant desires and addictions of a single character. Self-image is everything to Tom Drake. Fashion is his narcotic and his ego is as gigantic as it is pathetically small. We read that "power swelled within Tom after every purchase." We read, "I’m never satisfied. I’m the eternal consumer."
In TDE we have the intersection of image, self-improvement, capitalism, consumerism, fashion, corporate life, and manhood. The author adroitly weaves these strands into what is—on the surface—a simplistic story.
Tom Drake is a bachelor who resigns from his low-paying job to accept a position in so-called Corporate America. He has an immense love of fashion, and in the beginning we don’t understand the full implications of this talisman.
Fashion is the pivot point around which novel’s entire representation of culture and individual revolves. Why fashion? When you think about it, fashion is the perfect symbol for our times. Fashion combines individualism, self-image, identity and consumerism into one idea.
As the novel progresses, we learn a little more about Tom’s past, which throws his present self and situation into relief. The scenes alternate between the uncool Tom of the past and the fashion savvy Tom of the present. The author must walk a fine line in describing Tom in the present, and here is where some reviewers, I believe, are mis-reading the pathos of the novel.
The first reviewer, Grace McDermott, missed the second level of meaning entirely. And it’s easy to do, so I’m not blaming her. As a text, TDE is vulnerable to Grace’s cursory reading of the novel as the glib portrayal of a shallow, superficial Tom.
What I’m saying is—there is another level to this writing.
I can even see why Grace interpreted the novel the way she did. Tom Drake is cocky, self-obsessed, and typically male; and the prose teeters on the misogynistic, which to a female, I could imagine is disarming. But this reading of the novel overlooks the fact that Tom relies on his expanding wardrobe to provide himself with security and confidence—especially in the highly competitive world he’s about to enter. He is intoxicated by his delusions of grandeur and when they wear off he’s just as miserable.
The second reviewer, Chris P., gave the novel a higher rating. Having discovered the element of TD’s self-hatred, Chris argued that there was depth to the main character and thus the narrative was an effective one. I agree. However, TDE is more than a good character study. Yes, it presents a full, three dimensional character with serious inner conflict and real emotions, but it reveals something else too, something about ourselves and our culture.
Now before I move on to my thesis; let me discuss the latest review of TDE by Eli James. Eli writes, "But Tom’s view is also vastly under-utilized. Let us ask ourselves simple questions: what does Tom work as? Is Lexi his wife? If she is (and I believe the writer says she is), then why is vast swathes of their shared lives together not explained to us?"
Tom is a corporate slave; he probably works in an investment firm. Lexi is his friend and confidant. Ginger is the woman he falls in love with. These seem like such basic questions to me; I’m forced to wonder why Eli gets tripped up here.
As much as I love to read Eli’s writing (I’m a huge fan of Novelr), I don’t really think he gives a thorough critique of the novel itself. His strongest point is his attack on the style of the novel, which he argues is forced, awkward, too "careful" and lacking "creative heat". To convince us of his point, he takes us through an interesting discussion of what a Steinbeck Statement is. He says that TDE is full of these sorts of literary general statements. He interprets the tone, then, as false. He also interprets the character as "repulsive" and false. Which is to say, Eli falls into the same trap as Grace.
The narrator is purposely ambiguous as to what Tom’s goal is. We know he wants to be a "superstar" and have "hot chicks" but that is hardly a worthwhile explanation for a character who I believe is a contemporary archetype.
Tom Drake has adopted a persona. He has internalized the projected ideals of a society, society’s "standard of perfection". The countless references to exact types of clothing, the brands, and the realistic description of them demonstrates one irreducible fact: Tom Drake is trying to create a perfect self through material objects.
In a capitalist culture, consumer objects are of the highest value. Tom Drake has his sights fixed on the holy grail of consumerism, the most expensive brands, the top name labels, the independent designers; this is the cream of capitalism, Ladies and Gentleman.
Now if only Tom Drake can clothe himself in these rich robes then—and only then—will he become "more than a man."
What does that mean? What does it mean to become more than a man?
If you think it means nothing, then you’re absolutely right. It’s an utterly meaningless statement. Because to be "more than a man" is to be no man at all. It is to be some monster of perfection. Some unhuman being.
This novel is a rare event. Read it and then think about it’s implications. Don’t be swayed by the reviewers who only see the surface; the surface is misleading.
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It is often easy for one writer to recognize when a fellow writer has tried too hard in his fiction. This is when prose is no longer hot lightning from head to hand, but something decidedly more difficult and less inspired: ie, the careful task of forming whole words, perfect words, in the absence of creative heat. All of us deal with these moments from time to time: we call them our ‘blocks’. But when a piece of writing is overexamined, is too carefully written to impress, then you’ve got yourself a problem. A story is always strongest when it’s too hot to handle, when you can’t afford to not put it down on the page, sweating as you do so; and it shows, everytime, when you’re actually producing from a place like this. It is unfortunate then that The Tom Drake Experience does not come from such a place.
I am approaching my review of The Tom Drake Experience with two theses in mind. That, first of all, it is entirely possible to explore an idea or a concept through literature, but that the story expressing this idea should be substantive enough to stand on its own, and not be overshadowed by it. This is largely personal preference, mind, because I am aware that there are novels out there which are rewarded for doing precisely this – The Inheritance of Loss and The Catcher in The Rye both spring to mind. But the second thesis on which I am basing this review is: if you want to write a novel in such a tradition, you will have to write it well. You will, in other words, have to allow your language to make up for a lack in the other departments, as well as to support and paint this idea of yours in strong, bright strokes. Only then will you have produced something worth reading.
2.
The Tom Drake Experience is a stab at literary fiction. The about page itself says, quite ambitiously: "The TDE explores a concept . . . (it) explores that which we cannot help but admire, revere and envy."
This is a good idea, and the writer begins by throwing you into Tom’s head. And what a head that is! Tom is an insecure, self-loathing individual, who latches on to gym and fashion to turn himself into somebody worth admiring. The world to Tom is a land of superficial needs and primal urges, and his existence is distilled to nothing more than the amount of respect he is given, the amount of respect he is due, and the amount of worldly conquests he believes the world owes to him. Tom, in simple terms, is a very repulsive individual.
But Tom’s view is also vastly under-utilized. Let us ask ourselves simple questions: what does Tom work as? Is Lexi his wife? If she is (and I believe the writer says she is), then why is vast swathes of their shared lives together not explained to us? The Tom Drake Experience is a very weak story – women are conquests to Tom, and are presented as such; pivotal moments in the story are not expounded upon and explored like they should (his anger in the bar – what were the consequences? What made him change? Why did he react like that?! Is that strong enough a reason?)
A possible explanation for this is that at 27 chapters, the work is still new. But I’m not sure if this will improve as the story goes on – if past experience is any indication, this particular writer is more than happy to let the idea overtake the story. And why write a story, then, if a well composed essay can accomplish the same thing? Idea based literature (Animal Farm, Lord of The Flies) works best when there are strong things to say, and an equally strong story to say it with.
3.
There is a previous review in WFG by Grace McDermott that says, and I quote: "The style is also somehow awkward – it doesn’t flow as it should." This is true, certainly, but it’s also very hard to pinpoint exactly why the writing doesn’t work. At first glance the writing on TDE seems superb – the endings of each chapter, for instance, are often poignant and sometimes tactile – the first chapter ends with
"In this way, Tom Drake became more than a man."
. . . and isn’t that beautiful? But the problems with TDE’s writing are stuck somewhere on the plane of the competent writer, and it takes a bit more effort to distill this out.
Let me begin by defining what a Steinbeck-statement is. For the purpose of this review (and also because using literary terms can sometimes come across as being pretentious) what I call a Steinbeck-statement is the act of taking what is obvious only to you, and making it obvious to other people. Through words. A good example of this is:
"Certain individuals, not by any means always deserving, are beloved of the gods. Things come to them without their effort or planning. Will Hamilton was one of these." (from Steinbeck, East Of Eden)
Steinbeck-statements make up one form of good writing if used well, and Nobel-prize-winning John was a master of them. (Also, the very first paragraph of this review consisted mostly of Steinbeck-statements -which I happen to be fond of, though I’m not sure if it’s called anything like this in actual literary classes, or if you’ve noticed this type of style. But that’s digressing.)
The point here is that TDE is filled with Steinbeck-statements. And the problem with Steinbeck-statements is that if the wordplay isn’t clever enough, or if it isn’t identifiable in a way that would surprise or delight the reader, or if the reader (God forbid) can’t even identify with it at all . . . then what you get is awkward style. Let me throw you an example from Drake:
"She was a girl who could make a man hornier than a few dozen oysters shot with vodka, and the power imbibed from this reality sent Tom’s blood roiling." (Chapter 12: Raw Bar)
TDE’s stylistic problem is that of wordplay. Some people are born with an innate ability to put words together in ways that surprise and delight readers; others have to take a considerable amount of time to get there. Drake is written by somebody who’s still getting there, who often comes up with brilliant stuff (check out the 2nd-last paragraph of Tom Drake’s first chapter), but more often than not produces such awkward sentences as: "The waves had returned and kept coming. Miserable cold mixed with weakness tore at Tom." (Chapter 15: Anemia)
This is how you tell if a writer is trying too hard, without the lightning of a good story: he puts beautiful words together in ways that often end up awkward. You don’t just smell the sweat of labour on the pages of Tom Drake; you often come away with blood instead.
4.
This review is long because I think The Tom Drake Experience is worth my time. It might not be for you, but I enjoyed one of the few literary attempts in web fiction. But this I have to conclude: Drake is one story that tries so much, and tries so hard, but ultimately comes up short.
(NB: Review depends on context. As of time of writing the work stands at chapter 27. It may yet improve)
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Tom Drake is deeply insecure. He hates all that he was. He wishes to be someone else.
It isn’t often that I find myself disagreeing with Grace’s reviews, but on The Tom Drake Experience, I totally do. I’m not going to go so far as to say it’s brilliant, but, to date, at Chapter 24, I think it’s pretty damned good.
This is a story that builds slowly. It starts as shallow as a puddle, and every chapter, pours in more rain. It’s a character study, of a man who can’t stand the weakness he came from, who can’t see any value in what the struggle gave to him, who is so desperate to be somebody—as measured by external standards—that he spends every waking moment trying to kill off and bury every little piece of who he was, so that he can erect in his place a facade he thinks everyone will adore.
But old self dies hard, and new self can’t stand without its foundation.
The writing in Tom Drake is crisp, at times beautiful. At a glance, I might have said the first half-dozen chapters are considerably more described than I like, but, reading it . . . I realize that all that description is characterization. This is how he wants to see himself. This is how he wants to define himself—by how other people see him.
The Tom Drake Experience is one of those stories where you have to look beneath the surface, beneath what it obviously is, to what it actually is. And my sense, at this moment, is that what it actually is will be heart-breaking when it is done. Because, for all his shallowness, for all his grasping, for all his disdain, Tom Drake is a character I’m finding myself caring about, more and more. And I can’t think things are going to end well for him.
To those of you who like a good character study, who like subtle, careful writing, I wholeheartedly recommend The Tom Drake Experience.
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